How agency intends to fill in account gaps

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By Chris Casteel
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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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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If the GAO has not been able to keep a finacial statement of all the monies that have been put into the IIM account all these past 200 years, how can a Judge really think that they are going to do the right thing and their fiduciary responsibility now? It has been just a long-drawn out trial and now the government agents of the DOI and the Congress need to be responsible now and pay back the Native People what they owe.
Candace, Lakeland - Nov 6, 2007 11:47 AM
• Report: Offensive language
Can you imagine putting your money in an account and the bank telling you they will give you the balance of that account in 2011? It is not satisfactory for a government that runs a country like our America to not keep records of accounting. How can this happen in America? I wrote to the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas called NARA and they sent me records of my grandfathers and grandmothers allottment and the minuscule amount of money they got for their sacrifices of land, oil and gas and cattle leases. It is shameful the way they had to scrap by to live. Then, when they passed away the funeral home directors moved on to their land and lived on it without paying any taxes since it is called "Federal Indian Land"!!! This is just another injustice...
Candace, Lakeland - Oct 24, 2007 10:39 PM
• Report: Offensive language

More Info

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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