Indian Trust Inquiry Stalls, Lawyer Says

The court-appointed official investigating record keeping for billions of dollars of American Indians’ money contends that government lawyers have insulted him and tried to thwart his inquiry.

In a letter to the Justice Department official in charge of the Indian Trust Fund case, Washington lawyer Alan Balaran said Justice and Interior department lawyers “have reportedly gone to great lengths to malign me both personally and professionally.”

Balaran oversees and investigates problems with record keeping for a system of federal accounts holding proceeds from oil drilling and other uses of Indian lands. The more than 300,000 American Indians who have accounts are suing the government, contending that mismanagement for more than a century cost them more than $10 billion.

Balaran did not name the government lawyers in the Jan. 31 letter to Phillip Brooks, but he said they have questioned his ability to read, compared his work to that of a TV detective and falsely said he had never practiced law.

Brooks told Balaran in a Feb. 2 letter that Justice Department officials “dispute your perception” that they are trying to undermine the investigation.

The Justice Department didn’t return calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth held former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt of court in 1999 for problems in turning over account records. Lamberth appointed Balaran to act as the court’s supervisor of the government’s attempts to gather and preserve the account records.

Balaran repeatedly has cited Interior and Treasury for violating court orders, including waiting for months to notify Lamberth about the inadvertent destruction of records and keeping files in a trash heap on a North Dakota reservation. He announced on Monday that he was launching a formal probe of the Interior Department’s Office of Trust Records, which was formed to handle the records involved in the lawsuit.

Balaran also plans to investigate the possible destruction of records by officials at the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana. Bureau of Indian Affairs officials have denied that any records were destroyed.

Balaran asked government lawyers to tell federal workers they are free to talk to him at any time. He wrote that “at least one employee described a palpable fear” of retaliation for “reporting management’s failure to publish site-visit reports that described less than ideal conditions.”

“I will not tolerate what I consider to be a transparent attempt to undermine the court’s orders and I will not accept the conduct of any official who creates an environment where employees fear reprisal simply for contacting my office,” Balaran wrote.

In response, Brooks told Balaran that “this is neither the time nor the place to address these matters in detail.”

“I can, however, assure you that every member of this litigation team has been, and remains, committed to assisting you in the timely and efficient accomplishment of your responsibilities,” Brooks wrote.