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The Week in Review
ending January 11

WEEK IN REVIEW: Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, shown in this September 2002 photo, submitted trust reform plans to a federal judge this week. File Photo NSM.

Secretary of Interior Gale Norton
submitted trust reform plans.
File Photo © NSM.

Want In The Hoop's list of the week's Winners and Losers? Wait no more.

Missed the week's stories? Get a complete listing here.

Trust reform debate resumes in new year
The political and legal debate over the Indian trust kicked off this week with the submission of the Bush administration's highly anticipated reform plans.

But those looking for strict deadlines and detailed standards didn't find them in two plans the Department of Interior said would finally fix the broken system. What was proposed instead was a limited accounting of the funds owed to about 300,000 American Indians and a controversial reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of Special Trustee (OST).

The plaintiffs in the trust fund lawsuit countered with their own initiatives and outlined a set of guiding principles for the management of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust. Given the dismal state of records, they also said a full accounting was impossible and asked a federal judge to restate the accounts using the best evidence possible.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has given each side until the end of the month to respond and to make final arguments about the IIM accounting. He expects to start a trial to address the accounting in May.

Get the Story:
Norton won't account for assets (1/6)
Tribes to continue task force efforts (1/6)
Cobell trust reform plans filed (1/7)
Norton to fight IIM accounting (1/7)
DOI complains about consultation (1/7)
Court official demands documents (1/7)
Griles: No evidence of trust fund loss (1/7)
DOI to perform statistical sampling (1/7)
Standards guide reform effort (1/8)
What happened to all the land? (1/8)
Congressman accuses Norton of 'stealth' moves (1/8)
Sioux chairman calls BIA talks a 'sham' (1/8)
Opinion: Indian plaintiffs are 'stealing' (1/8)
The Osgood File: Indians have their proof (1/8)
Indian plaintiffs seek deadlines on reform (1/8)
Norton says policy doesn't terminate (1/9)
Treasury won't file trust reform plan (1/9)
Additional DOI documents filed on Jan. 6 (1/10)
Campbell pushes IIM settlement bill (1/10)

more stories
There's still more to read in the recap of the top stories.

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