Records now open for public viewing on the U.S. Department of Interior’s website show that the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community obtained 243 acres of land that was allotted to individual tribal members generations ago.

Under the Land Buy Back Program for Tribal Nations, the federal government paid nearly $3.2 million for the land, which had 171 individual owners. The land now goes back into federal trust for the benefit of the entire tribe.

The Buy-Back Program allocated $1.9 billion in federal funding for tribes to consolidate land within reservations that had been fractionated in terms...