Editorial: Frustrating lack of accountability

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

A U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs official recently claimed that a federal court's order to shut down the agency's computer system, because of faulty security, could interfere with government royalty payments due to thousands of American Indians.

The comment outraged American Indian activists including Blackfeet tribe member Elouise Cobell, whose ongoing 1996 lawsuit against the federal government has laid bare mismanagement of more than $100 billion in payments owed to American Indians since 1887. In that year, Congress assigned American Indians portions of land and ordered the Interior Department to manage leases for the land's natural resources, which now include mining, timber harvesting, grazing and oil and gas development. The agency was also to pay the Indians any royalties associated with the activity.

But the 1996 lawsuit alleges billions are missing. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has demanded the Interior Department, the BIA and the U.S. Treasury Department account for every dollar received for and paid to American Indians over the past 118 years.

Government officials have said such an accounting could cost $12 billion and that the old records may no longer exist. Lamberth has held both Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, in contempt for failing to provide the information.

On Oct. 20 Lamberth ordered the BIA to disconnect its computer system from the Internet because hackers could easily access the Indian accounts. Shortly afterward, the Associated Press reports, a BIA regional superintendent in Colorado said the shutdown might delay payments. It seemed more threat than truth, as the judge's order allows the system to stay connected five days a month to make payments.

But threats and sharp words have been the hallmarks of this yearslong legal battle that seeks to rectify a century of woeful mismanagement of the fund that makes payments to an estimated 500,000 American Indians.

Congress finally stepped in this summer and has been trying to negotiate a settlement. But lawmakers are balking at the $27.5 billion payment suggested by the Indians' attorneys, and Cobell says that amount is too low.

Any settlement that is reached should include a true accounting of what is owed to American Indians and strict guidelines for overhauling this dreadfully failed system. We need better accountability and accuracy in the future.