WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Resources Committee took note of tribal leaders'
frustrations Wednesday with a trust fund system in total disarray, a problem
Native people blamed on government malfeasance, neglect and ignorance.

"It is unfortunate, but true, that through both Democrat and Republican
administrations the Interior Department has acted like the Enron of federal
agencies when it comes to managing Indian trust assets," said Rep. Nick
Rahall, senior Democrat on the committee.

Sweeping changes have been proposed for the Interior Department's Bureau of
Indian Affairs, the bureaucracy charged in large part with overseeing 56
million acres of land and $1.1 billion annually in land-related revenue for
tribal and individual trust accounts.

Those who sat before the Resources Committee Wednesday included tribal
leaders, trust fund specialists and government officials, representatives
from the National Congress of American Indians, the Council of Large
Land-Based Tribes and the InterTribal Monitoring Association.

"The issues of trust reform and reorganization within the BIA are nothing new
to us in Indian Country," said Chairman Michaeal Jandreau of South Dakota's
Lower Brule Tribe.

"We have endured many efforts - some well-intentioned and some clearly not -
to fix, reform, adjust, improve, streamline, downsize and even terminate the
BIA and its trust activities."

Acknowledgment of trust fund problems resulted in the 1994 Trust Fund
Management Reform Act, and more than $600 million has been spent since 1996
with what some see as few results. The Cobell vs. Norton lawsuit of 300,000
individual Native account holders has thrust the issue to a new level of
scrutiny.

"The lawsuit has provided a collective strong voice for the account holders,
which there hasn't been before," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the
Morning Star Institute, who first witnessed congressional hearings on trust
reform in the early 1980s.

By day's end Wednesday it was clear congressional intervention is likely,
with suggestions including reforming the 1994 Trust Reform Act and ensuring
that Interior Secretary Gale Norton doesn't reorganize the BIA without tribal
input.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a long history of decentralized management
and as a result does not have clear and unified policies and procedures
relating to trust management," Norton told the committee. "The need for such
clear and unified policies remains large, but very little has been done."

A succession of court orders and opinions from the Cobell lawsuit has forced
Norton to find a way to reconcile individual trust fund accounts. Her answer:
Create the Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management and strip the BIA of
those duties.

Tribes have resoundingly rejected her idea and now demand accountability.
"The failure of Congress to act decisively to hold the interior secretary
accountable for her malfeasance is disturbing and indefensible," said Elouise
Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and lead plaintiff in the
suit.

"Since we initiated class-action litigation in 1996 to enforce the trust
obligations owed by the United States, I have said many times the
government's bad faith and misconduct simply can't get any worse."

Reach Jodi Rave Lee at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com