"The Pre-1966 Indian Money Damage Claims [2415 Indian Claims Program] are distinct from the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit, but there is concern that the Interior Department is trying to extinguish pre-1966 Indian claims by including them in the Cobell Individual Indian Money accounting case settlement. It is burying two corpses in one casket.

The Cobell settlement is pennies unaccounted for in the BIA IIM accounts and not the 10 million acres of private Indian land and resources stolen prior to filing the accounting case. We, as individual Indian allottees and heirs, are asked to accept an average of $1,500 in the Cobell case in exchange for 10 million acres of stolen allotted lands and minerals. The states, counties, corporations, companies and individuals listed in the lawsuit walk away with stolen Indian trust property on the reservation forever. Our reservation lost 28 percent of the tribal mineral estate and 500,000 acres to fee patents.

Is $1,500 supposed to cover those losses? Our oil and gas reserves were estimated at $10 billion in 1950. Imagine the wealth of the stolen Indian allotments nationwide. It would put Indians in the highest income brackets in the nation. The Interior Department has tried to extinguish these Indian claims since the BIA forced-patent conspiracy was hatched during the allotment period when Indians were illiterate and completely dependent on the BIA for protection from states and speculators.

The United States government is party to the original land frauds and continues to cover up the BIA land-grafter conspiracy though it is known to the Interior Department and Congress. In 1979, the Interior Department was cited by the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs for trying to extinguish the Indian claims by letting the statute of limitations run out. Forrest Gerard, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, testified that “Litigation was thought inappropriate in these cases because the government would have to sue itself on behalf of the Indian claimants.” Congress was troubled by “the serious problem of complicity on the part of the federal government in bringing about many improper transfers and encumbrances of Indian land (e.g. secretarial transfer, forced fee patent and old-age assistance).”"

Get the Story:
Bob Juneau: Offering morsels to starving Indians (Indian Country Today 6/9)

Cobell Settlement Documents:
Agreement | Press Release | Q&A | Audio

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