Judge Rules Tribes Can Sue For Missing Funds Suit Affects Hundreds Of Millions Of Mishandled Dollars
In a major victory for Indian tribes, a judge ruled Thursday that Native Americans can collectively sue the federal government for mishandling hundreds of millions of their dollars.
The ruling means that any Indian owed money by the government for past land and natural resource claims automatically is part of a lawsuit already filed at the federal court here.
Indian attorneys estimate as many as 300,000 people now are included in the suit, which makes it the largest class action brought by Native Americans against the government. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth also ruled that the descendants of Indians who had claims can join the lawsuit.
“This is monumental for us,” said Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, the lead plaintiff. “This is good news for every Indian and all our ancestors who now can be represented.”
“We share all of the concerns that exist in the lawsuit, and we’re certainly watching this with interest,” said Steve Suagee, an attorney for the Colville Confederated Tribes.
But the tribes are not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, and Suagee said he couldn’t comment on how Thursday’s ruling might affect the Colvilles.
Spokesmen for the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tribes could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit names Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer as defendants.
Stephanie Hanna, an Interior Department spokesperson, said officials there were not happy with the ruling.
“We oppose this action,” said Hanna. “But this is one step in a long series of steps and the judge … could choose to revisit it if his decision does not make sense down the road.”
Cobell filed her lawsuit last June, saying she was fed up with the way the Bureau of Indian Affairs has handled tribal trust funds - accounts set up decades ago to manage government royalties to Indians for such things as mineral and timber rights and land sales on reservations.
Although the government managed the funds, Indians could make withdrawals at any time. But several studies have shown that the Indians’ money has been so poorly managed, officials don’t know how much is there.
Independent auditors have found that the BIA cannot account for $2.4 billion that is supposed to be in Indian trust funds.
“Our people have been cheated out of their money,” said Cobell, a board member of the primarily Indian-owned Blackfeet National Bank in northwestern Montana. “I decided to do something about it.”
The money isn’t necessarily missing. Rather, auditors are having difficulty tracking which tribes and Indians were paid, and how much.
Indians and their lawyers liken the problems to a bank’s being unable to produce canceled checks or deposit slips to back up its statements.
“If it were anybody else managing someone’s money, they would be in jail,” said Cobell. “It’s a crime.”
The bureau is responsible for 2,000 tribal trust accounts totaling $2 billion and 300,000 individual accounts totaling more than $450 million, government documents say. The largest single account, valued at $400 million, belongs to the Sioux nation, which lost its lucrative Black Hills in South Dakota to the United States.
Indians claim those figures should be much higher, perhaps closer to $10 billion.
Government officials acknowledge mismanaging Indians’ money, but say they are working to correct the mistakes.
In a recent report to Congress, the Interior Department said it was considering several options for settling tribal claims and avoiding lawsuits.
One plan would require the government to distribute a total of $300 million to tribes across the country and put another $300,000 in a federal development bank to help Indians develop their own businesses.
xxxx FOR MORE INFORMATION More information on the suit is available from the Native American Rights Fund, 303-447-8760.