How agency intends to fill in account gaps

 
By Chris Casteel    Comment on this article Leave a comment
Published: October 11, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Department of Interior has a plan to provide all American Indians who have individual trust accounts with an accurate historical record of their account activity and balances, a government attorney told a federal judge on Wednesday.

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FBI, BIA unveil crime hot line
Federal officials want to make it easier to report crimes that occur on tribal land in Oklahoma or involve tribal members.

Officials on Wednesday unveiled a toll free number meant to make it easier to report crimes or complaints on federal tribal land.

Officials hope it will eliminate confusion about what law enforcement agency should respond to crimes that take place on tribal land or involve a tribal member, said Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Michael Ward.

The problem
Crimes that occur on federal trust land or that involve a member of a tribe either have to be investigated by a federal agency like the FBI or BIA, or by a tribe's own police force.

In some cases, people aren't aware they are on tribal land or local law enforcement doesn't have jurisdiction, said Jim Cox, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Police Chiefs.

Reporting crimes
•Indian Country crime hotline: (877)-658-7423 or (877) OK-TRIBE.

•The number is not meant to replace 911 or other emergency numbers.

•The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Staff Writer Julie Bisbee

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On the first day of a new trial in a long-running Indian trust case, Justice Department attorney Robert Kirschman said the Interior Department should be allowed to continue conducting the historical accounting of individual Indian trust accounts that has cost taxpayers more than $127 million in the past four years.

"An historical accounting can be and is being accomplished,” Kirschman said. "There is no unreasonable delay.”

But an attorney for the Indians who sued the government in 1996 said the government's plan was devised not to provide accurate historical records but to limit its own liability.

"We are dealing with data that has been distorted over the years and is being used to protect the U.S. government,” Dennis Gingold said.

What is the trial's focus?

•The new trial will focus on the Interior Department's plan to provide an estimated 500,000 Indians — about 53,000 of them in Oklahoma — with reliable information that goes back, in some cases, to 1938.

•The government has made a plan that would rely on millions of available records and on statistical sampling to fill in gaps where records might be missing. The government has estimated the accounting could be completed by 2011.

What is alleged?

•The Indians, led by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, claim too many documents have been lost or destroyed to perform a reliable historical accounting.






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