Native American fund may be reformed

[seemslikeadream]

By Michael Kan and Iris Perez, Daily Staff Reporters
November 10, 2004

More than a century in the making, the largest legal case in Native American history may finally come to a close within the next year.

Although Cobell v. Norton was not filed until 1996, its origins lie in the United States government’s supervision of Indian trust funds dating back to 1887. In that year, the government established the trust to manage Native American land, but it now admits to mismanaging it from its outset by underselling the land and failing to retain documents proving the payments.

..


Brought on by government attempts in the 1880s to remove Native peoples from their land, the trust fund was created to facilitate the dividing of their territory. Under the trust fund, the government would manage the land of the Native Americans and prospective buyers would lease it. The money from the lease would then go back to the Native American owners. Clearly, this has not been the case, Harper said.

...

One huge hurdle still remains though, Harper said.

While Harper expects litigation to finally end around December of this year, the case also has political implications that could reverberate on a national level.

Harper said the result of the ruling would force people using Native American land to compensate for what could possibly amount to at least a total of $10 billion. Yet much of the Native American land has been leased by oil, natural gas and timber companies — for whom the added payments on leases would be a black eye.

...

“I can now imagine what’s pretty much going on in Interior, in which they are not willing to allocate any resources to the Native Americans. … It’s disgustingly short-sighted,” she said.

“I feel this is an important case,” Rackham student Trond Jacksen said. “It brings into question, what kind of people do we want to be? Do we want to be a people of a country that keeps its word, or do we want to be a people of a country that breaks its word?”

more
http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/10/419200599c80d

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. I've been following this for awhile now...

I can't wait to see the outcome. Bush was meddling with this earlier in his term.