Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF.org) marked the 125-year anniversary of the Dawes Act (General Allotment Act of 1887) by producing this “Matter of Honor” video you can view on the organization’s YouTube channel.

It’s a topic that incites much to think about these days, as the Cobell settlement is disputed in courts.

ILTF has an entire page dedicated to lands issue debates, including checker boarding, sacred sites, land management and legal and legislative issues.

Here’s the spot where ILTF explains how it’s helping to reverse the negative effects of the Dawes Act.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: cobell v salarzar, Dawes Act, Elouise Cobell, general allotment act of 1887, iltf, Indian Land Tenure Foundation, matter of honor

Montana Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus want to honor Elouise Cobell for her lead role in taking on the federal government in the landmark land trust settlement by having Congress award her the Congressional Gold Medal, they announced in a press release today.

Cobell, a Blackfeet tribal member from Browning, Mont., fought for almost 15 years to win the case that was settled for $3.4 billion and will help repay thousands of Natives for trust fund mismanagement by the government. The Montana senators introduced legislation Tuesday to help recognize Cobell’s “outstanding contributions.”

Here’s the joint press release about the proposed honor:

(U.S. SENATE) – U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus today introduced legislation to award Montana’s Elouise Cobell the Congressional Gold Medal.

Cobell, a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation, is being recognized for ‘her outstanding and enduring contributions to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and the Nation through her tireless pursuit of justice.’

In 1996, Cobell filed an historic lawsuit alleging that the federal government mismanaged trust funds belonging to more than 500,000 individual American Indians. Congress agreed to a $3.4 billion settlement in December of 2010.

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Tags: Cobell, Cobell v. Salazar, congressional medal of honor, Elouise Cobell, land trust settlment

Final approval for the class action Indian land trust lawsuit 15 years in the making came with a warning from the Securities and Exchange Commission last week as claimants and plaintiffs were asked to be on the look out for scammers.

Matt Volz of the Associated Press reported that the SEC is recommending people be on the look out for crooks trying to capitalize on payouts.

The SEC issued an alert Friday to warn those plaintiffs to watch out for investment scams. Affinity fraud – scams that target particular ethnic or religious groups – usually involves somebody pretending to be part of that ethnic group, or enlists somebody from the ethnic group to help dupe the victim, according to the SEC.

“Anytime there’s a lump-sum payout to a particular group, that can be a fairly attractive target for fraudsters,” said Owen Donley, chief counsel in the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.

The first settlement checks from the $3.4 billion settlement are set to go out after Sept. 26, Volz reported.

The Cobell v. Salazar class action website has all the information for possible plaintiffs, along with the full text of the final approval and the links to file a claim.

Paper claim forms must be postmarked no later than September 16, 2011, and online claims must be submitted no later than midnight (PDT) on September 16, 2011.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, land trust settlment

It was another triumphant day in court for those whose lives have been wrapped up in the Cobell vs. Salazar case for more than 15 years, as a district judge gave final approval to the settlement Monday.

Although the case’s champion, couldn’t be there because she continues a fight against cancer, Elouise Cobell called the judge during the hearing to express her sentiment that the settlement will bring hope to Indian Country.

Barring an appeal, the ruling gives the Interior Department the lease to begin making payments to entitled parties.

The AP covered the story, and here’s the rundown of the Indian trust mismanagement from Elouise Cobell’s camp:

From Bill McAllister:

WASHINGTON – Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan has given final approval to a $3.4 billion settlement over the federal government’s acknowledged long-running mismanagement of the Indian Trust.

Unless appealed, the ruling will give Native Americans the largest settlement ever reached with the federal government.

Once Hogan enters a written opinion on the ruling he gave from the bench Monday, the Interior Department may be able to begin making payments to the nearly 500,000 Native Americans as early as August. Only 92 individuals filed papers to object of the settlement.

Those numbers indicate that an overwhelming number of Native Americans approve of the settlement, the judge said.

“I am certainly not convinced that a better result could be achieved by taking it to all the way to trial,” the judge said. “It’s hard to see there could be a better result.”

If the case had not been settled, Judge Hogan predicted it would linger in the courts for another 15 years.

After presiding over a daylong fairness hearing on the settlement, Hogan said in an oral ruling he would give final approval to the settlement, holding it to be “fair, reasonable and adequate.”

The judge also gave high praise to Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet woman from Montana whose name became synonymous with the class action lawsuit she and four other Indians filed against the government in 1996.

“She has done more for the individual Native American than any other person in recent years,” said the judge.

Cobell has shown “unusual effort and courage” in leading the lawsuit, the judge said.

Lead attorney Dennis M. Gingold said, Cobell “has dedicated her life to righting this wrong.”

Earlier in the day Cobell told the judge by telephone that the courts had been willing to help Native Americans when the other branches of the federal government failed them.

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Tags: Barack Obama, cobell settlement, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, indian land trust

As a judge considers a request to double fees given to attorneys who helped negotiate the landmark $3.4 billion Indian trust mismanagement suit settled just months ago, Congress is considering a bill to cap the fees at $50 million.

The suit was spearheaded by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet), whose camp seems to be standing behind the fee increase request. The suit took nearly 15 years to settle.

The Washington Post covered the hearing, where no action was taken.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is co-sponsoring legislation to cap the attorneys’ fees at $50 million.

He said in a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Indians and Alaska Native Affairs, which he chairs, that “it smells” for the plaintiffs’ lawyers to now make the argument that they deserve $223 million, after the settlement limited their fee request to $99.9 million.

Young said both the plaintiffs’ attorneys and the Obama administration officials who negotiated the settlement refused to testify Tuesday on the proposal and have stymied previous attempts to gather information about how the fees were structured.

“Today, the Plaintiffs are stonewalling the efforts of this Committee to get to the bottom of the fee controversy in their refusal to testify or to respond to numerous written inquiries over the last year seeking information about their fees,” Young said.

Here is the full statement released by Cobell legal team, via media contact Bill McAllister, after the hearing:

After 15 years of intense litigation against the federal government, plaintiffs and Class Counsel have achieved an historic settlement. It is the largest settlement with the government in American history. In addition to $3.4 billion in this settlement, $5 billion was spent by the government to rehabilitate its broken trust management systems solely because of this litigation. Further, Congress confirmed that all funds received by Indians in this settlement are tax free.

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Tags: Bill McAllister, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, land trust settlement

Two large Native financial groups are revitalizing their efforts this year to help boost economic development opportunities for Indian Country.

Both Blue Stone Strategy Group and Indian Land Capital Company are setting out to up their investment capital work with tribal entities, but in very different ways.

Blue Stone was founded by Jamie Fuller and focuses on research, analysis and due diligence of long-term economic decisions considered by tribes, ICTMN reports.

“We consider ourselves to be a tribal support adviser,” said Fullmer, the founder and chief executive officer of the four-year-old company based in Phoenix that focuses on helping tribes and tribal communities build strong and sustainable economies and protect their sovereignty.

ILCC bills itself as a “new Native American owned financial investment fund helps tribes achieve goals for economic development, cultural preservation, and tribal sovereignty through the recovery of tribal lands,” a news release from the firm said.

Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) is one of ILCC’s founding directors.

ILCC not only wants to up financial investment opportunities for tribes, it’s introducing this year new education tools and “financial instruments” for tribes. It also wants to offer social investing opportunities, so tribes can “do good” while earning strong returns on smart investments.

In the past, a lack of financing has often limited tribes’ ability to purchase land and other crucial resources necessary for meaningful economic development, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. As a CDFI, ILCC provides loans at lower cost and with fewer lending barriers than traditional mainstream financial institutions. This allows tribal borrowers to act quickly and retain greater control and flexibility in the financing, acquisition and management of tribal lands.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: blue stone strategy group, cris stainbrook, Elouise Cobell, financial advising, gerald sherman, ilcc, indian land captial company, jamie fuller

Elouise Cobell’s lawyers, who helped Indian Country win a landmark land trust settlement worth millions, continue to insist they deserve more than the agreed upon $99 million in legal fees.

According to The Blog of Legal Times, the attorneys say their push to get more money is fair, and is a concern of politicians, not those who may benefit from the suit.

Last week, two Republicans members of the House, citing the Justice Department’s position on fees, introduced legislation to cap fees in Cobell v. Salazar at $50 million. A similar effort to cap the fees failed last year.

“There is simply no question that members of both houses of Congress fully understood that there was no cap and that the court would decide the fee question consistent with controlling law,” (Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton partner Keith Harper and Washington solo Dennis Gingold said) in the court papers. “Those who are feigning surprise know better or should know better.”

Cobell’s lawyers said they accomplished for Native Americans what no other lawyer or government official ever had—meaningful reform in the management of Indian trust accounts. The $3.4 billion settlement announced in December 2009 resolves claims the government botched its handling of accounts for more than a century.

. . .

Harper and Gingold, who have both traveled in recent weeks to meet with potential beneficiaries, said the fee petition is not the hot topic. Potential class members want to know more about how to participate in the settlement, not how much the lawyers are getting paid, Harper said.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: Cobell v. Salazar, Dennis Gingold, Elouise Cobell, Keith Harper, land trust settlement

Information on how Native Americans in Montana can share in the recently approved $3.4 billion settlement of Indian Trust claims will be discussed at two newly-scheduled meetings in Montana next week, a new release from Elouise Cobell’s media director said.

On Tuesday, March 8, attorneys Bill Dorris and David Smith from the Kilpatrick Stockton law firm will discuss the settlement at 5 p.m. at the Browning High School Cafeteria, 105 Highway 89, in Browning.

At 5 p.m., on Wednesday, March 9, they will hold a meeting on Flathead Indian Reservation at the Johnny Arlee Victor Charlo Theater, building 83, 58138 Highway 93, in Pablo. This is on the Salish Kootenai College Campus.

Native Americans, whose families have individual Indian money trust accounts or who own individual Indian trust land, are welcome to attend these meetings regardless of their tribal affiliation and ask questions about the settlement.

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Tags: Blackfeet Reservation, Browning, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, flathead reservation, indian land trust, Salish Kootenai College

By Matthew Daly, of the Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Lawyers representing Native Americans helped win a record $3.4 billion settlement with the federal government.

Now they want a judge to double their fees.

Instead of being paid up to $99.9 million, as initially agreed, attorney Dennis Gingold says he other lawyers deserve at least $224 million for their work on the case since 1996.

He and other lawyers “have achieved a stunning landmark victory in this case,” Gingold wrote in a 25-page motion filed Jan. 25 in federal court in Washington. “No lawyers have done so much for so many people in this circuit.”

Not only was the $3.4 billion settlement a record for Native American claims against the government, but the lawyers also “accomplished that which Congress could not do and the (U.S.) attorney general would not do, and have aided a group long abused to stand up against the abuse,” Gingold wrote.

For their efforts, $99.9 million “is so far below governing standards that it would be inconsistent with federal law,” Gingold said. Instead, he, Thaddeus Holt, Keith Harper and other lawyers deserve at least $223 million in fees, plus $1.3 million in expenses and other costs, Gingold said.

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Tags: Cobell v. Salazar, Dennis Gingold, Elouise Cobell, indian trusts