Cobell v. Salazar ~Thirteen years......

Today the Cobell case was finally settled...... Bittersweet..... For those who are not familiar with the case. It is a case against the US government because they severely and obscenely mismanaged indigenous trust monies.

Here is Amy Goodman talking to Elouise P. Cobell last year.







Here is her statement from the settlement:

Statement at the Department of Interior Press Conference
Announcing the Settlement in Cobell v. Salazar
December 8, 2009

In 1996, we embarked on a journey to end decades of mistrust, suspicion and apprehension about the federal government’s management of Individual Indian Money accounts. I was among the more than 500,000 Indians across the nation with funds in such an account, and I did not know and could not find out how much money I had, where it came from, how it was being invested, nor how or whether it would ever reach my pocket.

As a banker myself, I knew that was not right. Who would turn her paycheck over to a banker hundreds or thousands of miles away, giving a faceless, unknown person sole authority over how that money is invested, as well as the ability to decide how often she can withdraw and use it to meet her family’s needs? Only someone given no other choice.

When we filed this case, I thought it would be 2-to-3 years of litigation. I believed all we had to do was expose the lack of accounting by the government, everyone would come to agreement over the issues, and we would settle the case. I expected to have a settlement 10 years ago; instead it turned into a battle of 14 years.

We have faced Secretaries of the Interior and Treasury in three presidential administrations to arrive at what we hope is this long journey’s final destination. Today we have an Administration that is listening to us, and an Administration willing to admit the wrongdoings of the past and settle this matter to benefit those who had to do without access to their own money for way too long.

Although we have reached a settlement totaling more than $3.4 billion dollars, there is little doubt this is significantly less than the full amount to which individual Indians are entitled. Yes, we could prolong our struggle and fight longer, and perhaps one day we would know – down to the penny – how much individual Indians are owed. Perhaps we could even litigate long enough to increase the settlement amount.

Nevertheless we are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller each year, each month, and every day, as our elders die, and are forever prevented from receiving their just compensation. We also face the uncomfortable, but unavoidable fact that a large number of individual money account holders currently subsist in the direst poverty, and this settlement can begin to address that extreme situation and provide some hope and a better quality of life for their remaining years.

I am particularly happy to see recognition of the need for funds to be set aside to promote higher education opportunities for Indian youth. When Indian parents and grandparents talk to me about this suit, they always speak of how they will use the money they receive to improve their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. I am hopeful that these funds can lift a generation and help break a cycle of poverty that has held too many Indian families and individuals in its grip for too many generations.

My greatest optimism about this settlement, however, is the hope it holds for significant and permanent reform in the way the Departments of Interior and Treasury account for and manage Individual Indian Money accounts. There is much room for improvement, and I expect the Commission that Secretary Salazar has announced to take on the challenge of making these substantive changes immediately.

Indians are dedicated to collaborating with the government in making these changes. We know this settlement does not solve the underlying problem and reform can’t stop here. We will continue to work to improve the Trust’s accountability. We’ve had to spend too much time looking backwards, trying to address the terrible wrongs of the past. Now my hope is that we can look forward to permanently correct those wrongs so that American Indian Money account holders will always have knowledge of and consistently receive what is rightfully theirs.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the concerted efforts of an extraordinary legal team and the support of generous funders. I am particularly grateful for the insight, vision, hard work and sense of justice that Dennis M. Gingold understands so clearly. I dedicate this settlement to him. It was his understanding of the historic mismanagement and his incredible, superhuman commitment to seeking justice for Individual Indian Money account holders that brought us to this point today. And while compromise is not in his DNA, those who benefit from his long, hard work on this case will always honor his contribution. Many additional dedicated lawyers and others also played important roles, and I thank them as well. There are too many to name them all, but unquestionably among them are Thaddeus Holt, and Keith Harper, Bill Dorris, David Smith and Elliott Levitas, attorneys at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, as well as the organizations that funded the Individual Indian Monies Trust Correction and Recovery Project.

Equally important is the work of the Honorable James Robertson, the United States District Court Judge who presided over this case for the past three years. Judge Robertson recognized the need to resolve this case in a fair and expeditious manner and worked hard to bring the parties together to reach the settlement we have today. We owe much to the hard work of Judge Robertson.

Another individual critically important to this result was U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, in whose courtroom Indians began to find justice. Judge Lamberth was not afraid to speak truth to power, and we are the beneficiaries of his knowledge of the law, sense of fair play, and judicial courage. We thank him.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the persistence and resilience of a half a million Individual Indian Money account holders who suffered through the historical mismanagement of their funds, yet never lost hope they would prevail and had the patience to wait this settlement out. They inspired us everyday and gave us the strength to continue.

I am proud to have played a role in this important undertaking and look forward to seeing this settlement bear fruit and improve the lives of hundreds of individual Indians’ across our great land.