Siletz news /, November 01, 2011, Page 11, Image 11

Robert Lee John -1938-2011 -------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Lee John, 73, of Salem, Ore.,
died Sept. 30 in Sublimity, Ore.
He was bom Sept. 29, 1938, to Clark
and Eva John at Chemawa Indian School
in Salem.
He was a member of the Confederated
Tribes of Siletz Indians.
He attended Lane College in Califor­
nia and married Nora Kinion on June 29,
1957, in Newport, Ore. He worked as a
diesel auto mechanic.
He served in the U.S. Army, receiv­
ing an honorable discharge as a PFC-E3
at Fort Knox, Ky.
He is survived by his daughters, Julie
John and Deanna Rodiger; son, Robert
(Pam) John Jr. of Stayton, Ore.; brothers,
Leroy John and Ronald John of Salem,
Lindsey John of Redmond, Ore., and David
John of Lapine, Ore.; sisters, Elizabeth
John and Gylene Jones of Siletz, Ore., and
Josephine Gonzales of Salem; four grand­
children; and three great-grandchildren.
At the request of the family, no ser­
vice will be held. An online memorial
book is available at weddle-funeral.com.
Weddle Funeral Service in Stay ton is
handling arrangements.
Elouise Cobell - 1945-2011 ---------------------------------------
Elouise Cobell, an enrolled member
of Montana’s Blackfeet Tribe who led a
16-year landmark legal fight to get the
federal government to pay an estimated
500,000 American Indians for misman­
aging their trust accounts, died Oct. 16
at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, Mont.
A great-granddaughter of Mountain
Chief, one of the legendary Indian leaders
of the West, she had been diagnosed with
cancer weeks before her class-action law­
suit was given final approval by a federal
district judge in Washington on June 20.
Bom on the Blackfeet Reservation
on Nov. 5, 1945, with the Indian name
Yellow Bird Woman, Cobell was one of
eight children.
Her survivors include her husband,
Alvin Cobell of Blacktail, Mont.; a son,
Turk Cobell and his wife, Bobbie, of
Las Vegas; two grandchildren, Olivia,
and Gabriella; a brother, Dale Pepion of
Browning, Mont.; and three sisters, Julene
Kennedy and Karen Powell of Browning
and Joy Ketah of Seattle.
In 1996, Cobell and four other
American Indians filed a lawsuit against
the federal government demanding that
the government give American Indians
an accounting of billions of dollars it
received for oil and gas leases and other
uses of individual Indian lands held in
trust by the United States.
After a long, tenacious fight, the
Obama administration agreed to settle the
lawsuit in December 2009, creating a $3.4
billion fund to, among other things, make
payments to individual Indian money
account holders. This was the largest
class-action settlement with the govern­
ment in American history.
After finding government records of
the Indian accounts inadequate to sup­
port an accounting of all items of the
Individual Indian Trust, a federal judge
declared the Indians could never receive
a full accounting of their funds and other
trust assets. He then urged the parties to
engage in direct negotiations at the high­
est levels, negotiations that led to the
historic settlement.
The settlement was ratified by both
Houses of Congress and approved by
the president of the United States. It then
went back to the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia for final approval
and judgment, which was entered on
Aug. 4, 2011.
Cobell served as lead plaintiff in the
lawsuit and tirelessly led the effort from
Browning, quietly raising millions of dol­
lars for expert witnesses and other major
costs associated with the litigation. In part,
Cobell used funds from her own 1997
Genius Grant from the John D. and Cath­
erine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Fellows
program to fund the cost of the lawsuit.
In memory of Elouise Cobell
By Forrest J. Gerard, former Assistant
Secretary - Indian Affairs and member
of the Blackfeet Tribe
The Cobell family, the Blackfeet
Tribe and Indian Country have lost a
tireless and intelligent leader whose per­
severance contributed to the $3.4 billion
congressional settlement of Cobell v.
Salazar. Her non-monetary contributions
are immeasurable.
When Cobell v. Salazar reached the
political congressional arena, Elouise
adroitly recognized the political axiom
that “politics is the art of compromise.”
And while many affected Indians consid­
ered the so-called settlement as a mere
pittance for the government’s mismanage­
ment of their land asset, Elouise recog­
nized that if the affected Indians were to
receive any settlement at all, it would be
necessary to accept a compromise award.
She displayed mature leadership
under these circumstances and fought
hard for the compromise settlement. She
fully understood that the compromise
settlement would be controversial. She
soldiered on as a leader, however, and
traveled extensively in Indian Country
to meet with the affected parties to try
and help them understand why the actual
settlement did not reach the level of what
they believed would be fair.
Later she spent long arduous hours
lobbying members of both the House of
Representatives and the Senate to support
the compromise settlement and enact
appropriate legislation to make it the law
of the land. Her efforts ultimately led to
the enactment of Public Law 111-291.
Elouise’s roots were solidly in the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where she
was bom and raised. Early on, she brought
accounting and business expertise to work
for the Tribal governing body where she
observed firsthand the federal govern­
ment’s failure to uphold its trust respon­
sibility owing to the Indians who called
for the protection of their land assets and
to secure appropriate compensation when
these valuable land assets were utilized by
other parties.
It was this knowledge that influenced
Elouise to assume the leadership role she
took on in an effort to correct these wrong­
doings and bring an acceptable level of
justice to Indian people.
Her family shared the many sacrifices
made by Elouise in pursuit of justice for
Indian Country. The entire family also
should share our collective gratitude for
her undeniable determination to correct
the historical financial wrongs that were
inflicted on many American Indians.
In 2005, she received a Cultural
Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan
Foundation, an award that cited her per­
sistence in bringing to light the “more
than a century of government malfeasance
and dishonesty” with the government-run
Indian trust.
Two years later, she was one of 10
people given an A ARP Impact Award (for
making the world a better place) and in
2004 the National Center for American
Indian Enterprise Development presented
her with the Jay Silverheels Achievement
Award. This year, she was named Mon­
tana Citizen of the Year by the Montana
Trial Lawyers Association.
In Mexico City, she received the 2002
International Women’s Forum award for
Women Who Make a Difference.
Cobell was one of the founders of the
Native American Bank, based in Denver.
Her professional and civic experience and
expertise includes serving as co-chair of
Native American Bank NA and as a for­
mer trustee of the National Museum of
the American Indian.
She served for 13 years as treasurer for
the Blackfeet Indian Nation in Montana.
She also served as executive director of
the Native American Community Develop­
ment Corp, the bank’s nonprofit affiliate.
With her husband, she operated a
working ranch that produced cattle and
crops. She was active in Montana agricul­
ture and environmental issues, founding
the first land trust in Indian Country. She
also served as a trustee for the Nature
Conservancy of Montana.
She graduated from Great Falls Busi­
ness College and attended Montana State
University, from which she later received
an honorary doctorate. She also has hon­
orary degrees from Rollins College and
Dartmouth College.
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November 2011
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Siletz News
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