Interior Department Mismanages Native American Land Trusts and Pays the Price
Wednesday, 9. December 2009
According to news sources, the Obama Administration has settled a 13-year old lawsuit for $3.4 billion over the Interior Department’s mismanagement of land trust accounts for Native Americans. Some of the funding is designated for creating a trust fund for providing higher education to Native Americans.
The agreement has made $1.4 billion, less attorney’s fees, available to hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs in the case of Cobell v. Salazar. The lawsuit was aimed at resolving a legal dispute that accused the Interior Department of mismanagement of several land accounts, some of which were first created in 1887, which the Interior avoided paying Native Americans billions of dollars on.
Obama Administration - Cobell v. Salazar
An additional $2 billion will be provided by the Interior Department designated for the buying of land from willing sellers, which will be consolidated into larger and more profitable holdings for tribes, according to Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary.
According to Salazar, the agreement was supported by Judge James Robertson, the judge presiding over the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and also of key members of Congress, including John McCain, republican, Senator of Arizona, and former republican presidential candidate, and Byron Dorgan, democrat and Senator of North Dakota.
A five-member commission, created by the Interior, will make changes to management of the trust accounts for higher education.
“With this announcement, we take an important step towards a sincere reconciliation between the trust beneficiaries and the federal government and lay the foundation for more effective management of Indian trust assets in the future,” said President Obama. “I urge Congress to act swiftly to correct this longstanding injustice and to remember that no special appropriations are required.”
Last year, the U.S. district court ordered $455.6 million in restitution. Descendants of the original trust holders had asked for $48 billion. Both descendants and the Interior appealed the ruling.
The recent verdict of $1.4 billion still has plaintiffs arguing that it is less than they are entitled to.
“There is no doubt this is significantly less than the full benefit to which Indians are entitled,” said Cobell. “We are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller every year, every day, as our elders die.”
“We are here today to right a past wrong,” said Salazar. “At the end of the day, it allows us to move forward.”
Related Information
Wikipedia – President Barack Obama
PoliticsDaily – Obama Administration
DOJ – Cobell v. Salazar
Contact U.S Department of the Interios
U.S. Senate