Money Money Who
Took The Money
Bakersfield Californian ^ | 4/8/04 | Dan K. Thomasson - Scripps Howard
WASHINGTON (SH) - No matter who is running the Interior Department -
Republicans, Democrats or a hybrid of both - they can't seem to get
it right
with Native Americans, leaving one to believe that the nation's integrity
got buried at Wounded Knee alongside Crazy Horse's heart.
Ever since the U.S. 7th Calvary of Custer fame (or infamy, whichever
side
one is on) massacred a harmless bunch of Ghost Dancers and their women
and children at that now-sacred site, officially ending 30 years of
armed
hostility toward the Indians, the government has maintained a policy
of
corruption that even the federal courts can't seem to straighten out
despite
a persistent and valiant effort by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth.
That
unspoken bureaucratic policy seems to be that if it is no longer permissible
to shoot the sons and daughters of Sitting Bull, it is at least fair
to pick
their pockets.
And, brother, that is exactly what has been going on with hundreds
of
millions of dollars paid for the use of their land undistributed and
unaccounted from a Washington trust fund that has been engendering
controversy since 1887. The amount reported in this fund is about $13
billion, but there are substantial allegations that the government has
cheated the beneficiaries out of as much as $137 billion. No one seems
to
really know how much.
One court order after another has failed to bring about a clear accounting.
Even Lamberth's drastic step of holding more than one official or another,
including the last two Interior secretaries, Democrat Bruce Babbitt
and
Republican Gale Norton, in contempt of court and ultimately appointing
his
own investigator to look into the mismanagement hasn't been able to
produce an audit in which anyone has any faith.
Now it seems Lamberth's investigator, Alan Balaran, has thrown up his
hands in disgust and resigned, charging that both the Interior and the
Justice
departments have been working overtime to thwart his efforts since he
came
across evidence that the feds have negotiated oil and gas leases on
Indian
land with private companies that were only a fraction of the rate paid
private landowners.
Balaran reported last year that Interior's chief appraiser in New Mexico
in
particular had repeatedly worked deals for energy companies to pay less
than fair market value to the Indians. One incident he cited was a negotiation
with a company to compensate the Indians $4.50 a yard for the right
to put a pipeline across their land when the company paid private landowners
$104 a yard for the same pipeline rights.
His diligence, Balaran alleges, brought the wrath of the Justice Department
down on him. He was ordered out of an Interior repository in Dallas
where he was trying to review files on audits of gas and oil leases
and accused of
unethical behavior. That, of course, should surprise no one given the
fact
the government long has been protecting a Bureau of Indian Affairs that
has
set a standard for corruption and mismanagement for over a century
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