April 18, 2012 –
MAYETTA: A press release issued last week from the White House announced the settlement of lawsuits filed by 41 federally-recognized tribes against the United States, in which the tribes alleged that the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Treasury had mismanaged monetary assets and natural resources held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the tribes.
As far as the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN) is concerned, the PBPN is still presently involved in settlement negotiations and a judgment is expected in the next few months, according to members of the PBPN Tribal Council and legal team.
In 2005, the PBPN filed parallel cases involving claims of tribal trust accounting mismanagement and trust funds and trust assets and resources mismanagement in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and in the Court of Federal Claims (CFR). In 2011, the CFR case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds without prejudice. The United States District Court case, PBPN v Salazar, is still pending and the Nation is presently involved in settlement negotiations.