Feds: American Indian trust account claim case is ‘absurd’

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The U.S. government has said the claim by American Indians in a lawsuit that they are owed $58 billion because of the mismanagement of their trust accounts is ``absurd.''

In a brief filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the government said the suit should be dismissed if the Indians who filed it no longer want a full accounting of the funds held by hundreds of thousands of individual Indians.

The Oklahoman reported on the filing from its Washington bureau.

Congress created the federal trust to handle Indian royalties in 1887. It demanded an accounting in 1994, and two years later some Indians filed a class-action suit when the accounting was still not done.

In the suit, the Indians claimed they were cheated out of more than $100 billion in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.

The government maintained in its brief that the federal judge who is presiding over the case has no authority to award any money to the Indians and suggested the June trial in the case be canceled.

The brief came three weeks after the plaintiffs in the case filed a brief, saying they should be compensated $58 billion. They said the government collected about $3 billion during the past 120 years for individual Indian trust account holders that was never paid.

Because it held onto the money, the plaintiffs argue, the government was able to borrow less money for spending purposes. The $58 billion figure is based on Treasury bill rates over the 120-year time period. The Indians said that was the total benefit to the government of reduced borrowing costs.

The Indians also want District Judge James Robertson to return to the trust all the land it has sold since it was started in the late 19th century. Of the original 40 million to 54 million acres alloted, about 10 million acres remain.
Robertson previously has ruled that it would be ``impossible'' to provide a full accounting and accurate account balances to more than 300,000 account holders.