Slonaker was increasingly critical of Interior’s handling of accounts
by Bill McAllister
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief
The Denver Post
The man charged with the task of overseeing up to $10 billion in disputed Indian Trust Accounts resigned under pressure Tuesday.
“I can’t tell you how or what prompted this, but I was forced out,” said Thomas N. Slonaker, the Interior Department official charged with supervising up to 300,000 trust accounts that American Indians say they are owed for federal leases on their lands dating to 1887.
Slonaker had been increasingly critical of the Bush administration’s efforts to resolve problems with the accounts. The government says records are incomplete and that it can’t say how much money they contain.
“I want to stand up and describe things as they are,” said Slonaker, a 67-year-old Republican and former banker. He said he suspected that his critical attitude “probably had something to do” with his resignation.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton faces contempt charges for the department mismanagement of the accounts. In recent testimony, Slonaker backed a court monitor who criticized Norton’s proposed reforms of the accounts’ administration.
Dennis Gingold, a former Denver lawyer who is pressing a lawsuit over the department’s acknowledged mismanagement of the accounts, charged that Slonaker was forced out because Interior officials could no longer tolerate his dissent over the trust issues.
“He had been candid and independent,” Gingold said. “They don’t want anyone who is critical of them.”
Slonaker is the second trustee for American Indians to be replaced. His predecessor, Paul Homan, also a former banker, resigned under pressure during the Clinton administration.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is presiding over the trust account lawsuit, has sharply criticized Norton for failing to include Slonaker in planning for the trust accounts. During the secretary’s recent contempt trial, he questioned why Norton did not make more use of Slonaker’s banking knowledge instead of relying on other, less-experienced Interior officials.
Congress created the special trustee position in 1994 because of the department’s inability to verify the balances in the trust accounts. Lamberth has directed Norton to provide the Indians with a full accounting of the funds. But officials say many of the account records are missing, making it impossible to reconcile their balances.
There had been suggestions in recent court reports of friction between Slonaker and Interior officials. Although he was appointed during the Clinton administration, Slonaker stayed when the Bush administration began.
Gingold said the administration killed written testimony Slonaker was to give to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee last week. Patricia Zell, staff director of the committee, said Tuesday that she understood that the Justice Department, which is handling the government’s defense in the lawsuit, objected to what Slonaker was planning to say. Instead, Slonaker answered committee questions indicating that he had doubts about the effectiveness of the administration’s reform plans.
The White House said deputy special trustee Donna Erwin will succeed Slonaker on an acting basis.
Norton issued a statement that devoted one paragraph to thanking Slonaker and five to praising Erwin, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma and a former banker. “Donna will have my complete support and full authority to carry out the statutory responsibilities of the Office of Special Trustee and to work closely with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian tribes and individual beneficiaries,” Norton said.
Norton spokesman Eric Ruff declined to comment on claims that Slonaker was ousted.
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