Languishing land: Santee Sioux members say federal mismanagement is costing them thousands each year

Alonzo Denney sets his phone on the conference table, pulls up a family photo and starts counting.

There are 11 living relatives, including him, now sharing ownership of 80 acres along the Bazile Creek in Knox County, land originally allotted to their ancestor by the federal government.

Then Denney does some quick math.

He might, he says, be paid around $25,000 if this land, now mostly flooded and unusable, was placed into a flowage easement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Denney, chairman of the Santee Sioux Nation, doesn't control his family's land. Neither do his relatives. Instead,...