Payout to Indians is in jeopardy

WASHINGTON — What has been seen as the best hope for settling a decade-old lawsuit over billions of dollars owed to Native American landowners is quickly fading, the victim of politics and timing.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has proposed an $8 billion compromise bill. But if it is not passed before Congress adjourns its two-year session, the matter could be in jeopardy of lingering without a resolution for years longer. The longest and largest class-action suit brought against the government, it already has dragged through two presidential administrations and six congressional sessions.

"The likelihood of anything getting enacted this year is very slim," said Keith Harper, a lawyer for the lead plaintiff in the case, Elouise Cobell.

"The key is McCain. It is in his almost sole power to push the (Bush) administration to bring this to closure," he said of McCain, whom he notes has successfully used his political will and clout to take on the White House on other issues.

The lawsuit asserts that as many as a half-million Native Americans and their heirs may be owed more than $100 billion in unpaid royalties, plus interest, for grazing, mining, logging and drilling on their land. At issue is property held in trust in their names for more than a century by the Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The case has been a political hot potato, in part because of the hit the U.S. Treasury would take with a settlement, which would also require funds for retracing and verifying individual accounts and money owed.

As the case has lingered, no one knows how much is really owed, especially when unpaid interest is added. Reaching a settlement has been complicated not just by the large amount of any potential settlement but also by the fact that trust records were destroyed over the past century, adding to accounting disagreements.

Meanwhile, plaintiffs are growing older.

When he took over in 2005, McCain promised he'd make trust reform a priority during his committee chairmanship and would give finding a solution "one good shot." In January, he is expected to move on to the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have offered to accept $27.5 billion, to be spread among individual Indians who have accounts in the trust program. But the Bush administration has rejected that. The lawyers have been mum on McCain's lower settlement figure.