by James W. Brosnan
Scripps Howard News Service
The Albuquerque Tribune
WASHINGTON – American Indian leaders are asking Congress to step in and settle the nearly decade-old lawsuit over Indian trust accounts before legal and accounting fees eat up any more federal aid for the reservations.
“The National Congress of American Indians strongly believes that it is time for Congress to move forward with a fair settlement,” Joe Garcia, president of the congress and governor of the Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), told a joint hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Resources Wednesday.
The committee chairmen, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, have a bill to settle the lawsuit but haven’t filled in the dollar amount.
“It’s one of the most daunting challenges we have faced,” said McCain. “But we’ve got to get this thing resolved sooner rather than later.”
A federal judge has repeatedly ruled that the Department of Interior lost track of the funds it received for leases and sales of land it took in trust from individual American Indians, but the two sides disagree widely on the amount of the discrepancy.
Plaintiffs, led by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, want $27.5 billion, but the Interior Department admits to only about $500 million in lost funds and interest.
Stuart Eizenstat, the special Clinton administration envoy who negotiated an $8 billion settlement with European banks for Holocaust survivors, advised McCain and Pombo to “bite the bullet” and pick an arbitrary number.
“There will be no figure that satisfies both sides. You labor with a set of imperfect historical records,” Eizenstat said.
Garcia suggested that as a “framework,” the committees look at the range suggested by a mediator who tried and failed to settle the case in 2004. Depending on the assumed error rate and interest cost, the range could be between $5.6 billion and $9.8 billion, said John Bickerman, the mediator.
“You don’t believe there is going to be a negotiated settlement?” McCain asked.
“Never,” Bickerman replied.
Garcia said accounting for the lost trust funds and legal bills are taking as much as $100 million a year out of federal budgets for Indian health care, housing and other programs.
Earlier this month, interior officials said they would take a $7 million payment to plaintiffs’ attorneys out of the Indian budgets.
“We want Congress to either put a stop to these unreasonable burdens on the tribes or settle the litigation,” Garcia said.
Cobell did not testify at Wednesday’s hearing but afterwards issued a statement saying she appreciated the support of tribal leaders and willingness of the committees to take action.
“It is especially noteworthy that all of the independent people who testified today recognized that liability has been established and any settlement must be in the multiple of billions of dollars,” she said.
Copyright 2006, The Albuquerque Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
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