The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina is being sued in tribal court over its handling of a casino per capita trust fund.

Since 1995, every tribal member has received a share of revenues from the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort. The tribe invests the payments in a trust fund for minors, who get the money when they complete high school or turn 21, whichever comes first.

But Steve Teesateskie, who recently turned 17, says the tribe mishandled the money by failing to put it in a safe account a year before payout. He said his account dropped from over $90,000 to about $78,000 when the stock market crashed in 2008.

Teesateskie is seeking a class action to represent a total of 138 Cherokee minors whose accounts also lost money. His attorney claims the tribe lost about $3 million in total.

According to The Smoky Mountain News, the tribe acknowledged in a court filing that the money wasn't transferred to a safe account. But the tribe said it acted within its' discretion, the paper said.

The Cherokee One Feather, the tribe's newspaper, recently posted a chart of per capita payments from 1995 to the present.

Get the Story:
Lawsuit blames Cherokee for investment losses in children’s trust fund (The Smoky Mountain News 6/28)

Related Stories:
Eastern Cherokee teens sue over casino per capita trust (4/18)