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Wednesday September 25, 2002
It’s time to give management of Indian trust funds to independent expert
Editorial Board Argus Leader The recent decision to hold Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt of court for failing to solve her department’s mismanagement of Indian trust funds does not go far enough.
The problems dates to the trust’s beginnings in 1887, when Congress took 90 million acres of Indian land and gave it to homesteaders. Native Americans were left with 40- to 320-acre allotments of land that the Interior Department was assigned to manage for grazing, timber, and oil and gas drilling.
It was the Interior Department’s job to see that Native Americans received royalties for these activities – a job which the department never has done well.
Much of the money was lost, stolen and went uncollected until 1996, when Indians sued the Interior Department for mismanagement of funds. Financial losses to the Indian community due to mismanagement are estimated at $10 billion to $40 billion.
In 1999, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the Interior Department to fix the system and figure out how much is owed to individual Native Americans. Despite the order, few problems have been solved.
Norton is the third Cabinet officer held in contempt over this issue.
Former President Clinton’s Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were held in contempt of court in 1999 for the same reason. At that time, Lamberth also ordered the government to pay $600,000 in plaintiff’s lawyer fees for failing to turn over documents.
In addition to being found in contempt of court for mismanagement of royalties, Lamberth also ruled Norton failed to comply with his earlier order to account for the money in the Indian accounts. He also ruled that Norton committed fraud by misrepresenting the department’s efforts to repair the trust and protect Indian money.
“In my 15 years on the bench, I have never seen a litigant make such a concerted effort to subvert the truth-seeking function of the judicial process,” Lamberth wrote. “The Department of Interior is truly an embarrassment to the federal government in general and the executive branch in particular.”
While Norton contends that she inherited many of the problems – which is true – it still was her job to fix them. Progress has been almost nonexistent.
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va., the senior Democrat on the House Resources Committee that oversees the Interior Department and Indian issues, is right: “While Secretary Norton inherited the long-standing problems with Indian trust fund management and the Cobell lawsuit itself, she has been found in contempt for actions taken on her own watch. If they were half as good at counting bucks as they are at passing the buck, we would be much better off.”
After all, the Interior Department has spent more than $600 million since 1996 trying to fix the accounting nightmare.
Enough time – and money – has been wasted by the Interior Department.
The Indian community has been patient long enough. They deserve better.
If the Interior Department has not done an adequate job in 115 years, why is it still in charge of the Indian royalties?
Although Lamberth has set a Jan. 6 deadline for the department to submit plans for overhauling the trust fund and a May deadline to determine what, if any other, court actions should be taken, this is too generous.
It is time for the management of funds and the reconciliation of the books to be reassigned to an independent trust expert.
The Interior Department has proved time and again that it simply cannot do the job.
