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Commentary: Government cheating Indians on trust fund
Monday, September 19, 2005

"In the 9-year legal battle over missing Blackfoot Indian royalties, US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth has been a perennial thorn in the side to the Justice and Interior Departments of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The case, filed in Lamberth's court in 1996 is being fought over $137 billion in missing oil, timber, and grazing royalties and other lease payments due, not to the tribes but individually, to the Native American members of what is generically referred to as the Six Nations (now viewed as a composite of all of the known Indian tribes) on over 54 million acres of land.

When Lamberth—a colorful and very popular Washington, DC US District Court judge—determined in a July ruling that the failure of the Interior Department over several decades to accurately account for billions of dollars owed to the Indian tribes in the American Northwest was the epitome of incompetence by apathetic bureaucrats whose job it was to accurately tally the money owed to the Six Nations and to make timely and honest royalty payments to those who owned the land and were legally entitled to the proceeds from the royalties."

Get the Story:
Jon Christian Ryter: GOVERNMENT BETRAYS THE INDIANS AGAIN (News with Views 9/17)

Relevant Links:
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Office of Special Trustee - http://www.ost.doi.gov
Cobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm

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