The Power of One

Call it the power of one.  Fifteen years ago when Elouise Cobell brought suit against the US Government concerning mismanagement of Indian funds more than a century ago, few thought she would win the case.  Things were stacked against her, the time for one thing, and the U.S.’s seemingly endless procession of lawyers, appeals, and foot dragging.

It’s common knowledge that the American Indian was treated ruefully over the years, since the very start of the European invasion. Things held dear by many of us today, such as Thanksgiving Day, can be viewed as nails in the demise of the Native American tribes. And even after that land grab, the Native Americans were consistently taken advantage of over the years.

Cobell’s class-action case deals specifically with misappropriated royalties the government was supposed to have paid the American Indian tribes for oil, gas, grazing and other leases.  The billions of dollars systematically disappeared as it was either stolen outright, or squandered by those who held power over it in trust.

The Browning, Montana woman’s suit came in at $3.4 billion, which will be spread out among thousands of deserving people. But part of even that problem was the time it took to get it accomplished.  The courts resolved the case in December of 2009, but it took congress an additional year to approve it, and then it had to wait for U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan’s final approval.

For his part, Hogan said the legitimacy of Cobell’s claims could not be questioned.  Cobell, who recently underwent cancer surgery, is the big winner in the case scoring $2 million, and three other named plaintiffs will receive up to $200,000 apiece.  Cobell said that while the sum did not meet the amount of the loss, it was likely to be the best deal her group could get.  Any additional legal maneuvers would end up costing more money and would not likely bring in enough additional cash to make it worthwhile.

Justice Hogan said the case had gone on long enough.  In any case, it’s about time the US Government had to pay up for treating the American Indian so poorly. No doubt there are hundreds of other examples that we Americans would cringe about if we knew about them, but at least for this once some semblance of justice prevailed.

Interestingly enough, after 15 years, President Barack Obama had the temerity to say that the decision "marks another important step forward in the relationship between the federal government and Indian Country."

Oh really?  This measure took 15 years to extract from the government. The government fought it tooth, nail, and boney arthritic finger.  You would think from Mr. Obama’s statement that this was something we went into full of benevolence and wanting to make up for the bad deeds of those in power in the past. Bah!

We should be humbled to ever have had people in power who were so ruthless.  To think that this took 15 years, even after the presiding judge attested to the legitimacy of the claim is disgusting.  How many might still be alive had they been assisted by this money instead of having to wait for the government to do the right thing?

The government was forced to do the right thing.  It didn’t step up and do what was right. There was a reason behind the 15-year battle, and it doesn’t play well into our government’s desire to be fair and equable.

Still there were other Native Americans who spoke against the settlement.  But they were mostly incensed at the amount of money the lawyers wanted to extract from the settlement.  Say what you want, the lawyers are at least partly responsible for pushing this case to fruition and deserve something for their action.  Certainly, they have done more for the class action members than the Federal Government has.  But Justice Hogan summed it all up best. He called Cobell a true hero.

"She's accomplished more for individual Native Americans than any other individual I can think of in recent history," Hogan said, noting that Cobell put her reputation and her health at risk in "an unprecedented effort I've not seen before in a class-action case."

Dennis Gingold, a Washington lawyer who took the case 15 years ago after Cobell begged him, said the victory belonged to her.  "If it wasn't for Elouise Cobell we would not have done this," he told Hogan.