Government’s promise to Indians remains broken
Houston Chronicle
Sad but true, the U.S. Interior Department for decades has lost, allowed to be stolen or otherwise mishandled billions of dollars in royalties produced from American Indian lands and owed American Indians. The department can’t or won’t fix the problem.
Even holding Cabinet officials such as Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt of court – as U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth did last week in Washington, D.C. – doesn’t seem to help. In 1999 Judge Lamberth held former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, two of Bill Clinton’s Cabinet officers, in contempt for failing to heed his order to straighten out the mess.
Interior’s inability to accurately account for Indian royalties is a perfect example of why the government’s condescending paternalism toward Native Americans has failed. It’s become a terrible stain on the nation.
Back in the 1880s, Congress told American Indians that the Interior Department would keep track of the royalties owed them from logging, grazing and, later, oil, gas and other minerals produced from their lands. In effect, Congress said these commercial dealings were just too complicated for Indians to follow.
Well, guess what? The deals appear to be too complicated for the bureaucrats in the Interior Department, also.
A lawsuit filed by American Indians in 1996 claims government mismanagement has cost them from $10 billion to $40 billion. They are right in wanting their money.
Judge Lamberth has been unflinching in his efforts to get the appropriate government officials off their backsides to make an accounting.
In fairness to Norton, U.S. Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, says the interior secretary inherited the problem and has done more than anyone else to fix the problem.
That may be, but these unpaid royalties remain promises that were broken by Washington. They are a blight that demands honest settlement.
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