News from Indian Country
Page 9
Spilyay Tymoo
July 20, 2006
■ ■ ¡B
Judge removed from Indian trust case
W ashington (AP)— Federal
Judge Royce Lamberth has long
been known for speaking his
mind— most notably in rulings
siding with American Indians in
their batde with the government
over their trust funds.
But Lam berth went a step
too far, an appeals court said
Tuesday, citing one particularly
harsh decision last July in which
he accused the government of
racism.
In a rare move, a panel of
judges from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Co
lu m b ia
C ircu it
o rd ered
Lam berth rem oved from the
10-year-old Indian trust case,
saying he had lost his objectiv
ity.
“We conclude, reluctantly,
that this is one o f those rare
cases in which reassignment is
necessary,” the judges wrote in
a decision reversing two other
Lamberth rulings.
When he lambasted the Inte
rior Department in a decision
last July, the government peti
tioned to remove him from the
case, arguing he was too biased
to continue.
The department, Lamberth
wrote in the opinion, “is a dino
saur— the morally and culturally
oblivious hand-me-down o f a
disgracefully racist and imperi
alist governm ent that should
have been buried a century ago.”
Writing for the three-judge
panel, Circuit Judge David Tatel
said Lamberth was understand
ably frustrated. But the July de
cision— combined with eight
rulings the court said were evi
dence o f bias—went too far,
Tatel wrote.
Lamberth did not immedi
ately return a call to his office
for comment.
Led by B lack feet Ind ian
Elouise Cobell, the plaintiffs
claim the government has mis
managed oil, gas, timber and
other royalties from their lands
since 1887 costing them tens of
billions of dollars.
Her lawsuit was filed in June
1996 and w as assign ed to
Navajo tribe handling
own business site leasing
Albuquerque (AP)—The Na
vajo Nation now is able to sign
off on business leases without
Bureau of Indian Affairs review.
The N avajo N ation is no
longer required to seek final
approval from the BIA to de
velop its land or have the fed
eral governm ent conduct ap
praisals on tribal land, accord
ing to documents signed Tues
day by N avajo President Joe
Shirley Jr. and Interior Depart
ment officials in Washington,
D.C.
“This is the first time a Na
tive American Nation, in this
case the N avajo N ation, has
been given the wherewithal to
sign off on business site leases
w itho ut having to take it to
Washington, to the Department
of Interior, for their signature,”
Shirley said in a news release.
The change came nearly a
year after the Interior Depart
ment conducted a legal review
of the tribe’s business site leas
ing process.
T he N avajo N atio n p ro
cessed business applications, but
the BIA had been responsible
for conducting land appraisals
to determ ine the am ount of
rent a p ro sp ective business
would pay to the Navajo Nation.
“With these new regulations,
it puts the decisions in the hands
of Navajo on what needs to be
done, w h at d o cu m en tatio n
needs to be filed, and it’s all gov
erned by N avajo law ,” said
Darren Pete, legislative associa
tion for the N avajo N ation
Washington office. “It is one of
the truest forms of Navajo sov
ereignty in history.”
The Navajo Economic De-
velopment Committee has ap
proved 31 business, but approval
on their land appraisals had been
held up by as long as four years,
Shirley said.
“The red tape, the bureau
cracy, at trying to get at busi
ness site leasing is just atro
cious,” Shirley said. “Getting the
BIA out of the loop will go a
long ways toward streamlining,
getting at business site leases
faster. Hopefully, it w ill mean
getting a business site lease any
where from 60 to 90 days.”
The revisions also give chap
ter governments with certified
land use plans the authority to
is su e b u s in e ss site le a se s.
Shirley said it is an opportu
nity for local governments to
identify land and to plan for
economic growth .
Indian youths get a glimpse of college life
Lincoln, Neb. (AP)— Back
home, she’s the A student, a
“younger mother” to her four
little sisters and her mom’s hero.
B u t th o u g h she d o e s n ’t
know w hat she w ants to be
when she grows up, it’s never
b een a q u e stio n o f if b u t,
rather, where Patricia Daniels
w ill go to college.
“Ever since my mom got her
degree, 1 wanted to go to col
lege,” said the 12-year-old from
Winnebago. “My mom wants me
to be a doctor, but I don’t want
to go to school that long.”
A visit this week to the Uni
v ersity o f N ebraska-L incoln
campus, she said, has strength
ened her resolve to further her
education even more.
As a participant in the fifth
annual Circle of Nations Youth
C o n feren ce, P atricia jo in ed
about 140 students representing
the Omaha, Santee, Ponca and
Winnebago tribes.
Each has its own youth coun
cil, which decides who to send
to the conference based on lead
ership and academic standing.
The conference is designed
to unite Indian youths while
giving them a glimpse o f col
lege life.
“I think it’s helping them re
alize what’s beyond the reserva
tio n ,” said E lizab eth B ayer,
youth council sponsor for the
Winnebago. “And it’s good for
them to create friendships with
kids from neighboring tribes.”
Patricia said she has been
taking advantage o f opportu
nities at the conference and
gettin g to know Indian stu
dents such as herself.
The three-day conference is
co-sponsored by the Nebraska
Children and Families Founda
tion and UNL. Participants at
tend workshops and listen to
speakers who encourage leader
ship and send out the message
that they, too, can pursue higher
education.
This is the first time the con
ference has been held at the
UNL campus. “We would love
them to come back,” said Am
ber Hunter, senior assistant di
rector of admissions at UNL.
Tribe names Abramoff,
Reed in civil suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - A Texas
Indian tribe filed a federal civil suit Wednes
day alleging that ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed
and their associates engaged in fraud and rack
eteering to shut down the tribe’s casino.
T he A lab am a-C o u sh atta trib e o f
Livingston, Texas, alleged the defendants de
frauded the tribe, the people of Texas and
the L e g islatu re to b en efit an o th er o f
Abram off’s clients — the Louisiana Coushatta
tribe — and “line their pockets with money.”
“Ultimately, the defendants’ greed and cor
ruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe
permanently shutting its casino.
The funding for economic programs evapo
rated, over 300 jobs were lost in Polk County
and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe has spent years
struggling to recover and revitalize its economy
through other means,” the tribe said in its law
suit, obtained by The Associated Press.
The lawsuit also names Abramoff’s ex-busi-
ness partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide
to former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; Neil
Volz, a former aide to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio;
and Jon Van Horne, Abram off’s former col
league at his law and lobbying firm, Greenberg
Traurig.
A lthough the tribe alleges G reenberg
Traurig was part o f the scheme, it did not
name the firm as a defendant. Attorney Fred
Petti said the tribe is in settlement discussions
with the firm.
The tribe did not specify how much it was
seeking, but asked for triple damages.
Abramoff, Scanlon and Volz have pleaded
guilty in a public corruption probe involving
Abram off’s former tribal clients and possibly
m em bers o f C o n gress. T he A labam a-
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Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.,
said the tribe hasn’t been treated
fairly.
Federal officials said it could
take four years to review a
Lumbee petition for recognition.
Although Dole was pushing
for legislation to give federal sta
tus to the Lumbees, officials of
the Eastern Band of the Chero
kee said the tribe should take
the traditional recognition route
through the Bureau o f Indian
Affairs.
The process is “undermined
w hen p o litics and em otion,
rather than facts about tribal
identity, drive the federal recog
n itio n d e c isio n ,” te stifie d
M ichell Hicks, principal chief
o f the E astern Band o f the
Cherokee.
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Lumbee officials testify to congressional hearing
century and if it is won will get
an estimated $77 million in an
nual federal aid.
C o ngress ap p ro ved the
Lumbee Act in 1956 that said
the tribe was American Indian
but left out the benefits.
“It’s time for all this to end
and for Congress to complete
what it started in 1956,” Goins
said.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.
told the panel that Lumbees are
the only American tribe hemmed
in by actions of a previous Con
gress. Dole filed the Lumbee Ac
knowledgment Bill last spring.
“Their legitimacy has been
established time and time again,”
Dole said. “... There is no need
to w aste the trib e ’s or the
government’s time and money
again.”
Coushatta never hired Abramoff.
The Alabama-Coushatta’s casino, on its res
ervation north o f Houston, was closed in
2002 by a federal court ruling in a 1999 law
suit filed by the state’s then attorney general,
John Cornyn, now a U.S. senator.
The Alabam a-Coushatta said Abramoff
and others conspired to defeat a bill in the
2001 Legislature that would have allowed it
to operate gaming on its reservation. Reed
helped to rally Christians against the bill with
a group he formed, Committee Against Gam
bling, the tribe alleged. The tribe, which says
it has strong Christian values, alleges Reed’s
group called state legislators, sent targeted
mailings to voters and ran radio ads against
the bill without revealing their true origins,
preventing the tribe from fighting back.
Reed’s work made the opposition to the
tribe’s casino appear to be based on Christian
concerns, not competitive concerns from its
sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said.
Had the public or tribe known the Louisi
ana Coushatta tribe was the main opponent,
Christian groups would have been “less mo
bilized.” Because the Texas and Louisiana
tribes share family ties, Louisiana Coushatta
members would have opposed the attack on
their sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said.
“They pitted Christian against Christian,
tribe against tribe and cousin against cousin,”
the tribe said. The tribe also alleges that
Abramoff fraudulently bilked it of $50,000
and used it to “bribe” Ney with a golfing trip
to Scotland in exchange for “fixing” its gam
ing problem. In his guilty plea, Abramoff said
Ney accepted the trip knowing the tribal cli
ents paid for the trip. Ney has repeatedly said
he is innocent o f wrongdoing.
Keep the K id s b u s y
25
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP)
— L um bee trib a l ch airm an
Jimmy Goins told a congres
sional hearing on tribal recogni
tion that the North Carolina tribe
knows its roots but outsiders still
question them.
• “They don’t know us. They
have never been in our commu
nity and yet they dispute every
congressional and federal legis
lation,” Goins said Wednesday.
“We w ill match the strength
o f our history and community
against any other Indian tribe.
We are, in fa c t, an In d ia n
tribe.”
Goins testified before the
Senate Com m ittee on Indian
Affairs as the tribe sought fed
eral recognition.
Lumbees have been seeking
federal status for more than a
She added: “With any new judge,
we will continue to prevail.”
Congress may ultimately de
cide the case, however.
The plaintiffs have offered to
settle, and are working with Sen
ate Indian Affairs Committee
C hairm an Jo h n M cC ain, R-
A riz ., to com e up w ith an
amount. .
joining Tatel in the ruling
w ere C ircu it Ju d g e Ja n ic e
Rogers Brown, appointed by
President George W Bush, and
Senior Circuit Judge Laurence
H. Silberm an, appointed by
President Ronald Reagan. Tatel
was appointed by President Bill
Clinton.
L aw yers fam iliar w ith
Lamberth say he is known for
holding the governm ent to a
high standard, a principle he
developed in the U.S. Attorney’s
office and later as a judge over
seeing wiretap warrants for the
U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveil
lance Court.
But they also said he had be
come very invested in the Indi
ans’ case.
Tatel wrote that the appellate
ruling “presents an opportunity
for a fresh start” and urged both
sides to work on a solution.
Interior officials said they look
forward to moving on.
But Cobell said the plaintiffs
will appeal part of the decision.
L am b erth , a co n serv ativ e
Reagan appointee from Texas.
Over the past decade, Lamberth
has surprised many with his se
vere rulings accusing the gov
ernment of malfeasance and in
competence in its dealings with
Indians.
The case has bounced be
tween the district and appeals
courts. Lamberth has held inte
rior secretaries Gale Norton and
Bruce Babbitt in contempt and
twice ordered the Interior De
partment to disconnect its com
puters.
Many of his decisions have
been overturned by the appeals
court, including the contempt
charge against Norton.
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