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MONDAY, JULY 1, 2002

Attorneys representing 300,000 American Indian beneficiaries to the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust asked a federal judge to shutdown certain computer systems at the Department of Interior.

Court papers cite security problems at the Office of Surface Mining, which was reconnected to the Internet last December. Department officials certified that OSM systems contained no Indian trust data.

Special master Alan Balaran allowed the reconnect based on that assurance. However, court papers show OSM didn't search its databases to ensure there was no trust data.

Also, OSM and the Bureau of Indian Affairs signed an agreement last winter about the existence of Indian data. Attorneys for the plaintiffs cited this to back up their motion.

One OSM database was acknowledged to contain trust data but officials copied the information onto a CD-ROM, according to court documents.

Get the Story:
Interior asked to disconnect office (Federal Computer Week 7/1)

Relevant Documents:
Motion to Disconnect | OSM-BIA Agreement

Relevant Links:
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Trust Reform, NCAI - http://www.ncai.org/main/pages/
issues/other_issues/trust_reform.asp