White House Blog From Charlie Galbraith: Tribal Trust Case Settlement Event Today
April 11, 2012 -
Posted by Charlie Galbraith on April 10, 2012 at 05:23 PM EDT
Today at 1:30 p.m. EST, Attorney General Eric Holder,
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie
Jarrett and other senior members of the Obama Administration will join tribal
leaders to announce a significant step forward in the resolution of tribal
trust cases pending against the United States. Many of the cases include
claims by the tribes that go back over 100 years. Today's event will
recognize the good-faith cooperation and hard work of the Administration and 41
American Indian tribes in working out fair and honorable resolutions of the
tribes’ claims.
The
resolution of longstanding disputes is a key pillar of President Obama’s record for American Indians and Alaska
Natives. In 2010, the Administration settled the $760 million Keepseagle case brought
by Native American farmers and ranchers who alleged discrimination by the
Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its administration of loan programs.
President Obama also signed into law the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, which included the
Cobell settlement agreement resolving a lawsuit over the management and
accounting of over 300,000 individual American Indian trust accounts. The
Claims Resolution Act also included four water rights settlements, benefitting
seven tribes in Arizona, Montana, and New Mexico.
Most
recently, in October 2011, the Administration reached a $380 million settlement
with the Osage Nation over the tribe’s long-standing lawsuit regarding the
government’s management of trust funds and non-monetary trust resources.
That settlement featured, among other things, prospective management measures
designed to further improve the trust relationship between the tribe and the
United States.
Tomorrow’s
event will mark another key step forward in the Administration’s efforts to
resolve the disputes that have clouded the shared history of the United States
and Indian tribes. Please join us on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 1:30pm
on www.WhiteHouse.gov/live.
Charlie Galbraith is an Associate Director in the
White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
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