A decade-long lawsuit over Indian trust funds continues…

In the October 10, 2007 NPR Morning Edition, Libby Lewis reported about an ongoing lawsuit between the Indian tribes and the U.S. Federal government.  More than a decade ago, a group of Indian tribe members sued the government for accounting on a trust that manages oil, gas, timber and other leases on Indian lands.

While commentators are hopeful that the new judge appointed on this case may be able to resolve this dispute, they are also skeptical about the possibility of a judicial resolution. The reason for their doubts is the government’s questionable ability to produce records regarding all the account holders, as some of them may have been destroyed. The government representatives have indicated that they have 4 million pages of records which they believe should be sufficient for a fair accounting.

You can listen to this report by Libby Lewis on npr.org.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.