Native American Finance Officers Assoc. applauds Cobell's plan to appeal ruling
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:39 PM MDT
The Native American Finance Officers Association Aug. 15 applauded the decision to appeal the Aug. 7 Cobell vs. Kempthorne federal court ruling. Bill Lomax, president of NAFOA, said that he was, "flabbergasted by the decision that awarded Native American plaintiffs $455 million, less than one percent of the $47 billion they were seeking."
The 12-year battle has been championed by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation from Browning. She sued the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Treasury to end 120 years of trust mismanagement by making the government accountable to Indian people by providing a proper accounting of all Individual Indian monies.
The case stems from the Dawes Act of 1887 under which the federal government parceled out millions of acres of Native lands. Land was placed into trust accounts belonging to individual Native Americans, under a trust relationship between the U.S. government and Native people. Plaintiffs argued that the government had not honored its trustee responsibilities and failed to provide accurate accounting records. Decades passed with no accounting records. Leases went unrecorded and monies were not properly paid.
Cobell said, "It's amazing that the United States government could get away with this for so long. We sued the United States government for fixing the systems that manage our money."
Commenting on the discrepancy between treatment of Native Americans and other private citizens, Cobell said, "Normally, if you've behaved like the United States government in the management of our trust funds, you would not be walking the streets. You would be in jail."
NAFOA has urged tribal leaders to donate financial resources to the cause and has urged lobbying groups to inform Congress of the decision.
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