Apr. 07, 2004 - 18:31 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

STRIDENTLY

Anything new in the news ? Not much, same old stuff on Indian Affairs.

In the Rocky Mountain News this morning Deborah Frazier of the Rocky Mountain News put this article in.

"Indian trust investigator resigns, criticizes Interior."

"The court-appointed investigator has resigned from the $137 billion Indian trust suit against the Department of Interior, citing the department's favoritism toward the energy industry."

"The 1996 class-action suit alleges the Interior Department has failed since 1887 to account for and pay individual Indian landowners lease fees from oil, gas and coal development and farming and grazing."

"Attorney Alan Balaran, appointed special master in the case five years ago, said in his resignation letter that his investigation had found:"

"Interior was putting the interests of private energy companies ahead of the interest of individual beneficiaries."

"Balaran said, "Senior Interior officials who have close ties to the energy companies, which could be forced to pay the Indian plaitiffs millions of dollars, have obstructed a fair settlement."

"In the resignation letter, Balaran also said, "He found evidence that the federal agency had failed to monitor oil and gas activity on land owned by individual Indians."

"Balaran said, "He was resigning because the case should focus on Interior's mishandling of funds, not the agency's efforts to disqualify him."

"Eloise Cobell, the attorney who filed the case said she, "Regrets Balaran's resignation, but said it demonstrates how far the Interior Department will go to avoid a fair settlement. We are disturbed that the Bush administration seems determined to remove any court official who is critical of its handling of the individual Indian trust accounts."

"On Monday, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Cobell agreed to have two mediators hold non-binding settlement negotiations."

"U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who ruled in 1999 that the federal agency had breached its trust responsibility, said, "He regretfully accepted Balaran's resignation."

-----------------------------------------------

"The Interior Department has challenged Balaran's finding and, in 2003, sought his removal from the case."

"Interior Department officials and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., chairmnan of he Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, hadn't read Balaran's resignation letter Tuesday and declined to comment."

"Our committee has held hearings on this since 1997, and this is the first I've heard about energy companies preventing a settlement," said Paul Moorehead, Campbell's spokesman."

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So, last year the Interior Department tried to do the dirty to Mr. Balaran. Seems to me that Norton was mighty close to being charged with contempt along about then too.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, an Indian who hopped from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party quite some time ago, stirred up a lot of questions on just how dedicated was he toward people of the same ancestry. It seems to me to be obvious that the Republicans don't want the lower income people to have enough to tie their shoes. What chance do the Indians have against the Bush administration Republicans ?

Campbell's spokesman says, "Our committee has held hearings on this since 1997, and this is he first I've heard about energy companies preventing a settlement." Yeah riiight . . . Who are the people most financially interested in coal, gas and oil ? Maybe the spokesman didn't know that there were lobbyists paid by the energy companies ? I, of course, have no documentary proof -- but do have strong opinions on how things are run in Washington, D.C., for instance another article in our paper this morning said, "60 per cent of companies avoid paying IRS, GAO analysis finds." "Corporate tax breaks -- 7.4 per cent Overall federal tax receipts in 2003 that were corporate taxes, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second lowest rate since 1934." "70 per cent of foreign-owned companies doing business in the U.S. reported they didn't owe any U.S. federal taxes during the late 1990's."

"Haven't read it yet," does that sound familiar ? "I never heard of such a thing in all my time on the xxxxx," is that a standard theme song ?

And what's this non-binding settlement negotiations ? Can't they find somebody they both can trust to bring them into a real settlement ? Oooops, dreaming again. I would almost guess that the Indians will get the short end of the stick -- again !

I guess it will be business as usual, money talks STRIDENTLY . . . . . . . . . . . .

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