BOULDER, CO-In December 2008, thirty American Indian / Alaska Native tribes joined
the Nez Perce Tribe v. Kempthorne action seeking accountings of their tribal trust funds
from the federal government. NARF filed the Nez Perce action in December 2006 in
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of twelve tribes and as a class
action for all tribes that did not file their own accounting actions.
At oral argument on class certification in July 2008, the Court indicated that it was not
inclined to use the class action mechanism as a way for tribes to decide whether they
wanted to participate in this action. The Court instead preferred a notice process which
also would allow tribes to decide whether they wanted to join the action. NARF
respected this preference and proceeded accordingly. In October 2008, the Court
approved the sending of such a notice to members of the putative class.
In response to the notice, 30 additional tribes joined the original twelve under NARF's
representation. One other tribe joined represented by its own attorneys, bringing the total
number of tribes in this action to 43. The Court officially denied class certification on
December 1, 2008.
Samuel Penney, the Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, welcomed the additional tribes and
spoke in appreciation of NARF's work on the case after two years. "I can't remember the
last time that 43 tribes joined together in a single case. Along with the other 70 tribes
that filed their own actions, there are now well over 100 tribes seeking relief in court
from the federal government's abysmal trusteeship."
Still pending before the Court is the government's motion to dismiss the Nez Perce case.
A ruling on that is expected at any time. NARF Executive Director John Echohawk
commented, "Assuming the case is not dismissed, we'll move on quickly to the real issues
here, which are whether the government is in breach of trust by never providing tribes
with the accountings that they are owed, and what will be done about that."
