FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
October 19, 2001
www.indiantrust.com


"Dearth of Leadership," Absence of Integrity and Competence
Mean Further Trust Abuses are Inevitable Without Court Intervention

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Almost two years after a federal judge gave the 
secretary of the Interior a last chance to reform the multi-billion 
dollar Individual Indian Money trust, Indian plaintiffs today asked 
the Court to place control of the deeply troubled trust in the hands of 
a receiver and sought contempt charges against 39 officials, including 
attorneys, at the Interior and Justice Departments.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, her senior staff and lawyers "willfully 
and repeatedly have misled this Court and in bad faith have failed to 
take any meaningful steps to rectify serious and continuing breaches of 
trust found by this Court and affirmed by the United States Court of 
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit," the plaintiffs said in court papers 
filed in U.S. District Court here.

"Time is of the essence, as plaintiffs continue to suffer ever-mounting 
irreparable harm and abuse resulting from defendants' relentless 
nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance. The unabated breaches of trust, 
routine violations of this Court's orders, endless broken promises, 
chronic half-truths, outright lies to this Court, and the fumbling 
paralysis of the Interior Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of 
Indian Affairs, and their senior managers, counselors, and counsel, 
demonstrate conclusively that they are unfit to serve as delegated 
fiduciaries and counsel to the IIM Trust."

"Given their horrible behavior," said Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff, 
"you have to ask, what is it about the truth that they don't want us to 
know." 

Citing a series of investigative reports by a Court Monitor and a 
Special Master appointed by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to 
assess progress of trust reform, the plaintiffs also asked the Court to 
order the government to show cause why senior Interior and Justice 
officials, including Norton and former Interior secretary Bruce Babbitt, 
should not be held in contempt.

Besides Norton and Babbitt, the court papers named Kevin Gover, former 
head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Neal McCaleb, the BIA's 
current head; past and present senior Interior managers John Berry, 
Robert Lamb, Dom Nessi, Kenneth Rossman, James Douglas, Daryl White, 
Terrence Virden, Glenn Schumaker, Chester Mills, Hilda Manual and 
Sharon Blackwell; counselors Anne Shields and Michael Rossetti, and 
Interior and Justice lawyers John D. Leshy, Interior Solicitor William 
Myers, former assistant attorney general Lois J. Schiffer, acting 
assistant attorney general John C. Cruden, Edward B. Cohen, James Simon, 
Peter Coppleman, Timothy Elliott, Steve Swanson, Edith Blackwell, 
Sabrina McCarthy, Phillip A. Brooks, Tom C. Clark, Charles W. Findlay III, 
David F. Shuey, John S. Most, David Shilton, John A. Bryson, Michael 
Carr, K. Jack Haugrud, James A. Eichner and Sarah D. Himmelhoch.

Babbitt and Gover - together with former Treasury secretary Robert 
Rubin - were previously found in contempt by Lamberth for their 
violations of Court orders to produce documents in the Cobell case.

"Appointment of a receiver alone will not cure persistent malfeasance, 
misfeasance and hapless management of the IIM trust," the plaintiffs 
said in today's filing. "Ignorance, open hostility and habitual neglect 
of trust duties continue to pervade Interior and Justice, soil the 
integrity of the government's fiduciary relationship, and create an 
unprecedented management crisis."

In his reports to the judge, the Court Monitor, Joseph S. Kieffer III, 
has repeatedly faulted Norton for continuing to rely on the same senior 
management and legal team that he blames for the trust's mismanagement. 
Kieffer's latest report, made public today, implicates Justice 
Department and Interior lawyers in the filing of false information 
with the judge about trust reform progress.

Judge Lamberth ruled on Dec. 21, 1999, that Interior and Treasury were 
in breach of their trust obligations to approximately 500,000 individual 
Indian trust beneficiaries. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of 
Appeals on Feb. 23, 2001. The government's obligation to the Indian 
beneficiaries, the Appeals Court decision said, places a "broad duty" 
on Interior to maintain accurate records and account for the money it 
holds in trust.

"But Secretary Norton - recklessly embracing the deceptive and unsound 
practices of her predecessor, Mr. Babbitt - has ignored the instructions 
of the Court of Appeals," the plaintiffs said in court papers. "Under 
her stewardship, as with Mr. Babbitt's, no meaningful progress has been 
made."

In its motion for contempt, the plaintiffs asked for confinement of up 
to 180 days each and both personal and official financial sanctions.

To read the motion, go to www.indiantrust.com.

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