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U.S. to pay 17 Indian tribes $492 million to settle long-standing disputes
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: October 10th, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to...
The Obama administration has settled lawsuits with 17 Native American tribes that accused the federal government of long mismanaging their funds and natural resources. With these settlements, the administration will have resolved the majority of outstanding claims, some dating back a century, with more than 100 tribes and totaling more than $3.3 billion. The settlements announced Monday, totaling $492.8 million, come at the same time that thousands of Native Americans representing tribes from across the country have joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota to protest the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, which they say threatens their water supply and traverses sacred Indian burial grounds. This month, a federal judge ruled against the Standing Rock tribes request to halt construction of the crude-oil pipeline. Meanwhile, thousands of Native Americans remain camped out in a nearby field in protest. Native leaders also protested the pipeline Monday in Washington outside the White House Tribal Nations Conference, where tribal leaders met with President Obama. The 17 tribes affected [by the settlements] had accused the federal government of mismanaging trust lands, which are leased for timber harvesting, farming, grazing, and oil and gas extraction, among other uses.
Note: Settling these lawsuits may be a step in the right direction, but the ongoing harm being done to tribal lands by government-protected industry suggests that there is still a long way to go. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corruption in government and in the corporate world.
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