Court monitor criticizes Interior
A court monitor assigned to watch over the Department
of Interior issued his third report this week,
criticizing the government for taking almost no
action to improve the dismal state of records
for an estimated 300,000 American Indians
throughout the country.
Attacking both the present and past administrations,
Joseph S. Kieffer III said the status of data
cleanup is so far behind that it would take
some major work to put it back on track. Kieffer
went further and said the lack of communication
at all levels of the Interior gives American Indian
beneficiaries little confidence in the officials
assigned to look over their funds.
Get the Story:
Infighting
delaying trust fund fix (9/20)
Norton hit on
trust fund progress (9/18)
Canadian officers convicted in harassment case
An all-white jury in Saskatchewan, Canada,
found two officers guilty of unlawful confinement
for abandoning a Native man in the freezing cold
last year.
Although the men were acquitted of assault charges, the case
brought to light years of unresolved claims of
police harassment. Had Darrell Night not survived
that night, he might have ended up like a number of
Native men who have been found frozen to death
on the outskirts of Saskatoon.
The officers face a maximum sentence of ten years in jail.
An appeal is expected.
Get the Story:
Officers guilty
for abandoning Native (9/21)
Officers admit
abandoning Native man (9/19)
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