Indian Families Due Billions; Repayment Possible With Your Action - FCNL
Indian Families Due Billions; Repayment Possible With Your Action - FCNL
President Bush repeatedly says, “We ought to trust people with their own money.” We encourage him to expand his thinking to include Native Americans whose land profits are held (and withheld) by the federal government. American Indians were not trusted to manage their own money. Instead, the federal government took charge in 1887 but has made such a horrendous mess of the Indian land trust accounts that the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs found it to be one of the two worst government management scandals in U. S. history.
Senators McCain (AZ) and Dorgan (ND) have introduced the Indian Trust Reform Act of 2005 (S. 1439) to repay as many as 500,000 American Indians whose money “disappeared” while in government accounts. It is morally imperative that this bill be taken seriously by congressional leadership and the White House.
Act Now: Urge your senators to cosponsor S. 1439 and this one-time opportunity to remedy a stark and long-standing financial injustice. If you senators are already cosponsors, thank them and ask them to talk to their colleagues about this bill.
See FCNL’s web site for a sample letter, http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7968506. Please take the time to personalize the sample letter and tell your senators who you are and why you care about this issue.
Background: Native families have been deprived of land and lease revenues for over a century, keeping many in stark poverty generation after generation. Financial audits, congressional and Government Accountability Office reports, and media investigations document that billions of dollars have been mismanaged and misappropriated. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals both have ruled in favor of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders during the past decade. The district court judge has held three cabinet officers in contempt of court. At last, Congress is considering paying the debt. FCNL will vigorously support those efforts if the settlements are just. Your help will be crucial if justice is to occur.
Even knowing what we know of the U.S. dismal legacy in Indian affairs, the details of this scandal are still shocking, especially as we learn that abuses continue into the present. Congressional audits as early as 1915 showed mismanaged, lost, and pilfered Indian trust funds. Government agencies such as Interior and Treasury departments also put the money of Indian families into the general funds of the U.S. Frequently, Interior did not bother to collect the land-use money owed to Indian families from corporations or non-natives. Indian land was sold without permission. Even now, hackers can get into Interior computers and the IIM accounts. Since the start of a class action case brought nine years ago by Elouise Cobell to rectify the situation, hundreds of Interior’s boxes of trust records have been lost or destroyed.
Interior officials continue to resist liability and repayment, but many in Congress are practical about “clearing the books” and others are concerned about ethical and legal responsibilities. All agree that reform is needed and some amount of repayment is required. S. 1439 proposes to take the billions owed from the off-budget Claims Judgment Fund which is used when the federal government makes mistakes and loses cases.
For more information, see FCNL’s web site, http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=112
__________________________
Notice: the FCNL office will be closed for vacation from August 29 until September 6
Congress returns from the August recess September 6 to face an agenda packed with issues of concern to FCNL: The Senate is expected to vote on the permanent repeal of the estate tax and may act on the USA PATRIOT Act in early September. Military authorization and appropriations bills still pending in the Senate may include provisions concerning the war in Iraq, new nuclear weapons, and torture. The Senate may also consider legislation that could cut U.S. dues to the U.N. There may be legislation in the House to block opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and budget reconciliation bills due in mid-September that could cut programs that serve poor and low-income households. Check the FCNL web site for updates, www.fcnl.org.
____________________________
Stop New Nuclear Weapons! Find out how, http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear
The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm
Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/
Order FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign bumper stickers and yard signs:
http://www.fcnl.org/newinfo/special_pub.htm
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm
Contribute to FCNL:
http://www.fcnl.org/support.htm
Subscribe or update your information to this list:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/mlm/. To unsubscribe from this list, please see the end of this message.
Subscribe to other FCNL legislative, policy, and action alert lists:
http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=ls.
________________________________________
Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
fcnl@fcnl.org * www.fcnl.org
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
We seek an earth restored.
President Bush repeatedly says, “We ought to trust people with their own money.” We encourage him to expand his thinking to include Native Americans whose land profits are held (and withheld) by the federal government. American Indians were not trusted to manage their own money. Instead, the federal government took charge in 1887 but has made such a horrendous mess of the Indian land trust accounts that the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs found it to be one of the two worst government management scandals in U. S. history.
Senators McCain (AZ) and Dorgan (ND) have introduced the Indian Trust Reform Act of 2005 (S. 1439) to repay as many as 500,000 American Indians whose money “disappeared” while in government accounts. It is morally imperative that this bill be taken seriously by congressional leadership and the White House.
Act Now: Urge your senators to cosponsor S. 1439 and this one-time opportunity to remedy a stark and long-standing financial injustice. If you senators are already cosponsors, thank them and ask them to talk to their colleagues about this bill.
See FCNL’s web site for a sample letter, http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7968506. Please take the time to personalize the sample letter and tell your senators who you are and why you care about this issue.
Background: Native families have been deprived of land and lease revenues for over a century, keeping many in stark poverty generation after generation. Financial audits, congressional and Government Accountability Office reports, and media investigations document that billions of dollars have been mismanaged and misappropriated. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals both have ruled in favor of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders during the past decade. The district court judge has held three cabinet officers in contempt of court. At last, Congress is considering paying the debt. FCNL will vigorously support those efforts if the settlements are just. Your help will be crucial if justice is to occur.
Even knowing what we know of the U.S. dismal legacy in Indian affairs, the details of this scandal are still shocking, especially as we learn that abuses continue into the present. Congressional audits as early as 1915 showed mismanaged, lost, and pilfered Indian trust funds. Government agencies such as Interior and Treasury departments also put the money of Indian families into the general funds of the U.S. Frequently, Interior did not bother to collect the land-use money owed to Indian families from corporations or non-natives. Indian land was sold without permission. Even now, hackers can get into Interior computers and the IIM accounts. Since the start of a class action case brought nine years ago by Elouise Cobell to rectify the situation, hundreds of Interior’s boxes of trust records have been lost or destroyed.
Interior officials continue to resist liability and repayment, but many in Congress are practical about “clearing the books” and others are concerned about ethical and legal responsibilities. All agree that reform is needed and some amount of repayment is required. S. 1439 proposes to take the billions owed from the off-budget Claims Judgment Fund which is used when the federal government makes mistakes and loses cases.
For more information, see FCNL’s web site, http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=112
__________________________
Notice: the FCNL office will be closed for vacation from August 29 until September 6
Congress returns from the August recess September 6 to face an agenda packed with issues of concern to FCNL: The Senate is expected to vote on the permanent repeal of the estate tax and may act on the USA PATRIOT Act in early September. Military authorization and appropriations bills still pending in the Senate may include provisions concerning the war in Iraq, new nuclear weapons, and torture. The Senate may also consider legislation that could cut U.S. dues to the U.N. There may be legislation in the House to block opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and budget reconciliation bills due in mid-September that could cut programs that serve poor and low-income households. Check the FCNL web site for updates, www.fcnl.org.
____________________________
Stop New Nuclear Weapons! Find out how, http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear
The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign, http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/index.htm
Contact Congress and the Administration: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/
Order FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign bumper stickers and yard signs:
http://www.fcnl.org/newinfo/special_pub.htm
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq-war.htm
Contribute to FCNL:
http://www.fcnl.org/support.htm
Subscribe or update your information to this list:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/mlm/. To unsubscribe from this list, please see the end of this message.
Subscribe to other FCNL legislative, policy, and action alert lists:
http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=ls.
________________________________________
Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
fcnl@fcnl.org * www.fcnl.org
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
We seek an earth restored.
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 4:30 AM
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