Post by blackcrowheart on Mar 11, 2007 19:31:03 GMT -5
Interior Department faces 2 major suits
By JODI RAVE
Lee News Service
The head of the Interior Department will be forced in 2007 to balance two
major class-action lawsuits - one involving billions of dollars owed to a
half-million individual Indian landowners, and now a trust-fund suit that includes
more than 250 tribes.
The Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm in Boulder, Colo.,
announced Wednesday the latest class-action filing in federal district court in
Washington, D.C. The tribal trust-fund suit seeks full and complete
accountings from the Interior Department on tribal accounts worth an estimated $200
billion.
For tribes, Nez Perce vs. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, is nearly two
centuries overdue.
"This lawsuit is a reflection of a huge historical problem with the federal
government's mismanagement of tribal trust accounts," said Nez Perce Tribal
Chairwoman Rebecca Miles. "We have tried to work with the agencies, and we
have tried to work with Congress. Our hope now is with the courts. We are
pleased to step forward with NARF in leading this fight for Indian justice."
For the Interior Department, the new suit nearly mirrors the decade-old
Elouise Cobell vs. Kempthorne suit, which seeks an historical accounting of the
individual trust fund money accounts managed by the department. Former
Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Cobell suit consumed the majority of her
time in office.
Meanwhile, the department has nothing to say about the latest suit. "Our
policy is we don't discuss pending litigation," Interior spokesman Shane Wolf
said Thursday. "That's the answer you'll get every time there's pending
litigation."
But more than two decades of government reports and investigations reveal
what the department hasn't wanted to talk about since it first sought to manage
money earned off tribal trust lands in 1820.
The government's trust responsibility over Indian-land money, including
individuals and tribes, is rooted in treaties, laws and agreements. Congress
controls and manages all trust funds through legislation.
Congress has doled Indian trust responsibility across several federal
departments, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which also is named as
a defendant in the recently filed suit. The federal government currently
holds an estimated $3 billion in some 1,600 trust fund accounts for more than 300
tribes.
John Echohawk, the Native American Rights Fund's executive director, said
past events made the lawsuit inevitable. First, tribes have never been able to
get a proper accounting of their trust funds. The Government Accounting
Office and the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General have issued
key reports identifying major problems with the management of both tribal and
individual Indian trust funds.
The money in question is revenue earned by tribes from natural resources,
including timber, minerals, oil and gas; court judgments entered against the
United States for the unlawful appropriation of Indian land and property; and
income from the investment of money held in the accounts.
For both individual and tribal trust funds, government reports show that
records were often lost or never kept, and that systems didn't work or weren't
coordinated. Also, reports showed how policies were deficient or never existed.
In 1987, Congress ordered the Interior Department to audit and reconcile the
accounts and to provide full and complete accountings to tribes and
individuals. The GAO stated that without improvement, trust fund account holders
could not be assured their balances are accurate.
By JODI RAVE
Lee News Service
The head of the Interior Department will be forced in 2007 to balance two
major class-action lawsuits - one involving billions of dollars owed to a
half-million individual Indian landowners, and now a trust-fund suit that includes
more than 250 tribes.
The Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm in Boulder, Colo.,
announced Wednesday the latest class-action filing in federal district court in
Washington, D.C. The tribal trust-fund suit seeks full and complete
accountings from the Interior Department on tribal accounts worth an estimated $200
billion.
For tribes, Nez Perce vs. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, is nearly two
centuries overdue.
"This lawsuit is a reflection of a huge historical problem with the federal
government's mismanagement of tribal trust accounts," said Nez Perce Tribal
Chairwoman Rebecca Miles. "We have tried to work with the agencies, and we
have tried to work with Congress. Our hope now is with the courts. We are
pleased to step forward with NARF in leading this fight for Indian justice."
For the Interior Department, the new suit nearly mirrors the decade-old
Elouise Cobell vs. Kempthorne suit, which seeks an historical accounting of the
individual trust fund money accounts managed by the department. Former
Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Cobell suit consumed the majority of her
time in office.
Meanwhile, the department has nothing to say about the latest suit. "Our
policy is we don't discuss pending litigation," Interior spokesman Shane Wolf
said Thursday. "That's the answer you'll get every time there's pending
litigation."
But more than two decades of government reports and investigations reveal
what the department hasn't wanted to talk about since it first sought to manage
money earned off tribal trust lands in 1820.
The government's trust responsibility over Indian-land money, including
individuals and tribes, is rooted in treaties, laws and agreements. Congress
controls and manages all trust funds through legislation.
Congress has doled Indian trust responsibility across several federal
departments, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which also is named as
a defendant in the recently filed suit. The federal government currently
holds an estimated $3 billion in some 1,600 trust fund accounts for more than 300
tribes.
John Echohawk, the Native American Rights Fund's executive director, said
past events made the lawsuit inevitable. First, tribes have never been able to
get a proper accounting of their trust funds. The Government Accounting
Office and the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General have issued
key reports identifying major problems with the management of both tribal and
individual Indian trust funds.
The money in question is revenue earned by tribes from natural resources,
including timber, minerals, oil and gas; court judgments entered against the
United States for the unlawful appropriation of Indian land and property; and
income from the investment of money held in the accounts.
For both individual and tribal trust funds, government reports show that
records were often lost or never kept, and that systems didn't work or weren't
coordinated. Also, reports showed how policies were deficient or never existed.
In 1987, Congress ordered the Interior Department to audit and reconcile the
accounts and to provide full and complete accountings to tribes and
individuals. The GAO stated that without improvement, trust fund account holders
could not be assured their balances are accurate.