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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2002

"When we opened the first box of Individual Indian Money (IIM) account records down in Fort Worth, Texas in the fall of 1998, my mother and aunt cried. As a family we had been searching for these documents for over 60 years. My grandfather and his brothers looked for IIM account records of their father, Moses Bruno. Four generations of our family argued with Indian Agents at the BIA in Shawnee and Anadarko. Always it was the same. "We have no records," the Agents would say. But we knew better.

In December of 1999, as a result of the Cobell lawsuit, the BIA was ordered to begin an accounting of the historic Individual accounts. In September of 2002, BIA Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb was found in contempt of court for failure to begin that historic accounting. Since the BIA has no idea how many active IIM accounts it is handling, it is a sure bet they have no idea how many historic IIM accounts there are. But as a family we have been able to do what the BIA says it cannot, research our family’s IIM account records.

Our family story begins in 1947 when my great-grandfather Moses Bruno went into the local Shawnee Indian Agency to get a purchase order drawn on his Individual Indian Money account to buy groceries. The Indian Agent told my grandfather, "Mr. Bruno, you are broke, you need to apply for old age assistance."

He should have had money in his IIM account; at one time there were eight oil wells pumping high-quality crude from beneath his 80-acre allotment. There were three wells still pumping in 1947, but not a dime of those royalties was being deposited into his IIM account. My grandfather, Johnnie Bruno, started a search for the records but he was stonewalled by the Indian Agent in Shawnee. . ."

Get the Story:
Johnnie Flynn: One family’s Individual Indian Money account odyssey (Indian Country Today 11/22)

Relevant Links:
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust

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