FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 15, 2002 For interviews and additional information, contact Mia Merrick: (480) 219-5891 Elouise Cobell To Visit Oklahoma and Discuss Trust Funds Litigation Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Norton, the six-year, multi-billion dollar, landmark class-action lawsuit to enforce the trust duties owed by the United States to 500,000 individual Indian trust beneficiaries, will be visiting Oklahoma next week. The case was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. in June 1996 and is presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth. Cobell - accompanied by two of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in this litigation - will meet with individual Indian trust beneficiaries in Miami, Pawhuska and Wetumka on Wednesday, August 21, and Thursday, August 22. The purpose of these meetings is to update beneficiaries on developments in the case and listen to their concerns about the century-old mismanagement of their trust lands and trust revenues. Ms. Cobell underscored the need to meet with members of the class to ensure that their concerns are addressed and that accurate information is provided to them and explained: "It is important for us to sit down with members of our class throughout Indian Country to keep them informed about the on-going misconduct of the White House and the Interior Secretary and brief the trust beneficiaries on the status of our case. Equally important, we expect to learn a lot from other beneficiaries so that those of us who have been fighting for the last six years can be sure that their interests are protected as fully as possible. I'm very excited about coming to Oklahoma." The first meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 21, in Miami and will be hosted by the Quapaw Tribe. A second meeting will begin at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Osage Nation's Wakon Iron Hall in Pawhuska. The final meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 22. It will be held at Wes Watkins Technology Center in Wetumka. The Cobell lawsuit has had unprecedented success. In 1999, then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin where held in contempt of Court. Later that year, Judge Lamberth riled that the United States had breached the trust duties that it owes to individual Indian trust beneficiaries and, among other things, ordered a full accounting of all trust funds from 1887 to the present. That decision was affirmed unanimously on appeal. Earlier this year, Lamberth concluded a second contempt trial, this one of Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation and present Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. They are charged with perpetrating a fraud on the Court and repeatedly lying to the Court about the status of trust reform. That decision is pending. Since Norton and senior Interior officials continue to refuse to comply with the Court's orders and routinely lie to the Court and Congress about trust matters, Cobell has asked the Court to take direct supervision and control over trust reform: "What we need and what we have asked for is a receiver. Without a receiver, reform will never occur and this mismanagement of our money and land will continue." To subscribe to the Indian Trust mailing list, please paste the following link into your browser: http://www.indiantrust.com/