Cobell v. Salazar Indian Trust Settlement Money May Come Fall 2014

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The last round of payments from a record $3.4 billion class action settlement reached in 2009 between the U.S. government and nearly 500,000 Native Americans could begin in early Fall, according to the Settlement Administrator.

Garden City Group is overseeing the distribution of money from Cobell v. Salazar, one of the largest class action lawsuits ever filed against the U.S. government. Plaintiffs accused the government of mismanaging money owed to Native Americans under trust funds. The alleged mismanagement dated as far back as the 1880s.

Over 400,000 Class Members received money from the Cobell v. Salazar class action settlement in December 2012, but an estimated 65,000 Members were listed as “whereabouts unknown” or without contact information in the records furnished by the Department of Interior.

Class Counsel has been working with the Department of Interior to locate these missing individuals. So far they’ve found over 15,000 missing Members, but over 30,000 still remain unfound. [Are you or someone you know owed money? Use this map to help identify Class Members designated as “whereabouts unknown” as well as Class Members whose contact information is not current with the Claims Administrator.]

Garden City Group says its been notified by the Department of Interior that it expects to provide data for the missing Class Members by Aug. 30, 2014.

“Assuming Interior meets the August 30 date, Class Counsel will immediately seek the final approval needed from the Court and GCG will make preparations to begin sending out the TAC checks. The Court has always been extremely prompt in considering such requests and GCG will need only 2 – 3 weeks to begin sending out checks,” GCG said on its settlement website, www.IndianTrust.com.

“As a result, if Interior meets its predicted date, TAC payments should be able to begin early Fall. Since neither Class Counsel nor GCG control when Interior will be able to provide the corrected data, we cannot guarantee that TAC payments will be issued in this this timeframe, but will do everything within our power to try to make that happen.”

Class Members with questions about the Cobell v. Salazar Indian trust settlement can send their questions to info@IndianTrust.com or call toll-free 1-800-961-6109.

The Native American Indian Trust Class Action Lawsuit is Elouis Pepion Cobell, et al. v. Ken Salazar, et al., Case No. 96-cv-01285, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

UPDATE 1: A federal judge approved the distribution of payments to more than 15,000 Class Members whose records were missing from the Department of Interior. The first checks were mailed Sept. 15, 2014. Learn more.

UPDATE 2: If you were an Indian Trust beneficiary, you may be entitled to payment from a $3.4 billion class action settlement. More than 30,000 individuals could qualify for benefits from the Indian Trust settlement. Update your contact information and file a claim by Nov. 27, 2017 to get cash from this settlement.