Tribes file class action trust accounting lawsuit

The Native American Rights Fund filed a major class action lawsuit against the federal government last week, seeking an accounting of billions of dollars in tribal trust funds.

With the suit, the nonprofit law firm seeks to represent over 250 tribal governments whose money has never been accounted. Eleven tribes signed on as plaintiffs in the case, the first of its kind.

"This lawsuit is a reflection of a huge historical problem with the federal government's mismanagement of tribal trust accounts," said Rebecca Miles, the chairwoman of the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, the lead plaintiff. "We have tried to work with the agencies and we have tried to work with Congress. Our hope now is with the courts."

Filed on December 28 in federal district court in Washington, D.C., the suit joins dozens of similar cases filed by individual tribes. It also joins the Cobell lawsuit that represents over 500,000 individual tribal members whose funds remain unaccounted despite the obligations of the Interior Department to do so.

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