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Post by mdenney on Oct 9, 2007 22:44:52 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Oct 11, 2007 0:59:41 GMT -5
Cobell historical accounting trial starts in DC Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Filed Under: Cobell A federal judge in Washington, D.C., will being a trial today into the historical accounting of the Indian trust fund. Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, sued the Interior and Treasury departments in June 1996. She asked for an accounting of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust. A judge ruled for Cobell in December 1999, ordering the government to conduct the accounting. But there is still no answer on how much money, if any, Indian beneficiaries are owed for the use of their land for oil, gas, grazing, rights-of-way and other activities. Judge James Robertson is presiding over the case. He wants the government to prove that its accounting plan is adequate. The trial takes place in Courtroom 23A of the federal district courthouse. It is expected to start every day at 9:30am and end at 5pm. www.dcd.uscourts.gov/Get the Story: American Indian lawsuit sparked by Montana woman being heard (KPAX 10/9) www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=7189895Relevant Links: Indian Trust: Cobell v. Kempthorne - www.indiantrust.comCobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm from link below- indianz.com/News/2007/005330.asp
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Post by mdenney on Oct 11, 2007 1:08:27 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Oct 12, 2007 13:20:36 GMT -5
Cason concludes testimony in Cobell trust trial Friday, October 12, 2007 Filed Under: Cobell indianz.com/trust/cobell/The Bush administration only plans to account for about half of the money in the Indian trust fund, a senior official testified on Thursday. In December 1999, the Interior Department was ordered to account for "all funds" in the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust. A federal appeals court upheld the ruling in February 2001. But the Bush administration's latest accounting plan appears to fall short of that goal. Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary at the Department of the Interior, said only 50 to 55 percent of the money in the IIM trust will be reconciled. On his last day on the stand, Cason also defended the government's management of the trust. He said the accounting work so far -- which is largely based on electronic data from 1985 through the present -- has turned up no "systemic" errors. "Generally, the system works very well," Cason testified under cross-examination by the Cobell plaintiffs. But Cason was forced to admit the department has never fulfilled at least one of its duties to Indian landowners. "It's my understanding that we've never had a regular, periodic accounting," he said. The Indian trust was created in the late 1800s as a result of the allotment of tribal lands to individual Indians. Since the early 1900s, the government says around $11.7 billion has passed through the system. The plaintiffs say at least $13 billion, and possibly more, has been received. Some Interior officials, including Special Trustee Ross Swimmer, have asserted that the government has always had a duty to account for these funds. Cason didn't necessarily think that was the case when asked about the lack of prior reconciliation of the IIM trust. "The Department of the Interior did not anticipate 100 years later that we would have to do this type of work," he said. But the department did anticipate that Indian landowners would have to pay some of the services they receive from the government. Although Cason and other officials have characterized the trust as a "free" system, he admitted to a "handful" of administrative fees. "In large part, we don't charge fees" except for a "few cases," Cason said. The administration's May 2007 historical accounting plan, however, won't tell Indian landowners how much they have paid the government, Cason acknowledged. Cason also said the plan doesn't address an unresolved U.S. Supreme Court decision. In 1997, the justices said Interior violated the constitutional rights of Indian landowners by forcing them to give up their property without just compensation. The Youpee case affected property owned by about 18,000 individual Indians in the Great Plains and the Midwest. Due to fractionation and probate proceedings, the department has estimated that 775,000 land interests need to be resolved. "I don't know the exact figure," Cason said. "They're very tiny interests." The department could revert the interests back to their proper owners or compensate them, Cason said. But when asked whether any final decisions about the Youpee interests have been made, he replied "No." "We're not doing an accounting for land," he added. After a few rebuttal questions from the Department of Justice, Cason concluded his testimony yesterday morning. The government called its next witness, Kathy Ramirez, an employee of the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians. Ramirez works at the American Indian Records Repository in Lenexa, Kansas, where millions of records that are being used for the historical accounting are stored. "It's in a cave," she told the court. Ramirez testified about the massive indexing and retrieval system at the AIRR. "I think it's rather impressive," she said of the overall facility, which houses several government agencies as well as commercial entities. Ramirez didn't have any specific knowledge about the historical accounting of the IIM trust. Her testimony was mainly limited to record keeping practices and a photo presentation of the AIRR. Judge James Robertson, a Clinton appointee who was assigned the case late last year after the removal of Judge Royce Lamberth, has expressed an interest in seeing the facility as part of the trial. The next witness was Michelle Herman, one of the many consultants who has been hired by the government as part of the Cobell case. She took the stand late in the day on Thursday. The proceedings are set to resume today. Robertson has set aside Fridays to address motions, legal issues and administrative matters. Testimony from witnesses is expected to take place Mondays through Thursdays. Court Decisions: Cobell v. Norton [District Court] www.indiantrust.com/_pdfs/99.12.21-memorandum_opinion.pdf| Cobell v. Norton [Appeals Court] www.indiantrust.com/_pdfs/CVB_Appeals_Decision.PDF| Babbitt v. Youpee [Supreme Court] straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-1595.ZS.htmlRelevant Links: Indian Trust: Cobell v. Kempthorne - www.indiantrust.comCobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm all from link below- indianz.com/News/2007/005350.asp
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Post by mdenney on Oct 12, 2007 13:25:45 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Oct 13, 2007 14:30:38 GMT -5
This was posted from another online site
Whatever happened here? Did the House Resources Committee ever really investigate this?
03/17/2000
U.S. House committee could violate sovereignty By David Melmer Today staff WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Resources Committee is stepping into sovereignty issues by conducting an oversight investigation into enrollment practices of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota.
For the past six years the tribal enrollment practices of the small band have been the subject of lawsuits filed in tribal and federal courts. And now the people who brought the lawsuits have convinced Congress to take up their cause.
Many people, who claim to be eligible for enrollment in the Shakopee Tribe, have been denied and have formed a group they refer to as the orphans, plaintiffs to the lawsuit say.
The Resource Committee, under the signature of its chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, requested that Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt produce all records pertaining to the Shakopee Tribe.
BIA spokesman Rex Hackler said the BIA had no choice but to comply with the request.
"The oversight review is on membership and enrollment policies and practices of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community per capita payments made as a result of membership in the Community, general assistance payments made by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community, and related matters associated with Little Six Inc. a tribal corporation that conducts class III gaming as authorized under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and which provides a large portion of the revenues enabling the above-referenced payments," the request stated.
Of concern to tribal officials and others outside the Shakopee Community is the reference to oversight of enrollment practices. The federal government acknowledges that a tribe has the right to decide its own enrollment membership criteria.
The rules are established by a constitution and then by an enrollment ordinance, which is approved by the BIA and Department of Interior. The Shakopee Tribe has an approved ordinance that establishes enrollment and another ordinance that deals with adoption, tribal officials said.
"The matters addressed in the committee's inquiry to Secretary Babbitt regarding the sufficiency of community laws have been reviewed by numerous courts, found to be adequate and wholly tribal matters amenable to resolution in the Shakopee Medewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community tribal court. The tribal court has repeatedly upheld the sufficiency of the community's laws regarding adoption and enrollment," an official statement from the tribe said.
With the acknowledgment that enrollment practices will be reviewed, the question of an infringement to tribal sovereignty becomes an issue. Frank Pommersheim, noted tribal law expert at the University of South Dakota Law School, said this action could put sovereignty at risk.
"This is a blow to tribal sovereignty."
Enrollment records are kept at the tribal level. As of press time, Shakopee officials had not seen the official request from the committee nor had had any request placed on its own records.
It's not unusual for a congressional committee to request documents to support an oversight investigation. But, no tribal official could recall when Congress made enrollment practices the subject of an oversight review.
The tribal constitution states that to qualify for membership a person needs to prove one-quarter Mdewakanton blood quantum and trace lineage to tribal members residing in the state on May 20, 1886. An adoption ordinance was approved by the tribal council and upheld by the tribal courts.
The catalyst that sparked the request comes from enrolled members of the Shakopee Community. "We are grateful that Congress has finally decided to try to shed some sunshine on the terrible tragedy," said Winifred Feezor and Cecilia St. Pierre, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the tribe. Their mother, Louis Bluestone Smith, was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that attempted to stop the tribe from adopting members who, it claimed, were not qualified under the constitution. They further charged the tribe did not enroll others who were qualified.
"What we want is tribal integrity, nothing more, but nothing less," Feezor and St. Pierre said.
"The Department of Interior and BIA tolerated, if not facilitated, the ongoing enrollment fraud and manipulation at Shakopee, literally for decades," they said. Their claim is that the federal government "neglected its trust responsibility to true Mdewakanton people from the start."
The Shakopee Tribe was formed under the Indian Reorganization Act in 1969. Ancestors of the present members remained in Minnesota as friends of the settlers and the Army after most were removed to South Dakota following the 1862 Mankato Conflict. Many of those removed moved to Santee, Neb. Some returned to Minnesota.
The Resources Committee request stated the issues of enrollment and Class III gaming revenue distribution will be examined within the context of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Indian Civil Rights Act and the Indian Reorganization Act. The committee has jurisdiction over those acts.
The request called "any and all records" that relate to the issues. That includes all records now at Interior, those in the possession of others who may have been employed by the department and all records created by persons inside or outside the department.
The request also stated that personal interviews may have to be conducted.
The Shakopee Tribe is a wealthy tribe. It owns Little Six Inc. which operates Mystic Lake Casino and Dakota Casino at Prior Lake, Minn. The small tribe distributes the revenues to the membership through per-capita payments.
Feezor and St. Pierre claim that as of the last per capita distribution list there were 76 percent of the people were not qualified to be members, under the tribe's constitution. They also claim that of the people listed as eligible voters, 61 percent are not qualified to be members.
Since gaming came to the tribe, the two assert the number of people allowed to vote has jumped by nearly 80 percent.
--- ©2000 Indian Country Today
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Post by mdenney on Oct 25, 2007 20:49:24 GMT -5
DOI attorney faults BIA office in Palm Springs Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Filed Under: Cobell An Interior Department attorney who has been locked out of his office at the Bureau of Indian Affairs accused the agency on Tuesday of failing to account for millions of dollars in trust funds. After a stint in Oklahoma, field solicitor Robert McCarthy went to work for the BIA in Palm Springs, California, over three years ago. He said he quickly learned that the agency didn't have a way to track more than $30 million in annual lease payments owed to members of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. "The agency had a very poor system of record-keeping and was grossly mismanaging the leases ... and was generally not enforcing the leases," testified McCarthy, one of the witnesses for the plaintiffs in the Cobell trust fund lawsuit. Enforcement was so lax that it was impossible to tell whether Agua Caliente landowners received the right amount of money for the use of their land and whether they received it on time, McCarthy said. The BIA essentially relied on the word of developers, private parties and outsiders. "I saw files that were years in default," McCarthy said of leases that weren't enforced. Even when a payment was made, the BIA didn't always pass it on to the beneficiary, McCarthy testified. In one case, the BIA kept a trust payment of $130,000 in a "special deposit account" for over 25 years because the agency didn't know whose money it was. After some research, McCarthy said he discovered the owner "in fact was a very prominent tribal official." McCarthy and Keith Harper, an attorney for the plaintiffs, were careful not to identify the official but the Department of Justice -- during a particularly harsh cross-examination -- later disclosed it was Barbara Gonzales Lyons, the tribe's former vice chair. One document that was entered into evidence showed she finally got all of her money in late 2004 -- 27 years after it was placed in the SDA. Despite the apparent mismanagement, the BIA made money off of Agua Caliente landowners. "In virtually every case for virtually every type of administrative action," the agency charged a fee for its services, McCarthy said. For example, a fee of 1 percent was applied to every single land sale, McCarthy said. In Palm Springs -- where real estate is big business -- this amounted to payments to the BIA that were as high as $60,000, according to one document entered into evidence. But federal regulations limit fees for land sales to $22.50, McCarthy said. The regulations also cap fees for leases at $500, though that apparently wasn't followed in Palm Springs. "Those fees are charged in Palm Springs on every lease," McCarthy told the court. Similar problems were identified in a 1992 audit by the Interior Department's Inspector General. The report recommended the BIA add a field solicitor to the Palm Springs office and develop a system to ensure Agua Caliente landowners were getting paid fair market value and that their leases were being enforced. The first recommendation was implemented but McCarthy said there was no evidence the BIA was handling the trust "any different from 1992." The agency did buy a computer system to track and enforce the leases but it "was not put into use," he testified. "I found that it was in a back room in a locked office," he said. More recently, the BIA started to enter Agua Caliente data into the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System (TAAMS). But a September 2006 memo from a realty officer in Palm Springs called the $40 million system little more than a "database of misinformation," according to a document entered into evidence. The situation prompted McCarthy to warn his superiors in the Solicitor's Office, the Inspector General and eventually Jim Cason -- the associate deputy secretary at DOI who was in charge of the BIA at the time -- about the problems in Palm Springs. "I was kicked out of my office after I made my disclosures," McCarthy told Judge James Robertson, who wondered why the solicitor was working from home -- with pay -- rather than at the BIA office. "Everyone stopped talking to me," McCarthy added. "I was shunned." And when McCarthy informed his superiors that he was going to testify in the Cobell trial, he was told he was going to be fired for allegedly disclosing confidential trust data to the media. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility group is defending McCarthy, who has filed appeals over his employment status. A draft Inspector General audit that has been circulating among Agua Caliente members appears to confirm the lapses in management in Palm Springs. It said BIA lacks a system to account for leases and cited BIA employees who said the TAAMS system was essentially useless. After his direct testimony, McCarthy was treated in a hostile manner by Robert Kirschman, a DOJ attorney. Kirschman attempted to show that McCarthy tried to take sole credit for identifying the proper owner of the $130,000 trust payment, mischaracterized the way in which Agua Caliente leases are tracked and gave inaccurate information in the memo to Cason. McCarthy appeared to withstand the scrutiny and Kirschman cut off his cross-examination after seeming to stumble on a question about fees. Kirschman also tried to make an issue out of a memo that he said McCarthy failed to provide to the court. McCarthy was followed on the stand by Mona Infield, a longtime BIA employee who at one point was sent home for criticizing the agency for its trust management. She is back in her office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she is in charge of data recovery efforts. Infield, a member of the Citizen Potawataomi Nation of Oklahoma, gave succinct but detailed testimony about trust accounting practices dating back to the 1980s. She spoke of outdated systems, missing computer records and a lack of enforcement. "They were relying on an honor system to pay the royalties," she said of government agencies. Infield concluded her testimony yesterday afternoon after DOJ attorneys declined to ask questions. Kevin Gambrell, a former DOI trust manager in Farmington, New Mexico, who was removed from his position for alleged insubordination and alleged destruction of documents, was set to testify today. www.indianz.com/News/2007/005546.asp
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Post by mdenney on Oct 26, 2007 13:12:06 GMT -5
Cobell historical accounting trial wraps up Friday, October 26, 2007 Filed Under: Cobell After just 10 full days of testimony, the trial into the Indian trust fund historical accounting concluded in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Judge James Robertson, who was assigned the case last December, called the trial in April. At the time, he said it would "continue as long as necessary," indicating a potentially long haul that could rival prior proceedings in the 11-year-old case. Those expectations quickly faded as Robertson, throughout the trial, urged the government and the Cobell plaintiffs to keep their presentations short and to the point. It also helped that the judge decided not to visit the Interior Department's Indian records repository in Kansas as he earlier envisioned. The speedy pace appeared to surprise both parties. Earlier this week, the Cobell team -- after presenting their first witness on Monday -- predicted the trial would end by Thursday or Friday. The government and the plaintiffs now have until November 30 to present their final arguments. But just what Robertson will do next is anybody's guess. "He's so hard to read," a visitor to the courtroom said earlier this week. The Bush administration wants Robertson to keep his hands off the case so that the Interior Department can finish its historical accounting. The latest plan, issued in May, calls for the project to be finished by the end of 2011. Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary at Interior who was the government's primary witness, testified that the "2007 plan is a continuation of the work that we have already accomplished, and the 2007 plan is a road map of the activities that we plan to undertake to finish this job." The Cobell plaintiffs want Robertson to keep a close eye on Interior. They say it's impossible for the historical accounting to be complete due to missing records, inaccurate data and destroyed documents. "What that means is that the accounting balances cannot be confirmed," Paul Homan, a banker who was the very first Special Trustee for American Indians, testified. According to his earlier court order, Robertson plans to determine whether the accounting plan satisfies fiduciary trust standards and whether the accounting was "unreasonably" delayed. He has been concerned about the limits and exclusions the Bush administration has placed on the project. "This trial is about the adequacy of the accounting," Robertson reiterated this week. Robertson also wants to determine whether the government has cured the breaches of trust that were first identified by Judge Royce Lamberth back in December 1999. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in February 2001. But Robertson has said he is guided by some overarching principles that were more recently articulated by the D.C. Circuit. One ruling blocks his court from dictating the details of the government's plans and another requires him to be mindful of the funding limits imposed by Congress. www.indianz.com/News/2007/005595.asp
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Post by mustang on Oct 28, 2007 8:18:11 GMT -5
The BIA mess up in Minnesota
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Post by mdenney on Oct 28, 2007 8:55:40 GMT -5
WITNESSES CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING PLANS FOR INDIAN TRUST; TRIAL CONCLUDES AFTER 10 DAYS OF TESTIMONY TRIAL CONCLUDES AFTER 10 DAYS OF TESTIMONY WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 -- A series of witnesses has directly challenged the federal government's plan for reconciling hundreds of thousands of trust accounts that the U.S. Interior Department has acknowledged were seriously mismanaged. Testifying in the 11-year-old class action lawsuit over the accounts, the witnesses, several of them former Interior officials, told U.S. District Judge James Robertson that the plans are seriously flawed and based on faulty, unreliable records. The trial ended Thursday afternoon after 10 days of testimony. Both sides have until Nov. 30 to submit written briefs recommending how the judge should rule. The trial began Oct. 10. It's focus was the adequacy of the government's long-promised plans to give an estimated 500,000 Native Americans the first accounting of what happened to their trust lands and accounts. Congress established the accounts in 1887 to hold the proceeds from government arranged leases of millions of acres of Indian lands, mostly in the West. The government has acknowledged that the accounts were mismanaged from their inception, but has yet to make good on repeated promises to give the Indian Trust beneficiaries an accounting of what happened to their accounts. In the final week of testimony, witnesses called by the Indian plaintiffs in the case disputed the earlier testimony of James Cason, an associate deputy Interior secretary. The government's first witness, Cason sought to assure the court that the department's efforts to recreate the trust accounts is showing few problems with the accounts. Cason's assertion was undercut by the testimony of Paul Homan, the first special trustee confirmed by Congress to oversee what it has called the "broken Indian Trust." The former head of a major Washington bank, Homan testified that major trust fund accounts managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs had been out of balance for years and that officials had made no attempt to reconcile "these astounding differences." The imbalances were often in the millions of dollars, Homan said. It was the biggest mess Homan said he had seen in his 40 years as a federal banking supervisor and banker. Homan called the government's accounting plans a waste of money. He said he wouldn't spend "a nickel" on them. Homan's account of missing trust records was supported by other current and former Interior employees. Data processing specialist Mona Infield of New Mexico recalled how Interior officials regularly destroyed computer tapes containing key trust. Their computers simply didn't have enough capacity to keep all the trust data, so purges of key files were performed on a regular basis, she said. Infield said some officials became so worried by the destruction they filled a rental truck with magnetic computer tapes and attempted to haul them to another site for preservation, she said. But the truck broke down in the Southwestern desert, she said Before it could be towed, Infield said all the tapes melted in the heat. There is no way those records can be replaced, Infield said. Robert McCarthy, an Interior lawyer from Palm Springs, Calif., testified that officials at his office still have no way of tracking whether lease payments to Indians are being made on time. "Essentially collections were on the honor system," he said. Kevin Gambrell, a former Interior official from Farmington, N.M., said Interior officials there also did little to make certain oil and gas payments were made on time. "The honor system doesn't work," he told Judge Robertson. Interior's records of those lucrative leases, a major source of trust income, are also unreliable, he said. Richard Fasold, a Colorado financial consultant, was one of a number of financial consultants who testified that Interior's plans for the accounting were often vague and lacked the precision required in financial reviews. He also pointed to one chart that showed a $4 billion gap between the money Interior Department claimed to have received for leases Indians Trust lands and what it reported paying to the Indians. Fasold could not explain how such a gap could have occurred. Interior officials had not added up the differences in their version of the chart. Fasold did the calculation and told the judge about the gap he discovered. And, he noted later, the chart did not cover all the years that the Indian Trust has been in operation. www.indiantrust.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.ViewDetail&PressRelease_id=182&Month=10&Year=2007
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Post by mdenney on Nov 4, 2007 11:41:47 GMT -5
Shakopee Valley News News » General News Judge expands plaintiff list in tribal lawsuit Submitted by Pat Minelli on April 30, 2007 - 11:24am. Filed under: General News A federal judge has ruled that a group of 22,000 people can sue the U.S. government for mismanagement of tribal lands, including land occupied by the Shakopee Mdwakanton Dakota Community (SMDC). U.S. Court of Claims Judge Charles F. Lettow also granted requests by the SMDC and the Prairie Island community to stay out of the lawsuit. On April 27, Lettow granted the two tribal communities’ request to quash a summons that would have required them to be defendants in the lawsuit. Lettow originally ruled in October 2004 that the government breached a trust by allowing organizers of other tribes to take over Minnesota Mdewakanton Dakota land, including tribal land in Prior Lake now owned by the SMDC. Lettow said appropriation acts in the 1800s required the federal government to hold land for the permanent benefit of Minnesota Mdewakanton members listed on an 1886 census. The number of people claiming to be “lineal descendants” of the land’s original occupants has grown from 250 to more than 20,000. The group believes it has a right to its share of the wealth created by SMDC enterprises, most notably Mystic Lake Casino. The Lower Sioux Mdewakanton in southern Minnesota has supported the lawsuit. The judge’s ruling leads the plaintiffs down a path that could eventually lead them to profits from the casino. But tribal representatives maintain that plaintiffs’ case is weak. – Lori Carlson www.shakopeenews.com/node/2159
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Post by mdenney on Nov 4, 2007 12:11:36 GMT -5
This Fits where Kaardal Talks about in his reply to the courts Update: Judge allows tribes to stay out of lawsuit Submitted by Lori Carlson on May 3, 2007 - 2:58pm. Filed under: General news By Lori Carlson Editor A federal judge has ruled that a group of 22,000 people can sue the U.S. government for mismanagement of tribal lands, including land occupied by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC). U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Charles F. Lettow also granted requests by the SMSC and the Prairie Island community to stay out of the lawsuit. On April 27, Lettow granted the two tribal communities’ request to quash a summons that would have required them to be defendants in the lawsuit. In 2005, the court granted partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs, stating that the United States, as trustee of lands including the SMSC, Prairie Island and Lower Sioux reservations, had breached its fiduciary duties. The decision is subject to appeal. Lettow ruled that the government breached a trust by allowing organizers of other tribes to take over Minnesota Mdewakanton Sioux land, including tribal land in Prior Lake now owned by the SMSC. The judge said appropriation acts in the 1800s required the federal government to hold land for the permanent benefit of Minnesota Mdewakanton members listed on an 1886 census. The number of people claiming to be “lineal descendants” of the land’s original occupants has grown from 250 to more than 20,000. The group believes it has a right to its share of the wealth created by SMSC enterprises, most notably Mystic Lake Casino. The Lower Sioux Mdewakanton in southern Minnesota has supported the lawsuit. The judge’s ruling leads the plaintiffs down a path that could eventually lead them to profits from the casino. “In my opinion, the court is handling the matter expeditiously,” said Erick Kaardal, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the case. “It will take at least two more years to finish.” Kaardal said he and the people named in the suit are happy with the judge’s decision that their claim against the United States isn’t affected by the tribal communities’ involvement – or lack of involvement – in the suit. “The decision streamlines the case,” he said. SMSC representatives maintain that the plaintiffs’ case is weak. “Our prediction all along has been the farther this goes, the more it’s going to unravel,” said Willie Hardacker, SMSC tribal counsel. “I feel strongly that no trust was created. If there’s no trust, then there’s no case.” Hardacker said the appropriation acts were intended to help the Mdewakanton people create self-sufficiency. “When we say self sufficient, we don’t mean relying on a trust,” he said. Hardacker believes the U.S. government will appeal the case. But in order to appeal, the government must file a request with the judge, something Lettow “almost invited” in court, he said. “He was asking [government lawyers], ‘Why aren’t you asking to appeal these issues?’” Hardacker said. As for the judge’s decision to keep the tribes out of the lawsuit, the SMSC is “extremely happy,” Hardacker said. “We’re out of a lawsuit. From the tribe’s perspective, that’s the way it should be,” he said. The case will go to court on Aug. 6, when the parties will discuss plans for calculating potential damages to be claimed by the plaintiffs. Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 www.plamerican.com/node/1893
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Post by mustang on Nov 6, 2007 8:03:33 GMT -5
Just think of it,your family land can go to anybody,but you.and I hear from shakopee if the people want enrollment they should go to Morton ,and I hear Stanley crook is not running in January, he is stepping down?
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Post by mdenney on Nov 11, 2007 9:01:25 GMT -5
Russell: Getting along in Indian country Posted: November 09, 2007 by: Steve Russell Rodney King is not an educated man, but his plaintive cry in the middle of the Los Angeles riots - ''Can't we all just get along?'' - is freighted with wisdom that goes far beyond book learning. I am reminded of my resolve to ''get along'' when I graduated from law school and became one of about 2,000 tribally enrolled lawyers at the time. I would never, I had told myself, sue another Indian or a tribal government. We receive enough harm from the dominant culture without adding to it among ourselves. That resolve is long gone. One of my early mentors, who was then a tribal court judge for a number of Western tribes, found himself blackballed for ruling in favor of a tribal citizen against his government. That was apparently perceived as biting the hand that fed him, so several tribes quit feeding him; and in spite of his stellar qualifications, he found himself passed over in favor of white judges who were apparently more pliable. Then I was socializing with a professor from an Oklahoma tribe who was regaling us with stories of the corruption in his tribal government. Since I knew he was not ignorant of how to practice politics, I asked him: why not vote the bum out? ''Too many absentee voters.'' ''So what? My tribe has absentee voters and we manage to run contested races. I'm an absentee voter.'' ''Yeah, but in your tribe any candidate can get a voter registration list.'' True. He had me there. The bum in question was later removed by a method not completely unknown in Indian country - federal indictment. Then I fell into another situation in a more personal way. A non-Indian administrator had essentially bought off an elected tribal government using the tribe's own funds from casino operations. Virtually the entire tribe signed a recall petition, but there was no called election and the tribal judge would not rule on anything that challenged the government. At the time I got involved, poor legal advice had led the tribal majority into state court, which is a result even worse than federal court for its impact on sovereignty. This contretemps was solved by massive civil disobedience followed by federal indictment, and the corrupt administrator was recently convicted. While I am glad that the citizens got their government back and pleased that the non-Indian schemer will be contemplating his sins in the Club Fed, there is one thing about the scenario that is less encouraging. As I was advising the majority behind the scenes, I was also giving them a blow-by-blow on the flaws in their constitutions and what could be done in the future to avoid outside intervention - if indeed there were to be a future. They listened gratefully and I had high hopes that changes would be made. In the end, the only change that was made was that the crooks were removed and replaced by honest people. This leads me to wonder what makes us think we are so much better than white people. How much evidence does it take until we understand that we are not; and the best government structure is one that assumes dishonesty - a government of checks and balances with no absolute power and no ability to do tribal business in the dark. Corruption hates sunshine. Having the right structure counts as much as electing the right people. A couple of years ago, a colleague from another Oklahoma tribe found himself charged in tribal court with ''criminal libel'' for criticizing his government on the Internet. When he filed a request for a jury trial and a notice of intent to rely on truth as a defense, the criminal charges went away. It is worth mentioning that it is not certain that truth would be a defense. At common law, a libel case was made out by showing that a defamatory publication harmed someone's reputation and it was no defense that his or her reputation ought to have been harmed. The U.S. Supreme Court has established truth as a defense to libel of a public official as a matter of constitutional law, but a tribal court is under no obligation to follow the U.S. courts. When the criminal prosecution failed, one of those criticized sued for civil libel in tribal court relying on the fact of tribal citizenship to confer jurisdiction over an Internet posting that happened in another state. With the defendants tapped out by the criminal case and unable to get representation from 750 miles away, the plaintiff got a default judgment. Now, if my colleague goes home, any property he might have with him is subject to seizure by tribal marshals to satisfy the judgment. Lawyers are trained not to be quiet in the face of manifest injustice. There are still too few Indian lawyers and it seems to me they should have more productive things to do than sue other Indians. However, non-Indian lawyers are insensitive to the lines between tribal and state government, and generally ignorant of the paternalistic history of the BIA. They just see evil and want to correct it by any means. Perhaps Indian lawyers should see it the same way, and it is tempting to whack at sovereignty when there is a scoundrel hiding behind it, but there are legal tactics that even in a just cause are too destructive of sovereignty. Reluctance to use anti-sovereignty tactics is the positive value of Indians suing Indians. ''Non-Indians tend to elect morons,'' the late Vine Deloria Jr. said, and ''Indians tend to elect crooks.'' In context, the great man was talking about South Dakota; but a moron who claims global warming is a hoax currently represents Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate, and I think any Oklahoma Indian can name a few Indian crooks. After more than 20 years of watching these crooks in action, I'm ready to believe that Rodney King had a Cherokee grandmother. He was certainly giving Indians, no less than black people, correct advice. Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and an associate professor of criminal justice at Indiana University - Bloomington. www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416095
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Post by mdenney on Nov 12, 2007 20:42:17 GMT -5
MGM Mirage is partnering with Foxwoods Development Co. on a casino proposal near Mulvane, developers announced Monday. The Chisholm Creek Casino Resort would feature a 250-room hotel, 2,000 slot machines, 50 table games and meeting facilities. It would sit on 176 acres on the west side of the Kansas Turnpike. The casino property would border Sedgwick County on the north. In rolling out the casino plan, developers touted the relationship formed between Foxwoods and MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM), which are two of the largest casino management firms in the country. Gary Armentrout, managing director for Foxwoods Development, says MGM "will bring this project to an entirely new level of quality and professionalism." The two firms would own 90 percent of the casino in Sumner County. A pricetag for the facility hasn't been released. The other 10 percent would be owned by the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and Chisholm Creek Ventures, which is led by former Wichita Mayor Bob Knight. Knight has worked with Foxwoods for the past three years on casino proposals in Sedgwick and Sumner counties. Meanwhile, Foxwoods has teamed with MGM as the two companies collaborate on a large casino project in Connecticut. The two companies now are looking for additional places to build or buy casinos. Executives for the firms say they were attracted to the Wichita area because of the market and its regulatory environment. Their proposal for Sumner County will be submitted to the Kansas Lottery Commission on Tuesday. Sumner County is one of four areas of the state opened this year to additional casino gambling by the Kansas Legislature. Under a new state law, Sumner County can be home to a single casino with a minimum $225 million investment. The Sumner County Commission must endorse the winning proposal, but the final decision will be made by a special state committee, likely next spring. Knight says the Foxwoods/MGM proposal may come close to doubling the $201 million pricetag on the Sedgwick County arena. "It is an extraordinary project," he says. The casino would employ 1,400 people and create 800 indirect jobs, developers say. But the proposal has competition. Harrah's Entertainment Inc. has partnered on a casino proposal at the Mulvane exit of the Kansas Turnpike. And additional proposals are expected in Sumner County, also along Interstate 35. wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2007/11/12/daily6.html?jst=b_ln_hlwichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2007/11/12/daily6.html?page=2
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