PORTLAND, Ore. - Harrison Tsosie of the Navajo Nation doesn't like Washington bureaucrats telling the tribe how to manage 15 million acres of tribal land held in trust by the federal government.

And now a new federal law and proposed Interior Department policies are changing all the rules governing 56 million acres of trust lands around the country.

"The big concern of the Navajos is this notion the federal government holds land in trust," said Tsosie, Navajo Nation deputy attorney general. "It provides an opportunity for the federal government to have pervasive control over all activities within the Navajo Nation."

Tsosie arrived in Portland with about 200 other tribal representatives from the western half of the United States on Wednesday to attend an all-day comment session with Interior Department staff members. The task at hand: Try to understand the complex, sweeping list of proposed regulatory changes about to dramatically alter the landscape of trust fund management.

Tribal representatives pored through a 2.7-pound binder filled with draft regulations affecting anyone who owns land in Indian Country. The binder only addressed changes brought about by passage of the 2004 American Indian Probate Reform Act. Now a year later, the law is taking effect.

The proposed regulations discussed Wednesday will help make the probate reform act a reality. They're supposed to be finalized June 20. "I don't know when we've ever done anything - when you look at the binder with the drafts in it - that extensive at one time," said Michelle Singer, an Interior Department staff attorney. "It's huge."

The probate reform act affects land ownership rights for hundreds of tribes across the country and some 245,000 individuals.

Many of the tribal representatives in Portland said the new changes were alarming.

"I feel they've overwhelmed the tribes with all these regulations," said Sharon Red Thunder, realty specialist with the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington. "They've given us such little time to comment and be consulted when they've been working on these trust reform regulations for years."

The reform act will affect probate and life estates, selling, exchanging or buying land, grazing permits, land leases, record and title documents, administrative appeals and new fees for managing trust funds.

The Interior Department will release more policy changes, leaving tribes to grapple with the regulatory changes brought on by the American Indian Probate Reform Act.

"It was passed in 2004 but there wasn't a lot of education in Indian Country," said Majel Russell, an attorney representing Montana and Wyoming tribal leaders. "DOI didn't come out. I think they did one pamphlet that we all got as Indian landowners. It was a good pamphlet. But that was it. We haven't had a lot of training or consultations."

Probate and life estate changes are drawing some of the heavier criticisms. It's now paramount that a landowner has a will if they want to control the future of their landholdings.

Typically, if a landowner dies, their spouse or all surviving children will inherit the land. Not anymore. If a will isn't in place, the spouse won't inherit the land. They'll only have use of it while living.

And in cases where a landowner owns less than 5 percent of a fractionated parcel, the oldest child, grandchild or great-grandchild will inherit it - not all the children, as in the past.

Another contested provision allows the Interior Department to purchase land during the probate proceeding without the heirs' consent if the holding is less than 5 percent - this doesn't apply if a person has a will.

If a will doesn't exist, the land falls under new federal probate codes. State probate codes will no longer be followed. "It's a total radical change from the way probates work now," said Russell.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced last spring that it would stop doing wills for landowners. Confusion will likely ensue in months to come, said Russell, considering few Indians have wills.

Amanda Wilbur, an attorney who lives on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, said only about 5 percent of Indian landowners in South Dakota have wills. Across the country, it's about 10 percent, she said.

The massive trust reform initiative is being spurred on by the near decade-long landmark lawsuit filed in 1996 against the Interior Department by Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana.

The suit provoked a court mandate requiring the Interior Department to provide a historical accounting of land and money accounts mismanaged for tribes and individual landowners dating back to 1887.

The Portland consultation meeting marked the end of a 90-day comment period tribes had to voice concerns over proposed regulatory changes. So far, hundreds of comments have been made to staff, which has been sorting through them on a continual basis.

"We're going to try and turn them around in a couple weeks," said Singer. "We want to get the next comment period started." That will happen after department staffers publish a second draft. More consultations will follow, she said.

Staff members will then produce a second draft of regulatory changes, giving tribes and landowners another opportunity to comment on changes.

(Jodi Rave covers American Indian issues for Lee Enterprises. She can be reached at 406-523-5299 or jodi.rave@;lee.net.)