Eloise Cobell's stament on settlement (Dec 8, 2009)

Dec 15, 2009

From the statement:

Although we have reached a settlement totaling more than $3.4 billion dollars, there is little doubt this is significantly less than the full amount to which individual Indians are entitled. Yes, we could prolong our struggle and fight longer, and perhaps one day we would know – down to the penny – how much individual Indians are owed. Perhaps we could even litigate long enough to increase the settlement amount.

Nevertheless we are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller each year, each month, and every day, as our elders die, and are forever prevented from receiving their just compensation. We also face the uncomfortable, but unavoidable fact that a large number of individual money account holders currently subsist in the direst poverty, and this settlement can begin to address that extreme situation and provide some hope and a better quality of life for their remaining years.

I am particularly happy to see recognition of the need for funds to be set aside to promote higher education opportunities for Indian youth. When Indian parents and grandparents talk to me about this suit, they always speak of how they will use the money they receive to improve their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. I am hopeful that these funds can lift a generation and help break a cycle of poverty that has held too many Indian families and individuals in its grip for too many generations.

My greatest optimism about this settlement, however, is the hope it holds for significant and permanent reform in the way the Departments of Interior and Treasury account for and manage Individual Indian Money accounts. There is much room for improvement, and I expect the Commission that Secretary Salazar has announced to take on the challenge of making these substantive changes immediately.

To read the full statement, click here.

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