Sacajawea Or, Sacagawea… Or, Sakakawea… Walking Pictures In Association with…

OCALJ Probate Productions Presents...

Fractionation… A Many Winters Tale

W here the deer and the antelope played… Once upon a time... Way out west… (On an Indian Reservation)… Where the buffalo roamed… W here the deer and the antelope played… There was an allotment…

The Land... 160 Acres... ... More … or less...

The Land was allotted to an Indian (Allotee). She lived there… She loved there… In time, she had...

Four children… When Allotee passed away, her children inherited the Land, each receiving a ¼ undivided interested in the Land… Those four children lived happily on the Land, and eventually, they all had children of their own, and when they died, their children inherited the Land…

The first child had three, as did the second. The third child had six, and the fourth had only one, but he made up for several... Eventually...

...all of the grandchildren lived, had children of their own and died, leaving their interests in the Land to their children, the great grandchildren of Allotee … (Remember her?)...

As great grandchildren will do, they grew up, had children… (great, great grandchildren), and then died, passing their interests in the Land to those great, great grandchildren. Some of them had moved away, so they didn't really know much about the Land, or even about Allotee...

And the granchildren kept getting greater and greater (in number, and some in deed)... Very few knew much about the Reservation, and even fewer knew about Allotee or the Land...

The very great owners grew and grew, and the fractions of their interests shrank and shrank… smaller and smaller. Sometimes, they would get U. S. Treasury checks for $0.13 or $0.05 as their share of the annual rental of the Land... No one could remember Allotee's name. It was hard to pronounce, and who knew what it meant?

AIPRA... And so it went… Until one day… Far to the East… In the Land of the Great White Fathers... A bill was passed (in Congress assembled)... And it was signed by the Great White (G.W.) Father (Bush) himself on October 27, 2004... AIPRA... And all the great, great heirs…

… lived … happily … ever … after. The End