Links
Cobell - Settlement a stepping stone
American Indians must urge Congress to quickly sign off on a $3.4 billion settlement of a lawsuit against the federal government for swindling them out of royalties for oil, gas, grazing and other leases, the lead plaintiff said March 30.
"We've won some really huge victory. Will it fix anything? No, but it's a stepping stone," Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., said during a meeting on the settlement at Heritage University on the Yakama Indian Reservation. "We have made a tremendous impact on this government and the way our trust has been managed in the past."
The meeting was one of several planned across the Northwest this week by Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, and her legal team. The deadline for Congress to approve the settlement was extended to April 16, and Cobell maintains further delays could terminate the deal.
The Interior Department manages about 56 million acres of land and leases it for mining, grazing and oil and gas production. Money collected from those leases is distributed to more than 384,000 individual Indian accounts and about 2,700 tribal accounts.