Government To Pay Native Americans For Short-Changing Tribal Contracts

October 9th, 2015

Awake Goy

Native Americans to receive compensation from government to cover costs of mandated federal programs on reservations

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Justice Department officials together with leaders from the Oglala Sioux, Zuni Pueblo, and Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation plan to announce that the federal government will settle a 25-year-old claim. The tribes held that the government failed to adequately compensate them for the costs of mandated federal programs on reservations. More than 600 tribal entities are part of the class-action lawsuit. All parties agreed to the government’s payment of $940,000 to settle differences.

The contract-dispute began after passage of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA) of 1975, which transferred responsibility to tribes to administer programs that were provided to Native American communities by the federal government. The government would continue to fund those programs. However, contract support costs – such as audits, liability insurance, and personnel systems – were often not fully covered. In 1988, Congress amended the ISDA to require that contract costs be covered and negotiated annually, but also stipulated that those funds would be contingent upon the availability of appropriations. Beginning in fiscal 1994 and each year since then, Congress imposed an upper limit on appropriations available to pay contract supports, and that limit was below the amount required to cover all contract support costs. The tribes argued that the underfunded contracts meant they faced shortfalls that affected their abilities to adequately govern their communities.

The tribes filed lawsuit in 1990 in the New Mexico Federal Court. They lost. They then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled that the federal government was responsible for all costs associated with federal programs on reservations. Those programs included housing, education, fire fighting, law enforcement, and road maintenance.

As a part of the settlement, a tribe could be compensated $8,000 for a year of underpaid contracts. Numerous tribes can expect to receive six to seven figure payouts. Oglala President John Yellow Bird Steele said the $940,000 negotiated settlement was a fair settlement for the tribes.