ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110044
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
TRUST FUNDS WORTH $450 million in royalties and income from their land need to be accounted for, a suit says.
American Indians who say they are tired of waiting for the federal government to clean up $450 million in trust funds filed a lawsuit Monday to get an accounting of the money.
No one knows the exact total of the 300,000 accounts because of decades of lax management by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to audits.
The accounts belong to individual Indians who receive royalties and other income from their land.
``We have waited and waited for action, and it's been forever in the making,'' said Gregg Bourland, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe in South Dakota, many of whom are account holders.
No attempt was made to reconcile the individual accounts because the cost of doing the work has been estimated at up to $250 million.
``They have no idea how much has been collected from the companies that use our land and are unable to provide even a basic, regular statement to account holders,'' said John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, which prepared the lawsuit. ``Every day we wait, they are losing more and more of our money.''
Elouise Cobell, a member of the Montana Blackfeet tribe and lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, said estimates of the account balances could be prepared for less than $5 million.
Defendants include Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who oversees the Indian affairs bureau, and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
The Clinton administration is working to clean up the fund, but the tribal accounts have a higher priority, said Interior spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna.
At the direction of Congress, the accounts were put under the control of a special trustee in the Interior Department last year.
Over the years, audits by the General Accounting Office and the Interior Department's inspector general have criticized bureau management of the tribal accounts and individual funds. Problems cited include unreliable accounting systems, lack of security controls and incompetent personnel.
The government also manages 2,000 tribal accounts totaling $2 billion.
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