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Trust
Fund Win for Native Americans
Native American Indians have had a win in the battle to regain monies
held ‘in trust’ by the United States Government for the last
100 years.
In a precedent-setting opinion, a United States federal appeals court
has affirmed that the US federal government has a legally-enforceable
duty to properly manage and account for Indian trust assets.
The unanimous ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, represents
a major court victory for over 300,000 individual Indians whose trust
funds have been mismanaged by the federal government for over a century.
According to John Echohawk, Executive Director of the Native American
Rights Fund, the decision also represents one of the strongest judicial
affirmations of the United State’s trust responsibility to Native
Americans.
“The historic ruling comes in the landmark class action lawsuit
filed nearly five years ago by the Native American Rights Fund - Cobell
v. Norton (formerly Cobell v. Babbitt).
“The suit alleges that the government breached its fiduciary duties
to individual Indian trust beneficiaries, and seeks a full and accurate
accounting of all funds held in trust by the government on behalf of
individual Indians.
“Following a lengthy trial, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C.
Lamberth ruled on December 21, 1999 that the government has indeed breached
its duties, calling the mismanagement of Indian trust funds “fiscal
and government irresponsibility in its purest form,” he said
In what he characterised as a “stunning victory” for the Indian
plaintiffs, Judge Lamberth affirmed the rights of Indian trust beneficiaries
to an accurate and complete accounting of their funds and retained jurisdiction
over the case for a period of at least five years to ensure that the
government follows through with long-overdue trust fund management reform.
As well, the US government must now allow a judge to supervise its efforts
to resolve problems with a multibillion-dollar system of accounting,
according to the February appeals court ruling.
The Interior and Treasury Departments of the US government must also
give the Indians an accounting of how much money they have lost since
the 19th century to mismanagement, theft and incompetence, the three-judge
panel said.
The ruling is another court victory for Indians seeking more than $10
billion they say the government owes them in proceeds from use of Indian
land.
“This is one of the biggest victories for Native Americans ever,”
said Elouise Cobell,
Ms Cobell is the Blackfeet tribal member who is a leader of the lawsuit
against the government.
She compared it to the Indian rout of Lt. Col. George Custer at Little
Big Horn.
Interior Department spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna said Department officials
were “disappointed with some parts and heartened by some parts
of the decision,” but would not elaborate.
The judges unanimously upheld a 1999 ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce
Lamberth, who called mismanagement of the accounts “fiscal and
governmental irresponsibility in its purest form.”
Lamberth ordered officials to report every three months for five years
on their progress in fixing the accounting system.
The accounts hold proceeds from oil drilling, timber cutting, grazing
andother uses of Indians’ land.
About $500 million passes through the system each year.
All sides agree that the accounts have been mismanaged since they were
created in 1887, with money being lost, stolen, not collected or spent
on other federal programs.
Justice Department lawyers had challenged Lamberth’s ruling, saying
he didn’t have the power to order the government to make specific
reforms or to provide a full accounting of how much money the Indians
should have.
The judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
rejected all the government’s arguments.
Judge David Sentelle, writing for the panel, said that the Interior
and Treasury Departments clearly had violated their duties to the Indians.
Lamberth was correct to oversee reforms because previous efforts had
been “a day late and a dollar short,” Sentelle wrote.
Although Lamberth has the authority to order the Interior Department
to account for how much money should be in the system, he may not have
the power to tell officials how to do the accounting, Sentelle wrote.
Lamberth can keep oversight of reforms for five years but may end his
oversight before that if federal officials show they have corrected
the problems, Sentelle wrote.
Lamberth has not set a date for hearings on the accounting.
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