Elouise Cobell: "A Significant Force for Change" Laid to Rest

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

BROWNING, MONTANA - Some 400 hundred family members, friends, American Indian leaders and government dignitaries attended the funeral of Elouise Cobell, 65, at the Browning High School gymnasium.

Burial Service at the Cobell Family Ranch

Cobell, the champion of the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement, died a week ago Sunday, October 15, after a six-month courageous fight with cancer.

Interior Department Washington DC

Larry Echo Hawk, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs within the US Department of the Interior, read from a letter by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Cobell was…

“ a significant force for change. She was a hero in all senses of the word.”

Interior Secretary Salazar ordered all Interior Department Building flags' to be flown at half-staff in honor of Elouise Cobell.

In 1996, Cobell filed an historic lawsuit against the federal government seeking justice for the government's mismanagement of 500,000 Individual Indian Trust accounts. In December 2009, the Obama administration announced the agreement of $3.4 billion and signed the agreement, known as the Cobell v. Salazar Settlement, a year later. It is the largest class action suit ever agreed to by the US government.

The $3.4 billion Cobell settlement was approved by Congress on November 30, 2010 (Claims Resolution Act of 2010) and signed by President Obama on December 8, 2010.

The Cobell Settlement will address the Federal Government's responsibility for an historical accounting of Individual Indian trust accounts and trust mismanagement claims on behalf of more than 300,000 individual Indians. A fund of $1.5 billion will be used to compensate class members for their historical accounting, trust administration and asset mismanagement claims.

"The ceremony was beautiful and appropriately so to send off a great warrior of our times. I was deeply moved and had mixed emotions - both saddened by the loss of a dear friend and hero while at the same time celebrating her extraordinary life."

Said Keith Harper, attorney for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.

Montana's US Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester attended the funeral service.

Ms. Cobell was laid to rest at twenty-six miles away at her family's Blacktail Ranch.

photo credit and thanks to John Loving

updated 11:55 am edt; posted October 24, 2011 7:20 am edt