by Jim Myers
The Tulsa World
WASHINGTON — The lead plaintiff in a contentious lawsuit over the government’s handling of billions in Indian trust funds urged a key House committee Thursday to demand that federal officials cooperate in reaching a settlement.
Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund in Montana also defended the plaintiffs’ $27.5 billion offer to settle as a bargain for taxpayers.
Cobell told members of the House Resources Committee that the proposal gave the U.S. Department of Interior the benefit of the doubt that it has made 80 percent of the trust fund payments that date to the 19th century.
“Over 500,000 Indians have had their assets mismanaged,” she said, repeating charges made for years that the total of mismanaged funds would dwarf the amounts cited in recent corporate scandals.
Cobell accused federal officials not only of refusing to cooperate in reaching a settlement but also of engaging in efforts to mislead the public about the trust funds.
The only other witness was James Cason, associate deputy secretary of the interior, who was accompanied by Ross Swimmer, a former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma who now is a special trustee for American Indians.
Cason defended the government’s actions in the lawsuit and insisted that federal officials also prefer a settlement over continuing the case.
He called legislation now pending in both houses of Congress the first serious congressional effort for a comprehensive solution in reaching a full, fair and final settlement.
“While many details remain to be negotiated and clarified, the bill represents an important step toward seeking closure on this matter,” Cason said, repeating the government’s stance that the claims made by the plaintiffs are unreasonable.
In answering questions, he attempted to shift the blame for the controversy back to Congress by saying that lawmakers for decades failed to provide his agency with adequate direction on how the trust funds should be handled.
That triggered a pointed remark from Rep. Thelma Drake, R-Va., a freshman member who first asked how the federal government ever ended up with such a problem.
Drake then suggested to Cason that even without more direction from Congress, his agency should have known how to act with other people’s money.
She went on to question him about why, if his agency disagreed with the claims by Cobell and her fellow plaintiffs — which started out at $176 billion — it was not able to come up with its own explanation.
A historical accounting of the trust funds continues, but Cason pointed out during his testimony that his agency still cannot say how much more accounting needs to be done before claims can be settled.
After hearing both sides rehash the well-known arguments, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the chairman of the committee, said the case has dragged on too long.
Pombo, the author of one of the bills now pending before Congress, also indicated that Thursday’s hearing would be his last.
He had said earlier that continuing the lawsuit, in which acrimony has taken on almost legendary proportions, poses risks for both sides.
“I don’t wish to dwell on the judicial combat because it doesn’t advance the goal of writing a legislative settlement that is full, fair and equitable,” Pombo said.
That would suggest that he is ready to push on with legislation, but, as it stands now, his bill is nothing more than a place holder.
Blank spaces remain in its provisions dealing with settlement figures.
Neither Pombo nor his staff could say how he planned to come up with the numbers needed to fill in those gaps. That is still in progress, an aide said.
Jim Myers (202) 484-1424
jim.myers£tulsaworld.com
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