McCaleb says he wants to avoid ‘litigious environment’
by Bill McAllister
Denver Post
WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs director Neal A. McCaleb, who faces contempt-of- court sanctions along with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, resigned Thursday, saying he was wary of the “contentious and litigious environment” ahead of him.
The 66-year-old member of Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Nation became the first of Norton’s presidentially appointed deputies to depart. Norton said she accepted his resignation “with great reluctance, deep regret and a sense of personal loss.”
The Bureau of Indian affairs manages most federal programs for American Indians. In addition to serving as trustee for Indian lands and tribes, it runs schools and a variety of other programs.
As assistant interior secretary for Indian affairs, McCaleb had a key role in defending the Bush administration against a massive lawsuit over the Indian bureau’s handling of more than 350,000 Indian trust accounts.
The accounts, some dating from 1887, hold proceeds from the oil, gas, grazing and mineral leases of Indian lands in the West.
Records for many of the accounts have been lost, and the Indians say more than $10 billion is missing, a number hotly disputed by the government.
In September U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth found Norton and McCaleb guilty of four counts of civil contempt, ruling they committed “a fraud on the court” by withholding evidence in the case.
Justice Department lawyers this week filed notice of appeal.
Lamberth has yet to say what sanctions he will impose on either Norton or McCaleb, who is the Bush administration’s highest-ranking American Indian.
The judge previously fined former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and his top Indian affairs aide for contempt in the same case.
In a statement Thursday night, McCaleb cited the toll the lawsuit has taken on him and the department. “Unfortunately, the litigation has taken first priority in too many activities, thus distracting attention from the other important goals that could provide more long-term benefits for Indian Country,” he said. “…In my current position, I have been disappointed to learn that a contentious and litigious environment obscures the hard work that remains before us.”
Dennis Gingold, the Indians’ lawyer in the case, said McCaleb still must answer for his actions.
“He can run, but he can’t hide,” Gingold said. “We are going to pursue him, whatever it takes.”
Government lawyers say Norton and McCaleb inherited a troubled accounting system from the Clinton administration and were making strides to correct past abuses.
McCaleb, a former state highway official in Oklahoma, praised Norton and Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles for their “personal commitment to bring real and and lasting reform in the area of American Indian trust asset management.”
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