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Bill Means: Cobell settlement a rip-off for Indians
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Filed Under: Cobell | Opinion

"With all due respect to Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a recently settled lawsuit over American Indian trust funds, I think the United States is continuing a policy of "Indians are not humans."

During the course of this long-running, class-action litigation, it has been documented that the United States owes Indian people more than $137 billion for mismanagement of trust accounts. That was established just by the documents that were presented.

The original federal judge on this case was Royce Lamberth, who held at least three secretaries of the Interior in contempt for not producing thousands of additional documents. Also, during the course of this case, hundreds of relevant documents were found in the trash by Interior Department employees, who reported this to the court and to Interior Department officials.

Those of us who own Indian land, heirs and the American public do not know the total amount owed to Indian people, because the government has refused to turn over all the documents ordered by the federal court. Lamberth was removed from the case; officials in the Bush administration argued that he was biased in favor of Indians."

Get the Story:
Bill Means: The United States continues to steal from Indians (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 12/15)

Relevant Documents:
Agreement | Press Release | Q&A | Audio

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