(MintPress)-American Indian tribes will begin receiving money from the federal government this week following one of the biggest settlements of tribal trust claims, some of which date back more than 100 years. The Obama administration announced last week it will pay over $1 billion for the mismanagement of funds and natural resources held in trust by the United States, ending nearly two years of negotiations between tribes and the federal government.
Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Wednesday that $1.023 billion will be distributed among 41 federally-recognized tribes to settle a string of lawsuits filed against the United States.
The federal government manages about 56 million acres of trust lands for federally-recognized American Indian communities, including 2,500 trust accounts for more than 250 tribes. The Department of Interior also manages over 100,000 leases on the land for housing, timber, farming, grazing, oil and gas extraction, easements, and other various uses.
“These settlements fairly and honorably resolve historical grievances over the accounting and management of tribal trust funds, trust lands, and other non-monetary trust resources that, for far too long, have been a source of conflict between Indian tribes and the United States,” said Attorney General Holder in a statement.
“Our commitment to tribes is the cornerstone of the Department of Justice’s policies and initiatives in Indian Country, and these settlements will enable the tribal community to pursue the goals and objectives they deem to be appropriate while marking another step in our shared future built upon mutual respect and strong bonds of trust between tribal governments and the United States,” he said.
Following the Money Trail
Settlement figures are considered confidential, yet some figures were entered into US District Court record in Washington, D.C. Tribes across the United States will receive settlement funds, but those in the West are expected to receive the most.
The Minnesota Chippewa tribe, with 40,000 members, is expected to receive about $2 million, while the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington State, with roughly 10,000 members, will receive $193 million.
Because the federal government is accused of keeping poor records and failing to collect fees from companies working on tribal lands, money will be distributed to tribes based on how much land the government held in trust and the value of the concessions. Tribes holding oil and gas concessions, including other natural resources, will likely receive greater values from the settlement.
The 16,000 members of the Osage tribe of Oklahoma, which began leasing land for oil development in the early 1900s, will receive $380 million as determined last October. Montana’s Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will receive $150 million, while Montana’s Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes from the Fort Peck Reservation will receive $75 million.
Brooklyn Baptiste, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, which will receive $34 million for its 4,000 members, said, “Although this settlement does not erase the fact that the United States failed to uphold its fiduciary obligations to the tribe, the tribe is pleased to reach a resolution to these claims that will provide some benefit to the Nez Perce Tribe and its members for these past wrongs.”
Settlement Proposal to Obama Administration
The billion dollar settlement comes after nearly two years of litigation that began after lawyers for several tribes with litigation pending against the United States wrote to President Obama in 2009 to demand an expedited settlement process.
In 2010, a settlement process referred to as the “Settlement Proposal to Obama Administration” or “SPOA” began, which led in part to last week’s announcement. A total of 74 tribes are believed to have filed trust accounting and trust mismanagement cases with SPOA.
According to Tom Schlosser, lawyer representing the Hoopa Valley tribe in California, 40 of the 74 tribes were represented by the Native American Rights Fund, consolidated into one case. Schlosser told the Two Rivers Tribune that the government settled with each tribe in the case individually, and that as tribes settled, they were subsequently dismissed as a plaintiff from the case.
On December 6, 2011, the United States presented settlement offers to 60 Indian tribes as a part of SPOA. The Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) continues to provide historical trust accounting data and monthly periodic statements for tribal review of trust accounts information to these tribes.
Roughly half of the plaintiffs believed to be represented in the original lawsuit by the Native American Rights Fund were included in the announcement of the 41 settlements last week. As many as 60 additional tribal trust cases are still pending against the United States.
A total of 114 tribes filed lawsuits against the United States after Elouise Cobell, a member of Montana’s Blackfeet Tribe, filed a similar claim in 1996, which grew to include 300,000 individuals. A $3.4 billion agreement was reached last year in Cobell v. Salazar, 15 years after being filed.
Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, released a statement, saying, “While she is no longer with us to see this day, Elouise Cobell’s family should be proud of her trailblazing leadership that helped establish justice for dozens of tribes.”
Payments will not be made in the Cobell case, the largest class-action lawsuit in US history, until all appeals have been resolved. Payments in last week’s settlement, however, may begin as early as this week.
Markey views last week’s settlement as a step in the right direction for the US. “For decades, the United States government mismanaged and mishandled tribal lands and resources. And while one day does not undo decades of disregard, today’s action by the Obama administration sets a new, more trustworthy path between our government that is meant to serve all of America’s people, and the tribes who represent our past and are part of our future,” he said.