And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:53:43 EST >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [FN] Fwd: Gov't Has Not Shown Indian Records >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Gov't Has Not Shown Indian Records >Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 03:00:10 EST >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII >Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit > >Gov't Has Not Shown Indian Records > >.c The Associated Press > > By PHILIP BRASHER > >WASHINGTON (AP) -- After two years, and despite legal pressure, the government >still hasn't produced records to show how much money it owes five American >Indians. An additional 300,000 Indians may face the same predicament. > >``It just proves everything we knew: that they've either destroyed the >documents or lost the documents,'' said Elouise Cobell, who lives on Montana's >Blackfeet reservation. ``It gives you proof that there was total >mismanagement. It's our money.'' > >Cobell is one of the five lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in >1996 to contest the Bureau of Indian Affairs' long mismanagement of Indian >land trust-fund accounts. > >The 300,000 accounts, worth an estimated $500 million, belong to individual >Indians who receive royalties and other income from their land. As much as $1 >million has flowed through some of the accounts in a single year, while others >receive only a few dollars. > >A federal judge is threatening to hold Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and >Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for the delay in producing >statements, checks and other documents for the five accounts. So far, only a >fraction of the documents have been produced. > >The records already turned over raise new questions about the Bureau of Indian >Affairs' problems. Of 67 checks that the BIA issued on the funds, only 11 had >been endorsed by the account holder, said Robert Peregoy, an attorney for the >Indians. > >The records also indicate Cobell was not awarded her portion of her deceased >father's land until more than 15 years after he died, according to auditors >hired by the plaintiffs. > >Cobell periodically gets a check for $200 in earnings from that and other land >she's inherited, but she's been unable to find out how much acreage is >involved or what kind of income it produces. ``We don't know if that $200 >should be $200 or $20,000. They can't tell you that,'' she said Wednesday. > >U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who has frequently clashed with the >Clinton administration, has set a contempt hearing for Babbitt and Rubin on >Jan. 11. > >In a separate case Tuesday, Lamberth accused Commerce Department officials of >illegally destroying evidence in connection with charges that the agency sold >slots on trade missions for donations to Democratic candidates. He's the same >judge who earlier fined the administration $286,000 for making inaccurate >statements about the makeup of its health care task force. > >At a Dec. 15 hearing in the Indian case, government lawyers gave the judge a >variety of reasons for failing to turn over the records, including possible >viral contamination of two storage facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and rodent >infestation at another site. > >The government hopes to have the material by the hearing next month, said Ed >Cohen, an Interior Department lawyer. ``The plaintiffs have been aggressive in >seeking records,'' he said. ``We're doing the best we can in producing them. >We're doing this all at the same time that we're trying to fix the system.'' > >He declined to comment on specific cases. > >Settlement talks in the lawsuit have so far gone nowhere. > >The Interior Department says there are too many records missing to come up >with accurate statements, so straightening out those accounts has taken a >lower priority to deciding what to do about 2,000 tribal accounts worth $2 >billion. The BIA has had similar problems in accounting for those funds. > >AP-NY-12-24-98 0259EST > > Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP >news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise >distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." Please Check it before you send it at: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
