Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit, uses this week’s Ask Elouise letter to discuss Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso’s continued attempts to amend the historic $3.4 billion settlement announced last year. (See previous post, here.)

Elouise Cobell (AP photo)

In your last letter, you mentioned that Senator Barrasso (R – WY), Vice-Chairman, Senator Committee on Indian Affairs introduced an amendment that he says would “improve” the settlement agreement even though it would terminate the settlement, what is the status of his amendment?

Thanks to your overwhelming support, Senator Barrasso was unable to bring his amendment to the floor for a vote. Your letters and calls to members of Congress had a significant impact on the outcome. Unfortunately, Senator Barrasso still doesn’t understand, or doesn’t care, that Indian Country overwhelmingly supports this settlement. According to statements reported in the press, he is more determined than ever to rob you of your victory in this case and it is likely that he again will attempt to introduce an amendment to terminate the settlement at some time in the future. We remain on guard against his efforts to further harm individual Indians.

To read all of the Ask Elouise columns about the settlement, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian trust case, Native American news, Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Here’s the story by Matt Volz of the Associated Press:

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives attached a $3.4 billion government settlement with Indian trust beneficiaries to a war-funding bill that it passed just before breaking for the July Fourth holiday.

The settlement was one of several additions made late Thursday to the $80 billion appropriations bill that includes funding for the troop surge in Afghanistan and money for federal disaster assistance. It authorizes the Obama administration to settle a class-action lawsuit with between 300,000 and 500,000 American Indians who claims the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust by the government.

The House originally authorized the settlement in May, but it was tucked into the Democrats’ jobs legislation that stalled in a Senate filibuster late last month.

The plaintiffs hope including the settlement in the war-funding and disaster-relief bill will mean the Senate will approve it.

“We expect that the Senate must give prompt and serious consideration to the bill because, without enactment, there are no funds for our war efforts and no funds for FEMA,” plaintiffs attorney Dennis Gingold said Friday. “The bill is too important to this country. Partisan politics must not obstruct passage.”

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Tags: Blackfeet, buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Dennis Gingold, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian trust case, Native American news, Senate Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Senate, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, War-funding bill

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – The chairman of the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee says the group has launched an investigation into Indian Health Service facilities in four states, sparked by a revolving door executives at a North Dakota hospital.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Wednesday that the committee is looking into alleged “mismanagement, malfeasance, retaliation against whistleblowers as well as potential criminal behavior” in the Aberdeen Area of the IHS, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.

“I believe this type of mismanagement in the region over a long period of time has negatively affected health care provided to the Native Americans,” Dorgan said in a release. “These problems must be remedied.”

Officials with the Aberdeen Area IHS did not return phone and e-mail messages left Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The investigation centers on the Quentin N. Burdick Memorial Hospital in Belcourt, on North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, where there have been five different CEOs in about two years.

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Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Indian Health Service, Native American news, Quentin N. Burdick Memorial Hospital, Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Yvette Roubideaux

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican who is vice-chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, is pushing an amendment that would limit attorneys’ fees in the $3.4 billion Cobell v. Salazar settlement.

That agreement, announced in December, would partially compensate hundreds of thousands of Indian people for generations of federal mismanagement of royalties from their lands. It needs congressional approval before people can begin receiving their money, and lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, who is Blackfeet, says she fears Barrasso’s amendment could sink the entire agreement.

A recent Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune editorial urged Barrasso to drop the amendment, concluding that “Justice has been delayed far too long for many Indian beneficiaries in this long-running lawsuit. Barrasso should listen to the tribal leaders and, at the least, remove himself as an obstacle to resolution.” Here, he responds:

Editor:

Your June 28 editorial, “Senator should drop attempt to alter settlement,” does not accurately describe my participation in the Cobell settlement process.

As vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, I have a responsibility to oversee the Cobell legislation before the Senate. In April, I approached Indian tribes across the country to get their feedback about the Cobell legislation.

After listening to the concerns and opinions of Indian Country, I proposed a few key changes to the settlement — including lowering the cap on attorney fees from $100 million to $50 million. This change would allow the additional funding to be distributed among tribal members. Tribal organizations for the Northwest and Great Plains, as well as numerous individual tribal members, have expressed public support for my amendment.

You reported that my effort to amend the legislation would nullify the settlement. In fact, the parties themselves have substantively changed the settlement several times without voiding the current legislation. My changes could be easily incorporated and would directly benefit tribal members.

While I would like to see Congress finalize the Cobell legislation as soon as possible, we should not simply rubber stamp this $3.4 billion agreement. As our country continues to face a $13 trillion deficit, Congress should carefully review and improve any legislation that spends 3.4 billion taxpayer dollars.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, Washington, D.C.

Tags: Blackfeet, Browning, buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian trust case, Native American news, Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Here’s the story from the Associated Press:

ROCKY BOY – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says he’ll work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to help Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation recover from flood damage.

The Montana Democrat toured the Chippewa Cree Tribe’s reservation Saturday with three representatives of FEMA who were assessing damage as a first step to a possible presidential disaster declaration, which would bring in emergency money.

Tester is a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, which oversees FEMA.

Tester says the area looks to him worthy of disaster declaration but he’s not sure that will happen.

Recent flooding took out roads and bridges, left more than 200 homes without drinking water and about 500 housing units with water damage.

Tags: Chippewa Cree, Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, flooding, Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate Homeland Security Commitee

The National Congress of American Indians will decide tomorrow whether to urge support for changes to the $3.4 billion settlement in the Cobell v. Salazar class-action Indian trust case.

Congress must sign off on the settlement, but Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has urged changes, including a cap on attorneys’ fees. If no agreement can be reached on his proposal, the entire settlement, benefiting hundreds of thousands of Indian people, could be in jeopardy.
Ruth Brown of the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal is covering this week’s NCAI meeting in Rapid City, and reports here:

Elouise Cobell in Washington, D.C., in December, when the historic settlement was announced. Now it's in danger of unraveling. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)


The Cobell case is a long-standing lawsuit that addresses alleged mishandling of Native American trust land accounts by the federal government. It alleges the U.S Department of the Interior has bungled the accounting on thousands of individual Native trust accounts for more than 100 years. It covers more than 60 million acres that have been entrusted to survivors of the original landowners.

Barrasso said he thinks attorney fees and costs should be capped at $50 million — up to $50 million less than proposed. He also suggested setting aside $50 million of the settlement money for certain lawsuit participants who receive “insufficient or unfair” amounts under the settlement’s payment formula. The money would be distributed by a “special master” appointed by the court.

“The settlement would provide an immediate benefit to the approximately 350,000 individual Indians who are members of the class action,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. “This is compensation that could go a long way for those that need it most.”

The proposed agreement calls for the U.S. Department of the Interior to distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Native Americans nationwide. Most participants in the class-action lawsuit, filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., would receive at least $1,500.

The settlement also requires the government to spend $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations, and create a $60 million Indian Education Scholarship fund.

During the 14 years, many of the people the suit would have benefited have died.

“I have had to lose 5,000 Blackfeet (who died) that haven’t been paid,” James St. Goddard, a Blackfeet tribal leader, tells Brown. “A lot of people don’t truly understand the importance of the Cobell case, and I must hear from my Indian brothers before decisions are made.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Blackfeet, buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian Education Scholarship fund, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, Sen. Byron Dorgan, Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit, uses this week’s Ask Elouise letter to address the issue of changes to the historic $3.4 billion settlement announced last year. (See previous post, here.)

Congress must sign off on the settlement before Indian people who saw their royalties mismanaged by the federal government can receive any of the money. The latest deadline for congressional approval is this week, but Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has proposed changes to cap attorneys’ fees, and some organizations – notably the National Congress of American Indians – have voice some support for that.

Cobell’s letter says, in part:

“Every extension of time delays the distribution of our settlement funds. Enough is enough. Further, there are a few tribal leaders in Indian Country, some with misguided intentions, who want to terminate the settlement for their own personal purposes. …

Tribal leaders should know better (and most do) than to support a new Senator from Wyoming who rarely, if ever, has supported Indians. …

If your tribal leaders are voting to change the settlement in any way, they are helping Senator Barrasso kill our settlement and they are depriving you of your money. They do not deserve your vote and should be voted out of office if they stand for re-election.”

To read all of the Ask Elouise columns about the settlement, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Each week, Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the landmark class action $3.4 billion Indian trust case, answers questions about the settlement, and updates people on the process that should eventually result in money for thousands of Native Americans.

This week, she addresses – among other things – the issue of whether Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who is vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, sent a letter to tribal leaders trying to kill the settlement.

The short answer is yes.

For the long answer, click here on Cobell’s weekly column.

People with questions for the column can e-mail Cobell at askelouise@cobellsettlement.com, or send a letter to:

Ask Elouise
Cobell Settlement
PO Box 9577
Dublin, OH 43017-4877

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian trust case, Native American news, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Suicide took five of Coloradas Mangus’ friends. It took family members. And it almost took him.

So, according to this story by the Associated Press’ Matthew Daly, the 15-year-old youth went to Washington yesterday:

Coloradas, a member of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, lives on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico, where there have been five youth suicides since the start of the school year. All were his friends.

Coloradas went to Capitol Hill Thursday to tell lawmakers about the urgent problem of suicide among Native Americans. Tribal suicide rates are 70 percent higher than for the general population, and the youth suicide rate is even higher. On some reservations youth suicide rates are 10 times the national average.

As Daly writes, the Mescalero has only a single mental health clinic for its 4,500 people, and the only 24-hour help line is in Albuquerque, more than 200 miles away.

Coloradas spoke at a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on “The Preventable Epidemic: Youth Suicides and the Urgent Need for Mental Health Care Resources in Indian Country.” He suggested beefing up resources at the mental health center and also creating a youth shelter. Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., backed him up, calling the situation “an ongoing tragedy, made more so by the fact that it is so preventable.”

Dorgan says the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, part of the health care reform legislation signed by President Barack Obama, authorizes more mental health resources for Indian Country, as well as specific youth suicide prevention efforts.

Coloradas, whose grandmother named him after an ancestor, famed Apache chief Mangas Coloradas, called himself part of “a new generation of young men and women who believe in breaking the silence and seeking help,” Coloradas testified. “I come from a people whose pride runs deeps, but I also understand that sometimes pride can keep us from asking for help.”‘
Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Chiricahua Apache, D-N.D., Gwen Florio, Health care reform, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, Mescalero Indian Reservation, Native American news, Native youth suicide, President Barack Obama, The Preventable Epidemic - Youth Suicides and the Urgent Need for Mental Health Care Resources in Indian Country, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs