U.S. Fights Ruling on Indians' Funds
The Washington Post
By: Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 6, 2000
Lamberth's ruling came in a case that could have huge financial consequences. A group of Indians alleges that the federal government has lost track of billions of dollars in trust funds because of mismanagement that dates back at least 100 years. They want to recover the money on behalf of current and past holders of trust fund accounts.
If the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds Lamberth's ruling, it clears the way for him to conduct another phase of the proceedings to deal with how to rectify past accounting failures. That phase could determine how much damages the government must pay to Indians whose trust accounts weren't accurately maintained.
Appeals Judge Stephen F. Williams appeared most receptive to the government's contentions that Lamberth misinterpreted administrative law. But Judge David B. Sentelle repeatedly indicated that he believed the Indians were entitled to an accounting, saying that Lamberth had a right to step in if there was an "unreasonable delay." The third judge on the panel, Judith W. Rogers, questioned how reporting periodically to Lamberth would interfere with the government's ability to craft its own reform agenda.
Although Lamberth stopped short of putting the trust fund into a court-supervised receivership--as the Native Americans requested--government lawyers insisted he went too far. He should have waited to see whether the reforms worked before injecting himself into the process, said David C. Shilton, a Justice Department lawyer.
Thaddeus Holt, representing the Indians, countered that Lamberth's intervention was the most effective means of ensuring that something gets done. The lawsuit was filed in 1996 by the Native American Rights Fund, an advocacy group.
The trust accounts cover at least 300,000 Indians of an overall national population of about 2.2 million, according to the Native American Rights Fund. They come from more than 100 tribes throughout the country, though primarily west of the Mississippi River. The government set up the accounts in the 1880s to compensate Indians for use of their land. Royalties from the sale of petroleum, timber and other natural resources are supposed to be channeled into the accounts, which are passed down through generations.
According to Lamberth, the Interior and Treasury departments failed to untangle a records mess even after Congress passed a law in 1994 demanding reforms. In his opinion last year, he wrote, "It would be difficult to find a more historically mismanaged federal program than the Individual Indian Money Trust."
Lamberth has warned that he would take more drastic action if changes aren't made.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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