Missoulian: Native trust lawsuit likely headed back to court – Thursday, March 26

April 8, 2009 in Native Americans, Whispers Like Thunder
Tags: Jodi Rave Native American Dennis Gingold Keith Harper Elouise Cobell Whispers Like Thunder Interior Department Bureau of Indian Affairs Secretary Ken Salazar

The Barack Obama administration has the challenge of transforming many of the wasteful, out right lying and stealing ways by decades of politicians before him.  Our policies with Cuba are one example. Another major abuse has been the treatment and stealing from Native American Tribes.  Only God and the Spirits that Be – can apply the wrath of self moral judgement  on the people, the humans who hide behind the name “the government” to steal, and destroy from thier fellow men, women and children.  ”The government” has not given Native Americans one accounting report in over 100 years for the land treaties we made with them as a new nation on their preexisting home.  

The drive to restore human integrity on a mass level is what drives me to make a film like Whispers Like Thunder. The story of three Native American sisters who fought “the government” when it tried to sell their ancestors cemetry to a real estate developor. The sisters fought with guns, axes and the law for 67 years.  Learn more at www.WhispersLikeThunder.com

Read the story below to learn more about the current legal case (Elouise Cobell vs. U.S.A.) to restore integrity with our U.S. treatees with Native Americans.

Express Yourself. Use your voice. Release your Moro Reflex.

Luis Moro

Native trust lawsuit likely headed back to court – Thursday, March 26
By JODI RAVE of the Missoulian

Native advocates who believed President Barack Obama would settle a long-standing lawsuit between the Interior Department and Native landholders say they’re disappointed with the new administration.

Instead, Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have expressed a need to settle the Cobell v. Salazar case in court rather than sit down and talk to Native landowners and negotiate a settlement.

“Salazar’s out there talking, saying he wants to settle this case and putting false hopes into Indian people,” said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the case.

“It’s really a slam in the face,” she said. “Why is this administration taking this avenue? They have to live up to their trust responsibility and they need to talk to Indian people.”

Dennis Gingold, lead attorney in the 12-year-old case, pointed out Wednesday that Salazar is a trustee. “And he can’t sit down and talk to the trust beneficiaries?” Gingold asked.

Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said the department could not comment because the case is in litigation. Salazar, Barkoff said, “is sincere in trying to find a resolution to this case.”

Lawyers for the Interior Department as well as lawyers for Native landholders both filed successful appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals immediately after a federal judge in August awarded a $455 million settlement regarding the department’s mismanagement of the tribal trust fund system.

Cobell, who is from the Blackfeet Reservation, expressed disappointment with Salazar’s decision to talk of settlement only after the case is heard in the Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 11 in Washington, D.C.

“People in Indian Country are expecting a settlement,” Cobell said. “For him to say he can’t work on a settlement until the Court of Appeals rules, well, the opportunity is now. Now is the time he needs to pull the forces and powers together.”

The Interior Department oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Special Trustee, two agencies with significant oversight of Native issues. The department has been responsible for collecting and distributing money earned from natural resources on 11 million acres of land owned by Native individuals. The department’s trust responsibility to Native landowners dates back to 1887.

Salazar initially provided hope about settling the lawsuit at a National Congress of American Indians gathering, said Cobell.

She said the Interior Department, as well as the Office of Management Budget and the Justice Department, all need to work to settle the case. “Certainly the Obama administration can call Justice and say, ‘Lay off. Pull off the dogs. We’re going to stop this litigation.’ ”

Cobell said she and her lawyers had better luck negotiating with the Bush administration than with Obama.

Interior Department lawyers argue that the government does not owe Native landowners any money for mismanagement of Indian land held in trust by the department. Cobell lawyers once argued that upward of $170 billion was missing or misplaced from the Individual Indian Money accounts.

Gingold criticized Salazar’s lack of experience in land management, noting the failure of his other Colorado predecessors, James Watt and Gale Norton. Both saw their tenure as Interior secretary marked by controversy.

“It seems every time there’s an appointment from Colorado, it’s a lifetime of oxygen deprivation,” Gingold said. “Let me be fair. It’s not reasonable to expect something from someone who has no substantive knowledge on any of the issues. Remember he was a United States senator and prior to that an attorney general.

“In neither one of those jobs did he have any substantive responsibilities. He was a very effective politician who was elected. And his career has been running for office.”

Reporter Jodi Rave can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net. Or read her blog at www.buffalopost.net.

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/08/jodirave/rave60.txt