Post by blackcrowheart on Sept 12, 2006 11:11:28 GMT -5
'Settle Indian trust law suit, or fight on?'
Plaintiffs in the class action seek to recover more than $8 billion
offered
By Emily Hone
www.am-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245&Ite\
mid=1
<http://www.am-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245&It\
emid=1>
FORT HALL � Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a class action
suit against the U.S. Department of Interior ? which involves billions
of dollars in money missing from individual Indian trust accounts over
the past 100 years ? asked landowners at a meeting on the Fort Hall
Reservation one question Friday:
Do they want to settle the case for the $8 billion ? which Sen. John
McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, is offering
? or fight on?
The response was unequivocally to fight on, and Cobell said she was
cheered by their reaction.
"I've been holding meetings on this all over Indian Country and the
response is the same," she said. "They say it's time to draw a line in
the sand and say, no more; to say we're at the point where we will not
be pushed any farther and continue fighting the government in court."
She said fighting includes appealing a ruling by a four-member panel
of federal appeals judges to remove Judge Royce Lamberth from the case
he has presided over for 10 years to the U.S. Supreme Court, and of
making the government prove the records it has of transactions involving
the missing money.
Cobell said she undertook the task of traveling across Indian
Country holding the meetings after the plaintiffs offered to settle for
$27.5 billion and McCain countered with a figure of $8 billion.
"We took Sen. McCain at his word when he said he was going to work
as hard on the case as we had," Cobell said. "I believed him and thought
we were lucky to have him on our side ? a man of power; a senator. The
committee held hearings on the settlement bill, and we were telling them
what we wanted in it, then all a sudden activity stopped dead," she
said.
She believes that happened because in July of last year the
government succeeded in its effort to have Judge Lamberth removed from
the case, and word came down from the White House to stall the bill.
"The White House wants the bill stalled because they believe a new
judge will rule in the government's favor. But the government has lost
at every turn, and we've been upheld on appeal," Cobell said.
Shoshone-Bannock tribal members Ernestine Werelus said settling the case
will not benefit the people money was owed to who are dead, or their
grandparents before them and their grandparents. It may not even come in
time to benefit some of those living today, she said, "But it will
benefit our grandchildren. We should continue to fight."
Alene Menta said the Cobell case is an opportunity for tribal
leaders to stand up and say "No more. This is the first time in all the
years that we have a chance to make ourselves heard," Menta said.
Cobell said this time it's going to take more than just lip service
from the Indians who are represented in the lawsuit that is now 11 years
old. It's going to take some cash money, unity on the part of the
landowners, and a mass presence by Indians in Washington, D.C., so the
government can see there is support for the lawsuit.
It's going to take more than tribal business councils passing a
resolution saying they're in support of the lawsuit and that $8 billion
is not enough money to pay the trust account beneficiaries for 100 years
of mismanagement of their money, Cobell said.
"We're to the part where we need to ask more of the tribes than just
a resolution," she said. "They need to sit down as a tribal government
with the senators from their states and say no, we will not accept the
offer."
They also need to put up some money to help with the fight, Cobell
said, noting that she raised $11 million on her own to fund the lawsuit.
"Not one cent of that money came from tribes," she said. "The tribes
need to be supporting the lawsuit with money."
She said the attorneys are entering into what they call the
"Impossibility trial" in the lawsuit, called that because it's
impossible for the government to prove it kept records. "We need to hire
accountants, and they need to be paid."
The lawsuit is about more than money and its mismanagement, Cobell said.
"It's about taking all of our money away from a department that knows
nothing about banking and putting it with an entity that knows how to
manage it. Do you know of any bank where you could call and ask how much
money is in your account and they can't tell you?"she asked.
As a banker herself, Cobell said, she's knows how banks operate, and
they don't do it with a system that any computer hacker can get into,
set up a phony account and transfer money from the bank into it, as a
special master appointed by Lamberth proved could happened with the
Indian trust accounts.
Plaintiffs in the class action seek to recover more than $8 billion
offered
By Emily Hone
www.am-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245&Ite\
mid=1
<http://www.am-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245&It\
emid=1>
FORT HALL � Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a class action
suit against the U.S. Department of Interior ? which involves billions
of dollars in money missing from individual Indian trust accounts over
the past 100 years ? asked landowners at a meeting on the Fort Hall
Reservation one question Friday:
Do they want to settle the case for the $8 billion ? which Sen. John
McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, is offering
? or fight on?
The response was unequivocally to fight on, and Cobell said she was
cheered by their reaction.
"I've been holding meetings on this all over Indian Country and the
response is the same," she said. "They say it's time to draw a line in
the sand and say, no more; to say we're at the point where we will not
be pushed any farther and continue fighting the government in court."
She said fighting includes appealing a ruling by a four-member panel
of federal appeals judges to remove Judge Royce Lamberth from the case
he has presided over for 10 years to the U.S. Supreme Court, and of
making the government prove the records it has of transactions involving
the missing money.
Cobell said she undertook the task of traveling across Indian
Country holding the meetings after the plaintiffs offered to settle for
$27.5 billion and McCain countered with a figure of $8 billion.
"We took Sen. McCain at his word when he said he was going to work
as hard on the case as we had," Cobell said. "I believed him and thought
we were lucky to have him on our side ? a man of power; a senator. The
committee held hearings on the settlement bill, and we were telling them
what we wanted in it, then all a sudden activity stopped dead," she
said.
She believes that happened because in July of last year the
government succeeded in its effort to have Judge Lamberth removed from
the case, and word came down from the White House to stall the bill.
"The White House wants the bill stalled because they believe a new
judge will rule in the government's favor. But the government has lost
at every turn, and we've been upheld on appeal," Cobell said.
Shoshone-Bannock tribal members Ernestine Werelus said settling the case
will not benefit the people money was owed to who are dead, or their
grandparents before them and their grandparents. It may not even come in
time to benefit some of those living today, she said, "But it will
benefit our grandchildren. We should continue to fight."
Alene Menta said the Cobell case is an opportunity for tribal
leaders to stand up and say "No more. This is the first time in all the
years that we have a chance to make ourselves heard," Menta said.
Cobell said this time it's going to take more than just lip service
from the Indians who are represented in the lawsuit that is now 11 years
old. It's going to take some cash money, unity on the part of the
landowners, and a mass presence by Indians in Washington, D.C., so the
government can see there is support for the lawsuit.
It's going to take more than tribal business councils passing a
resolution saying they're in support of the lawsuit and that $8 billion
is not enough money to pay the trust account beneficiaries for 100 years
of mismanagement of their money, Cobell said.
"We're to the part where we need to ask more of the tribes than just
a resolution," she said. "They need to sit down as a tribal government
with the senators from their states and say no, we will not accept the
offer."
They also need to put up some money to help with the fight, Cobell
said, noting that she raised $11 million on her own to fund the lawsuit.
"Not one cent of that money came from tribes," she said. "The tribes
need to be supporting the lawsuit with money."
She said the attorneys are entering into what they call the
"Impossibility trial" in the lawsuit, called that because it's
impossible for the government to prove it kept records. "We need to hire
accountants, and they need to be paid."
The lawsuit is about more than money and its mismanagement, Cobell said.
"It's about taking all of our money away from a department that knows
nothing about banking and putting it with an entity that knows how to
manage it. Do you know of any bank where you could call and ask how much
money is in your account and they can't tell you?"she asked.
As a banker herself, Cobell said, she's knows how banks operate, and
they don't do it with a system that any computer hacker can get into,
set up a phony account and transfer money from the bank into it, as a
special master appointed by Lamberth proved could happened with the
Indian trust accounts.