call to action
ado
Native American Rights Fund
CALL TO ACTION!!!
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING LETTER
CLICK ON LINKS TO EMAIL KEY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
http://www.narf.org/contact/iim.php#
OR TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
http://www.narf.org/contact/myths.htm
Not since the Battle of the Little Bighorn 127 years ago has there been such
a cowardly sneak attack on Indian people by a branch of the United States
government.
Dear NARF Supporter:
For over seven years the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has been
battling the Department of the Interior in a class action lawsuit known as
Cobell v. Norton. NARF is fighting for the rights of more than 500,000
American Indians who are current and former beneficiaries to the Individual
Indian Money (IIM) trust. The federal government's mismanagement, neglect
and insensitivity in the way it has "managed" monies held in trust for
American Indians has been a black mark on federal-tribal relations for over
116 years.
In 1887, under the General Allotment Act, the United States government began
the process of breaking up Indian reservations by allotting parcels of land
to individual Indians and selling "surplus" parcels to non-Indians. The
objective of the allotment program was to destabilize tribal governments and
to assimilate individual Indians into mainstream society. The General
Allotment Act formed the basis for the "trust" relationship between the
United States, Indian tribes and individual Indians. Today, many Indians
rely on income derived from the leasing of their land to non-Indian users.
These leases are negotiated and administered by the federal government for
the benefit of Indian beneficiaries. In any trust relationship, the
trustee-in this case the United States-is under a fiduciary duty to act in
the best interests of the trust beneficiaries. The federal government has
failed miserably in carrying out that duty.
As a staunch supporter of NARF and the rights of Indian people, as well as
being a supporter of this litigation I would like to update you on our
progress to date. I am happy to report that after seven years of
contentious litigation victory is in sight! But, the battle is not over yet.
At this very minute certain individuals in government are trying to
undermine the United States judicial system using devious and cowardly
political maneuvering --- just because they are not winning!
Update on the Cobell v. Norton Lawsuit
Since NARF filed this lawsuit in 1996 to force the government to account for
its mismanagement of Indian trust funds we have been victorious every step
of the way. But it has been a constant fight. Early on in the litigation
instead of playing by the rules of procedure set up by the United States
federal court system the government blatantly refused to produce all of the
records and documents that U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered
them to produce. Instead, in March of 1997 the government lied to the court
in a certified document that it had produced all such documents.
Government officials also lied outright in open court to cover up their
inept handling of these trust accounts. NARF had to file a motion in
December of 1998 for the government to show cause why the Court should not
hold them in contempt for failure to comply with the Courts order and go
through a contempt trial to force the government to produce the documents.
The Court in February 1999 ruled that the Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbit, Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and Kevin Gover, Assistant
Secretary of Indian Affairs are in civil contempt of court for failure to
produce court-ordered records. A victory for NARF and the individual Indian
trust beneficiaries!
Originally, the Court bifurcated the proceedings into two phases. Phase I
would address "fixing the system," or reforming the management and
accounting of the IIM trust to bring the United States government into
compliance with its fiduciary obligations. Phase II, on the other hand,
would address "correcting the accounts," or performing a historical
accounting of the IIM accounts. The Court held a six -week bench trial,
which began in June of 1999. In a 126-page opinion and order, Judge Lamberth
held that the United States government has breached its fiduciary duties to
individual Indian trust beneficiaries. Another victory! The government, but
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed
Judge Lamberth's opinion and order. Again, a stunning victory for NARF!
Then, another fight emerged. NARF had discovered that a serious problem
existed regarding the security of IIM data. In July 2001 the General
Accounting Office issued a scathing report to Interior Secretary Gale Norton
that the Interior's computer system lacked adequate security to prevent
outsiders from breaking into the system. This meant that individual Indian
trust account information could be altered or totally deleted putting the
assets at risk. To prove this point the court approved the hiring of
computer experts to hack into the system that maintains the IIM trust
records. In November 2001 the results given in the Special Master's report
documented "deplorable and inexcusable" computer security lapses.
At the same time this report was being delivered, Secretary of the Interior
Norton, in her arrogance and contempt for Indian country issued her proposal
to create a new Bureau of Indian Trust Asset Management (BITAM) without
consultation with Tribal leaders. Indian country rallied in one voice
against the proposal, saying it would undermine the authority of the BIA.
Tribal leaders offered to work with the Secretary and her staff on true
trust reform, but ultimately, this offer fell on deaf ears.
On December 5, 2001, in response to the computer expert's findings, the
court ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its Indian trust
related Internet systems because they lacked security safeguards. In
response to this order, Interior, playing a cruel game of politics, took
advantage of the court order that was meant to protect the trust accounts
from further harm, stopped all payments to all individual Indian trust
beneficiaries. Over 15 million in trust payments were delayed meaning no
Christmas for tens of thousands of Indian families. What made matters worse
was that Interior's "spin doctors" employed the age-old tactic of divide and
conquer against Native people. Irate Indian account holders began calling
the Department of Interior. Instead of telling them the truth about why
they were not getting their checks, they put the blame on NARF for their not
receiving any payments! Shocking yes, but not unexpected given Interior's
behavior throughout the case.
NARF refused to stand by and allow these injustices to take place. In
December, 2001we filed a motion to show cause why Secretary of the Interior
Gale Norton and then Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb
should not be held in contempt of court. A twenty-nine day bench trial
focused on how these individuals through their offices engaged in a pattern
and practice of obstruction of justice, fraud on the Court and violations of
court orders. In September 2002 the court once again agreed with our
charges and found both secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary McCaleb
guilty on 4 of 5 counts of civil contempt. Additionally, because of the
findings in the contempt trial the Court found it necessary to order a Phase
1.5 trial. This trial, which began May 1, 2003 and continues to date will
address additional remedies with respect to fixing the system portion of the
case and approving an approach to conducting a historical accounting of the
IIM trust accounts.
Recent Developments
One would think that after two embarrassing contempt trials and an
astounding defeat in the Phase I trial the government would start to play by
the rules, live up to their fiduciary responsibilities and stop playing
games with peoples lives. One would think that such fights would be over,
but that is not what is happening. Instead the government is trying to do
an end run around the legal system - a system that was designed to protect
people like you and me!
Just a couple of weeks ago the House Appropriations Subcommittee approved
legislation that would undermine the rights of individual Indian trust
beneficiaries which would force the settlement of individual Indian trust
account claims. This bill known as Section 137 of the FY2004 House Interior
Appropriations Bill would give the Secretary of the Interior the authority
to unilaterally settle any claim relating to the accounting of the balance
of any individual Indian money account. Under the proposed legislative
rider, the Secretary would have five years to perform a "statistical
sampling evaluation" in a manner she deems "reasonable and fair using the
discredited statistical sampling methodology. The Secretary would then have
the power to adjust the balances in IIM accounts by applying the error rate
to the transactions in an IIM account.
The Secretary's adjustments to the IIM accounts would be final. Judicial
review would be limited to reviewing the Secretary's method for conducting
the statistical sampling, and judicial deference to the Secretary would be
mandated by application of the Administrative Procedures Act. The
legislation would remove jurisdiction from the federal courts to hear any
other claims by IIM account holders for accounting or account balances. The
legislation is also limited to only those accounts that were open as of
October 25, 1994, and would preclude any claims on predecessor accounts.
What this all means has been summed up in an analyses done by the National
Congress of American Indians:
This legislation is somewhat like giving the CEO of Enron the authority to
unilaterally settle the claims of the Enron shareholders. The same
Department of the Interior that has mismanaged the trust accounts, and has
been so repeatedly accused of bad faith by both Congress and the federal
courts, would have complete authority to end all of the claims by IIM
account holders under a methodology of its own choosing. IIM claims would
be limited to "accounting error" through statistical sampling, and all
claims based on failed collections or inaccurate starting balances would be
barred. The legislation would presumably bar the Cobell v. Norton
litigation outright." Furthermore "there has been no consultation with the
tribes or the account holders."
NARF wants this political slight of hand and political chicanery to stop!
We want the court to be able to do its job-without political interference--
and allow this trust debacle to be finally be solved. I've said it to you
before and I will say it again, No more runarounds!
This is why I am writing to you today. Your forwarding the
enclosed e-mail letter to the six House Representatives can help put a stop
to the passage of this bill which would allow the government to deny that it
is responsible for the billions of dollars that have been stolen from the
pockets of America's First people! We cannot afford to remain silent while
our judicial system is trying to be circumvented!
Please do not delay. Time is of the essence!
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
John E. Echohawk
Executive Director
Please click on this link to send a message to key representatives.
http://www.narf.org/contact/iim.php#
CLICK ON FOLLOWING URL TO OBTAIN MORE INFORMATION
http://www.narf.org/contact/myths.htm
Or please go to our website at www.narf.org to take action.