NATIVE AMERICAN LEADER CITED BY WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP GROUP
NEW YORK, Oct. 28
Native American Leader Elouise C. Cobell, who has led the fight for a full accounting of trust funds held by the federal government for thousands of American Indians, is one of four women who will be honored Nov. 14 by the Women's Leadership Exchange.
Ms. Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe and executive director of the Native American Community Development Corp., will be presented with the exchange's Compass Award during a conference in New York. Lesley Visser, a CBS-TV Sport analyst, Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart transplant surgeon from Los Angeles and Renetta McCann, chief executive of Starcom North America, a Chicago-based advertising agency will also be cited by the group.
"I am honored to be in the company of these women," said Ms Cobell. "And I am happy to accept this honor, not for myself, but for the thousands of American Indian women who have contributed so much to the welfare of their tribes and native people for so many years."
"I hope that with this award I can call attention to our continuing, seven-year fight with the federal government for the full and complete accounting of monies that the government has held in Individual Indian money accounts for decades," she said. "Despite repeated court orders, it is shameful that the government still has to yet to provide a complete accounting of the first Indian account."
Ms. Cobell, who lives in Browning, Mt., is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that has secured court rulings that the Interior Department breached its trust responsibilities to American Indians by its incompetent handling of the Indians' trust accounts. The accounts were established in 1887 to handle the proceeds from government-arranged leases of Indian lands in the West.
Government officials have conceded that many of the records needed to reconcile the accounts have been lost and it will take years for them to discover of how much money should be in the accounts. Lawyers for Ms. Cobell and the Indians say that the government owes the Indians billions of dollars.
Ms. Cobell, a winner of the 2002 International Women's Forum award for "Women Who Make A Difference," filed her lawsuit in 1996. She has funded the lawsuit with funds from a 1997 grant as a MacArthur fellow and from other foundations interested in social justice.
Additional information on the award is available at: http://www.womensleadershipexchange.com
Information on the lawsuit is available at: http://www.indiantrust.com
Unconstitutional Move Threatens Resolution of Indian Trust Case
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25:
Lawyers for a group of Indians who have won court orders directing the federal government to make a full accounting of funds that should have been placed in individual Indian trust accounts today warned that some members of Congress are threatening to undo their victories in the courts.
"This is a wholly unconstitutional effort by a group of anti-Indian lawmakers to deny Indians what they have sought for more than 100 years," said Dennis M. Gingold, the lead lawyer in a class action lawsuit that has exposed the Interior Department's scandalous handling of the trust accounts.
Less than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued his latest ruling ordering the department to begin the long-sought accounting of trust funds, members of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee are pressing to have language included in the Interior Appropriations bill that purports to stop the decision from being implemented. It would declare that the department has to do nothing to move toward settlement of the accounts until the department has a chance to appeal the decision and the appeals court rules.
"This is yet another example of the bad faith the government is showing toward Indians," said Keith Harper, plaintiffs' lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund. "The Interior Department told the Court they could do an accounting, and now when the Court has ordered them to do a full and fair one, government officials have run to their friends on the appropriations comittee to rewrite the rules for Native people and deny them the money that was supposed to be theirs all along."
Harper noted that members of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee have been hostile toward the lawsuit over the trust accounts, but the members of the House have rebuffed their efforts to deny Indians their day in court over the mishandling of their trust accounts.
"While there are some in Congress who have demonstrated a hostility to Indian beneficiaries' interests, fortunately, there are many others on the Hill who understand the critical importance of avoiding this type of deep interference with the judicial process and legislatively limiting the enforcement rights of beneficiaries," Harper said.
Gingold noted that this most recent attempt is not only unfair and unwise but also violative of the Constitution. "The simple fact is Congress cannot tell the Court to decide a case a particular way. It contravenes our most basic notions of justice and separation of powers," he added. "Do not attempt to undo a court judgment that was reached after a 44-day trial in which the government tried -- and failed -- to convince the trial judge that more delays were appropriate."
"We also call on the Congress to stand by the government's commitment--first made in 1887--to fairly and honestly handle the billions of dollars that it has received for what was on those Indian lands. That money belongs to the Indians -- not to the federal treasury. We resent the action of lawmakers to try to delay the Indians from getting an accounting of money that has always been theirs. This is the height of hypocracy toward Native People."
Indian Trust
To view the latest information concerning this case, please go to: http://www.indiantrust.com and see the Indian Trust series in our International Law section.
NEW YORK, Oct. 28
Native American Leader Elouise C. Cobell, who has led the fight for a full accounting of trust funds held by the federal government for thousands of American Indians, is one of four women who will be honored Nov. 14 by the Women's Leadership Exchange.
Ms. Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe and executive director of the Native American Community Development Corp., will be presented with the exchange's Compass Award during a conference in New York. Lesley Visser, a CBS-TV Sport analyst, Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart transplant surgeon from Los Angeles and Renetta McCann, chief executive of Starcom North America, a Chicago-based advertising agency will also be cited by the group.
"I am honored to be in the company of these women," said Ms Cobell. "And I am happy to accept this honor, not for myself, but for the thousands of American Indian women who have contributed so much to the welfare of their tribes and native people for so many years."
"I hope that with this award I can call attention to our continuing, seven-year fight with the federal government for the full and complete accounting of monies that the government has held in Individual Indian money accounts for decades," she said. "Despite repeated court orders, it is shameful that the government still has to yet to provide a complete accounting of the first Indian account."
Ms. Cobell, who lives in Browning, Mt., is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that has secured court rulings that the Interior Department breached its trust responsibilities to American Indians by its incompetent handling of the Indians' trust accounts. The accounts were established in 1887 to handle the proceeds from government-arranged leases of Indian lands in the West.
Government officials have conceded that many of the records needed to reconcile the accounts have been lost and it will take years for them to discover of how much money should be in the accounts. Lawyers for Ms. Cobell and the Indians say that the government owes the Indians billions of dollars.
Ms. Cobell, a winner of the 2002 International Women's Forum award for "Women Who Make A Difference," filed her lawsuit in 1996. She has funded the lawsuit with funds from a 1997 grant as a MacArthur fellow and from other foundations interested in social justice.
Additional information on the award is available at: http://www.womensleadershipexchange.com
Information on the lawsuit is available at: http://www.indiantrust.com
Unconstitutional Move Threatens Resolution of Indian Trust Case
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25:
Lawyers for a group of Indians who have won court orders directing the federal government to make a full accounting of funds that should have been placed in individual Indian trust accounts today warned that some members of Congress are threatening to undo their victories in the courts.
"This is a wholly unconstitutional effort by a group of anti-Indian lawmakers to deny Indians what they have sought for more than 100 years," said Dennis M. Gingold, the lead lawyer in a class action lawsuit that has exposed the Interior Department's scandalous handling of the trust accounts.
Less than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued his latest ruling ordering the department to begin the long-sought accounting of trust funds, members of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee are pressing to have language included in the Interior Appropriations bill that purports to stop the decision from being implemented. It would declare that the department has to do nothing to move toward settlement of the accounts until the department has a chance to appeal the decision and the appeals court rules.
"This is yet another example of the bad faith the government is showing toward Indians," said Keith Harper, plaintiffs' lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund. "The Interior Department told the Court they could do an accounting, and now when the Court has ordered them to do a full and fair one, government officials have run to their friends on the appropriations comittee to rewrite the rules for Native people and deny them the money that was supposed to be theirs all along."
Harper noted that members of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee have been hostile toward the lawsuit over the trust accounts, but the members of the House have rebuffed their efforts to deny Indians their day in court over the mishandling of their trust accounts.
"While there are some in Congress who have demonstrated a hostility to Indian beneficiaries' interests, fortunately, there are many others on the Hill who understand the critical importance of avoiding this type of deep interference with the judicial process and legislatively limiting the enforcement rights of beneficiaries," Harper said.
Gingold noted that this most recent attempt is not only unfair and unwise but also violative of the Constitution. "The simple fact is Congress cannot tell the Court to decide a case a particular way. It contravenes our most basic notions of justice and separation of powers," he added. "Do not attempt to undo a court judgment that was reached after a 44-day trial in which the government tried -- and failed -- to convince the trial judge that more delays were appropriate."
"We also call on the Congress to stand by the government's commitment--first made in 1887--to fairly and honestly handle the billions of dollars that it has received for what was on those Indian lands. That money belongs to the Indians -- not to the federal treasury. We resent the action of lawmakers to try to delay the Indians from getting an accounting of money that has always been theirs. This is the height of hypocracy toward Native People."
Indian Trust
To view the latest information concerning this case, please go to: http://www.indiantrust.com and see the Indian Trust series in our International Law section.