Judge shut down computer system due to hacker fears
by Deborah Frazier
Rocky Mountain News, Denver
A Bureau of Indian Affairs manager for a Colorado tribe said a federal judge’s order to shut down a computer system could stop payments to tribal members.
Priscella Bancroft, superintendent for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, made the comments this week.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the shutdown Oct. 20 because the federal computer system that makes payments to Indians from a trust account isn’t secure from hackers.
Lamberth’s ruling came in an ongoing 1996 lawsuit against the Interior Department for mismanaging more than $100 billion in trust payments since 1887.
The payments go to individual Indian owners of land that was leased out for oil and gas development, coal mining, farming, ranching and other uses.
Bancroft made the comments although the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the payments made with added computer security precautions.
Bancroft was not available for comment Thursday.
Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray said her comments weren’t intended as a threat, but as speculation about the potential catastrophic impacts.
He said Bancroft’s statements reflect an Interior Department statement issued after Lamberth’s order that warned about adverse impacts on American Indians.
“The issue is moot because the appeals court imposed the stay,” he said.
Peter Ortego, general counsel for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, said Lamberth’s order would have made it difficult for tribal members to receive payments.
“But if the judge feels the computer system is not secure, that causes us concerns too,” said Ortego.
Elouise Cobell, the Blackfoot tribal member, who filed the suit with the Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund, said Bancroft’s comments were a threat.
“Once again, we have an explicit statement by a BIA official that says to the members of this tribe: ‘We’re going to hold your money hostage,’ ” said Cobell.
More than 500,000 Indians rely on the rental payments, which total more than $200 million a year, she said.
Cobell said Lamberth specifically directed Interior to continue making the trust account payments.
“The BIA is once again getting ready to retaliate against some of the poorest people in America by withholding their desperately needed trust funds,” Cobell said.
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