DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR PAYMENTS TO NATIVE TRIBES INTERRUPTED - ANOTHER REASON WHY HAWAIIANS SAY "NO!" TO FEDERAL RECOGNITION -
On Monday, March 15, 2004, United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its computer systems from the Internet, finding that “the continued connection to the Internet of any IT system that houses or accesses individual Indian trust data constitutes further and continuing irreparable injury…” putting the entire Indian trust and its assets in jeopardy. The Department of the Interior has admitted on many occasions themselves that their IT systems are insecure.
There have been rumors circulating that such action will delay or even halt the issuance of Individual Indian Trust checks.
Here are the facts:
• Interior’s Internet has been shut down two times before. Each time, Interior has delayed trust checks. Each time it has been shown, that retribution, not operational difficulties, were the cause of such delays. The truth is that the U.S. Department of the Interior has been able to issue trust checks without connection to the Internet before, and they must do it again.
• Department of the Interior employees will still get their paychecks. From Secretary Gale Norton on down, no Department of the Interior employee will go without a paycheck. Why should Indian Trust beneficiaries—many of whom are living at near or below the poverty line—be treated differently?
• The judge has specifically prohibited any retribution or other interference with the delivery of trust fund checks. Judge Lamberth, in his decision shutting down Interior’s Internet connection in July 2003, stated that “under no circumstances… shall the Interior defendants exploit or otherwise manipulate these circumstances and conditions to delay unduly the prompt distribution to plaintiffs of their desperately-needed trust funds. This Court will view any such delay as a willful breach of the fiduciary duty that the United States government owes to individual Indian trust beneficiaries.”
• This is the United States government we are talking about. Any suggestion that the most powerful country in the world cannot make good on its fiduciary duty to Individual Indian Trust beneficiaries should be viewed as the sham that it is—a thinly veiled attempt to punish trust beneficiaries and turn public opinion against proper accounting and distribution of trust funds monies. It is Interior’s own fault that its computer systems were disconnected. The department owes trust beneficiaries and their families the guarantee that checks will not be delayed due to Interior’s own inability to adequately secure critical IIM trust fund data.
