by Elouise Cobell
Guest Columnist
Indian Country Today
Prodded by a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 500,000 individual Indians
and by a federal judge’s threat to hold her in criminal contempt, Interior
Secretary Gale Norton has suddenly come up with a proposal to “reorganize”
her department’s Indian trust responsibilities, hoping the plan will avert a
court takeover, preserve her turf and save her from a huge fine or even a
few hours in jail.
Unfortunately, even though the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust is the
worst managed, most scandalous program in the federal government, Ms.
Norton’s idea for sweeping changes is too little, too late. (Or as a federal
appeals court described Interior’s trust reform charade, “… a day late and
a dollar short.”) It’s also misleading. It tries to hide the fact that the
main beneficiary of such an overhaul would not be the hundreds of thousands
of individual Indians whose money is at stake, but Ms. Norton herself.
The real strategy behind the secretary’s announced proposal is one we have
seen many times from Interior since we filed our class action litigation in
1996 to force a cleanup of the IIM trust. Her real goals are: 1) to save her
own skin, 2) to deflect blame for the upheaval her plan will cause onto the
Indian trust lawsuit plaintiffs, and 3) to delay justice and buy time by
stalling, ideally until the next administration comes along.
The same strategy succeeded for her predecessor, former secretary Babbitt,
who managed to stall until Bill Clinton got out of town (Babbitt was found
in contempt of court over the trust, but we, the taxpayers, paid his fine).
Although Ms. Norton would like it to appear that she’s been on top of the
trust debacle since her first day on the job, the fact is that the IIM trust
has been consistently mismanaged for more than a century. The Clinton
administration did nothing to improve the mess, while fighting tooth and
claw against the Indian plaintiffs in court. The Bush administration
likewise has failed for 11 months to effect trust reform, while lying to
Congress and the court about its supposed progress.
As two court-appointed watchdogs have made perfectly clear in their reports
to the judge, the IIM trust today is in worse shape than ever.
What has Ms. Norton worried – and has drawn her undivided attention to the
IIM trust for the first time – is not only the risk of contempt, but a
request by the Indian plaintiffs that the judge in our case, U.S. District
Judge Royce C. Lamberth, remove the trust from Interior and place it in the
hands of an independent, outside receiver. This would be the kind of fix –
for the first time ever – that the IIM trust has needed for decades.
Receivership would bring to bear real professionalism and expertise, as well
as something the trust has sorely lacked, real accountability. The historic
trust relationship would remain intact; in fact, it would be reinforced and
enhanced.
Secretary Norton’s proposal creates confusion and doubt in Indian country
because it would “reorganize” most of Interior’s Indian trust
responsibilities, both tribal and individual, into a new Bureau of Indian
Trust Assets Management. Some current and former Interior officials –
including the former assistant secretary for Indian affairs from the
previous administration – are telling people, “I-told-you-so; that the class
action lawsuit has driven Interior to take this drastic step.” It isn’t
true.
Our litigation involves only the IIM trust and the individual Indian trust
beneficiaries; it does not involve the tribes. Our request for receivership
is for the IIM trust only, and has nothing to do with tribal trusts. It is
Secretary Norton who has chosen this moment, to divide Indian country, to
float an overly broad proposal that is vague and over-reaching at the same
time.
We have reached the point where both practicality and simple justice demand
that Interior be stripped of the trust. Both Judge Lamberth and the federal
appeals court in Washington, D.C., have ruled that the government has the
same trust obligations as a bank owes to its customers. It must account for
every dime, and it must operate the trust for the good of the beneficiaries
(many of whom are among the poorest citizens of this country). Interior has
proved it is capable of doing neither.
As we said in our request to the judge, “Receivers are commonly appointed by
courts to oversee trusts … where senior management is incompetent,
untrustworthy, or guilty of malfeasance, as is the case here.”
It is not acceptable for Interior to continue to control $500 million a year
in revenue from Indian-owned lands without systems to track it and without
management with the skills and the will to account for it.
We believe the court, weary and impatient of excuses, will see the latest
“reorganization” plan for what it really is – a last-minute attempt to save
the secretary’s hide.
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