Yet another good reason to oppose the Akaka Bill. This is the kind of thing that would happen if the Akaka Bill passes...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 -- In a blatant effort to punish Native Americans for a lawsuit that has won them the right to an accounting of their mismanaged trust accounts, the Interior Department is threatening to withhold millions of dollars in funds from Indian tribes across the nation.

"This is a cruel effort to inflict even more pain on the victims of the government's long- acknowledged misbehavior," said Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian from Montana who is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. "It is just plain despicable."

In a "Dear Tribal Leader" letter dated Jan. 26, Associate Deputy Interior Secretary James Cason declared that Interior plans to pay the $7.1 million that a federal judge had directed the government to pay to the Cobell plaintiffs through cuts in various Indian programs.

"The government cannot win in litigation so they continue these underhanded tactics of punishing the victims" Ms. Cobell said. "I have never seen a more blatant and transparent attempt to politicize this case in order to divide and conquer Indian country."

"This is totally at odds with both the spirit and the letter of the law under which the court ordered that the government the fees and expenses of the prevailing party," Ms. Cobell said.

"It is another of the devious and deceptive acts by the Interior Department to make Indians-some of the poorest people in the nation-pay for having the courage to demand that the government give them a full accounting of what it has done with their lands and their monies since 1887."

That is when the government established individual Indian money accounts for Native Americans in the belief that they were unable to properly account for their funds. But as the nearly 10-year-old lawsuit has shown time and time again, it was the government which mishandled the money of an estimated 500,000 Indians.

"Now that we have secured the rights to this accounting and now that the government must pay the costs of that accounting, the Interior Department is planning to loot Indian accounts once again to cover up its misdeeds," Ms. Cobell said.

"There are many places that the Justice, Treasury and Interior Departments, which have prolonged this litigation, could have found the funds to pay these legal bills," Ms. Cobell said. "They don't have to make Indians pay because they lost in court."

In the fiscal 2006 Interior Department budget, Interior's Office of Special Trustee was granted $58 million for historical trust accounting projects. Secretary Norton has the right to reprogram that money for various projects related to the trust.

Besides, Ms. Cobell noted that the government has admitted in Congressional testimony that it has spent $100 million defending the lawsuit.

"Despite Mr. Cason's assertion in the letter that these fees were 'not a planned expense,' we had made clear almost two years ago that we would be seeking these fees. And U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had made equally clear that he was going to award these fees to us."

On Dec. 19 Judge Lamberth, who has presided over the case since its filing in 1996, ordered the government to pay lawyers for the Indians and their accountants a total of $7.1 million to cover their expenses in bringing the litigation. He acted under the provisions of the Equal Access to Justice Act.

Under the law, federal judges may direct the government to reimburse the costs born by those who sue the government unless federal lawyers can show that the government opposition is "substantially justified or special circumstances make an award unjust."

Where the government has acted in bad faith, an award of market rate fees is available as a sanction for government misconduct. That is what happened here.

Lamberth said in his order that the government's position has not been shown to be justified or likely to prevail in nine years of litigation.

The judge has also repeatedly warned the government not to retaliate against the Indians because of the lawsuit.

"Our attorneys are considering whether this action is retaliation against the Indian beneficiaries that needs to be addressed by court." Ms. Cobell stated.