FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2001
www.indiantrust.com


INTERIOR STALLED ON INDIVIDUAL TRUST REFORM EFFORTS,
HOPING JUDGE'S ORDER WOULD BE REJECTED ON APPEAL

 Activities in 14 Months After '99 Lamberth Decision "Not a Legitimate Effort"


WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senior Interior and Justice Department aides believed a 
federal judge lacked authority to order an historical accounting for individual 
Indian trust accountholders and intentionally stalled on performing the task, 
hoping the judge's decision would be overturned by a federal appeals court, a 
trust official testified today.

Thomas M. Thompson, who as principal deputy Special Trustee oversees trust 
reforms ordered by Congress and by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, 
described more than a year of growing tensions between Interior and Justice 
officials and the Office of Special Trustee (OST) as the two sides feuded over 
interpretations of Lamberth's Dec. 21, 1999 order and what they should tell 
him about Interior's strategy. 

Thompson was testifying on the second day of a contempt trial for Interior 
Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. 
Neither official was in court.

Although today's testimony largely covered the year before she took office, 
Norton  inherited the obligation to comply with the court's order to reform 
the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust, perform an historical accounting for 
Indian trust beneficiaries and report her progress in quarterly reports to the 
Lamberth. 

Thompson testified that shortly after the 1999 Lamberth ruling, Interior 
officials took a series of actions that were "not a legitimate effort" to 
comply with the court's order to conduct an historical accounting. "There was 
no office, no staff, no budget, no plan," Thompson said.

Instead, he said, officials were stalling, hoping Lamberth's decision would be 
reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Thompson also testified that Interior 
arbitrarily limited the collection of trust accounting records to 1994 and 
later, although the judge had ordered an accounting for "all funds" over the 
120-year life of the trust.

"They just made that up over at Interior?" said Lamberth. "They just weren't 
going to do it until I got affirmed [by the appeals court]."

"Or until you got overturned," Thompson added. "They certainly challenged your 
authority."

The Appeals Court upheld Lamberth's ruling unanimously on Feb. 23, 2001.

Thompson testified there were sharp disagreements between Interior and Justice 
officials, who took a narrow view of the court order, and the Office of Special 
Trustee.

"I'm the bad client who people didn't like to deal with because I questioned 
their steps," Thompson said. "We took the view that we needed to be the 
ombudsman for the trust beneficiaries. The Justice Department protected the 
interests of the United States. They didn't always coincide."  

Much of today's testimony centered on statistical sampling, a scheme proposed 
by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to take the place of the full 
historical accounting ordered by Lamberth. Although sampling would be less 
complex, difficult and costly, Thompson noted, he and others in OST believed 
strongly that it did not comply with Lamberth's ruling.

Shortly after she took office - and only days after the appeals court's ruling 
upholding Lamberth - Norton appeared before the Senate Indian Affairs 
Committee and embraced statistical sampling, a decision she apparently has 
since abandoned.

The contempt charges against Norton and McCaleb allege that they have failed 
to move forward on trust reform and the historical accounting, failed to 
repair severe computer security problems for trust accounting data and have 
submitted false reports to the court about Interior's supposed progress in 
complying with court orders.

Thompson's testimony resumes Wednesday, Dec. 12.

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