ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070078
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Tribes win right to join suit for funds
WASHINGTON - In a major victory for Indian tribes, a judge ruled Thursday that Native Americans can collectively sue the federal government, which they say mishandled hundreds of millions of their dollars.
The ruling means any Indian owed money by the government for past land and natural resource claims automatically is part of a suit already filed here.
Indian attorneys estimate as many as 300,000 people are included in the suit, which makes it the largest class action brought by Native Americans against the government. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ruled that the descendants of Indians who had claims may join the lawsuit.
``This is monumental for us,'' said Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, the lead plaintiff. ``This is good news for every Indian and all our ancestors who now can be represented.''
Cobell filed her lawsuit last June, saying she was fed up with the way the Bureau of Indian Affairs has handled tribal trust funds - accounts set up decades ago to manage government royalties to Indians for such things as mineral and timber rights and land sales on reservations.
Although the government managed the funds, Indians could make withdrawals at any time. Several studies have shown that the money has been so poorly managed, officials don't know how much is there.
Independent auditors have found that the BIA cannot account for $2.4 billion that is supposed to be in Indian trust funds.
- Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Helms supports CNN bureau in Cuba
WASHINGTON - Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged President Clinton to approve CNN's application to open a news bureau in Cuba. He said the move would hasten the demise of President Fidel Castro's government.
In a letter sent Thursday to Clinton, Helms said he supported the proposal provided the ``opening is completely unconditional and that the Castro regime will be granted no quid pro quo.''
Helms, R-N.C., also said all U.S. news organizations that make similar applications should be permitted to establish a presence in Cuba.
``I am persuaded that the spotlight of a free press focused on Castro's tropical gulag will only hasten the day when the Cuban people are free of his brutal communist tyranny,'' Helms said in the letter.
- Associated Press
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