Post by Okwes on Apr 6, 2008 12:49:36 GMT -5
The Trail of Tears continues 4/3/08
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s/The-Trail.Of.Tears.Continues-3298826.shtml
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ws/The-Trail.Of.Tears.Continues-3298826.shtml>
* More than 150 years have passed since Native Americans were forced
off of their land in what has become known as "The Trail of Tears."
However, it does not seem as though the American government's attitudes
and policies towards Native Americans have changed all that much in
those 150 years.
A lawsuit filed in by Elouise Cobell in 1996 accuses the government of
mismanaging more than $100 billion royalties that were supposed to be
held in trusts from for over 300,000 families dating back to 1887.
Cobell is a member of Blackfeet Indian Tribe of Montana and has been
diligently working for over 11 years to settle this matter and give the
tribes closure, but it seems like that day will never come.
What is the only agency that could get away with borrowing billions of
your dollars and replacing them with nothing more than an I.O.U? That's
right, its our pals the federal government.
Alongside the federal government in this fiasco is the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, more commonly known as the BIA. The BIA was founded more than a
century ago and fostered the responsibility of managing Native American
funds. The BIA has destroyed and lost hundreds of thousands of documents
that account for the money that the federal government has been
borrowing on for years.
The department also spent over 100 million dollars to hire the largest
accounting firm in the nation to organize the mismanaged accounts, but
even after much effort and a small sample of about 17,000 files the firm
could only account for less than 5,000 accounts. The firm further stated
that it refused to take on anymore of the accounts because of the state
of disarray they were in.
What is more disgusting is even though these developments about the
mismanagement of funds came in 1996, Congress has yet to relocate
control of the funds. So, the BIA continues to mismanage billions more
of Native American funds and waste billions of American's tax dollars.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson presides over this case and has
asked that the government bring this case to a close.
Judge Robertson stated in January of this year, "Indeed, it is now
clear that the completion of the required accounting is an impossible
task."
When asked to settle the case for far less than what is owed to the
Native Americans the Bush administration failed to respond by the end of
the 109th Congress.
How pompous does the Bush administration get? Money is being loss
everyday that this continues and it seems as though the "checks and
balances" must be out to lunch because surely these people should be
held in contempt of court.
If this were a private firm everyone from the CEO down would be wear and
orange jumpsuit by now. But I daresay we will never see the American CEO
call to answer for his crimes.
So, who is going to have to pay for this? We are! One would think that
the most powerful nation in the world could get something right, but it
seems as though our government's arrogance has overcome us once more.
When they steal they call it "borrowing." If I went to the local Circle
K and ask if I could "borrow" some money, they would call it a felony.
What I wonder about is how and what these people have been living on for
all these years?
One of my professors was speaking on the topic and he told us that in
some cases people would go to the bank to get out some of the funds that
they were suppose to have, only to be told that they were not competent
enough to handle that amount of money. In other cases, the accounts
simply disappeared.
How sickening is it to know that people can be treated this way under
modern-day laws? The blind eye that we turn to these issues will only
come back to hurt us in the future.
There is also the enormous deficit that we continue to rack up each
year. The Cherokees of California, Inc. states, "There were 10 million
Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived.
Over the next 300 years, 90 percent of all Native American original
population was either wiped out by disease, famine or warfare imported
by the whites. By 1840 all the eastern tribes had been subdued,
annihilated or forcibly removed to Indian Territory west of the
Mississippi."
Even when given the opportunity by God and the good faith of the Native
American people this great American government continues to decimate
their hopes and dreams. I pray that one day these great people will find
peace.
media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2008/04/03/View\
s/The-Trail.Of.Tears.Continues-3298826.shtml
<http://media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2008/04/03/Vie\
ws/The-Trail.Of.Tears.Continues-3298826.shtml>
* More than 150 years have passed since Native Americans were forced
off of their land in what has become known as "The Trail of Tears."
However, it does not seem as though the American government's attitudes
and policies towards Native Americans have changed all that much in
those 150 years.
A lawsuit filed in by Elouise Cobell in 1996 accuses the government of
mismanaging more than $100 billion royalties that were supposed to be
held in trusts from for over 300,000 families dating back to 1887.
Cobell is a member of Blackfeet Indian Tribe of Montana and has been
diligently working for over 11 years to settle this matter and give the
tribes closure, but it seems like that day will never come.
What is the only agency that could get away with borrowing billions of
your dollars and replacing them with nothing more than an I.O.U? That's
right, its our pals the federal government.
Alongside the federal government in this fiasco is the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, more commonly known as the BIA. The BIA was founded more than a
century ago and fostered the responsibility of managing Native American
funds. The BIA has destroyed and lost hundreds of thousands of documents
that account for the money that the federal government has been
borrowing on for years.
The department also spent over 100 million dollars to hire the largest
accounting firm in the nation to organize the mismanaged accounts, but
even after much effort and a small sample of about 17,000 files the firm
could only account for less than 5,000 accounts. The firm further stated
that it refused to take on anymore of the accounts because of the state
of disarray they were in.
What is more disgusting is even though these developments about the
mismanagement of funds came in 1996, Congress has yet to relocate
control of the funds. So, the BIA continues to mismanage billions more
of Native American funds and waste billions of American's tax dollars.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson presides over this case and has
asked that the government bring this case to a close.
Judge Robertson stated in January of this year, "Indeed, it is now
clear that the completion of the required accounting is an impossible
task."
When asked to settle the case for far less than what is owed to the
Native Americans the Bush administration failed to respond by the end of
the 109th Congress.
How pompous does the Bush administration get? Money is being loss
everyday that this continues and it seems as though the "checks and
balances" must be out to lunch because surely these people should be
held in contempt of court.
If this were a private firm everyone from the CEO down would be wear and
orange jumpsuit by now. But I daresay we will never see the American CEO
call to answer for his crimes.
So, who is going to have to pay for this? We are! One would think that
the most powerful nation in the world could get something right, but it
seems as though our government's arrogance has overcome us once more.
When they steal they call it "borrowing." If I went to the local Circle
K and ask if I could "borrow" some money, they would call it a felony.
What I wonder about is how and what these people have been living on for
all these years?
One of my professors was speaking on the topic and he told us that in
some cases people would go to the bank to get out some of the funds that
they were suppose to have, only to be told that they were not competent
enough to handle that amount of money. In other cases, the accounts
simply disappeared.
How sickening is it to know that people can be treated this way under
modern-day laws? The blind eye that we turn to these issues will only
come back to hurt us in the future.
There is also the enormous deficit that we continue to rack up each
year. The Cherokees of California, Inc. states, "There were 10 million
Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived.
Over the next 300 years, 90 percent of all Native American original
population was either wiped out by disease, famine or warfare imported
by the whites. By 1840 all the eastern tribes had been subdued,
annihilated or forcibly removed to Indian Territory west of the
Mississippi."
Even when given the opportunity by God and the good faith of the Native
American people this great American government continues to decimate
their hopes and dreams. I pray that one day these great people will find
peace.
