Secretary Salazar, Attorney General Holder Announce
Settlement of Cobell Lawsuit on Indian Trust Management
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Attorney General Eric Holder today announced a settlement of the long-running and highly contentious Cobell class-action lawsuit regarding the U.S. government's trust management and accounting of over three hundred thousand individual American Indian trust accounts. Also speaking at the press conference today were Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli.
“This is an historic, positive development for Indian country and a major step on the road to reconciliation following years of acrimonious litigation between trust beneficiaries and the United States,” Secretary Salazar said. “Resolving this issue has been a top priority of President Obama, and this administration has worked in good faith to reach a settlement that is both honorable and responsible. This historic step will allow Interior to move forward and address the educational, law enforcement, and economic development challenges we face in Indian Country.”
“Over the past thirteen years, the parties have tried to settle this case many, many times, each time unsuccessfully," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "But today we turn the page. This settlement is fair to the plaintiffs, responsible for the United States, and provides a path forward for the future.”
Under the negotiated agreement, litigation will end regarding the Department of the Interior’s performance of an historical accounting for trust accounts maintained by the United States on behalf of more than 300,000 individual Indians. A fund totaling $1.4 billion will be distributed to class members to compensate them for their historical accounting claims, and to resolve potential claims that prior U.S. officials mismanaged the administration of trust assets.
http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/120809a.html
Mostly praise for $3.4B settlement to Cobell lawsuit
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Filed Under: Cobell
Reaction from Indian Country to the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement has been mostly positive.
The deal provides $1.412 billion to the plaintiffs in the long-running suit. Each account holder -- a number estimated to be as high as 500,000 -- will receive a $1,000 check. Some will receive more money based on the activity that occurred on their land.
The settlement also provides $2 billion to pay account holders for their fractionated land interests. The money will be spent over a 10-year period and any land acquired through the program will be returned to tribal governments.
To provide an incentive for account holders to sell their interests, the settlement creates an Indian scholarship fund. Every time an interest is acquired, the Interior Department will deposit money in the fund for a total amount of $60 million.
"This is the first time I’ve seen someone take Native American issues and bring them to the forefront,” Roger Running Crane of the Blackfeet Nation council told KFBB-TV.
The original complaint filed is here (pdf format):
http://www.cobellsettlement.com/docs/1996.06.10_Cobell_Complaint.pdfFAQ (more at link)Why did the Indians bring a class action against the Secretary of the Interior, Assistant Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Treasury?The suit was filed on June 10, 1996 to address the government’s breaches of trust which resulted in the loss, dissipation, theft, misdirection, misappropriation, and unaccountability of several billion dollars of monies held in trust by the United States for Indian beneficiaries in Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts.
What happened in 1996 to prompt the filing of this suit?Elouise Cobell sought reform of the Individual Indian trust throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. She testified before Congress, co-founded the Indian Trust Monitoring Association and attempted on numerous occasions to obtain redress from the Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations. It became clear through these years of dedicated struggle that Ms. Cobell and the other plaintiffs had no recourse to secure redress of their grievances, other than to file this suit.
http://www.cobellsettlement.com/press/faq.php#case_1Legislative BackgroundIn 1887, Congress enacted the General Allotment Act, instituting a policy of dividing tribal lands among tribes’ individual members¹. The allotted land – which has consisted of as much as 54 million acres – is held in trust by the United States government for Indian beneficiaries. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) ended further allotment of individual Indian lands. However, the federal government remained the trustee of existing individual Indian lands.
In its capacity as trustee, the federal government is responsible for approving all leases and sales of natural resources on Indian lands, for collecting payments on behalf of the beneficial Indian owners of the land and disbursing these funds to the Indians to whom the money belongs. Since the turn of the century, the government has collected billions of dollars from farming and grazing leases, timber sales, mining and oil and gas production on Indian lands, which it was required to disburse to its rightful Indian owners.
As trustee, the federal government has had a longstanding duty to provide regular accounting for beneficiary trust funds and assets but has never done so. Confirming this responsibility and in attempt to prod the federal government to discharge its accounting obligation, Congress enacted in 1994, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act.
Case BackgroundOn June 10, 1996, Indian plaintiffs including Elouise P. Cobell, Mildred Cleghorn, Thomas Maulson and James Louis Larose, filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to properly manage Indian trust assets on behalf of all present and past individual Indian trust beneficiaries, including over 300,000 current Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders. The assets at issue are the monies that belong to the individual Indians. The named defendants are the Secretaries of the Interior and Treasury and the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs.
This matter has been pursued under four specific defendant names, depending upon the individuals heading the Departments of Interior and Treasury in successive presidential administrations from 1996-2009, including Cobell v. Babbitt, Cobell v. Norton and Cobell v. Kempthorne. The current case is Cobell v. Salazar.
http://www.cobellsettlement.com/press/background.php#case
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