And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
March 9, 1999
Poor Indians Who Own Rich Lands Try to Break Out of Vast Federal
Maze
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/indian-land-trust.html
By TIMOTHY EGAN
ETUMKA, Okla. -- If she could look out her
window, Mary Fish Basquez would see the ground
that was given to her family long ago, land now being
hollowed for oil that was supposed to mean a better life for
Muscogee Indians.
The oil is pumped just steps from the rumpled little house
where Mrs. Basquez lives. But for all the Oklahoma sweet
crude that comes from six wells on her family's 40 acres,
Mrs. Basquez receives only a few dollars a year. And from
her house, now, she cannot even see the land -- the
windows are boarded up because she is unable to afford
basic home improvement.
Being poor and Indian and locked in a fight over some
scrap of land are not unusual circumstances in this part of
Oklahoma, where tribes from the Southeast were forced to
live in the last century. But if the land itself is rich, and the
manager of it is supposed to be making money from it for
the Indians, that boils the blood of people here beyond the
rage over historic slights.
In this case, the manager is the federal government, which
holds more than 10 million acres in trust for up to a
half-million individual Indians. But as a trust manager, a
role it has had for more than a century, the government
seems incapable of keeping track of the money for people
like Mrs. Basquez. It cannot even tell her how much oil is
being sucked out of the ground, or what company owns
the lease, or the price it pays for the oil.
"It makes me so mad," said Mrs. Basquez, a 56-year-old
Muscogee, Indians who are also known as Creeks. "I see
all the oil they're taking away, but then I get a statement
for $5 or less."
But Mrs. Basquez is getting her day in court. Her case is
one of thousands behind the largest class-action suit ever
filed by Indians. They say the government, which is
required by law to take care of Indian trust lands with a
high standard of fiduciary responsibility, has managed the
accounts with epic ineptitude.
The Indian plaintiffs say a system run by people who know
next to nothing about managing trusts has produced a
situation where most beneficiaries cannot even get an
account of their own assets.
Even the basic numbers about the size of the trusts are
unknown. The Interior Department says it manages about
300,000 accounts, through which pass roughly $500
million a year. The Indians say that because the
government has lost track of so many beneficiaries, the
actual number of accounts is closer to 500,000.
The trusts work like this: The government leases out the
Indian-owned land to oil, gas, timber or other businesses
for a fee. The fees then go to the Treasury Department,
and from there, checks are supposed to be sent to
individual Indians. Money does go out. But many checks
gather dust, because the government claims it cannot find
the beneficiaries.
There are so many lapses, black holes and lost records in
the system that the government says it cannot even
account for 50,000 of the active trusts.
The government, in large measure, agrees with the Indian
complaints, and says it is the top priority of the Interior
Department to fix the problem.
<<END EXCERPT
(for a personal account see: http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/OIL.htm by Steve
Russel)
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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