by Mary Boyle
Colorado Springs Gazette
WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton wasn’t working in Washington
when problems arose with the government’s handling of American Indian
trust funds. In fact, she hadn’t even been born. Indian land and money
have been mismanaged for more than a century.
But Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, inherited the problem when
she took over the Interior Department. Now that problem threatens to make
her the first Cabinet secretary in the Bush administration to be held in
contempt of court and could land her in jail.
What’s more, it could ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $10
billion.
Norton is on trial for contempt of court, charges stemming from
allegations the Interior Department misled a judge about the lack of
progress the agency has made in fixing the 115-year-old trust program. The
judge is holding her and more than 30 other Interior officials responsible
for shortcomings related to reforming the system.
Last week, Norton defended herself before a packed courtroom, telling a
judge she has fixed the “basic functions” of the trust system but wants
“to make improvements.”
It wasn’t clear whether Norton persuaded federal District Court Judge
Royce Lamberth her efforts to untangle the system have been sincere.
Lamberth isn’t expected to rule on the contempt charges for a few weeks.
In the past, however, he hasn’t hidden his anger at Norton.
Mismanagement of Indian land and money dates to the early 1900s, after the
government in 1887 set up a trust fund system to handle more than 11
million acres of tribal land.
It was supposed to work this way: The government would act as a trustee,
leasing the land and collecting royalties from oil, gas and mineral
rights, and then distributing the income to Indian owners.
That didn’t always happen. The royalties were lost, stolen,
misappropriated and in some cases not collected, the government has
acknowledged. Records disappeared, and officials lost track of who owned
what land.
Elouise Cobell is a Blackfoot Indian who for years heard others complain
about family land that disappeared and royalty checks that never arrived.
She filed a class-action lawsuit in 1996 against the Interior Department
seeking to make the government accountable for millions of missing acres
of tribal land and billions of dollars owed to Indians.
She wants the Indian trust system, which pays about $500 million a year to
the tribes, taken out of the government’s hands.
The federal courts have sided with Cobell. Lamberth, the same judge who
scolded Norton, found the government mismanaged Indian money for more than
100 years.
In 1999, Lamberth held former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for their failures to improve
the trust system.
He faulted them for a “a shocking pattern of deception” that included
covering up missing documents Indians might have used to prove their case.
Lamberth ordered the government to pay more than $600,000 of the Indians’
attorneys fees as punishment.
Things haven’t gone more smoothly for Norton. A court-appointed monitor in
December found an Interior computer system that was supposed to fix the
trust problems was a mess. Its security system was so lax Lamberth ordered
Interior to shut down its Internet sites because hackers could so easily
set up false trust fund accounts.
Unplugging the agency’s Web site blacked out a number of popular sites,
such as the National Park Service, and cut off delivery of trust payments
to thousands of Indians who rely on the income.
Earlier this month, Norton appeared before a congressional committee,
where lawmakers compared her agency’s handling of the trust system to
Enron Corp.’s financial problems. Norton acknowledged the trust records
were “a complete bookkeeping nightmare” that will cost “hundreds of
millions of dollars to fix.”
Cobell’s lawyers are pushing for jail time for Norton and are dissatisfied
with a Norton proposal to hand the Indian trust fund system to a new
bureau within the Interior Department.
Meanwhile, Interior officials continue to meet with tribal leaders
throughout the country to find a resolution.
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