Attorney: Melody
McCoy, Don
Wharton, David
Gover, Dawn
Baum, John
Echohawk
Case Update
NARF represents forty-two plaintiffs - - the Nez Perce Tribe; the Mescalero Apache Tribe; the Tule River Indian Tribe; the Hualapai Tribe; the Yakama Nation; the Klamath Tribes; the Yurok Tribe; the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe; the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma; the Sac and Fox Nation; the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska; the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska; Aleut Community of St. Paul island; Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians; Bois Forte Band of Chippewa; Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of Colusa Rancheria; Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes; Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians; Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians; Kaibab Paiute Tribe; Kenaitze Indian Tribe; Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas; Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe; Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe; Minnesota Chippewa Tribe; Native Village of Atka; Noocksack Indian Tribe; Prairie Island Indian Community; Pueblo of Zia; Qawalangin Tribe; Rincon Luiseno Band of Indians; Samish Indian Nation; San Luis Rey Indian Water Authority; Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa; Shoalwater Bay Tribe; Skokomish Tribe; Spirit Lake Dakotah Nation; Spokane Tribe; Summit Lake Paiute Tribe; Tulalip Tribes; and, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, in an action in the federal district court for the District of Columbia seeking full and complete accountings of their trust funds, which never have been provided by the federal government which is the trustee for the funds.
While the action originally was filed as a class action on behalf of all tribes that did not file their own accounting actions, at oral argument on class certification in July 2008 the Court indicated that it was not inclined to use the class action mechanism as a way for tribes to decide whether they wanted to participate in the action. The Court instead preferred a notice process which also would allow tribes to decide whether they wanted to join the action. NARF respected this preference and proceeded accordingly. In October 2008, the Court approved the sending of such a notice to members of the putative class.
In response to the notice, 30 additional tribes joined the original 12 under NARF's representation. One other tribe joined represented by its own attorneys, bringing the total number of tribes in this action to 43. The Court officially denied class certification on December 1, 2008.
Still pending before the Court is the government's motion to dismiss the action for lack of jurisdiction. A ruling on that is expected at any time.
During the Presidential campaign last year, candidate Barack Obama "committed to resolving equitably "all Indian trust fund mismanagement litigation against the federal government if he was elected President. We are now hoping that President Obama will live up to this campaign promise and begin settlement negotiations in this case and the other Indian trust fund mismanagement cases soon. The new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has already said publicly that settlement of these cases is one of his priorities. We are optimistic that settlement negotiations will begin soon.
Case web site
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