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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2010)
News from Incji^n Country $33M settlement proposed in Navajo trust fund lawsuit By Paul Foy Associated Press Writer 'SALT LAKE CITY— When auditors looked at an oil-and-gas royalty trust set up by Congress to benefit Utah’s Navajo Indi ans, they found $50 million had disappeared or was squandered on bribes, bad business deals and payoffs. Now, 18 years later, Utah’s attorney general has agreed to settle a lawsuit over the damage for $33 m illion in taxpayer money, echoing the federal government’s recent decision to settle a much bigger case over Indian trust funds nationwide. The Utah lawsuit accused the state of failing to ensure royal ties, paid by U.S. oil companies, were properly spent, although two Navajo investment groups “were the real culprits,” said Brian Barnard, lead attorney for the Navajos’ class-action lawsuit. T h o se gro u p s, w hich no longer exist, loaned money to their own board members and to a New Mexico garment fac tory that never opened. They also underwrote a Lake Powell marina that was swept away by a flood; it was built on a known flood plain. “I think it’s to everyone’s ben efit to make this work,” assis tant Attorney General Philip Lott said. The settlement awaits ap proval by a federal judge and Utah Legislature, which would make four years o f payments to settle the case. Lott said the case has cost the state millions of dollars to de fend and could have cost mil lions more if it had gone to trial. The state never had proper records, ac counting fo r the money, Barnard said. In 1991, the year before the law suit was filed, the U tah Legislature’s auditor general re ported suspected self-dealing and mismanagement by trust fund officials. Federal criminal indictments fallowed, alleging bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and misuse o f tribal funds against seven Navajo Nation leaders in Ari zona. Utah was accused of failing in its duty as the trust’s fiduciary — a role it never wanted and is trying to shed. It is asking Congress to ap point another trustee — the N a vajo Nation or one of its cor porations. For years, Utah has refused to appropriate any but the most essential trust funds. Utah was supposed to ensure the money was spent on reser vation roads, health care and “tuition of Indian children at white schools,” according to a federal statute. “This agreement is in the best interest of the citizens of Utah,” A tto rn ey G eneral M ark Shurtleff said in a statement. “It will bring money to the most im poverished area o f our state.” Many on the Navajo reser vation have no running water or electricity, and unemployment runs up to 50 percent. The idea of setting aside the state’s share o f oil and gas roy alties for the Indians surfaced when Congress decided to ex pand the Navajo Reservation from New Mexico and Arizona into southeastern Utah, where a number o f Navajo clans fled when Kit Carson marched the tribe into New Mexico in 1865. Congress made it law in 1933. But it wasn’t until oil and gas companies started drilling in the Aneth oil field about 30 years later that Utah Navajos started receiving a 37.5 percent royalty. The remaining 62.5 percent goes to the tribe, headquartered at Window Rock, Ariz. Page 7 Spilyay Tymoo January 13, 2010 Woman’s battle long and costly By Travis Coleman Great Falls Tribune G R E A T FALLS, M ont. (AP) — Elouise Cobell grew up hearing stories o f Native Americans traveling dozens of miles by wagon through waist- high snow in hopes o f collect ing payment for development by others on their land. Cobell, 64, recalls th a t people on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation would wait outside the Old Agency for hours, only to be told that no payments would be issued and to come back the next day. The checks — sometimes for $1— would arrive months later and some times not at all. T hese stories affected Cobell at a young age and pro vided inspiration through her 13-year lawsuit against the fed eral government, which ended with a historic $3.4 billion setde- ment last month. “When individual Indians w ent to collect money, they w ere trea ted su b h u m an ,” Cobell said in a recent interview. “That’s what drove me. I could not tolerate that.” Cobell’s rise from poverty to becoming the face o f Indian tru st reform has been well- documented, making her some thing o f a folk hero on the Blackfeet Reservation — .and in Indian Country. Cobell learned about perse verance early on, growing up as the third youngest among eight children on an isolated patch o f land on the south end o f the reservation in the 1950s. They lived a poor life with no running water or telephone, but her parents taught the chil dren to reach out and care for others. She rem em bers her mother telling her, “I expect to raise strong daughters.” “Everyone lived simple, the basics o f life. You had nothing extra,” Cobell said. “W hen I look back, we didn’t have what everybody else had, b u t we didn’t know it.” There were crises, such as a car wreck that left her brother “We knew we were right, and they were wrong. I never put that out of my mind every time I came to the table. The right has got to win.” —Elouise Cobell a quadriplegic. But the family’s philosophy kept them together —- d o n ’t feel sorry for yourself and keep going. Her brother went on to become a painter and other family members at tended college. Cobell’s parents established a one-room school for their children and neighbors to learn in. Cobell soon began dream ing o f a world outside the res ervation, to one day wear the fancy clothes she saw in weeks- old editions o f the Sunday New York Times that were delivered to the school. “I th ought ‘one o f these days, I ’m going to be outta here,”’ Cobell said. G obell g rad u ated from Valier High School and attended business college in Great Falls. After a stint in Seattle, she met her husband and returned to the B lackfeet R eservation, eventually becoming the tribe’s treasurer in 1976. She then began hearing those same stories about tribal mem bers not receiving royalties for the oil, gas, grazing, mining and other development happening on their properties, which were held in trust by the U.S. gov ernment. T he agreem ent betw een tribes and the federal govern ment was that the government would handle the leasing of millions o f acres o f Indian- owned land and then disperse the generated revenue to the owners. Cobell fo und the government’s records for tribal trust accounts were in shambles, making it hard to track how much was owed. She tried to get answers from the federal gov ernment to questions asked by tribal members but didn’t get any response. “We were treated like nobod ies, even though it was our own money. The people were treated terrible,” Cobell said. She added she initially didn’t want to sue the federal govern ment; she just wanted to fix its trust accounting systems. How ever, at that time government bureaucrats had a habit o f ig noring and demeaning those who asked about trust account ability, according to Cobell. And she wasn’t the only tribal trea surer who had questions. “I just got tired o f it. The only way I was going to make sense o f it was to sue ‘em,” Cobell said. A legislative attempt to spur tru st management reform in 1994 failed because o f a lack of funding. There also was no money to put up a legal fight against the government. Cobell soon m et attorney D ennis Gingold, who was a banking attorney based in Wash ington, D.C.. Gingold was sup portive from the outset. “(Gingold) gave up his entire practice to work on this because he thought it was the right thing to do,” Cobell said. “He thought the same way I did. It’s not an Indian issue; it’s a banking issue.” There also was help from the Native American Rights Fund, along w ith atto rn ey K eith H arper and others from the firm Kilpatrick Stockton LLP. Along the way, Cobell would win cash awards and grants that she used to pay the attorneys. What would be later referred to as “the Cobell lawsuit” was filed in 1996. Cobell was one of five lead plaintiffs from tribes across the nation. The other plaintiffs would come to hear* ings when they could, but Cobell soon became the face o f the case. The plaintiffs sued the Bu reau o f Indian Affairs, saying the U.S. government failed to properly manage Indian trust as sets. The hope was that the gov ernment would fix its account ing system and pay back-royal ties to Native American land holders. The plaintiffs represented present and past Indian trust beneficiaries, including more than 300,000 current Individual Indian Money account holders. Restitution would be in the tens o f billions o f dollars, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said then. The odds were against the small legal team, w hich was dwarfed by the rows o f attor neys representing the govern ment during the hearings, Cobell said. But she remained confident. “We knew we were right, and they were wrong. I never put that out o f my mind every time I came to the table. The right has got to win,” Cobell said. There were big early victo ries, such as when a federal judge ruled that two cabinet-level sec retaries were in contem pt o f court for failing to produce ad equate financial records for fed eral trust funds. T he p la in tiffs’ team also proved the governm ent mis managed and neglected trust funds for more than a century. “That was just the best for me,” Cobell said. Briefly T he 5th C ircuit C ourt o f Appeals in New Orleans over turned the embezzlement con victions of Isidro Garza Jr., his W ICH ITA , Kan. (AP) — wife and one of his sons. The Prosecutors have asked a fed trio had been among so-called eral judge to dismiss an indict the “K ickapoo Seven” — a ment against a fugitive charged group of tribal and casino em in an immigration fraud scheme ployees from the Kickapoo Tra by a Kansas group that claimed ditional Tribe of Texas accused of stealing from the tribe’s small to be an Indian tribe. The governm ent says in a casino near Eagle Pass. T he appellate court over court document that the where abouts o f Jorge Villareal are not turned the convictions because known, and it is unlikely that he it said that U.S. District Judge Alia Ludlum erred in transfer will be apprehended. - V illareal was one o f 11 ring the case to Waco, about 300 people charged in a scheme by miles from where the defen the so-called Kaweah Indian dants, attorneys and witnesses N ation that defrauded immi lived. grants, approximately 12,000 across the U.S., by telling them First American that joining the tribe would give Indian bishop dies them U.S. citizenship. A L B U Q U E R Q U E , N.M. Villareal was charged with seven counts, among them har (AP) — The nation’s first Na boring illegal aliens, conspiracy tive American bishop died Jan. to defraud and use of fraudu 7 at a Florida hospital from an undisclosed illness, according to lent documents. the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup. He was 64. Court overturns Donald Pelotte served for 18 Kickapoo decision years as bishop o f the diocese SAN A N TO N IO (AP) — A that covers northwestern New federal appellate court has over Mexico and northeastern Ari tu rn e d the conviction o f a zona. The diocese did not release former tribal leader and his fam details about Pelotte’s illness. He ily for allegedly stealing from a tribal casino near the Texas- was admitted to a Ft. Lauder dale hospital on Dec. 27. Mexico border. Feds drop charges against fugitive in fake tribe Growing healthy families together. Connect with WIC. Investing in O regon’s future with nutrition education and healthy foods. Learn more about how the Oregon WIC Program helps families: www.wic.oregon.gov °7rg° n ” ■*» p ro gram 1-800-SAFENET (1-800-723-3628) WIC is an equal opportunity provider and em P1 Oy6 f> X d HS Oregon Department of Human Services J
