South Dakota

The Enabling Act of February 22, 1889 was enacted to provide for the division of the Dakota Territory into the states of North and South Dakota and to create states of Washington and Montana, as well. The territorial delegates were provided with specific instructions in preparing constitutions for adoption by the people. One requirement was to relinquish the ability to tax federal lands within the boarders of the state and to accept the grants of federal land in trust to produce perpetual revenue for public schools and other purposes. The United States of America had very little cash and had massive land holdings. The state accepted the role of trustee and received two sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each of the thirty-six square-mile townships. The sections are one square mile parcels of 640 acres. The original common school trust acreage totaled 3.5 million acres of which 608,539 surface acres and 5,200,000 mineral acres remain.

The Office of the Commissioner of School and Public Lands is the trustee and, under the direction of a state-wide elected commissioner, manages the land and subsequent funds for the beneficiaries, as per the South Dakota State Constitution. The lands are sold or leased to generate revenue for schools and the office generated $2,585,418 in surface revenue and $1,961,916 million in mineral revenue in FY 2006. Revenue from leases, of which the office maintains over 3,000 grazing leases, is distributed directly to schools. The revenue from sales or mineral extraction is deposited into the Common School Permanent Fund and is invested by the office. The revenue from both sources distributed $8.2 million in FY 2006.

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