Indian Trust Settlement Money Mailed to Thousands of Missing Native Americans

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More than 15,000 Native Americans from various tribal groups will begin receiving checks in the mail this week from the federal government as part of the landmark $3.4 billion Cobell v. Salazar class action settlement reached in 2009.

A federal judge on Thursday approved an Order allowing Garden City Group, the Settlement Administrator for the Cobell v. Salazar Indian Trust settlement, to commence payment distribution to Class Members that have a current address on file with GCG.

The first checks will be mailed Monday, Sept. 15, and may take 5-7 days to reach Class Members once they have been mailed, GCG announced on its settlement website, www.IndianTrust.com.

Cobell v. Salazar Background

The Cobell v. Salazar settlement is one of the largest class actions ever filed against the United States, and accused the federal government of mismanaging money owed to Native Americans under trust funds. The alleged mismanagement dated as far back as the 1880s.

The Indian Trust class action settlement was originally settled in December 2009 and later approved by Congress in November 2010. An appeal was filed and the case was held up in court for nearly two years.

In May 2012, an appeals court rejected the appeal and upheld the $3.4 billion Indian trust settlement as fair, reasonable and adequate.

The first round of payments were mailed to over 400,000 Class Members with known addresses in December 2012. However, poor record keeping by the Department of Interior — ironically, the very reason for the alleged mismanagement of these Indian Trusts — led to over 65,000 individuals listed as “whereabouts unknown” or without contact information in the records furnished by the Department of Interior, GCG said.

For the past two years, Class Counsel worked with the Department of Interior to locate over 15,000 Class Members with missing records. These individuals will finally receive their money from the Cobell v. Salazar Indian Trust settlement starting this week.

Over 30,000 individuals still remain unfound, according to GCG. Those who think they be eligible for money from the Indian Trust settlement can 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.

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: 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.