East Texas tribe still waiting for its due

In October 2002, a federal court recommended that Congress cut a check for $270.6 million to an American Indian tribe in East Texas. The Alabama-Coushatta tribe is still waiting for its money.

The payment is intended to compensate for oil and gas production, timber harvesting and trespassing on the tribe's ancestral lands by non-Indian settlers.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims concluded, after nearly 20 years of review, that the federal government had breached its legal duty to protect the tribe's land rights when it stood by as the State of Texas gave land grants to the settlers.

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In such cases, known as congressional references, Congress almost always follows the court's recommendations, according to legal scholars. However, Congress is under no obligation to do so, and so far, no legislation authorizing compensation has been introduced.

"I had hoped that it would have been introduced by now," said John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, based in Boulder, Colo. "I know things take time in Washington, and apparently this is one of those things that's going to take some time."



http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/26tribe.html