Tribes back compromise over trust land royalties

The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians says it’s time to settle a 10-year stalemate over missing royalties from Indian trust lands.

The organization, which represents 54 tribes, held a meeting in Spokane Valley this week. On the agenda: support for compromise legislation that would pay out a settlement, strengthen tribal sovereignty, and bring an end to Cobell v. Norton.

In 1996, a Blackfoot woman named Elouise Cobell sued the Department of the Interior over mishandled revenues from Indian trust lands. Cobell v. Norton became a class-action filed on behalf of an estimated 500,000 Indians, alleging that Native American families were denied billions of dollars in royalties over the past century.

Harvey Moses Jr., chairman of the Colville Business Council, said the Affiliated Tribes is lobbying in support of bills proposed by Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. Native coalitions in the Great Plains and the Southeast also support a resolution to the suit, Moses said.

The bills don’t name a figure, but Indian groups have proposed $27.5 billion.

“We’re looking for a fair amount,” Moses said.

In the late 1800s, the U.S. government began breaking up reservations into parcels for individual ownership by Indians. The federal government acted as the trustee for more than 10 million acres. Royalties from commercial activities on the land – such as logging, grazing, mining, or oil drilling – were supposed to be paid to the Indian landowners.

Cobell v. Norton accuses the government of severely mismanaging the accounts for a century. Both the tribes and the U.S. government agree that the bookkeeping was inadequate, but differ over how much in royalty payments ended up unaccounted for.

Moses said Cobell v. Norton’s fallout is affecting the tribes’ ability to perform government functions.

The Colville Business Council has $2.5 million earmarked for land purchases from non-Indian owners on the Colville Reservation, including 46,000 acres of timberland that Boise Cascade wants to sell. But Moses said the litigation has made it difficult for tribes to acquire land and get it approved for “trust” status.

Trust land owned by the tribe is not subject to state or county taxes.