Bureau of Indian Affairs roads

[City]

they use the square for the primary routes and an arrowhead for the secondaries.  Secondaries start somewhere past 287 and go up.

Actually, I think the arrowhead routes are actually Indian Routes (well, at least they are in AZ/NM).

[corco]

They're secondaries in Montana without a doubt- but it is the same shield

[agentsteel53]

very similar shield.  It resembles the small green reassurance markers more than the black directionals.

here is an Indian route 24x24 sign used at intersections.



and here is what I believe is 24x18, used as reassurance.



and two more variants of 24x18:




the Indian routes also exist in Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and probably elsewhere too.  In SD and ND they occasionally say "BIA" (Bureau of Indian Affairs) above the number.

somewhere I have a photo of a 1950s (18x12) Indian reassurance marker from Utah that I should upload.  It looks similar to the larger reassurance markers but is black and white.

[J N Winkler]

Years ago I tried to find a route log for BIA routes (assuming that the Bureau of Indian Affairs maintained them) and was nonplussed to find that, apparently as a result of the ongoing Cobell litigation, the BIA was injuncted from having a website.

[agentsteel53]

Years ago I tried to find a route log for BIA routes (assuming that the Bureau of Indian Affairs maintained them) and was nonplussed to find that, apparently as a result of the ongoing Cobell litigation, the BIA was injuncted from having a website.

how did that happen??  I thought the Cobell case had to do with some natural resources being held in trust and (as the suit alleges) mismanaged by the feds.

[bugo]

Here's one from Nebraska:

[agentsteel53]

nice; had never seen one in that state before. 

I would imagine Wyoming has them too.

[Scott5114]

I'm surprised that Oklahoma doesn't have any Indian routes. I would assume it would have something to do with the tribes here not having reservations per se. Either that or the size and power of the main five tribes in the area rendering BIA highway maintenance unnecessary (the Chickasaws, for instance, actually pay the town of Goldsby and other small towns to help maintain infrastructure that is advantageous to them).

[corco]

Wyoming's only got one big reservation- the Wind River one, and I've driven around that extensively and not seen any signed BIA roads

[agentsteel53]

topic split because both seem to be gathering about equal traffic.

[J N Winkler]

how did that happen??  I thought the Cobell case had to do with some natural resources being held in trust and (as the suit alleges) mismanaged by the feds.

I never found a clear explanation of why the injunction extended to the website, but I think at some stage the court handed down a general injunction to the BIA not to spend money (including on running services like a website) until it had been determined whether, and to what extent, the proceeds from the resources the BIA held in trust was being commingled with the BIA's normal operating funds.