Cobell Settlement gets worse and worse

The Opinion Piece in Indian Country Today, Eagle Woman: The Cobell Settlement is a great wrong to Indian people, further and more eloquently explains a lot of what is wrong with the Cobell Settlement. Angelique has simplified the facts, making it easy for everyone from legislators to Indian land owners to agree that the settlement as it stands is not even a slight shadow of what is owed. Nor is the current settlement one that should be allowed. It is a common sentiment among land owners that Eloise Cobell should not accept anything less than what all of us receive. There is now yet another refined explanation for why the settlement should not proceed further which all Indians should communicate to their senators in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and their nearby states.

Kimberly Craven and multiple others are speaking as Angelique Eagle Woman is: on behalf of Indian land owners. These ladies' articulate articles have become reasonable assumptions that what is on the table now is not acceptable, nor should oblivious Indian land owners be counted as support for this settlement. That the Cobell team went looking for support from tribal members is obvious; what is not so obvious is the fact that nothing was presented at her team's meetings with land owners that objectively presented all the facts. As one tribal member said after a recent meeting with the Cobell team, all he heard was pro settlement; he never heard the cons. Based on the skewed presentation, land owners whose tribes are not even part of the class action lawsuit, were fooled into signing petitions of support.

Now Angelique Eagle Woman has presented what is yet another article explaining why Indian land owners would once again be short-shrifted if the Cobell Settlement proceeds. Thanks to Angelique Eagle Woman, Kimberly Craven and the multiple other advocates is appropriate-as they have made obvious how disastrous this settlement could be. One would hope that President Obama's lead Indian policy advisor, Kim Teehee, is there to pick up the load from here.

It would be even more fortuitous if Congress listened to these two ladies and the rest of our advocates, whose explanations truly show that the Elouise Cobell Settlement is wrong.