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MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2002

"That should be the name of the new strategy by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, et al, at the Interior Department these days in the Individual Indian Money account case, especially since they have lost every round to the Cobell plaintiffs.

A piece of proposed legislation by the Department of Interior is floating around Indian country called, "A Bill to provide for a voluntary incentive program for extinguishment of historic accounting claims related to Individual Indian Money accounts, and for other purposes." It is an interesting piece of writing, given that Judge Royce Lamberth of the IIM accounts trial has recently found Neal McCaleb in contempt of court for failure to do an historic accounting in the IIM case. Since the defendants in the case have allegedly destroyed records related to the historic IIM accounts, it seems a plausible Interior strategy to buy their way of this mess in the cheapest possible manner. . ."

Get the Story:
Johnnie P. Flynn: If you can’t beat em, cheat em (Indian Country Today 12/8)

Relevant Links:
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm
Trust Reform, NCAI - http://www.ncai.org/main/pages/
issues/other_issues/trust_reform.asp

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Senate approves omnibus Indian package (11/21)
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Legislation to create a 'passive' Indian trust (10/18)
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