Indian beneficiaries in Oklahoma demand release of Cobell settlement funds at this protest last year. Photo from Katherine Ware-Perosi / Change.Org
Cobell checks in early fall?
By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor WASHINGTON — In a letter written to stake holders, Class Counsel for the Cobell settlement, David Smith and Bill Dorris, implied that if the Department of Interior does their part, checks could be in the mail by August 30. “The Department of Interior has informed us that it expects to provide the data for the Trust Administration Class (TAC) distributions to GCG in time for payments to begin in early Fall. It is taking Interior longer to correct some of the land records than Interior had anticipated and they have advised Class Counsel that the calculations should be ready by August 30, 2014,” they said in an update on the Cobell settlement website. The continued delays in the distribution of the second Cobell payments have led to widespread anger in communities across Indian Country. Comments on websites like Indianz.com have steadily become more heated as news updates detailing the reasons surrounding the delays have surfaced. Sens. John Tester, Walsh, and Defazio have joined a chorus of lawmakers who have recently pushed for both accountability, and systemic changes to the Claims Resettlement Act of 2010 that both approved payment of funds to individual Native American plaintiffs and also ordered the Department of the Interior to use $1.5 billion of the $3.4 billion awarded to distribute money to Settlement class members. It also created the $1.9 billion dollar fund used to finance the Land Buy-Back program. The letter stated that, “Assuming Interior meets the August 30 date, Class Counsel will immediately seek the final approval needed from the Court and GCG (Garden City Group) will make preparations to begin sending out the TAC (Trust Administration Class) checks.” Despite the guarded optimism the class counsel did place the spotlight on the Department of Interior to deliver the necessary documentation in a timely manner to allow for the second round of payments to begin. “Since neither Class Counsel nor GCG control when Interior will be able to provide the corrected data, we cannot guarantee that TAC payments will be issued in this timeframe, but will do everything within our power to try to make that happen,” the letter said. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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