Promise to Fix Indian Trust Finds Skepticism

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton acknowledged in court Wednesday that a system handling $500 million a year in royalties from Indian-owned land is still flawed and asked a judge to give her agency more time to fix it.

But after five years of presiding in a lawsuit alleging the mismanagement of $10 billion in Indian money, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth was skeptical, noting he had heard similar reform promises from Norton’s predecessor.

“Secretary [Bruce] Babbitt sat right in that chair where you are and assured me of a great plan and all this was going to happen and none of it happened,” Lamberth said. “How do I rely on what you . . . are telling me now and how is it different from what Secretary Babbitt told me?”

Norton said her department has hired outside consultants to help speed reform efforts. She added that she is seeking an $84-million increase in spending on trust reform and that her top deputies are devoted to fixing the system.

“We’re very dedicated to doing this,” Norton said. “I’d really like to see this change take place . . . during my time as secretary.”

Norton was on the stand defending herself against a contempt of court allegation for allegedly concealing the failure of key Indian accounting systems and not complying with Lamberth’s order to account for how much the Indians are owed.

She said progress has been made on both fronts but problems remain.

Dennis Gingold, the attorney for 300,000 Indians in the class-action lawsuit, said Norton’s promises don’t change the fact that today the trust fund is in crisis, despite the Interior Department spending $614 million to fix it.

During occasionally combative exchanges, Norton conceded that key accounting systems don’t work and attempts to fix errors in historical data are going slowly.

Norton added that complying with the court’s order to piece together how much the Indians are owed may be impossible because records have been destroyed.

“Unfortunately, we have found ourselves with a system that is not sufficient,” she said. “We are working to put the changes in place, but we still have a long way to go.”

Norton said her department deserves a “passing grade” in some reform areas but needs improvement in others.

Although much of the alleged wrongdoing occurred during Babbitt’s tenure, Norton and Neal A. McCaleb, her assistant secretary for Indian affairs, are on trial as the current officials in charge of the trust fund.