WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 -- Elousie Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the long-running
lawsuit over the mismanagement of the government-run Indian Trust, has issued
a challenge to Interior Secretary Gale Norton: tell the truth.
The challenge comes as the Indian plaintiffs rebut a recent brochure issued
by Norton which purports to assure the public that her department has made
major progress in cleaning up its decades of mistakes handling the trust accounts
of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans.
In the rebuttal brochure, Ms Cobell tells Norton that, if she truly believes
her brochure is accurate the government should submit it to the courts for
review.
"I am so convinced that our analysis is correct that I challenge Interior to
submit their report to the courts where it can be reviewed and studied
independently, with witnesses under oath and facing the risk of perjury," Ms. Cobell
said. "If Secretary Norton believes her report tells the truth about the
Indian Trust, she will quickly offer her report to the courts."
"But having watched the evidence of Trust mismanagement continue to mount
during nearly 10 years of litigation, I have no doubt that Interior still cannot
bring itself to admit the truth about what former Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt acknowledged was 'the long and sorry history of the department's
mismanagement of the Indian Trust funds,'" Ms. Cobell said.
The rebuttal brochure produced by the Indian plaintiffs in the Cobell versus
Norton class action lawsuit charges that the department's brochure "is
deceptively inaccurate from beginning to end."
"It assures us that management of Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts has
been satisfactory, availability of financial records is good and the losses
suffered by hundreds of thousands of Indians, to whom Interior owes fiduciary
responsibility, are insignificant," the report says. "All three assertions are
patently false.
The rebuttal brochure points out that hundreds of reports from Congress, the
General Accounting Office, Inspectors General and the federal courts have
concluded "that the handling of these accounts has ranged from incompetent to
fraudulent."
"Not one study in these hundreds has concluded that there is not a large and
serious problem," the rebuttal brochure notes. It also notes that Interior
officials have repeatedly acknowledged these problems and that its own consultant
concluded in 2002 that the government faced a liability to Native American
trust beneficiaries of between $10 billion to $40 billion because of
mismanagement.
The rebuttal is illustrated with color photos of barns where copies of Indian
trust records were discovered rotting and fouled by rodent wastes. It details
how the Interior Department is attempting to mislead the public and members
of Congress about the true status of the mismanaged trust.
Copies of the plaintiffs' rebuttal report -- "The Facts v. the Brochure" --
are available at www.indiantrust.com. Copies of the government's report --
"Historical Accounting for Individual Indian Monies: A Progress Report -- are
available at www.doi.gov/iimacounting.pdf
Ms. Cobell urges the public to read both reports and decide who is telling
the truth about the Indian Trust.
"Sadly, as we celebrate November as Native American Month, Native people must
once again ask the federal government to tell the truth," she said. "The
report that Secretary Norton has issued dramatically illustrates that the
government remains unwilling to admit how badly it still treats Native people."
lawsuit over the mismanagement of the government-run Indian Trust, has issued
a challenge to Interior Secretary Gale Norton: tell the truth.
The challenge comes as the Indian plaintiffs rebut a recent brochure issued
by Norton which purports to assure the public that her department has made
major progress in cleaning up its decades of mistakes handling the trust accounts
of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans.
In the rebuttal brochure, Ms Cobell tells Norton that, if she truly believes
her brochure is accurate the government should submit it to the courts for
review.
"I am so convinced that our analysis is correct that I challenge Interior to
submit their report to the courts where it can be reviewed and studied
independently, with witnesses under oath and facing the risk of perjury," Ms. Cobell
said. "If Secretary Norton believes her report tells the truth about the
Indian Trust, she will quickly offer her report to the courts."
"But having watched the evidence of Trust mismanagement continue to mount
during nearly 10 years of litigation, I have no doubt that Interior still cannot
bring itself to admit the truth about what former Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt acknowledged was 'the long and sorry history of the department's
mismanagement of the Indian Trust funds,'" Ms. Cobell said.
The rebuttal brochure produced by the Indian plaintiffs in the Cobell versus
Norton class action lawsuit charges that the department's brochure "is
deceptively inaccurate from beginning to end."
"It assures us that management of Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts has
been satisfactory, availability of financial records is good and the losses
suffered by hundreds of thousands of Indians, to whom Interior owes fiduciary
responsibility, are insignificant," the report says. "All three assertions are
patently false.
The rebuttal brochure points out that hundreds of reports from Congress, the
General Accounting Office, Inspectors General and the federal courts have
concluded "that the handling of these accounts has ranged from incompetent to
fraudulent."
"Not one study in these hundreds has concluded that there is not a large and
serious problem," the rebuttal brochure notes. It also notes that Interior
officials have repeatedly acknowledged these problems and that its own consultant
concluded in 2002 that the government faced a liability to Native American
trust beneficiaries of between $10 billion to $40 billion because of
mismanagement.
The rebuttal is illustrated with color photos of barns where copies of Indian
trust records were discovered rotting and fouled by rodent wastes. It details
how the Interior Department is attempting to mislead the public and members
of Congress about the true status of the mismanaged trust.
Copies of the plaintiffs' rebuttal report -- "The Facts v. the Brochure" --
are available at www.indiantrust.com. Copies of the government's report --
"Historical Accounting for Individual Indian Monies: A Progress Report -- are
available at www.doi.gov/iimacounting.pdf
Ms. Cobell urges the public to read both reports and decide who is telling
the truth about the Indian Trust.
"Sadly, as we celebrate November as Native American Month, Native people must
once again ask the federal government to tell the truth," she said. "The
report that Secretary Norton has issued dramatically illustrates that the
government remains unwilling to admit how badly it still treats Native people."
posted by:
|
