Editorial: Seeking even imperfect justice

Saturday, March 4, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

As a timely court settlement seems unlikely, people on both sides of a lawsuit, in which American Indian tribes say the federal government mismanaged billions of dollars in natural resources royalties, say it's time to choose a settlement figure and get on with it.

In their 10-year-old class action lawsuit, American Indians say the government owes them $27.5 billion in unpaid royalties for the oil, gas, timber and other resources culled from Indian land. Government officials have acknowledged that accounting discrepancies exist but say the amount owed is much lower.

It is impossible to say who is correct. Many accounting records are missing from the federal trust fund that was established in 1887. "There is no right number," mediator John Bickerman told a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Resources Committee.

Since the case was filed in 1996, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has openly criticized the government's handling of the Indian trust accounts. Twice he has ordered the Interior Department's computers to be disconnected from the Internet for failing to secure Indians' trust records against hackers. He also has held in contempt Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who served under President Clinton.

According to the Associated Press, Stuart Eizenstat, a former undersecretary of state for Clinton and author of the book "Imperfect Justice," has suggested convening an independent administrative tribunal similar to the one he used to obtain $1.25 billion from Switzerland banks for Holocaust survivors.

In a 2003 program at the University of California at Berkeley, Eizenstat said that "it's not possible to have a final accounting for the devastation to human life and property" when making reparations.

Still, anything that can prevent this dispute from dragging on for another decade should be pursued. The U.S. government must correct this situation as quickly and fairly as possible.