Tribal Justice News
Written by Department of Justice Thursday, 10 December 2009
Attorney
General Holder, Secretary Salazar Announce Settlement of Cobell Lawsuit on
Indian Trust Management (AG)
On Dec. 8, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of the Interior
Ken Salazar announced a settlement of the long-running and highly contentious
Cobell class-action lawsuit regarding the U.S. government’s trust management
and accounting of over three hundred thousand individual American Indian trust
accounts. Also speaking at the press conference today were Associate Attorney
General Tom Perrelli and Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes. Under
the negotiated agreement, litigation will end regarding the Department of
the Interior’s performance of an historical accounting for trust accounts
maintained by the United States on behalf of more than 300,000 individual
Indians. A fund totaling $1.4 billion will be distributed to class members
to compensate them for their historical accounting claims, and to resolve
potential claims that prior U.S. officials mismanaged the administration of
trust assets.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-ag-1312.html