Jolie Rouge
04-08-2010, 09:13 PM
Judge OKs 'final' delay in $3.4B Indian lawsuit
Matthew Daly, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 39 mins ago
WASHINGTON – A judge has granted more time for Congress to approve a $3.4 billion settlement against the government for swindling Indian tribes out of royalties for oil, gas and grazing leases.
But U.S. District Judge James Robertson warned that the latest delay — which moves the deadline for congressional action from April 16 to May 28 — is the last he will approve. The delay is the third since the settlement was reached in December.
"From where I sit, the settlement appears to be a win-win proposition," Robertson said at a court hearing Thursday. "It needs to get done."
If Congress does not confirm the settlement by mid-May, Robertson said, he will order Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other top officials to appear before him to explain why.
The proposed settlement, which would end a 14-year legal case, calls for the Interior Department to distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Indian tribe members across nearly all 50 states. The government also would also have to spend $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations and create a $60 million Indian Education Scholarship fund.
Most lawsuit participants would receive at least $1,500, and many would receive considerably more.
If cleared by Congress and Robertson, the settlement would be the largest Indian claim ever approved against the U.S. government, exceeding the combined total of all previous settlements of Indian claims.
Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes called the proposed settlement historic and said it represents "an opportunity to turn the page on a period of history" in which the federal government did not meet its legal or moral obligation to Indian tribes.
The Interior Department manages about 56 million acres of land and leases it for mining, grazing and oil and gas production. Money collected from those leases is distributed to more than 384,000 individual Indian accounts and about 2,700 tribal accounts.
The 1996 lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Montana, alleged the government had breached its responsibility to manage assets belonging to American Indians and had refused to fix a flawed accounting system that led to the loss of billions of dollars.
Keith Harper, one of Cobell's lawyers, said the settlement "is a win for our trust beneficiaries, a win for Indian country, and it turns the page on a problematic past."
Cobell and others involved in the case are disappointed that Congress has not yet acted, Harper said, but are confident that approval is imminent.
Under the deal, Harper and other lawyers would be paid between $50 million and $100 million. Cobell and three other plaintiffs could receive up to $15 million to reimburse them for expenses paid.
Some Indian leaders have complained that the settlement favors the government and the Cobell team.
Richard Monette, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said at a public hearing last month that, if enacted, the proposed Cobell settlement "will itself be a breach of trust."
Monette told a House panel the deal appeared to be structured in a way to benefit Cobell and her lawyers, rather than the majority of individual Indians.
But Harper said there is widespread support for the deal. Cobell and other leaders in the case have conducted about 40 meetings in a dozen states, "and in the vast majority of those, there is not a single dissent," Harper said.
Cobell herself, in testimony last month to Congress, called the negotiations tough. "I think I did the best job that I could, along with my class counsel, to negotiate a settlement. I felt we were owed much more money, but this could go on for hundreds of years," she said.
___
On the Net: Cobell settlement: http://cobellsettlement.com/index.php
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_go_ot/us_indian_money;_ylt=Aq3KKdejGaZeGtWQKTLHw_K2GL8C; _ylu=X3oDMTM0aGJxZHFtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDA5L3VzX 2luZGlhbl9tb25leQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzU EcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNqdWRnZW9rc 2ZpbmE-
Let's face it the American Government has been shafting the indians since the colonists first set foot on this continent. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's given them the fair value for all the land they stole and all the people they killed needlessly. Better yet let's give the indians all the land that the Department of Interior know manages. Let the tribes control their own destiny
sounds like to me, it was the oil companys cheating the indians, not the goverment
Let me see if I understand this.....the United States Government cheated the Native Americans? Never!
Well, keep an open eye on the Fed. with this one, some how, some way, our current administration will weasel out of payment. I mean just take a long look at our government's stellar past when it comes to dealing fairly with America's Real Natural Citizens. Dishonesty, theft, murder, broken promises, broken treaties, life for the American Indian on reservations, no longer a free people. And all becuase of the greed of our government, and earlier settlers. It's about time that we as Nation owned up to the horror that we have inflicted on the American Indian as a people. We owe them much in reperation, we owe them much because of our cruelty to them, as we took their land, and killed their men, women and children. I do not think much about who has to be killed in a war, I have lived through it. But what we did to the Indians in this country was not war, it was massacre, murder, plunder, steal, and imprision. A far cry from any type of fairness as we poured out over this land that we now call America. These first people in America have been treated like second or third class citizens for far too long,and it's about time that our government finally pay a price for the attrocities perpetrated on them.
Matthew Daly, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 39 mins ago
WASHINGTON – A judge has granted more time for Congress to approve a $3.4 billion settlement against the government for swindling Indian tribes out of royalties for oil, gas and grazing leases.
But U.S. District Judge James Robertson warned that the latest delay — which moves the deadline for congressional action from April 16 to May 28 — is the last he will approve. The delay is the third since the settlement was reached in December.
"From where I sit, the settlement appears to be a win-win proposition," Robertson said at a court hearing Thursday. "It needs to get done."
If Congress does not confirm the settlement by mid-May, Robertson said, he will order Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other top officials to appear before him to explain why.
The proposed settlement, which would end a 14-year legal case, calls for the Interior Department to distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Indian tribe members across nearly all 50 states. The government also would also have to spend $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations and create a $60 million Indian Education Scholarship fund.
Most lawsuit participants would receive at least $1,500, and many would receive considerably more.
If cleared by Congress and Robertson, the settlement would be the largest Indian claim ever approved against the U.S. government, exceeding the combined total of all previous settlements of Indian claims.
Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes called the proposed settlement historic and said it represents "an opportunity to turn the page on a period of history" in which the federal government did not meet its legal or moral obligation to Indian tribes.
The Interior Department manages about 56 million acres of land and leases it for mining, grazing and oil and gas production. Money collected from those leases is distributed to more than 384,000 individual Indian accounts and about 2,700 tribal accounts.
The 1996 lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Montana, alleged the government had breached its responsibility to manage assets belonging to American Indians and had refused to fix a flawed accounting system that led to the loss of billions of dollars.
Keith Harper, one of Cobell's lawyers, said the settlement "is a win for our trust beneficiaries, a win for Indian country, and it turns the page on a problematic past."
Cobell and others involved in the case are disappointed that Congress has not yet acted, Harper said, but are confident that approval is imminent.
Under the deal, Harper and other lawyers would be paid between $50 million and $100 million. Cobell and three other plaintiffs could receive up to $15 million to reimburse them for expenses paid.
Some Indian leaders have complained that the settlement favors the government and the Cobell team.
Richard Monette, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said at a public hearing last month that, if enacted, the proposed Cobell settlement "will itself be a breach of trust."
Monette told a House panel the deal appeared to be structured in a way to benefit Cobell and her lawyers, rather than the majority of individual Indians.
But Harper said there is widespread support for the deal. Cobell and other leaders in the case have conducted about 40 meetings in a dozen states, "and in the vast majority of those, there is not a single dissent," Harper said.
Cobell herself, in testimony last month to Congress, called the negotiations tough. "I think I did the best job that I could, along with my class counsel, to negotiate a settlement. I felt we were owed much more money, but this could go on for hundreds of years," she said.
___
On the Net: Cobell settlement: http://cobellsettlement.com/index.php
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_go_ot/us_indian_money;_ylt=Aq3KKdejGaZeGtWQKTLHw_K2GL8C; _ylu=X3oDMTM0aGJxZHFtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDA5L3VzX 2luZGlhbl9tb25leQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzU EcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNqdWRnZW9rc 2ZpbmE-
Let's face it the American Government has been shafting the indians since the colonists first set foot on this continent. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's given them the fair value for all the land they stole and all the people they killed needlessly. Better yet let's give the indians all the land that the Department of Interior know manages. Let the tribes control their own destiny
sounds like to me, it was the oil companys cheating the indians, not the goverment
Let me see if I understand this.....the United States Government cheated the Native Americans? Never!
Well, keep an open eye on the Fed. with this one, some how, some way, our current administration will weasel out of payment. I mean just take a long look at our government's stellar past when it comes to dealing fairly with America's Real Natural Citizens. Dishonesty, theft, murder, broken promises, broken treaties, life for the American Indian on reservations, no longer a free people. And all becuase of the greed of our government, and earlier settlers. It's about time that we as Nation owned up to the horror that we have inflicted on the American Indian as a people. We owe them much in reperation, we owe them much because of our cruelty to them, as we took their land, and killed their men, women and children. I do not think much about who has to be killed in a war, I have lived through it. But what we did to the Indians in this country was not war, it was massacre, murder, plunder, steal, and imprision. A far cry from any type of fairness as we poured out over this land that we now call America. These first people in America have been treated like second or third class citizens for far too long,and it's about time that our government finally pay a price for the attrocities perpetrated on them.