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Attorney: John Echohawk
Case Update
John Echohawk hopes to resume his role as Of Counsel in this case following the completion of conflicts checks with our tribal clients in the tribal trust funds case, Nez Perce v. Salazar. We filed this case along with private attorneys in 1996 to force the federal government to provide an accounting to the 500,000 past and current individual Indian money account holders who have their funds held in trust by the federal government. The courts have held that the government is in breach of trust and must provide an accounting.
In January 2008, the federal district court found that it was impossible for the government to perform the accounting due to a lack of records and subsequently ordered a trial be held to provide an alternative remedy to the Indian plaintiffs. In the trial held this summer, plaintiffs requested the court to order the government to restore $47 billion to the accounts of which $3 billion were funds collected but never put into the accounts and $44 billion of which was the benefit that the government received by withholding these funds, using them to finance the national debt and not having to borrow and pay interest on the borrowed funds over a long period of time. In August 2008, the federal district court held that the plaintiffs were only entitled to $455,600,000 which the court determined the government had collected but not put into the accounts. The court rejected any recovery for any benefit the government received by withholding payment of the $455,600,000. The plaintiffs have appealed the decision and oral argument in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was held on May 11.
On July 24, the Court of Appeals issued its decision. The Court held that the Interior Department must provide a proper accounting and reversed the District Court holding that an accounting was impossible. The Court also vacated the District Court's judgment that the plaintiffs were owed $455,600,000 in restitution. The decision may prolong the ultimate resolution of the case unless there is a fair settlement.
During the Presidential campaign last year, candidate Barack Obama "committed to resolving equitably "all Indian trust fund mismanagement litigation against the federal government if he was elected President. We are now hoping that President Obama will live up to this campaign promise and begin settlement negotiations in this case and the other Indian trust fund mismanagement cases soon. The new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has already said publicly that settlement of these cases is one of his priorities and that he hopes that the decision from the Court of Appeals later this year in the Cobell case can be the basis for a settlement in that case. Now that the decision has been rendered, settlement negotiations have begun and we hope that the case will soon be resolved.
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