Panel Criticizes Indian Trust Plan 
House Members Worry U.S. Won't Fully Account for Assets 

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2001; Page A27 


Members of a House panel dealing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
angered by allegations last week that the government's effort to 
untangle billions of dollars in Indian trust funds is "imploding," 
expressed skepticism and concern yesterday that the government will 
succeed in its effort to help the Indians obtain a full accounting of 
their assets.

Top officials in charge of fixing the trust fund problem, more than a 
century in the making, were called by the House Appropriations 
subcommittee on the Interior to answer the charges. Special Trustee 
for American Indians Thomas N. Slonaker and Bureau of Indian Affairs 
Deputy Commissioner M. Sharon Blackwell said that although serious 
management problems remain, they are making every effort to ensure 
that trust reform would be carried out.

Their answers did little, however, to assuage some lawmakers' concerns 
that despite more than $140 million spent and several years of effort, 
the Indians will not have an accurate accounting of the oil, timber 
and coal royalties owed them.

The allegations were contained in a private memo to Slonaker by BIA 
chief information officer Dominic Nessi and entered as a court document 
by Justice Department lawyers who are battling claims by Native Americans 
that the government has mismanaged and not accounted for tens of 
billions of dollars that they say is rightfully theirs.

Slonaker testified yesterday that the computer system being developed 
to track the Indian funds -- the Trust Assets and Accounting Management 
System (TAAMS) -- will be operational by May 2003, but he and Blackwell 
said that accurate historical land and asset records will not be 
complete until 2005.

"This doesn't sound good to me," said Rep. Norman Dicks (Wash.), 
ranking Democrat on the panel. "It sounds to me like you're going to 
have problems here. There's no reason for Congress to be very confident
 in this operation thus far."

Dicks, clearly frustrated by the slow pace of reform, said in an 
opening statement, "Up until last week based on reports from the 
[Interior] department and testimony from the new secretary, I thought 
we were making good progress. Then I read in The [Washington] Post that 
senior departmental advisers have informed the special trustee that 
'trust reform is slowly, but surely imploding.' "

The government has tried to settle the litigation over the trust funds, 
Slonaker testified, but that effort collapsed last year as Justice 
Department lawyers were drafting settlement documents. He referred 
lawmakers seeking an explanation to Justice officials, who said that 
settlement talks are confidential.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who said yesterday's testimony was part of 
a "shell game" in which government officials keep changing excuses for 
the delay, say the settlement talks failed because the government would 
not agree to keep confidential' preliminary analysis by plaintiffs' 
experts of the amount of money owed to the Indians.

Nonetheless, Slonaker said he believes both sides should try to resume 
settlement negotiations. He said the litigation "has probably sparked 
reform," but "the dark side" is that it is "taking a significant amount 
of time from the folks in the BIA and in my office who are active in 
either monitoring or directing trust reform."