Indian Trust Funds: It's broke, so fix it

Opinion editorial - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The federal government took a healthy slap on the wrist last week from a judge for having its hand billions of dollars deep into Indian trust accounts. We hope the latest in a long line of rebukes will spur a righting of financial wrongs to Indian landholders that now stretch from the late 1880s into the 21st century.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said the Interior Department has unreasonably delayed an accounting of how many billions it owes. He also noted considerable effort by Interior, and blamed Congress in part for failing to provide adequate funding for the difficult research.

Robertson plans to hold a hearing on how to remedy the lack of proper federal accounting. As he also said in his ruling, "The time has come to bring this suit to a close."

The suit began in 1996 with a filing by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, who called Robertson's ruling "a great day." Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told The Associated Press, "Ultimately the question is going to be for the administration and the Justice Department, are they willing to settle for all of these years of mismanagement." Let's not forget that the problems stretch back generations, through administrations and Congresses controlled by both parties.

An election year could complicate the question, but the Bush administration knows the issues. An early government effort to reach a fair, generous settlement agreement would be an act of justice worthy of the term "legacy." More important, a settlement would begin to rebuild hundreds of thousands of Americans' true legacies.