Fort Hall Gets $60 Million In Federal Lawsuit

A lawsuit has netted Fort Hall $60 million in federal money.

Attorney Jeanette Wolfley represented the tribes in their lawsuit against the federal government.

She said the case stems from back as far as the 1940’s, when the tribes won lawsuits in federal court, and the federal government dropped the ball in getting that money to the tribes.

“Many of the settlements were not invested properly, or there was under investment, failure to collect in some of these investments, that began in the forties and has continued over the years,? Wolfley said.

The tribes filed the suit ten years ago, and now the federal government has sat down with tribal representatives and agreed to pay $60 million in restitution.

Wolfley said, beyond the large amount of money, this is a big deal because the federal government is admitting it has mistreated a Native-American tribe and is willing to accept responsibility.

“It is a historical case in that the United States has finally, after a ten year case, said basically ‘we did breach our trust responsibility, we didn’t do certain things, and we’re willing to own up to that and pay the tribes for what’s happened here'”, Wolfley said.

During the ten years the lawsuit had been going through all the red tape in federal court, Wolfley said the government had been trying to delay any resolution and gave no indication that negotiation could happen until now.

Wolfley said a lot of that change in approach, may have to do with President Obama.

“The president indicated that when he came in he would take a hard look at these cases,? Wolfley said.

So far, the Fort Hall Business Council said it has made not plans on how to spend the windfall of cash.