Cobell v. Salazar (individual Indian trust litigation)

What happened

In 1996, beneficiaries of Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust accounts brought a class action against the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. The lead appellant was Elouise Pepion Cobell. The bulk of the trust assets, the court explained, are the proceeds of transactions in land allotted to individual Indians under the General Allotment Act of 1887, known as the Dawes Act.

The class relied on the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994, which requires the Secretary of the Interior to account for the funds. After years of litigation, the district court held the Department in continuing breach of its duty to account for trust funds, held that a full accounting was impossible, and ordered monetary relief to the class.

On appeal, the D.C. Circuit agreed with much of that. It held that "while the district court's analysis of duty and breach are generally correct, the court erred in freeing the Department of the Interior from its burden to make an accounting." The court said that without an accounting it is impossible to know who is owed what. It vacated the district court's orders and sent the case back.

The litigation ended in a settlement. Interior says Congress approved the Cobell settlement on November 30, 2010, and that it totals $3.4 billion: $1.9 billion for a trust land consolidation fund and $1.5 billion in direct payments to class members.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error