The irony is just too much. The US Supreme Court has recently validated a nearly $1 billion award forcing the Bureau to pay over 600 tribes for services never rendered. Or for not paying these tribes enough for services they were owed. This is an except from another story from BUZZFEED.com about the settlement.
Federal officials on Friday announced they had agreed to pay almost $1 billion to settle claims brought by hundreds of Native American tribes who say the government did not properly fund a number of tribal programs.
Under an agreement with the federal government, the tribes administer their own education, housing, law enforcement, and environmental management programs, among other services. But for 25 years tribes have complained that the government underfunded the programs, leading to major shortfalls.
“Deep and painful cuts were made every year,” Val Panteah, governor of Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, told reporters at a press conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday.
More than 600 tribes and tribal agencies took their case to the Supreme Court in 2012, where the justices ruled the government was liable for the payments.
On Friday, after years of negotiation, tribal elders and government officials speaking in Albuquerque announced they had reached a $940 million settlement, which they have submitted to federal court for final approval.
Right — so if according to the BIA claims that we were under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934…let’s say since 1911, the government owes us at least $15,000,000.00, and that’s conservative (averaging about $147,000.00 a year). We could use a little change right about now ey bird?
The best part of it all is that the precedent has be set by the above settlement which means a successful legal argument supporting our claim has already been made.The only catch is that the LIT ruling by the BIA has to hold up, and it’s pretty weak. In the Federal Register, there’s no explanation of how we meet the 1934 criteria.
The irony is that the same US Supreme Court ruled that the BIA could only take LIT IF we were under federal jurisdiction and there are court challenges coming that say the BIA itself said were NEVER a federal tribe. The decision is shaky. Anyway those challenges could reverse our BIA Land in Trust action.
But those crickets are chirping and Alrinda is silent. She’s working for Genting not us. Maybe she’s thinkin’ about filing that suit for us. Probably not. This decision buys them time, gives the Comwellians huge
Reluctant dad, and best known for “eating off the White man’s plate” while drunk in Dino’s and other shenanigans…is the photo opt king and big time Indian.
huge raises, bonuses and benchmark raises worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They get to build their frequent flyer miles by flying all over the country pretending to be big shots doing God knows what.
Winnie has a long history of getting what she wants from tribal coffers…remember the broken down $17 k back hoe?
Hell, if we combined Winnie’s $32,000.00 raise for leaving IHS and coming on as full time council member ( without a job description ) and Bobby Foster’s $30,000 raise (without a GED), we could have a real pantry for needy families and Elders to shop every week.
Think about what we could have done with the $130 m in debt that does nothing to enhance our lives.
Green eggs and ham people.
