Court appoints monitor to oversee Indian trust reform 
By Robert Gehrke, Associated Press, 4/16/2001 19:07 

WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge appointed a monitor Monday to supervise 
the overhaul of a federal land program that Indian tribes say robbed 
them of up to $10 billion. 

Attorneys representing 300,000 Indian plaintiffs who are suing the 
Interior Department had complained that the government's efforts to 
restructure the land trust program, as ordered by U.S. District Judge 
Royce Lamberth, have been ineffective. 

''Basically, trust reform has been a myth,'' lawyer Dennis Gingold said. 
''They've spent $50 million and not accomplished a thing.'' 

Lamberth appointed Joseph Kieffer III to follow the overhaul program 
and file progress reports with the court. The department must give 
Kieffer access to employees and information needed for his inquiry. 

Both sides accepted Kieffer's appointment after three meetings with 
Lamberth over the last several weeks. 

''We view this as the first sign of good faith extended by the 
Department of Interior in five years of litigation,'' said Gingold, 
who called it ''the most comprehensive judicial oversight of the 
executive branch that has ever occurred.'' 

Justice Department lawyer Phillip Brooks said ''the government is 
embracing the idea'' of trust reform and hopes to move the case 
forward quickly. 

''We welcome the appointment of an independent monitor, and we view 
it as constructive to accomplishing our goals, which are a renewed 
effort to advance trust fund reform,'' Interior spokeswoman Stephanie 
Hanna said. 

The Indians sued in 1996 over a century's worth of problems with the 
system that handles about $500 million a year in proceeds from oil 
wells and other uses of Indian land. The Indians say they are due at 
least $10 billion. 

The trust accounts came from an 1887 federal law that divided some 
reservation land into smaller plots for individual Indians. The 
government holds the land in trust for the Indians, meaning it cannot 
be taxed or sold and the government must approve leases. 

Many of the tracts are leased for uses such as grazing, logging, 
mining or oil drilling. Proceeds are supposed to have been deposited 
in government accounts, then paid to the Indian landholders. 

Since the beginning, however, the accounts have been mismanaged in 
almost every way imaginable, the government admits. Records were never 
kept for many accounts, while documentation for others was lost or 
destroyed. Some of the money was stolen or used for other federal 
programs. Some lease proceeds were never collected. Thousands of 
accounts have money in them but no names attached. 

Last year Lamberth held in contempt then-Interior Secretary Bruce 
Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and fined them more 
than $600,000 for failing to turn over documents related to the case. 
He threatened to do the same to Bush administration officials if they 
should fail to comply. 

''I don't want it to come to that again, but I am prepared to do what 
is necessary to get trust reform accomplished,'' Lamberth said. 

Earlier, Lamberth appointed Alan Balaran to investigate the fund 
mismanagement. Balaran will help familiarize Kieffer with the issues 
of the case. 

Kieffer has a background in military intelligence. He also was 
director of litigation for the Manville Personal Injury Settlement 
Trust, created in 1986 to settle claims by people exposed to asbestos 
in products made by Johns Manville. That trust's value is estimated at 
$3 billion. 

On the Net: Indian account holders: http://www.indiantrust.com 

Interior Department: http://www.doi.gov 

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov