by Robert Gehrke
The Associated Press
Interior Secretary Gale Norton asked a judge Wednesday for
more time to fix a flawed system that handles $500 million annually in
royalties from Indian-owned land.
But after five years of presiding in a lawsuit alleging the mismanagement of
$10 billion in Indian money, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth was
skeptical, noting he had heard similar reform promises from Norton’s
predecessor.
‘Secretary (Bruce) Babbitt sat right in that chair where you are and
assured me of a great plan and all this was going to happen and none of it
happened,’ Lamberth said. ‘How do I rely on what you … are telling me
now and how is it different from what Secretary Babbitt told me?’
Norton said her department has hired outside consultants to help speed
reform efforts, she is seeking an $84 million increase in spending on trust
reform, and her top deputies are devoted to fixing the system.
‘We’re very dedicated to doing this,’ Norton said. ‘I’d really like to
see this change take place … during my time as secretary.’
Norton was on the stand defending herself against a contempt of court
allegation for allegedly concealing the failure of key Indian accounting
systems and not complying with Lamberth’s order to account for how much the
Indians are owed.
She said progress has been made on both fronts, but problems remain.
Dennis Gingold, the attorney for 300,000 Indians in the class-action
lawsuit, said Norton’s promises do not change the fact that the trust fund
is in crisis despite the Interior Department spending $614 million to fix
it.
Norton said her department deserves a ‘passing grade’ in some reform
areas, but needs improvement in others.
Elouise Cobell, a banker from the Blackfeet Nation that sued the Interior
Department in 1996, said ‘passing’ should not be good enough when it comes
to managing Indian money.
She said Norton should be jailed as punishment for failing to fix the trust
fund and Lamberth should assign someone outside the Interior Department with
the expertise to fix the system.
Although much of the alleged wrongdoing occurred during Babbitt’s tenure,
Norton and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb are on
trial as the current officials in charge of the trust fund. After weeks
of testimony, Lamberth has scheduled closing arguments for Feb. 21.
In 1999, Lamberth held Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in
contempt and fined them $600,000 for failing to turn over documents in the
5-year-old class-action lawsuit brought by Indian landowners.
Any fines imposed against Norton would be paid by the department, as were
those imposed against Babbitt and Rubin.
The trust accounts were created in 1887 when Congress assigned plots of land
to individual Indians. The federal government holds that land about 11
million acres in trust for the Indians, meaning it cannot be taxed or sold
and the government must approve any leases.
Gingold said the government mismanagement cost 300,000 Indian account
holders more than $10 billion in lost mining, grazing and timber royalties.
The government has acknowledged that money intended for Indian beneficiaries
was lost, misappropriated, stolen or never collected.
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