Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Jewell announces $107M for Blackfeet land buy-back

Twenty years after Blackfeet social activist Elouise Cobell filed a historic lawsuit demanding the federal government account for generations of exploitation and mismanagement of tribal land across the United States, Cobell’s own people stand ready to receive their compensation. On Tuesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell arrived at the Blackfeet Reservation to sign a compact allocating $107 million to buy back land allotted to tribal members 130 years ago, and then transfer control of these “trust lands” over to the Blackfeet tribal government. It is only a fraction of the $1.9 billion approved by Congress and signed into law as result of the Cobell lawsuit.“I think history will say we hit a vital turning point before we drove off a cliff,” Jewell said of the significance of the day’s events. “We hope that this says, let’s bury the sins of the past, of which there were many by the federal government not upholding its trust and treaty obligations to our nation’s first people...more

No comments: