Fed.s to with-hold $$$$$$$ from many NDN nations

[Okwes]

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 -- In a blatant effort to punish Native Americans for
a lawsuit that has won them the right to an accounting of their
mismanaged trust accounts, the Interior Department is threatening to
withhold millions of dollars in funds from Indian tribes across the
nation.

“This is a cruel effort to inflict even more pain on the victims of the
government’s long- acknowledged misbehavior,” said Elouise Cobell, a
Blackfeet Indian from Montana who is the lead plaintiff in the class
action lawsuit. “It is just plain despicable.”

In a “Dear Tribal Leader” letter dated Jan. 26, Associate Deputy
Interior Secretary James Cason declared that Interior plans to pay the
$7.1 million that a federal judge had directed the government to pay to
the Cobell plaintiffs through cuts in various Indian programs.

“ The government cannot win in litigation so they continue these
underhanded tactics of punishing the victims” Ms. Cobell said. “I have
never seen a more blatant and transparent attempt to politicize this
case in order to divide and conquer Indian country.”

“This is totally at odds with both the spirit and the letter of the law
under which the court ordered that the government the fees and expenses
of the prevailing party,” Ms. Cobell said.

“It is another of the devious and deceptive acts by the Interior
Department to make Indians—some of the poorest people in the nation—pay
for having the courage to demand that the government give them a full
accounting of what it has done with their lands and their monies since
1887.”

That is when the government established individual Indian money accounts
for Native Americans in the belief that they were unable to properly
account for their funds. But as the nearly 10-year-old lawsuit has shown
time and time again, it was the government which mishandled the money of
an estimated 500,000 Indians.

“Now that we have secured the rights to this accounting and now that the
government must pay the costs of that accounting, the Interior
Department is planning to loot Indian accounts once again to cover up
its misdeeds,” Ms. Cobell said.

“There are many places that the Justice, Treasury and Interior
Departments, which have prolonged this litigation, could have found the
funds to pay these legal bills,” Ms. Cobell said. “They don’t have to
make Indians pay because they lost in court.”

In the fiscal 2006 Interior Department budget, Interior’s Office of
Special Trustee was granted $58 million for historical trust accounting
projects. Secretary Norton has the right to reprogram that money for
various projects related to the trust.

Besides, Ms. Cobell noted that the government has admitted in
Congressional testimony that it has spent $100 million defending the
lawsuit.

“Despite Mr. Cason’s assertion in the letter that these fees were ‘not a
planned expense,’ we had made clear almost two years ago that we would
be seeking these fees. And U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had made
equally clear that he was going to award these fees to us.”

On Dec. 19 Judge Lamberth, who has presided over the case since its
filing in 1996, ordered the government to pay lawyers for the Indians
and their accountants a total of $7.1 million to cover their expenses in
bringing the litigation. He acted under the provisions of the Equal
Access to Justice Act.

Under the law, federal judges may direct the government to reimburse the
costs born by those who sue the government unless federal lawyers can
show that the government opposition is “substantially justified or
special circumstances make an award unjust.”

Where the government has acted in bad faith, an award of market rate
fees is available as a sanction for government misconduct. That is what
happened here.

Lamberth said in his order that the government’s position has not been
shown to be justified or likely to prevail in nine years of litigation.

The judge has also repeatedly warned the government not to retaliate
against the Indians because of the lawsuit.

“Our attorneys are considering whether this action is retaliation
against the Indian beneficiaries that needs to be addressed by court.”
Ms. Cobell stated.

[blackcrowheart]

$7M from Indian programs to pay lawyers

By JODI RAVE
Lee Enterprises
02/04/2006

[ archive | email this story ]



The president of the National Congress of American Indians declared Thursday that a top priority for tribal leaders is to end a nearly decade-old lawsuit that pits Native landowners against the federal government.

"The fact that the Cobell litigation remains unsettled impedes our progress with the federal government on nearly all other issues," NCAI president Joe Garcia said during the annual State of the Indian Nations address. "The solution is straightforward: Let's settle Cobell fairly and quickly and then let's move ahead. We want Congress to deal with us in good faith and then allow us all to put it behind us."

Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department, as well as tribal leaders, have been pushing for a settlement on the case -- which has been in court since 1996.

The suit affects a half million Native landowners whose income from natural resources has been mismanaged by the federal government for more than a century. A settlement is expected to cost the government more than $10 billion; that estimate is down from earlier projections of $170 billion.

As Garcia delivered Thursday's address, tribal leaders around the country were working on their response to a letter from James Cason, the Interior Department's associate deputy secretary.

Received last week, the letter notified tribes that a court-mandated legal fee payment sent to Cobell attorneys on Jan. 18 would adversely affect tribal programs.

Cason wrote that the $7.1 million award, to be paid to Cobell attorneys under the Equal Access to Justice Act, was an unplanned expense for the Interior Department. Consequently, Cason said, the money, which covers court costs to date in the Cobell suit, would be taken from Native programs.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting will bear the brunt of the costs. The two departments, which fall under the umbrella of the Interior Department, will shoulder $5 million of the legal fees.

"These funds have been redirected to comply with the court's order," wrote Cason.



______ Featured Display Ad ______


ALL DISPLAY ADS



"These funds are no longer available." He told tribal leaders to realize that "these financial changes affect your planned program activities."

The Treasury Department, which cuts land-related royalty checks for tribes and individual landowners, was tapped for $1.8 million.

"This litigation is diverting money from other needs ... that makes it hard for us to move on to other issues," said Garcia, who delivered his address from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Garcia, who is governor of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, was recently elected to lead NCAI, the country's oldest and largest Native advocacy organization.

Besides settling the Cobell vs. Norton suit, he listed Indian Country's remaining three priorities as law enforcement, health care and education-economy matters.

"The Indian nations stand strong today," Garcia said. "We are growing more self-sufficient, more economically developed, more politically active and as always steadfastly committed to the stewardship and defense of our home, the United States of America. At the same time, this confidence is matched by an acute awareness of our problems."

He cited law enforcement concerns, such as border patrol, methamphetamine use, violence against Native women and lack of police officers on tribal lands.

Now that Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, Garcia urged congressional leaders to fully fund it. The act includes a new provision targeting the safety of Native women; 70 percent of the violent crimes against them are committed by someone of a different race.

As for health care, Garcia implored Congress to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act during this session. "This legislation is no less than the framework for the Indian health-care system. It will bring our outdated and inadequate system into the 21st century, addressing mental health, substance abuse and youth suicide and support for ... qualified health-care professionals."

Even though federal spending for the U.S. population at large outpaces money allocated for tribes, reservation economies continue to grow, he said.

Between 1990 and 2000, income among Natives rose by a third while the poverty rate declined by 7 percent. These improvements occurred whether a tribe operated a casino or not, according to a study by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

"But this is only a beginning," said Garcia. "Unemployment is still double what it is for the rest of the country. And the poorest counties in the United States are on tribal lands. We still have yet to join the success of the rest of the nation."

Tribal economies, he added, are inextricably linked to the education of Native people.

"We know from academic studies that Indian children flourish when their classroom experiences are built on our tradition, language and our culture," said Garcia. "The No Child Left Behind Act allows for this kind of education, but the resources to actually make it possible have yet to be appropriated."

Jodi Rave covers Native issues for Lee Enterprises. She can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or [e-mail].