Interior Dept. Defends Its Keeping of Indian Books

Interior Dept. Defends Its Keeping of Indian Books

The Interior Department says its audits of accounts it manages for thousands of Native Americans have found few errors and little evidence that anyone tampered with the records.

The agency's position, in a report sent to Congress on Monday, runs contrary to that of Native Americans who filed a 1996 class-action lawsuit saying that they were cheated out of more than $100 billion because of mismanagement of oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties from their lands.

The Post goes on to say that the Interior Department documented this in a "glossy 24-page brochure". They weren't kidding. Whatever the truth of the claims, there's no question that someone blew a bunch of money on a significant bit of form over content. You can see for yourself at http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust/iimaccounting.pdf. Pure PR.