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PO Box 1130
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.4903
(530) 625.5446
realty@hoopa-nsn.gov

Allan E. Nilson, PLS, Surveyor
Frank Starkey, Jr., Survey Technician
Realty Officer [vacant]
Click Here for Job Description

Roles, Functions & Responsibilities

The Hoopa Valley Tribe is contracted to carry the obligation to the Federal Indian trust at a local level for trust land and probate. The Tribal Government established an entity that would enable itself to serve this trust but also to administer all lands on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in a number of ways and to various extents. For this, the purpose of Real Property Management (Realty) is to manage records, conveyances, agreements, settlement of estates, and dispute resolution involving the trust and fee lands held by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the trust lands of individuals. Realty is staffed to perform land surveys for any of the trust or non-trust activities undertaken. Realty also provides other informational or consultation services to the Tribal membership, the community, and others working with the people of Hoopa. The mission of Realty is to provide productive, accurate, efficient, and thorough performance in all activities.

The express functions of the land survey program within Realty are, generally, to derive and present evidence and facts that establish, reveal or perpetuate land boundaries as associated with landholding, rights, uses and history. Specific functions of the survey staff are to conduct research, to engage in field work, to write land descriptions, to provide mapping and language for other instruments of land transactions, to establish and maintain records for such activities, and to carry out other technical or social duties that contribute to the fulfillment of the overall purpose of Realty. A primary role of the survey staff is to ensure the proper application of legal, title and boundary principles to trust land transactions. To accomplish this, the survey staff must provide or otherwise employ expertise in the realm of legal or title aspects, in cooperation with attorneys or title specialists.

Activities

1. Rights of way acquisition for BIA road construction projects

2. Conveyances
a. Gift, sale or purchase
b. Partition for lands held in fractionated interests
c. Conversion to joint tenancy, tenants in common or other status

3. Partition of lands divided by order of estate distribution

4. Boundary location requests
a. Monument reconnaissance for landmark protection
b. Boundary line marking for fences, utilities, home placement, etc.

5. Dispute resolution
a. Estates or interests
b. Landholding or ownership
c. Land possession and use, including encroachment or trespass
d. Boundary
e. Rights, including easements or rights of way, water use, etc.

6. Probate preparation; issuing death notices, acquiring heirship information, providing assistance in estate management, and processing wills.

7. Fee to trust

8. Trust reform
a. Policymaking
b. Enhancing client management; development of a computer program to document client visits or other contacts and to track progress in processing client requests

9. Participation in land use planning, zoning and establishing development standards.

10. Tribal land assignments
a. Reaffirmation and validation of assignment
b. Processing designation (succession) or relinquishment documents.

11. Council land assignments (hybrid residential or commercial leases)
a. Processing land requests through the approval phase
b. New landholder orientation and subsequent counseling or provisions
c. Processing designation (succession) or relinquishment documents

Functions in support of duties

One aspect of the business of realty and surveying is research, which entails looking up and examining records that provide evidence of landholding, boundary, rights and whatever pertains to an issue. Information is used to become familiar with all facts and variables, and it forms the basis for what can be put on the computer and on paper. Research enables Realty to come up with a way to deal with an issue in words, visuals or field work.

Field work conducted by Realty typically involves meeting with agents of other Tribal departments for discussions or work sessions, site inspections for environmental work, verifying improvement, occupation or other development, locating utilities or access to utilities, the condition of internal roads or roads that lead to parcels, investigating alleged trespass, encroachment or squatting, making contact with owners or occupants for various reasons, etc.

Specific field work for surveying typically involves clearing vegetation on-site, following maps or Government notes, making computations, traversing through or around the land, and recording the directions and distances of such movement, electronically or manually. The purpose of the field work is to determine land location, features or usable space, or to get aimed at points where property markers are supposed to be, or where reference points, temporary markers, or permanent stakes will be set.

In addition to research for surveys, there is other office work for surveying as well. What appears on new field notes is put onto the computer. From there it can be seen how present work compares to what was on record. Some work is intended to retrace the boundaries of an existent parcel. If work is intended to result in a division of a piece of land, the Survey Technician can develop parcel or easement designs and prepare information required to put those new boundaries on the ground. If work is done to settle a boundary dispute, determinations are based on what can be recovered from the field and title records. Points can be staked out where a new fence, road or structure can be placed. Most of the time the end result of a survey is the production of a land description and/or map associated with a conveyance, solution or agreement.

Land surveys, descriptions, maps, and the availability of title evidence provide the means by which key technical aspects of the following trust responsibilities can be fulfilled:

• Processing conveyance forms and grant deeds
• Leasing and issuing permits
• Granting rights of way or easements over Indian lands
• Segregating interests in estates according to probate distribution order
• Partitioning lands held in undivided interests
• Preparing fee to trust applications
• Facilitating transactions on Tribal trust lands (i.e. Tribal assignments, Council assignments, etc.)

The staff is devoted to enhancing initiative, productivity and quality of service to its clients, all with the purpose of winning back and maintaining public confidence in the Realty program.

Land Commission Members (2002-2004)

Mervin George Jr.
PO Box 1449
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.5432 Home
(530) 625.1646 Work
mervgeorge@hotmail.com

Valerie Harvey
PO Box 944
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.4030 Home
(530) 625.5565 Work
valerie@cwnet.com

Tanee Kane
PO Box 176
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.4759 Work
taneekane@yahoo.com

Jackie Martins
PO Box 965
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.4539 Home
(530) 625.4223 Work
bearlilly1@hotmail.com

Pamela Mattz
PO Box 180
Hoopa, CA 95546
(530) 625.4529 Home
(530) 625.4759 Work
pamelamattz@hotmail.com