By Monica Wepking, Editor Ten single family dwellings for Indian Health Service (IHS) staff that were scheduled to be built five miles east of Wagner will now be built in the Wagner Heights area, if the land is changed to trust status according to Richard Leasure, Yankton Sioux Tribe (YST) Project Manager. YST owns 39.9 acres of fee land known as Wagner Heights. Wagner Heights is surrounded by Wagner Community School, Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera and Wagner Good Samaritan Society. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior, has determined that this 39.9 acres in Wagner Heights shall be changed from fee land to trust land. Both the City of Wagner and Charles Mix County are appealing that decision. The appeal is being handled by John P. Guhin, Assistant Attorney General for the State of South Dakota. Recently Guhin said, "This land is not Indian trust land. It is fee land and is subject to taxation." However, the Indian Reorganization Act authorizes the Secretary of Interior to acquire land for Indians in his discretion. The regulations governing acquisitions of trust land permit such action when the Secretary determines that the acquisition is necessary to facilitate tribal self-determination, economic development, or Indian housing. YST claims they want the land in trust because the property contains 11 residential homes and a 20-unit elderly complex. According to Leasure the tribe wants to add IHS housing to that area. If the BIA files a public notice of intent to take this land in trust Guhin has said, "We will take action in Federal District Court to restrain them from taking that land into trust."