Swimmer, a former chief of the Cherokee Nation, said reviewing all the accounts would cost more than $6 billion — and Congress has been unwilling to allocate the needed money. In many instances, the system is a paperwork nightmare: 19,000 accounts have less than a dollar in them, and in one case, 2,500 Indians are fractional owners of one parcel of land.

Many of the Interior Department's Internet connections have been shut down twice since December 2001 to keep hackers from reaching the trust money. That led to a disruption of checks in the dead of winter.

Swimmer said all Indians who are supposed to be receiving checks are now getting their money.

Changing the system

Interior Secretary Gale Norton was held in contempt of court because U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said she lied about progress on the trust accounting and concealed gaping holes in computer security. That ruling was overturned on appeal.

Lamberth wanted the accounting done by 2007, but now Congress has passed a measure that prohibits the department from starting court-ordered accounting until 2005.

The Interior Department is reorganizing the entire trust system and asking Indians to review the proposal. Leases, accountability, the way money is collected and appraisals will all be done more efficiently, Swimmer said.

He admits it should have been done decades ago.

It's up to Ervin Chavez to keep the Navajos updated on the complicated case. He heads the Shii Shi Keyah Navajo Allottees Association. (Shii Shi Keyah means "this land, my land.")

Chavez meets with the allottees, often driving to their homes to tell them about court proceedings and translate for those who do not speak English. Often, he does not know what to tell them, especially when they ask why their checks are for so little.

Gambrell is trying to help Mary Johnson and her siblings find out why oil companies are continuing to pump on their land even though leases have not been renewed.

Interior secretaries have never been held accountable "for the damage they've done to the beneficiaries," Gambrell said. "Interior's gotten away with whatever they wanted to do."

Ripple effect

For Navajos, not getting the money they depend on has led to more severe problems.

"We are over capacity," said Gloria Champion, executive director of the Home for Women and Children Inc. in Shiprock, N.M., who believes frustration over missing checks has increased domestic violence on the reservation. Of the 225 women the shelter can house each year, Champion said about half are from families that receive money from oil and gas leases.

Many times, she said, Navajo women who are being abused have no where else to go.

"A lot of times they would go to the extended family, but the extended family is struggling, too. The elders aren't getting the money."