Der Bund (Berne, Switzerland)
Where did the money go?
Der Bund
August 20, 2001
This is a summary of an article that appeared July 26, in German, in Der Bund, the newspaper in Berne, the capital of Switzerland.
Where did the money go that belongs to the Indians?
Elouise Cobell, who is a Blackfeet Indian, has been tremendously successful in suing the US government in connection with the controversy regarding the Indian land and money (at least $10 billion) supposedly held “in trust” by the Government.
Ms. Cobell owns several pieces of land which are part of the Blackfeet Reservation in northwest Montana, but she doesn’t know which companies or persons are using the land. She also does not know if these entities are paying leasing fees or, if they are, how much they are paying and who, in fact, gets the money. She has some computer printouts, which are extremely confusing as to exact location as well as dimension of her land.
Ms. Cobell is the Manager of the Blackfeet National Bank in Browning, MT and she is convinced that approx 500,000 Indians are in the same boat. The background is as follows: In 1887 a law was passed that divided the reservations into so-called “parcels,” which were given to individual Indians. But these individuals were informed by Washington that they were not competent to take care of their land and that the Government would hold it in trust in their behalf.
In the early 90s, Ms. Cobell decided to look into this matter. She started checking around in Washington, but hit roadblocks everywhere she turned. Finally she was told Janet Reno would meet with her, but Mrs. Reno never showed up, and Justice Dept. personnel told Ms. Cobell she should not get her hopes up regarding recovery of the money. Ms. Cobell decided to take those “characters” to court.
In 1996, she started a class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and approx. 500,000 Indians. The Dept. of the Interior and the Dept. of Finance had to admit that for decades no records had been kept, that files had been stored in abandoned miles, and that the contact to thousands of land-owners had been “lost.” And even though the legal proceedings were actually going on, the Dept. of Finance was still destroying documents.
Ms. Cobell became extremely enraged when she realized the enormity of the entire drama. She did finally find some support from Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, who ruled at the end of 1999 that the government has the obligation to get the Indian accounts mess straightened out. The ruling was confirmed by an appellate court in February 2001 and the Bush Administration decided not to appeal. Ms. Cobell thinks that the amount owed is in the $10 to $20 billion range and she is hoping for an out-of-court settlement sometime this year. She is comparing the fate of the Indians to that of the Holocaust victims. Not only is she looking for financial compensation for all the Indians involved, she would also like to see some of the responsible parties “go to prison.”
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