HERE'S PART TWO FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL ON WHY FEDERAL RECOGNITION IS DEADLY FOR NATIVE POEPLES -
Those who examine the trust - including members of Congress - come away stunned by how badly and how fraudulently it has been handled. Records have been lost and purposely destroyed. Even a conservative guess of the amount owed to Indians from the trust runs as high as the tens of billions of dollars. Ineffectual plans to reform the trust have been drawn up by the Interior Department. But instead of working to provide a historical accounting of the trust, as required, Interior officials point to concern in Congress that the cost of an accounting is likely to reach $3 billion, with no guarantee that it will actually find anything. In other words, the department wants to conclude in advance that very little is likely to be owed to anyone.
The plaintiffs have won in court every step of the way. Interior officials have repeatedly been placed under sanctions for misconduct and malfeasance. So far Interior has worked as hard to discredit the judge in the case, Royce Lamberth, as it has to actually fix the problem. The department essentially argues that the judiciary has no business telling the executive branch how to do its business. But the department has had more than a century to get this right.
These are not abstract issues. This is a case about real money owed to real people. The central question is simply: Who has profited from economic activity on the individual Indian trust lands? Certainly not the Indians who owned them. The only real reason to block a historical accounting of this trust - and real reform - is to block the real answer to that question.
To view the latest information concerning this case, go to www.indiantrust.com
Think About It - Do You Think The People Who Are Trying So Hard To Pass Federal Recognition For Hawaiians Are Actually Trying To Help Hawaiians - Or Themselves?
