From the left, Solicitor of the Interior Hilary Tompkins, Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes and Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli. Elouise Cobell and her lawyers are seated to the right (photos by Ryan J. Reilly).

This post has been corrected.

The lead plaintiff in a long-running class action suit criticized Congress Wednesday for its slow pace in approving a proposed settlement of the case.

Appearing before the House Natural Resources Committee, Elouise Cobell, the named plaintiff in the suit filed in 1996 on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indians, expressed frustration at how long it has taken congressional leaders to consider the legislation necessary to OK the settlement.

“I thought that all we had to do was come and talk to Congress because they had so many years and they knew about this, and it’s almost like sometimes Congress acts oblivious to all the issues that we talked about,” Cobell said.

Early last December, the government and the plaintiffs reached a $1.4 billion settlement in Cobell v. Salazar.  The lawsuit, which is one of the largest class action suits against the government in U.S. history, alleged that the Interior Department mishandled thousands of individual Indian trust fund accounts over more than a century.

The settlement requires congressional approval, however. The original terms gave lawmakers a Dec. 31, 2009, deadline to finish the necessary legislation. That deadline has been extended twice and is now set to expire on April 16.

Aides on Capitol Hill questioned the short deadlines given the time it often takes Congress to pass legislation. A person familiar with the temporary settlement arrangement said that the judge who handled the case  — District Judge James Robertson — dictated the legislative deadline.

Elouise Cobell (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

But critics of the settlement, some of whom appeared before the committee on Wednesday, said they want more time to find out how account holders would benefit under the proposed settlement. The critics said there has not been enough transparency and criticized the communication with Native American leaders.

Representatives from the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior shot back at the suggestion they have not reached out to Native Americans, pointing out that they were on a conference call with tribal leaders the day the settlement was announced.

The department officials also said they plan to begin a massive public relations campaign once Congress approves the legislation. Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes told the panel that it would have been presumptuous to educate the public about the details of the settlement before Congress has given its approval.

Cobell said she was frustrated by the “misinformation regarding the settlement conveyed by a very small number of individuals, many of whom are not beneficiaries and do not speak for individual Indian beneficiaries.”

But the concerns aren’t just about communicating the latest information to all involved parties. Richard Monette, former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, testified that the proposed Cobell settlement would be a “breach of trust.”

And Michael Finley, who chairs the Inter-Tribal Monitoring Association on Indian Trust Funds, told lawmakers that many of those he spoke with had problems with the size of attorneys fees arising from the settlement.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, lawyers could receive between $50 to $100 million, plus payment of up to $12 million for work performed after the settlement.

Government officials said that the caps on attorneys fees are very low compared to other class-action suits.

Finley also cited the first deadline — Dec. 31, only weeks after the settlement was announced — as raising suspicions about what was contained in the agreement. “No one understood the reason for the very short time frame and it made people very wary of what was actually being proposed,” Finley said.

He also said that it was not possible for many people affected by the settlement to go to a Web site to get answers to their question, when many of them “have no electricity in their homes and limited access in their communities.”

Another witness, Austin Nunez, representing the Indian Land Working Group, said the organization’s board of directors had endorsed the legislation, despite concerns about some of the details of the settlement,.

The Next Steps

All the witnesses promised lawmakers they would respond to their questions and concerns within two weeks.

Recently the Obama administration began circulating a draft of legislation in the House and is working with leadership in that chamber to move it forward.

According to Senate aides, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is trying to find the right bill to which he can attach the language approving the settlement, in an effort to speed the legislative process in the Senate.

Ranking Member Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and Chairman Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV).

If Congress does not act, or if there are any changes to the proposed legislation, the settlement agreement will become null and void.

Although they raised some concerns about the proposed legislation, both Natural Resources panel Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and the committee’s top Republican, Doc Hastings of Washington, indicated they shared the Justice Department’s goal of closing the matter.

Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli said that he hoped that both congressional authorization and final approval from the court would happen quickly.

Throughout the negotiations, government lawyers were guided by two principles, Perrelli said.

“First, we wanted true peace for the parties, he said. “We wanted to turn the page on history. The resolution of the accounting and trust administration pieces of this litigation will do that. And second, we wanted to put Interior on a new path for the future, and to give it tools to address some of the underlying conditions that have contributed to its challenges. The land consolidation program will do that.”

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the amount of the settlement agreement. It is $1.4 billion.

A top Justice Department official and a lawyer representing hundreds of thousands of Native Americans in a long-running class action lawsuit say they are hopeful that Congress will be able to pass the required legislation to move the settlement forward before next month’s deadline.

The parties announced on Dec. 8 that they had reached a settlement in Cobell v. Salazar, in which the Interior Department was accused of  mishandling funds in Indian trust funds which belong to individual Native Americans.

One of the largest class actions ever filed against the U.S. government, it was originally filed in 1996, by Elouise Cobell on behalf of more than 300,000 Native Americans holding individual Indian money accounts. In the waning days of 2009, both parties agreed to extend the year-end deadline for final resolution of the settlement to Feb. 28, 2010.

“We’re certainly hopeful that we will get passage of that,” Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli told Main Justice on Thursday. “I don’t have any specifics. But we remain hopeful that it’s going to get passed.”

Keith Harper (kilpatrickstockton.com).

Keith Harper, a Kilpatrick Stockton lawyer representing Cobell, told Main Justice that he is “still cautiously optimistic despite the gridlock on Capitol Hill.” Harper said his firm continues to work on figuring out ways to notify the plaintiffs so that they will be “ready to go” when the legislation is passed.

“The holdup doesn’t have anything to do with our particular legislation,” said Harper. “A lot is happening on the Hill, but I don’t have a sense of any serious opposition. Both sides have been supportive of this resolution.”

Asked about the possibility of extending the Feb. 28 deadline, Harper said they would “cross that bridge when we get to it.”

‘There are a lot of moving parts, but both sides agree that this is the right thing to do,” said Harper. “Whether we can continue to extend the deadline is another question, but right now all energies are focused and we’re feeling very good.”

Elousise Cobell (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

UPDATE: The deadline has been extended until Feb. 28, writes BLT. No other conditions of the settlement changed according to Cobell lawyer Keith Harper, who signed the agreement with the Justice Department Tuesday afternoon.

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Lawyers representing Elouise Cobell, the main plaintiff in the long-running Indian trust litigation, are in discussions with the government about possibly extending Thursday’s deadline to finalize a settlement agreement that required action from Congress.

The settlement reached earlier this month required Congress to pass legislation authorizing payment to the plaintiffs by Dec. 31. Congress did not take action before adjourning for its holiday break.

Keith Harper, one of the lawyers for Cobell, confirmed ongoing discussions to the Blog of Legal Times.

The settlement of the case, Cobell v. Salazar, was announced at a press conference at the Department of the Interior on Dec. 8, and was discussed before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Dec. 17.

Thomas Perrelli (file photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

“[T]he litigation has drained federal resources from Indian Country, and has created a poisonous atmosphere for the administration of the federal government’s trust responsibilities in Indian Country,” said Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs panel.

“Throughout our discussions with the plaintiffs, we have been guided by two principles,” said Perrelli. “First, we wanted true peace for the parties. We wanted to turn the page on history. The resolution of the accounting and trust administration pieces of this litigation will do that.”

Cobell v. Salazar was one of the largest class actions ever filed against the U.S. government. The lawsuit, originally filed in 1996, was brought by Cobell on behalf of more than 300,000 Native Americans holding individual Indian money accounts.

If approved and funded by Congress, the $3.4 billion settlement agreement includes $1.4 billion that would be distributed to class members to compensate them for their historic accounting claims and to resolve potential claims that prior U.S. officials mismanaged the administration of trust assets, according to the Justice Department.

The other $2 billion would go to establish a land consolidation program to provide individual Indians with an opportunity to obtain cash payments for divided land interests and free up the land for the benefit of tribal communities. The allegations of mismanagement went all the way back to 1887.

“What we’ve long thought was needed was leadership on the other side,” Harper told Main Justice earlier this month. “For people to recognize that we could litigate forever on both sides, but it’s far better to resolve the case and try to build a foundation upon which there can a more healthy and trusting relationship.”

“You have a president now who has committed to that and made very clear that this was one of his priorities, you have a secretary of the Interior who has made it one of his priorities,” said Harper.

“Trying to judge whether something will get through Congress is challenging,” said Harper earlier this month. “Would I be shocked if it didn’t? No, but that’s just the way this town works, but it’s just hard to predict with any precision, but I’m optimistic.”

View video from the Dec. 8 press conference below:

Attorney General Eric Holder, at a press conference announcing settlement in Cobell v. Salazar, is flanked by Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes (left) and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (right). (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Elouise Cobell (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Attorney General Eric Holder this morning announced a settlement totaling more than $3.4 billion in a long running class-action case — Cobell v. Salazar — in which the Interior Department was accused of  mishandling funds in Indian trust funds which belong to individual Native Americans.

It was one of the largest class actions ever filed against the U.S. government, said Holder. The lawsuit, originally filed in 1996, was brought by Elouise Cobell on behalf of more than 300,000 Native Americans holding individual Indian money accounts.

The settlement still must receive congressional approval, which Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he hoped would happen by the end of the year. A court would also have to approve the settlement, which Salazar anticipated would happen over the next several months.

The $3.4 billion settlement includes $1.4 billion that will be distributed to class members to compensate them for their historic accounting claims and to resolve potential claims that prior U.S. officials mismanaged the administration of trust assets, according to the Justice Department.

The other $2 billion will go to establish a land consolidation program to provide individual Indians with an opportunity to obtain cash payments for divided land interests and free up the land for the benefit of tribal communities, the Justice Department said.

Holder said the U.S. has tried to settle this case many times, and indeed this settlement almost failed in the last moments. Both parties were able to come to an agreement late last night.

Of the $2 billion, the settlement authorizes the Interior Department to set aside up to 5 percent of the value of the land sold back to the government into a scholarship fund for Native American students.

With the scholarship fund, said Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, “the Indian people have something to look forward to for the future.”

“We’ve suffered too long in the government’s hands and now it’s time for change,” said Cobell.

“If it was me, I would fight on for another 100 years, I was not tired,” she said. “I wanted to continue to fight on, but the deciding factor was, I live in Indian country and I see every single day people dying without their money and you just can’t take it anymore.”

Holder said the settlement was significant move from the government, which up until this point had not agreed that it owed the plaintiffs any money.

“The United States could have continued to litigate this case, at great expense to the taxpayers. It could have let all of these claims linger, and could even have let the problem of fractionated land continue to grow with each generation,” said Holder. “But with this settlement, we are erasing these past liabilities and getting on track to eliminate them going forward.

Holder thanked her for her willingness to compromise, said Cobell.