Indian Trust: Cobell v. Kempthorne
Many Indian Beneficiaries Would Lose Rights Under Interior Plan
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Lawyers in a major class action lawsuit are opposing an Interior Department plan which they say will deprive the "vast majority" of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans whose families have had government-managed trust accounts from receiving a court-ordered accounting of what happened to their funds..
Attorney Keith Harper, representing Indian plaintiffs in an 11-year-old class action lawsuit, said the U.S. Interior Department's proposed accounting would strip most members of the class of the right to secure a long-promised accounting.
Harper made his comments to U.S. District Judge James Robertson after the judge expressed concern that both sides in the lawsuit may have sharply different views about what constitutes a proper accounting.
Judge Robertson, who assumed control of the case in December, has ordered an Oct. 10 trial into whether the Interior Department can conduct a proper accounting. That issue, the judge declared, is at the heart of the lawsuit over the government's admitted mismanagement of Indian Trust accounts.
The accounts were created by Congress in 1887 when lawmakers believed that Indians were incapable of managing their own finances. They were supposed to hold the proceeds of government-arranged leases of Indian lands and the sales of oil, gas and minerals from those lands.
Despite decades of reports about serious problems with the trust accounts, they never have been subject to an accounting.
That is a right that lawyers for a group of Indian plaintiffs told Judge Robertson they believed they had secured for all account holders under a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
At a Monday afternoon hearing on plans for the accounting trial, Harper complained that Interior Department plans for the accounting would effectively exclude most of the 500,000 Native American trust beneficiaries covered by the lawsuit. Despite the appeals court ruling, Harper said the department wants to have an accounting that covers only individuals who had active trust accounts after a trust reform law was enacted in 1994.
Among others it also will exclude accounts of any deceased Indians and Indians who received funds for government leases directly from a third party.
Harper said that the appeals court ruling makes the Interior plan invalid. "We believe that this has already been decided", he said.
The judge urged lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs to submit briefs to the court outlining why the Interior plan is flawed. He said another hearing in the case for June 18.
On another issue, the judge said he would not lift an injunction that has kept four Interior Department computers off the Internet for more than five years. Those computers hold Indian Trust data and are at too much of a risk of being manipulated by computer hackers U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled.
Judge Robertson said government lawyers have yet to present sufficient evidence that the computers are now safe. Besides, he noted that the government had agreed to a consent decree allowing the Internet ban.
To view the latest information concerning this case, go to Indian Trust http://www.indiantrust.com
For background information, please also see the Indian Trust series in our International Law section.
Many Indian Beneficiaries Would Lose Rights Under Interior Plan
WASHINGTON, May 15 -- Lawyers in a major class action lawsuit are opposing an Interior Department plan which they say will deprive the "vast majority" of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans whose families have had government-managed trust accounts from receiving a court-ordered accounting of what happened to their funds..
Attorney Keith Harper, representing Indian plaintiffs in an 11-year-old class action lawsuit, said the U.S. Interior Department's proposed accounting would strip most members of the class of the right to secure a long-promised accounting.
Harper made his comments to U.S. District Judge James Robertson after the judge expressed concern that both sides in the lawsuit may have sharply different views about what constitutes a proper accounting.
Judge Robertson, who assumed control of the case in December, has ordered an Oct. 10 trial into whether the Interior Department can conduct a proper accounting. That issue, the judge declared, is at the heart of the lawsuit over the government's admitted mismanagement of Indian Trust accounts.
The accounts were created by Congress in 1887 when lawmakers believed that Indians were incapable of managing their own finances. They were supposed to hold the proceeds of government-arranged leases of Indian lands and the sales of oil, gas and minerals from those lands.
Despite decades of reports about serious problems with the trust accounts, they never have been subject to an accounting.
That is a right that lawyers for a group of Indian plaintiffs told Judge Robertson they believed they had secured for all account holders under a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
At a Monday afternoon hearing on plans for the accounting trial, Harper complained that Interior Department plans for the accounting would effectively exclude most of the 500,000 Native American trust beneficiaries covered by the lawsuit. Despite the appeals court ruling, Harper said the department wants to have an accounting that covers only individuals who had active trust accounts after a trust reform law was enacted in 1994.
Among others it also will exclude accounts of any deceased Indians and Indians who received funds for government leases directly from a third party.
Harper said that the appeals court ruling makes the Interior plan invalid. "We believe that this has already been decided", he said.
The judge urged lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs to submit briefs to the court outlining why the Interior plan is flawed. He said another hearing in the case for June 18.
On another issue, the judge said he would not lift an injunction that has kept four Interior Department computers off the Internet for more than five years. Those computers hold Indian Trust data and are at too much of a risk of being manipulated by computer hackers U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled.
Judge Robertson said government lawyers have yet to present sufficient evidence that the computers are now safe. Besides, he noted that the government had agreed to a consent decree allowing the Internet ban.
To view the latest information concerning this case, go to Indian Trust http://www.indiantrust.com
For background information, please also see the Indian Trust series in our International Law section.