Cobell said, "I never started this case with any intentions of being a hero. Each of those people is assigned Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts which are credited with any revenue generated by the leases (or would have been had there been appropriate accounting and crediting maintained). As trustee, the government took legal title to the parcels, established an Individual Indian Trust and thereby assumed full responsibility for management of the trust lands. Cobell v. Norton is a class-action lawsuit filed on June 10, 1996, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to force the federal government to account for billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust since the late 19th century. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. . Elouise Cobell may not be alive to see the full fruits of her decade spearheading U.S. history’s largest class action lawsuit–the Blackfoot activist died of cancer in 2011 at age 65–but as the payments from the $3.4 billion settlement roll out across Indian country, those close to her are reminded of her determination. Cobell continued to be an active member in the case until her death on Oct. 16, 2011. HELENA, Montana (AP) - Elouise Cobell, whose 15-year fight to force the U.S. to account for more than a century of mismanaged Indian land royalties led to the largest government class-action 5. * Lamberth orders Interior to admit to trustees that its accounting may be inaccurate. ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/history-behind-the-cobell-case-4082499. Legislative history. To help enforce his orders, Judge Lamberth has appointed both a special master, who oversees the preservation and production of trust documents, and a federal monitor, who provides the judge with assessments of the truthfulness of Interior’s representations to the Court regarding execution of trust reform. * Gale Norton appointed secretary of the Interior, making the lawsuit Cobell v. Norton, February 2001 This challenged the United States' mismanagement of trust funds belonging to more than 500,000 individual Native Americans. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our. "The History Behind the Cobell Case." Definition and Examples, The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. That included the duty to collect and disburse to the Indians any revenues generated by mining, oil and gas extraction, timber operations, grazing or similar activities. Case becomes Cobell v. Kempthorne. The goal of the assimilation policy would have resulted in all Indian trust lands in private ownership, but a new generation of lawmakers in the early 20th century reversed the assimilation policy based on the landmark Merriam Report which detailed the deleterious effects of the previous policy. The revenue generated from the leases is to be paid to the tribes and individual Indian land "owners." Elouise Pepion Cobell, also known as Yellow Bird Woman (November 5, 1945 – October 16, 2011) (Niitsítapi Blackfoot Confederacy) was a tribal elder and activist, banker, rancher, and lead plaintiff in the groundbreaking class-action suit Cobell v. Salazar (2009). According to U.S. law, Indian lands are technically not owned by tribes or individual Indians themselves but are held in trust by the U.S. government. These fractionated allotments are usually vacant parcels of land that are still managed under resource leases by the U.S. and have been rendered useless for any other purposes because they can only be developed with the approval 51% of all other owners, an unlikely scenario. Eloise Cobell, a Blackfoot Indian from Montana and banker by profession, filed the lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of individual Indians in 1996 after finding many discrepancies in the management of funds for lands held in trust by the United States in her job as treasurer for the Blackfoot tribe. A trial on Phase Two – accounting for the money – has not yet been scheduled. * U.S. Court of Appeals overrules Lamberth’s deadline of September 2007 for historical accounting, says Interior can use statistical sampling in settling accounts, and permits Interior to devise its own reform plans, March 2005 The Indian Trust Fund Litigation: An Overview of Cobell v. Kempthorne M. Maureen Murphy, American Law Division August 20, 2008 Abstract. * Plaintiffs reject SCIA proposals, December 2006 * Justice Department requests a hearing to remove Lamberth from the case, January 2006 The first two written off as a tragic coincidence, until the third shattered doubts. ... Act of 1887, and the Cobell case. * Department of Interior appeals court ruling that said it is unfit to manage IIM trust accounts, May 2003 The defendants are the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Treasury. In Cobell XII, 391 F.3d 251, 257 (D.C. Cir. Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. With upwards of 500,000 plaintiffs, it has been … The suit encompasses approximately 500,000 Indian beneficiaries. The named plaintiffs are Elouise Cobell, Earl Old Person, Mildred Cleghorn, Thomas Maulson and James Louis Larose. Through document discovery and courtroom testimony, the case has revealed mismanagement, ineptness, dishonesty and delay by federal officials, leading U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to declare their conduct “fiscal and governmental irresponsibility in its purest form.”. As a result of more than a century of malfeasance, the United States government has no accurate records for hundreds of thousands of Indian beneficiaries nor of billions of dollars owed the class of beneficiaries covered by the lawsuit. With upwards of 500,000 plaintiffs, it has been called the largest class-action lawsuit against the United States in U.S. history. The late Elouise Cobell was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor for efforts to hold the federal government accountable to hundreds of thousands of tribal citizens. Elouise Cobell. Surviving multiple presidential administrations since its inception in 1996, the Cobell case has been known variously as Cobell v. Babbit, Cobell v. Norton, Cobell v. Kempthorne and its current name, Cobell v. Salazar (all defendants being Secretaries of the Interior under which the Bureau of Indian affairs is organized). The case sprang to prominence last year when a provincial court judge threw out all charges against retiree Gerard Comeau after he was ticketed … This is how authorities failed the Harrisons. BY TERRY L. ANDERSON -- Just prior to the election, the newly formed Native American Coalition made up of members of tribal organizations from 15 states endorsed candidate Trump. * Contempt charges against Norton and McCaleb thrown out, saying that they could not be held accountable for events that took place before they held office, November 2003 His will specifically excluded his children Kelli, 56, Travis, 51, and 43-year-old Kane. After a trial on Phase One – reform of the system – Judge Lamberth ruled on December 21, 1999 that the secretaries of Interior and Treasury had breached their trust obligations to the Indians. Cobell v. Salazar is a class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell and other Native American representatives in 1996 against two departments of the United States government: the Department of Interior and the Department of the Treasury for mismanagement of Indian trust funds. * Lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell files a suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the Department of the Interior (Cobell v. Babbitt) seeking reform of the Individual Indian Money trust system and accounting for 500,000 accounts over 119 years, February 1999 * Lamberth orders Interior to disconnect from the Internet until security safeguards are installed, September 2002 § 4011 (a), conferred a right on IIM beneficiaries to “a complete historical accounting of trust fund assets,” explaining that “ ‘ [a]ll funds' [as used in that provision] means all funds, irrespective of when they were deposited (or at least so long as they were deposited after the Act of June 24, 1938).”  240 F.3d at 1102. * Plaintiffs agree on Judge Charles Renfrew and John Bickerman as mediators, September 2004 The foundation of federal Indian law begins with the principles based on the doctrine of discovery, originally defined in Johnson v. MacIntosh (1823) which maintains that Indians only have a right to occupancy and not the title to their own lands. * A mediator is appointed to settle the case, December 1999 However, the settlement has yet to be paid due to legal challenges by four Indian plaintiffs. It was settled in 2009. 4322, propose to compensate willing trustees, October 2006 Updated March 18, 2017. The lawsuit accused the federal government of more than 100 years of mismanagement of the Indian Trust Funds for lands held in trust by the United States. * U.S. Court of Appeals finds in favor of plaintiffs, April 2001 Her death was felt by Bill Dorris, who had taken several trips to Browning while working on Cobell v. Salazar. After over 15 years of litigation, the defendant and the plaintiffs both agreed that an accurate accounting was not possible and in 2010 a settlement was finally reached for a total of $3.4 billion. In 1887, Congress had enacted the Dawes Act, intended to force Native American Indians to assimilate into U.S. society by abandoning their cultural and social traditions. On February 23, 2001, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the “Court of Appeals”) upheld the Court’s determination that Defendants were in breach of their statutory trust duties, Cobell v. Norton, 240 F.3d 1081 (D.C. Cir. An appeal by the government, arguing that the judge had overreached his authority, was unanimously rejected by a three-judge appeals court panel on February, 23, 2001. Although U.S. policy in the 1870s was to locate Indians on reservations, hunger for the land by non-Indians led to a break-up of most of the reservations starting in the 1880s. * Lamberth is ousted from case for intemperate commentary and an appellate court restores Interior’s connection to the Internet. I just wanted this case to give justice to people that didn't have it." * Interior is ordered to pay $7 million in attorney’s fees. In 2009, Elouise Cobell of the Blackfoot Confederacy won an important class action suit, Cobell v. Salazar, for American Indians. Attorney Case known as Cobell vs. Salazar “on its own merits. Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. * Jim Gray and National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall co-chair meetings of a national tribal task force working group formed to provide recommendations to the SCIA and the House Resources Committee, June 2005 Ms. Cobell, whose Indian name was Yellow Bird Woman and who was a great-granddaughter of a renowned tribal leader, Mountain Chief, was the lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar. press kit, additional information from the flmmaker, and the . Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason responds by sending a letter to tribes stating that the payment would adversely affect funding of tribal programs, March 2006 * Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Assistant Interior Secretary Kevin Gover are found in contempt by Judge Royce Lamberth for failure to produce and protect records, June/July 1999 McCain proposes an $8 billion settlement and two draft bills, S. 1439 and H.R. The manipulations of assets by the United States government when calculated correctly amounted to billions of dollars. Then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were held in contempt of court in February 1999 by Judge Lamberth for their departments’ repeated delays in producing documents, destruction of relevant documents and misrepresentations to the court in sworn testimony. Cobell case and has made himself a target with his aggressive words. * Treasury discloses that it has destroyed trust documents, January 2001 President Barack Obama released a statement that said Cobell's work provided a measure of justice to hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, will give more people access to higher education, and will give tribes more control over their own lands. * The 44-day Phase Two trial closes With hundreds of thousands of IIM accounts now in existence, accounting has become a bureaucratic nightmare and highly costly. * District of Columbia Court Judge James Robertson is assigned to take over the case and congressional session ends with no action taken toward a legislative settlement, Sources: Indiantrust.com/Indian Country Today archives, bookmarks Follow IC on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Cobell v. Babbitt was filed on June 10, 1996. 100 Years. The facts underlying the litigation involve a broad sweep of United States history. The court retained judicial oversight of the system for a minimum of five years, to ensure that it is overhauled, and ordered Interior to provide an historical accounting of all trust funds. Surviving multiple presidential administrations since its inception in 1996, the Cobell case has been known variously as Cobell v. Babbit, Cobell v. Norton, Cobell v. Kempthorne and its current name, Cobell v. Salazar (all defendants being Secretaries of the Interior under which the Bureau of Indian affairs is organized). Cobell Class-Action Lawsuit and Settlement (1996-2016) Dawes General Allotment Act (1881-1934) Treaty Era through Blackfeet Starvation Winter (1860s-1880s) This unit includes the . * Lamberth appoints a court monitor to oversee trust reform and report on Interior’s progress, September 2001 Under the Dawes Act, some ninety million acres of tribal land was taken from Native Americans by the U.S. government and sold to the public. . https://www.thoughtco.com/history-behind-the-cobell-case-4082499 (accessed April 2, 2021). The plaintiffs claim that the U.S. government has incorrectly accounted for the income from … * ”Trial One” focuses on how to reform the trust accounting system, October 1999 Indeed, it was a little over a decade ago when Congress passed legislation settling the Cobell case with the three hundred thousand Native American plaintiffs who had demonstrated that the Interior Department had lost hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Indian trust beneficiaries. Oversight and the Cobell Litigation • The Cobell Litigation arose from Congressional Oversight in the early 1990’s, culminating in the “Misplaced Trust: The IA’s Mismanagement of the Indian Trust Fund” Report issued by the House of Representatives; that led to the enactment of the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994. 6. * Norton and Assistant Secretary Neil McCaleb found in contempt of court for withholding evidence, January 2003 The Cobell case hinged in large part on whether or not an accurate accounting of the IIM accounts could be determined. The case. From her humble origins growing up on the Blackfeet Nation reservation without electricity or running water, Elouise “Yellow Bird Woman” Cobell went on to become a warrior for all Native Americans as the lead plaintiff in the 15 year legal battle known as Cobell v. Jewell that resulted in the $3.4 billion Indian Trust Settlement. In Cobell VI we ruled that the 1994 Act, 25 U.S.C. She said the terms of the settlement can't be reopened. Indigenous Peoples are putting their bodies on the line and it's our responsibility to make sure you know why. * The national tribal task force presents a list of 50 principles, including a settlement number of $27.5 billion, to Congress, July 2005 Tribes weren't consulted about being removed from Cobell buy-back program. One death, then another, and another — all in the same house. By supporting IC you're empowering the kind of journalism we need, at the moment we need it most. That takes time, expertise and resources - and we're up against a constant tide of misinformation and distorted coverage. Dirk Kempthorne is nominated. Under U.S. management, Indian trust lands Indian reservations are often leased to non-Indian individuals or companies for resource extraction or other uses. (D.D.C. Get Rid of … * ”Trial Two” commences in hopes of discovering amounts owed IIM trustees, July 2003 The Cobell Settlement, as it has come to be known, started out as an effort by a great woman named Eloise Cobell, to right the wrongs inflicted upon Native Americans for more than 300 years. The case sprang to life, and Mrs. Hall and her brothers were brought to trial on Nov. 3, 1926. The History Behind the Cobell Case. After the 25-year period, a patent in fee simple would be issued, enabling an individual to sell their land if they chose to and ultimately breaking up the reservations. This led to the legal principle of the trust doctrine to which the United States is held on behalf of Native American tribes. 2001) (“Cobell VI”). Three members of the same Mississauga family are murdered years apart. * It’s determined that mediation will not lead to a settlement. The case sprang to prominence last year when a provincial court judge threw out all charges against retiree Gerard Comeau after he was ticketed … Judge Urges Cobell Settlement Soon Tribal Member’s WorK Chief … lawsuit remains stayed while the tribal Supreme Court decides whether to affirm the favorable district court ruling. The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887; named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts) authorized the President of the United States to subdivide Native American tribal communal landholdings into … In his first report to the court – 19 months after Judge Lamberth’s December 21, 1999 order – the federal monitor declared that Interior’s stated efforts to provide an accounting in compliance with the order are a sham, are “still at the starting gate” and have been marked by “unrealistic responses and evasion.”. Judge Lamberth bifurcated the case along those lines. He calls Interior a ”dinosaur.” McCain and Sen. Byron Dorgan sponsor Senate Bill 1439 (Indian Trust Reform Act of 2005) to distribute IIM funds at a ”fair and equitable rate” and provide a method to consolidate fractionated land, August 2005 * Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, pledges to address trust reform in a concerted way and give it ”only one good shot”, April/May 2005 According to Cobell, "the case has revealed mismanagement, ineptness, dishonesty, and delay of federal officials." In its mission to "civilize" and assimilate Indians into mainstream American culture, the Dawes Act of 1887 broke up the communal landholdings of tribes into individual allotments which were held in trust for a period of 25 years. * Mediation efforts are declared hopeless, December 2004 ThoughtCo. Introduced in the Senate by Henry L. Dawes ( R – MA) Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on February 8, 1887. "Pig Woman Overshadows Stage Set … 1999) (“Cobell V”). This prestigious honor is a fitting addition to her legacy, and we … The case sprang to prominence last year when a provincial court judge threw out all charges against retiree Gerard Comeau after he was ticketed … The settlement, known as the Claims Settlement Act of 2010, was divided into three sections: $1.5 billion was created for an Accounting/Trust Administration fund (to be distributed to IIM account holders), $60 million is set aside for Indian access to higher education, and the remaining $1.9 billion sets up the Trust Land Consolidation Fund, which provides funds for tribal governments to purchase individual fractionated interests, consolidating the allotments into once again communally held land. 2004), the Court returned to the theme, stating that "[t]he district court . It all hinged on the word of Mrs. Gibson. Sac and Fox Nation v. State of Missouri. Except where otherwise noted, articles on this website are licensed under a, IC is a publication of the Center for World Indigenous Studies (, COBELL v. NORTON: Overview and Chronology, Sweetgrass Protocols for Culturally Responsible Journalism. * Norton resigns and Idaho Gov. The result has been that an allotment of 40, 60, 80, or 160 acres, which was originally owned by one person is now owned by hundreds or sometimes even thousands of people. (2021, February 16). Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the Indian trust fund lawsuit, said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), the vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, is trying to "kill" the $3.4 billion settlement to the case.. Cobell slammed Barrasso for sending a letter to Indian Country that proposed changes to the deal. The August meeting at Glacier Peaks Casino was his first visit after Cobell’s death, and her absence made it … The United States has a fiduciary responsibility to manage the lands to the best benefit of tribes and individual Indians, but as the lawsuit revealed, for over 100 years the government failed in its duties to accurately account for the income generated by the leases, let alone pay the revenues to the Indians. McCain’s trust reform attempt reaches an impasse as Indian leaders disagree on the elements of reform legislation, July 2006 Lamberth issues opinion stating that Interior has breached its trust responsibilities and orders quarterly reports on its reform efforts, September 2000 Thousands of individual Indians generally were allotted beneficial ownership of 80- to 160-acre parcels of land in the break-up. As the case proceeds, new revelations of false testimony, financial misconduct and bureaucratic retaliation have continued to surface. Last year, one fellow judge, speaking anonymously, said: ‘He’ s been driven beyond the limit of his patience by * National Congress of American Indians joins plaintiffs, March 2003 * Report finds that IIM trust fund data is in disarray and decades behind schedule due to mismanagement by Interior and BIA senior officials, December 2001 The chronology of the Cobell decade, Posted : January 19, 2007, June 1996 The purpose of the litigation – which was filed by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, and her co-plaintiffs – is two-fold: to force the government to account for the money, and to bring about permanent reform of the system. On August 7, 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion awarding $455.6 million in restitution to the plaintiffs in Cobell v. Kempthorne. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-behind-the-cobell-case-4082499. * Lamberth rules that Interior must provide a ”full and accurate accounting” to IIM beneficiaries before trust lands can be sold by government, October 2004 * U.S. Court of Appeals orders a stay of a lower court’s order for a full historical accounting of the IIM trust, April 2004 4 Facts About Indigenous Peoples Reservations, Injustices of the Past and Present Against Indigenous Peoples, Dawes Act of 1887: The Breakup of Indigenous Tribal Lands, Indian Reorganization Act: A ‘New Deal’ for American Indians, American Indian Removal Policy and the Trail of Tears, How Black Seminoles Found Freedom From Enslavement in Florida, 5 Big Companies Sued for Racial Discrimination, Richard Nixon's Influence on Native American Affairs, Why the Standing Rock Sioux Oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline, What Is Parens Patriae? Campbell died on August 8, 2017 at age of 81 after a six-year battle with Alzheimer's. 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