Copyright © 2003 NLThomas
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 8, 2003) - A federal judge was told Tuesday he represents the only hope American Indians have for reforming the government's scandalous management of their individual Indian Trust Accounts.

"You are the only institution our clients trust," attorney Dennis M. Gingold told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth.

"Your honor, the trail of tears does not end in Oklahoma," Gingold said. "The trail of tears goes to your courtroom."

With that reference to the government's forced exile of the Cherokees to Oklahoma, Gingold urged Lamberth to use his powers to help end the seven-year legal fight over the Indians' efforts to secure a full accounting of monies the government should have placed in their trust accounts.

"The integrity of the United States is on trial," Gingold declared. At stake is nothing less that the government's sacred word in treaty after treaty that it would protect Native Americans "as long as the rivers long and as long as the winds blow," the lawyer said.

Lamberth has previously held that the government breached its trust responsibility to the Indians and must provide them with an accounting. Tuesday the judge concluded a 44-day trial into how he can order changes in the trust and insure that the government is resolving the many, long-standing problems with the trust accounts.

Speaking for a group of Indians who filed the class-action lawsuit in 1996, Gingold cautioned Lamberth that the government has repeatedly failed to deliver on its promises to reform the trust. The best solution would be to remove the Interior Department from control over the trust accounts and place them under a court-appointed receiver, Gingold said in final arguments. "We've seen the same story since 1915," Gingold said. "The trust is poorly run...we're going to fix it."

Until the Indians filed their lawsuit, nothing happened to reform a trust program that was flawed form its creation in 1887, Gingold said. "For generations, nothing was done because the government felt it was not accountable."

Even with almost 50 critical rulings by Lamberth and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Gingold said the Interior Department will never reform the trust and never complete an honest accounting.

Since the lawsuit was instigated "everything has been ignored. Nothing has been done," he said. Many Indian trust beneficiaries have died, never able to secure the funds that were supposed to be deposited in their accounts years ago.

In Indian Country, there is much suffering, he said. "What we know in Washington is nothing compared to the suffering in Indian Country." The judge said he will accept written arguments on the case on Aug. 4 and rule later on the case.

Gingold said the Indians are prepared to push the case to a final trial later this year to end the fighting over the trust system.