“The fact that the Cobell litigation remains unsettled impedes our progress with the federal government on nearly all other issues,” NCAI president Joe Garcia said during the annual State of the Indian Nations address. “The solution is straightforward: Let's settle Cobell fairly and quickly and then let's move ahead. We want Congress to deal with us in good faith and then allow us all to put it behind us.”
Elouise Cobell of Browning, the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department, as well as tribal leaders, have been pushing for a settlement on the case - which has been in court since 1996.
As Garcia delivered Thursday's address, tribal leaders around the country were working on their response to a letter from James Cason, the Interior Department's associate deputy secretary.
Received last week, the letter notified tribes that a court-mandated legal fee payment sent to Cobell attorneys on Jan. 18 would adversely affect tribal programs.
Cason wrote that the $7.1 million award, to be paid to Cobell attorneys under the Equal Access to Justice Act, was an unplanned expense for the Interior Department. Consequently, Cason said, the money - which covers court costs to date in the Cobell suit - would be taken from Native programs.
“Despite Mr. Cason's assertion in the letter that these fees were ‘not a planned expense,' we had made clear almost two years ago that we would be seeking these fees,” Cobell said in a statement released Thursday. “And U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had made equally clear that he was going to award these fees to us.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting will bear the brunt of the costs. The two departments, which fall under the umbrella of the Interior Department, will shoulder $5 million of the legal fees.
“These funds have been redirected to comply with the court's order,” wrote Cason. “These funds are no longer available.” He told tribal leaders to realize that “these financial changes affect your planned program activities.”
The Treasury Department, which cuts land-related royalty checks for tribes and individual landowners, was tapped for $1.8 million.
“This litigation is diverting money from other needs Š that makes it hard for us to move on to other issues,” said Garcia, who delivered his address from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Garcia, who is governor of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, was recently elected to lead NCAI, the country's oldest and largest Native advocacy organization.
Cobell described the government's announcement as “cruel” and “despicable,” given landowner's court-secured rights to an accounting. “Now that the government must pay the costs of that accounting, the Interior Department is planning to loot Indian accounts once again to cover up its misdeeds,” she said.
Besides settling the Cobell v. Norton suit, Garcia listed Indian Country's remaining three priorities as law enforcement, health care and education-economy matters.
“The Indian nations stand strong today,” Garcia said. “We are growing more self-sufficient, more economically developed, more politically active and as always steadfastly committed to the stewardship and defense of our home, the United States of America. At the same time, this confidence is matched by an acute awareness of our problems.”
He cited law enforcement concerns, such as border patrol, methamphetamine use, violence against Native women and lack of police officers on tribal lands.
Now that Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, Garcia urged congressional leaders to fully fund it. The act includes a new provision targeting the safety of Native women; 70 percent of the violent crimes against them are committed by someone of a different race.
As for health care, Garcia implored Congress to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act during this session. “This legislation is no less than the framework for the Indian health-care system. It will bring our outdated and inadequate system into the 21st century, addressing mental health, substance abuse and youth suicide and support for Š qualified health-care professionals.”
Even though federal spending for the U.S. population at large outpaces money allocated for tribes, reservation economies continue to grow, he said.
Between 1990 and 2000, income among Natives rose by a third while the poverty rate declined by 7 percent. These improvements occurred whether a tribe operated a casino or not, according to a study by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
“But this is only a beginning,” said Garcia. “Unemployment is still double what it is for the rest of the country. And the poorest counties in the United States are on tribal lands. We still have yet to join the success of the rest of the nation.”
Tribal economies, he added, are inextricably linked to the education of Native people.
“We know from academic studies that Indian children flourish when their classroom experiences are built on our tradition, language and our culture,” said Garcia. “The No Child Left Behind Act allows for this kind of education, but the resources to actually make it possible have yet to be appropriated.”
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for Lee Enterprises. She can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net
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