In his testimony before Congress, John Echohawk, director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), called it “yet another serious and continuing breach in a long history of dishonorable treatment of Indian tribes and individual Indians by the United States government.”
Arizona Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, bluntly called it a “theft from Indian people.”
These men were describing the single largest and longest-lasting financial scandal in history involving the federal government of the United States. The culprit: the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a department of the Interior’s agency, and its management of Indian money held in trust accounts.
More stories available, I am giving you several links to follow this story.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1088/natives/case.htm
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/free/biatrustfund.html
Who is Elouise Cobell?
“Bush administration calls for end to Cobell case”
Judge replies the Interior department “has an unprecedented opportunity within its grasp: to take real steps now to redress some of the harm that has been inflicted against some of this nation’s most impoverished citizens”
Elouise Cobell is the lead plaintiff in a federal court case attempting to restore to Indians money which is rightfully theirs. A member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe of Montana, she grew up with seven siblings in a home that lacked electricity, a telephone, and running water. Today, she is the Executive Director of the Native American Community Development Corporation and Chairperson for the Blackfeet National Bank. She served for 13 years as her tribe’s treasurer and that experience opened her eyes to the mess that the federal government had made of trust accounts and the effects mismanagement had on the quality of life of tribal members. The lawsuit Elouise Cobell brought with others, Cobell v. Norton, is solely on behalf of individuals and families who were cheated by the government and deprived of royalties and land use fees.
http://www.fcnl.org/act_nalu_curnt/indian_0422_05.htm
