by Bill McAllister
MediaNews Washington Bureau Chief
The Denver Post
WASHINGTON — The leader of a major lawsuit by
Native Americans against the government says top officials at the
Bureau of Indian Affairs ridiculed
her at a recent agency party.
Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, has been widely
praised by Native Americans for spearheading the lawsuit over the
government’s mishandling of thousands of Indian trust accounts.
But Cobell told The Denver Post that top aides to BIA Director Kevin
Gover, the Clinton administration’s top Native American appointee, made fun of her at a recent farewell party for agency spokesman Rex Hackler. At that party, some of the BIA’s top staffers sang a version of “”Thanks for the Memories” that portrayed her as “”contemptible Cobell.”
“”When I read it, I just got angry. It’s so disrespectful,” Cobell said in an interview from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana where she runs a bank. Cobell noted that the song was written by two of Gover’s top aides, Michael J. Anderson, a deputy assistant Interior secretary, and Loretta Tuell, a special assistant to Gover.
Anderson confirmed that he and Tuell had drafted the song, but said it was a parody and “”not meant to be taken seriously.”
“”It was meant to be humorous. It was not meant to be mean,” Anderson said. “”I’m sorry to hear that she was offended.”
Cobell said she believed the tone of the song was significant in view
of Gover’s tearful public apology Friday to Native Americans for
the way the BIA has treated them in the past. Gover’s statement was
praised by the White House’s top aide on Native American issues,
but condemned by many Native American leaders as offering too
little, too late.
“”It was a tactic to make everybody in Indian Country feel sorry
for him,” said Cobell, one of the strongest critics of the speech. “”I
don’t think he has acted in good faith,” she said of Gover, a Pawnee
tribal member and a lawyer from New Mexico. One day he allows
aides to sing a song that criticized her “”and the next day he was crying around. I can’t put the two and two together,” she said.
Cobell’s suit has been one of the major issues of Gover’s tenure as
assistant Interior secretary for Indian affairs.
In the song, Hackler, who left the government to work in public
relations, is called “”Roy Heckler.” The play on Heckler’s name was part of the parody, Anderson said.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth held Gover and two
Cabinet secretaries in contempt for their handling of the case.
“”Thanks for the memories of Contemptible Cobell/Gover Almost Fell/Roy
Heckler spins/Department wins/We’re out of Royce’s Hell/Roy Heckler you’re great,” the song went.
The government is appealing Lamberth’s decision to keep the trust account case under his review for five years. The BIA has been unable to account for billions of dollars that it has held in trust for more than 300,000 Native Americans in what the judge has called one of the worst government abuses he has ever seen.
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