And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 20:16:51 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Babbitt Faulted on Indian Accounts Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Babbitt Faulted on Indian Accounts http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpwh1m.htm By MATT KELLEY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate's only American Indian on Wednesday accused the Interior Department of making excuses instead of seriously trying to make amends for mismanaging more than $3 billion of American Indians' money. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, clashed with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt at a hearing on the money issue, saying Babbitt's department dragged its feet and hindered efforts to correct problems with missing paperwork, lax oversight and poor investments for the Indian funds. ``Indians are owed more than promises, and enough is enough,'' said the Colorado Republican and member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. ``Indian Country has continued to be asked to wait for their money, and Indians still don't have their money,'' Campbell said. Babbitt retorted that Campbell's own proposed solutions were ``ill-advised'' and ``fantasy.'' ``It's just creating another process to quarrel over,'' Babbitt said. The department's Bureau of Indian Affairs oversees trust accounts for both individual Indians and tribes: about 1,500 accounts worth more than $2.5 billion for 338 tribes and more than 300,000 accounts for individual Indians worth more than $500 million. Babbitt and other department officials admit that both kinds of accounts have been mismanaged for decades and are plagued by incomplete, inaccurate, missing or contradictory record-keeping. Auditors could not account for billions of dollars' worth of past transactions involving the accounts. Last week Campbell introduced legislation that would create a semi-independent ``special trustee'' at the department to oversee ``data cleanup'' -- the process of checking paper records, ensuring they are accurate and entering them into a computer database. Campbell's proposal also would create an independent commission to hear from tribal leaders and other experts about what other steps should be taken to solve the account management problems. Tribes have criticized the handling of the trust funds for years, and a group of individual account holders is suing the department, seeking court oversight of reform efforts and billions of dollars in compensation. The judge in that case cited Babbitt and BIA head Kevin Gover for contempt of court earlier this year for repeated delays in handing over documents. A lawyer for the Indians, Keith Harper, said Wednesday that both sides have recently been trying to negotiate a settlement to at least part of the case. Harper said his clients want the courts to have a role in overseeing reforms, whether or not Campbell's legislation requiring more independent oversight of reform efforts passes. ``I don't think anything Congress does should dissuade the court from taking a role,'' Harper said in an interview. ``Congress can't have a hearing every day. The court can.'' Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
