by Robert Gehrke
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) _ An exasperated federal judge berated the Interior Department on Tuesday for repeatedly failing to fix a system that manages billions of dollars of Indian money.
He said the dereliction seems to be clear grounds to hold Interior Secretary Gale Norton and others in contempt of court.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth advised a government lawyer to “throw yourself on the mercy of the court’ rather than defending conduct he called “so clearly contemptuous.’
Lamberth is presiding in a lawsuit filed in 1996 on behalf of 300,000 American Indians that alleges the government squandered at least $10 billion in royalties from Indian land and possibly many times that amount. The government admits mismanaging the trust fund.
Almost two years ago, Lamberth ordered the Interior Department to piece together how much it owes the Indians and to overhaul its accounting system.
Neither has happened, in spite of $614 million spent by Interior, according to a series of reports in recent months by a court-appointed watchdog. Moreover, Interior officials have misled the court about the status of reform efforts, the reports say.
The Indians’ attorneys want contempt orders and possible jail time for close to 50 government officials for obstructing the system overhaul and misleading the court.
On Tuesday, Lamberth scolded Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Nagle for seeking six more weeks to respond to the contempt motions.
He cited several instances in which he said Interior officials clearly violated court orders. In one instance, the chief of staff for Norton’s predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, decided that Lamberth should not be told that a $40 million accounting system didn’t work.
“That fact alone is so contemptuous of this court that I don’t understand what you think you’re going to do with this trial,’ Lamberth told Nagle, who recently took over defense of the contempt motions.
But he gave Nagle two weeks to respond and said contempt hearings could begin Nov. 30.
“I hope the government will tell me in their filing who is in charge of trust reform,’ Lamberth said. “It’s allegedly the secretary, but she sure doesn’t act like it.’
In 1999, Lamberth held Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt and fined them $600,000 for failing to produce documents in the case.
The government established the Indian trust accounts in 1887 to collect Indian royalties from grazing, logging, mining and oil drilling on 54 million acres of Indian land.
Payments were to have been made to tribal members, but much of the money was lost, misappropriated, stolen or never collected.
Today, roughly $500 million flows through the trust accounts each year.
The plaintiffs have argued that Interior can’t be trusted to oversee the Indian accounts and want Lamberth to appoint a trustee.
Elouise Cobell, the Browning, Mont., banker and member of the Blackfeet Nation, who initiated the lawsuit, was pleased to see Lamberth’s frustration.
“I think he’s heard six years of lying, and he’s just tired of it,’ she said. “Now he knows what it’s like to be an Indian, except we’ve been lied to for 100 years.’
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On the Net: Indian plaintiff’s Web site: http://www.indiantrust.com
Bureau of Indian Affairs: http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html
Office of the Special Trustee: http://www.ost.doi.gov
for more information: click here
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