failing to produce documents related to the lawsuit and Gale Norton (G.W. Bush Admin- istration) for failing to initiate a court-ordered Historical Accounting. I was honored to interview Judge Lam-
berth. “I’m a judge who just calls them as he sees them,” he said. On July 12, 2005, this was how he saw it: “For those harboring hope that the stories
of murder, dispossession, forced marches, as- similationist policy programs and other inci- dents of cultural genocide against the Indians are merely the echoes of a horrible, bigoted government-past that has been sanitized by the good deeds of more recent history, this case serves as an appalling reminder of the evils that result when large numbers of the politically powerless are placed at the mercy of institutions engendered and controlled by a politically powerful few. It reminds us that even today our great democratic enterprise remains unfinished. And it reminds us, finally, that the terrible power of government, and the frailty of the restraints on the exercise of that power, are never fully revealed until govern- ment turns against the people.” On July 11, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit removed Judge Lamberth, stating that he had lost his objectivity. Cobell was disappointed with the decision but she never lost hope. “We might have lost our judge but we didn’t lose the facts,” she said. “And victory is going to come no matter what judge.” Over the many years we knew each other,
Cobell and I would often talk about the law- suit. Even in those times when victory seemed far away she would always say, “I know I am doing the right thing,” and then she’d say it, what I called the Elouise mantra: “the stars are aligned, the stars are aligned.” And then it came to pass. When candidate Barack Obama became
President he kept his campaign promise to bring a fair and just resolution to the Cobell lawsuit. In December 2009, after six months of negotiations and 13 years of contentious litigation, Cobell and her lawyers agreed to a $3.4 billion settlement. In November, 2010 Congress ratified the settlement and in December of 2010, President Obama made the announcement, “After years of delay,” he said, “this bill will provide a small measure of justice to Native Americans whose funds were held in trust by a government charged with looking out for them.” On June 21, 2011, the
Federal Judge Royce C. Lamberth
Even in those times when victory seemed far away she would always say, “I know I am doing the right thing,” and then she’d say it, what I called the Elouise man- tra: “the stars are aligned, the stars are aligned.” And then it came to pass.
Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., gave it the final stamp of approval. The Cobell settlement included $1.5 bil-
lion for the members of the class, $1.9 billion for a Land Consolidation Program and $60 million for a college scholarship fund for Indian youth. It is the largest government settlement ever awarded in the history of the United States. Imagine the celebration that took place
after winning a 30-year battle with the most powerful government in the world! But for Cobell, there would be no celebration until after government checks were received by the Indian Trust beneficiaries. Finally, over the Christmas holidays of
2012, the first round of government checks, or “Elouise checks” as many referred to them, were sent out to 300,000 beneficiaries. The checks averaged between $1,000 to $2,000 per person. Many used their funds to buy Christ-
mas gifts for their family or to pay for heat, food and medical care. Some gave a portion of their funds to help others, in the name of Elouise Cobell. The woman who fought so long and hard
for justice, however, never saw those checks. On October 16, 2011, just four months after the Court’s final approval of the settlement that bore her name, Elouise Pepion Cobell suc- cumbed to a deadlier battle, cancer. As her lead attorney, Dennis Gingold, said at her funeral, “She saw the finish line but she never crossed it.” The following week the Department of In- terior flew its flags at half-mast in her honor.X
Melinda Janko is the producer/director of A Small Measure of Justice, a feature length documentary about Elouise Cobell’s fight for justice and the filing of the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Filming for the documentary began in 2004 at the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. The film is now in post-production for a theatrical release scheduled at the end of 2013. For more information visit:
www.asmallmeasureofjustice.com or contact Melinda Janko at
Mjanko2@aol.com.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 31
PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRE IN THE BELLY PRODUCTIONS
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