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FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2002

The following is a message from Nightline Up Close Senior Producer Richard Harris, sent to the Nightline Up Close e-mail distribution list. For more on the show, visit http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/UpClose.

"I swear I am not going to let them break my spirit, I'm not going to let them break my son's spirit, I'm not going to let them break my grandchildren's spirit. We have to be strong..."
--Native American activist Elouise Cobell on her suit against the federal government

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. You'd never suspect that a 5-foot-4 banker who never finished college would win one of those MacArthur "genius" awards and take on the federal government through sheer grit and determination. But as Nightline Producer Jay Lamonica first discovered a few years back, looks are indeed deceiving:

Elouise Cobell is mild-mannered and polite. Cobell has spent most of her life on the Blackfeet reservation in northwest Montana. She's a mother, a rancher and she helped start the first tribal-owned bank on a reservation. She's also suing the federal government for billions of dollars... and so far she's winning.

She was one of nine children who lived in a small house without electricity, plumbing or telephone. She grew up listening to stories about her ancestor, Mountain Chief, the last hereditary leader of the Blackfeet, and how the Blackfeet ruled the northern plains and followed the huge herds of buffalo. Then the white man came, the buffalo were exterminated and the Blackfeet were herded onto the reservation. One of the stories she heard was what happened on Ghost Ridge during the winter of 1883-4. The US government promised to supply winter rations to the Blackfeet, who had been disarmed and confined to the reservation. Instead, the food was sold on the black market and more than 500 Blackfeet starved to death. They are buried in a mass grave on Ghost Ridge.

Cobell heard other stories when she was younger. The land that had been given to individual Indians, including her parents, was to be held in trust for them by the US government who would rent it out to mining, oil, timber and grazing interests and then pass along the money to the landowners. No one was sure how much they were supposed to get and in many cases, even where their land was located. Payments have been intermittent and seemingly random. The government provided with little or no information about their holdings or the money held in trust for them.

Cobell is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the federal government filed six years ago. The judge in the case, Royce Lamberth, has said he "has never seen more egregious conduct" by the federal government which has "engaged in a shocking pattern of deception of the court." Two Cabinet members were held in contempt of court in 1999 for not producing the trust documents as ordered by the judge. A fine of more than $600,000 was paid and the government has admitted that many of the documents have been destroyed or are lost. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton is now on trial for contempt in the case.

The judge also ruled the government had not lived up to its trust obligation. Another trial will be held to determine how much the plaintiffs should receive. Cobell estimates up to $137 billion is unaccounted for since 1887.

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Sam Donaldson talks with Elouise Cobell. Don't be fooled by her genteel manner. She's fiercely determined to force the government to, as she puts it, "do the right thing." If you think you've heard all about the plight of Native Americans, you haven't met Elouise Cobell.

Richard Harris
Senior Producer
Nightline UpClose