Elouise Cobell: Bringing the United States to Account

Abstract:     
Elouise Cobell grew up in a home without running water or electricity, was educated in a one room school house, dropped out of college to care for her mother as she was dying from cancer, and was repeatedly dismissed as incompetent when she sought answers for federal mismanagement of Indian trust accounts. Before her death in 2011, however, she had founded the first Native American bank, won a MacArthur “genius” grant, been honored as a warrior by her tribe, and made the United States agree to pay 3.4 billion dollars — the largest federal class action settlement ever — for its mismanagement of Indian property. She died of cancer less than a year after President Obama signed the settlement in the massive class action that bears her name. The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to review the appellate court decision rejecting challenges to that settlement. This short chapter for a book profiling American Indian legal heroes tells Cobell's story and the story of the wrong she spent her life trying to correct.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Accepted Paper Series