Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino hosts IIM training for tribes

Emma Hughes

Gila River Indian News

“Securing the Future of Native Trusts” an Individual Indian Monies (IIM) training for tribes. Tribes from several regions joined together for a two-day training event hosted by the National Training Center for Indian Social Services (NTCISS) Center for Excellence. The training was held at the Wild Horse Pass Casino and Hotel, September 10-11. The training was geared to government and tribal employees working within the social service fields.

GRIC Member Tim Terry from District 2 gave an opening prayer, and Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis shared words with attendees. Tribal members and employees from; Tohono O’odham Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Ak-Chin Indian Community, and Colorado River Indian Tribes attended the training event.

Karen Lindquist, Assistant Solicitor, Branch of Trust Services, Division of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior, gave a history on IIM and when she began working with it twenty years ago where she has helped turn the four-page code of federal regulations to its current twenty-five pages, making it more comprehensive and clearer with relevance to its purpose. The goal of the training is to have a better understanding of the historical development of Individual Indian Monies and the federal laws that regulate IIM account management.

The NTCISS Center for Excellence was built to serve social service staff under both the tribes and the BIA as a training and information hub, which offers on-demand access to resources and training it maintains a collection of centralized training materials available for Social service staff.