Checks in Cobell Settlement case to be mailed this week

FARMINGTON - A judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has approved an order to issue payments to members of the trust administration class in the Cobell Settlement case.

On Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan approved the distribution of checks by the claims administrator, the Garden City Group Inc., to the class membership.

According to the Indian Trust Settlement website, the Garden City Group will mail checks to the current addresses it has on file for class members.

The Garden City Group anticipates the first set of checks to be sent on Monday, and they could take from five to seven days to arrive, according to the update posted on the website.

The settlement is from the 1996 class action lawsuit filed by the late Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana.

Cobell was an Individual Indian Money account holder and uncovered years of neglect by the federal government when it came to keeping accurate records of Indian trust accounts.

For years, the federal government collected payments for these accounts from activities such as farming and grazing leases, timber sales, mining, and oil and gas production on trust land.

The settlement, which was about $3.4 billion, was reached between the Interior and Treasury Departments and the individual Indian plaintiffs in December 2009 in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The settlement provided $1.4 billion to pay recipients listed under the Historical Accounting Class and the Trust Administration Class, $1.9 billion to purchase fractionated individual Indian trust lands and up to $60 million for a scholarship fund to help Native Americans attend college or vocational school.

In August, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he appreciates Interior Secretary Sally Jewell reaffirming the federal government's trust responsibility to tribes and Native American beneficiaries.

"Good work is being done in Indian Country, but tribes must have the tools they need to strengthen their economics and meet health and education needs," Tester said. "I will keep working with all parties to make Indian Country all that it can be."