Judge rules U.S. government mismanaged Native American money, urges settlement
Quaker lobby applauds Judge James Robertson’s ruling in Indian trust lawsuit
For immediate release - February 1, 2008
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Interior Department has not adequately fulfilled its responsibility to Native Americans whose assets are controlled by the United States government. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) commends Federal District Judge James Robertson for his decision in Cobell v. Kempthorne, the 12-year-old class action lawsuit over accounting due to individuals whose money the government has lost through mismanagement.
“A remedy must be found for the Department’s unrepaired, and irreparable, breach of its fiduciary duty over the last century,” Judge Robertson stated. He also called on Congress to adequately fund a settlement between the Interior Department and the plaintiffs.
Congress previously discussed a settlement offer of $8 billion as part of an Indian trust reform package in the fall of 2006, but that number fell far short of the $27.4 billion sought by the plaintiffs.
Wednesday’s ruling states that thousands of Indian landowners received neither adequate nor prompt accounting for profits from 11 million acres of their lands managed by the U.S. since 1887, when the U.S. government took control of these Native Americans’ property rights. Continued inaction has meant that many elderly Indians have died without receiving any money and that today’s Indian children could have to contend with a never-ending dispute.
“We urge Congress to provide full restitution to individual Indians who have been unjustly deprived of the revenue due to them from use of their land. This could bring hope to a people who feel that few promises have been honored,” stated Joe Volk, Executive Secretary of FCNL. FCNL has closely monitored the Cobell lawsuit and its moral implications about public responsibility to Native Americans.
Read more about the ruling at Indianz.com.
For more information on the Cobell lawsuit, see our website.
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The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
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