Elouise Cobell, Advocate For Native Americans Dies At 65- Obama DOJ Reached Settlement Agreement ...

[bigtree]

Elouise Cobell, a lead plaintiff in a landmark class action in Washington who had long advocated for Indian trust reform, died late Sunday in Great Falls, Montana. A member of the Blackfeet Tribe, Cobell was 65. She died of complications from cancer.

Cobell was the name plaintiff in a suit filed in 1996 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that demanded the government perform an accounting of billions of dollars—flowing from oil and gas leases, among other sources—held in trust in individual Indian money accounts.

The plaintiffs, led by a Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton team and Washington solo Dennis Gingold, reached a $3.4 billion settlement in December 2009. Some 500,000 Native Americans stand to receive compensation through the deal.

President Barack Obama and top U.S. Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., heralded the settlement. Obama said the deal marked “an important step towards a sincere reconciliation between the trust beneficiaries and the federal government.”

Obama said in a statement today that "Cobell helped to strengthen the government to government relationship with Indian Country, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, and all those who mourn her passing."


read: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2011/10/elouise-cobell-advocate-for-native-americans-dies-at-65-.html

related:

AN OUTRAGEOUS TALE of the weak versus a callous, arrogant federal bureaucracy; the native Americans wouldn't have gotten satisfaction if President Obama hadn't interposed himself . . .
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7325242

Obama DOJ Reaches Settlement Agreement with Native American Farmers Claiming Discrimination by USDA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9349385

[Tsiyu]

1. ((Elouise))

May you meet all your relations.

[bigtree]

2. .

[bigtree]

3. *