Settling IIM Trust Mismanagement Alone Not Option

by Brad Jolly, Partner
Dec 5, 2006

Indian country's refusal to agree to the Bush Administration's disgusting proposal to settle the Cobell litigation was more than the correct response. However, it is seeming more and more that the United States will not agree to any settlement of the Cobell litigation that does not include an en masse disposal of all of the government's wrongdoings toward Indian peoples and nations. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) himself has stated outright that he will not support any bill that settles the Cobell litigation if it does not simultaneously "settle" as many other trust claims as possible. Unfortunately, every time the government has supposedly "settled" all outstanding claims for its violations of the trust responsibility and other wrongs to Indian peoples and nations, it simply begins a cycle of new violations and wrongs that it will seek to "settle" later. Perhaps that is why the Bush administration is so desirable of limiting future claims altogether.