Discipline possible in Indian trust case
by Bill McAllister
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief
The Denver Post
WASHINGTON – A federal judge threatened Tuesday to hold Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt, saying her initial action over billions of dollars her department holds for American Indians was “so clearly contemptuous” he doubted she could be defended.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth stopped short of disciplining Norton but made it clear that he considered her remarks on the thousands of trust accounts “contemptuous on their face.’
The judge, who previously held that the government had breached its trust responsibility to Indians, also hinted he was likely to impose sanctions on the chief of staff to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Lamberth singled out Babbitt’s top aide, Anne Shields, for not telling him about a crucial computer failure affecting the trust accounts.
But it was Norton, the former Colorado attorney general, who received the brunt of the judge’s ire during a 45-minute hearing on the case. He set another hearing for Nov. 30 and told government lawyers he was upset with Norton.
“I hope the government will tell me who is in charge of trust reform,” Lamberth declared. “It’s allegedly the secretary. She surely doesn’t act like it.”
If the judge makes good on his threat, Norton will become the first Bush Cabinet member disciplined by a federal court.
Her department later issued a brief statement declaring: “We take trust reform seriously. We are committing substantial resources to trust reform. We will be responding to the issues raised today through the court process.”
Lamberth’s pointed remarks and obvious frustration with the government seem certain to renew pressure on the Bush administration to quickly settle the 51/2-year-old lawsuit that challenged the accuracy of more than 300,000 trust accounts the government has maintained, in some cases for more than 100 years for Indian families. Congress repeatedly has urged that the case, involving accounts said to be worth more than $10 billion, be settled out of court.
For the past several months, lawyers representing the Indians and court-appointed specialists reviewing the case have been filing reports and motions with the judge, most of them harshly critical of the government’s handling of the case.
The judge’s anger at Norton was piqued by her first public statement on the case. On Feb. 28 she told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee she had ordered her department to conduct a “statistical sampling” of the agency’s admittedly bungled trust accounts.
Lamberth noted that he had warned her Democratic predecessor not to take that step.
To have Norton follow the same course was infuriating and obviously in violation of his order, the judge said.
Lawyers for the Justice Department made no effort to defend Norton or any of the nearly 50 others who also could face contempt proceedings. Former Denver lawyer Dennis Gingold, the driving force behind the lawsuit, repeatedly urged the judge to press ahead with a contempt finding.
“Enough is enough is enough,” he declared. “Nobody is doing anything here. It’s got to stop.”
Gingold argued that government lawyers had more than enough time to prepare their defenses, and delays would only hurt the Indians.
In chambers, government lawyers have suggested it could take 50 years to reconcile the accounts, he said. “Unless this court does something soon, more assets are going to be lost, more documents are going to be destroyed.”
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