Posted on 11/28/2001 5:27:48 PM PST by Native American Female Vet
Norton, McCaleb ordered to stand trial in Indian trust fund case
By Robert Gehrke, Associated Press, 11/28/2001 20:32
WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Interior Secretary Gale Norton to stand trial on contempt allegations related to a long-running lawsuit accusing her of mismanagement of a billion-dollar Indian trust fund.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth set a trial date of Dec. 3 for Norton and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb to show why they should not be held in contempt.
The suit stems from the mismanagement of royalties from mining, grazing, timber harvesting and other activities on 54 million acres of Indian land held in trust by the Interior Department since 1887.
Payments were supposed to be made to the Indian beneficiaries, but much of the money was lost, misappropriated, stolen or never collected.
Specifically, Norton will have to show that her office has complied with Lamberth's 1999 order that the Interior Department piece together how much is owed to 300,000 Indians who sued the agency claiming it has squandered more than $10 billion in royalties over more than a century.
Norton also must prove that she did not file false or misleading reports about the status of the accounting and the department's current system of tracking the Indian royalties.
Dennis Gingold, the attorney for the Indians in the class action suit, praised Lamberth's decision to hold a trial.
''It confirms everything we've said about the unfitness of the Secretary of Interior to continue to manage the Indian trust,'' he said.
Hours before Lamberth acted, a department official told Indian leaders meeting in Spokane, Wash., that Norton would begin discussions with them in December about management of the trust fund
In 1999, Lamberth held former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt and fined them $600,000 for failing to produce documents in the case.
At an Oct. 30 hearing, Lamberth scolded the Interior Department's lawyer and advised the lawyer to ''throw yourself on the mercy of the court,'' rather than defending conduct he called ''so clearly contemptuous.''
Interior spokesman Eric Ruff said strides have been taken to improve the management of the trust fund and comply with court orders since Norton took office, including the creation of a new office specifically dedicated to trust fund management.
''Such progress is evidence of the department's commitment and determination to resolve the Indian trust issue,'' Ruff said in a statement.
In recent filings, department lawyers conceded that Interior has struggled with efforts to reform, but they argued that department officials have done nothing to directly violate a court order which would justify a finding of contempt.
In 1999, Lamberth ordered Interior to fix the system and account for the lost money, but the department has failed to do either despite spending $614 million on the effort, according to reports by court-appointed watchdogs.
The plaintiffs have asked on several occasions that the judge schedule a trial on whether Norton should be held in contempt. Other motions are still pending.
Gingold has also asked that the judge strip Interior of its trust responsibilities.
Lamberth has scheduled a hearing Friday to determine who may be needed to testify at the Dec. 3 contempt trial.
On the Net:
Indian plaintiffs: http://www.indiantrust.com
Bureau of Indian Affairs:
http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html
Office of the Special Trustee:
http://www.ost.doi.gov/
Let's just keep dumping on the Bush administration for the acts of the Clinton administration. Why is Gale Norton expected to pay for Babbitt's crimes?
Better have the Patriot Act check the Clintons off shore account.
It wasn't only silverware they stole.
Either she’s very very old, or this writer is an idiot. The suit is not about “her mismanagement” of the fund, but the Interior Department’s mismanagment.
The contempt allegation is related to her not turning over the ordered material, which she should do (if she hasn’t already) or go to jail.
But, alas, I can only hope.
Which was paid from monies "found" in the Indian trust fund ?
I'd love to see those Clinton campaign promises exposed.
Got an address?
Put Babbit in the defendent's seat, and maybe an answer or two will spill out of his mouth.
Sorry, I can't link email. Maybe somebody else can.
"Native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human and we are still paying the price today." -- Bill Clinton on how the theft of royalties from Native Americans during his administration helped cause the recent terrorist attacks.
Does anyone have the Clinton death list handy to find out who they killed? Bruce "bobbitt" Babbitt was probably involved.
Hopefully, Norton may have to ask the judge to resort to that. Let us pray.
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