WASHINGTON — Facing pressure from a federal judge, Interior Secretary Gale Norton yesterday said she will create a new office to focus entirely on straightening out problems in a trust fund maintained for roughly 300,000 Native Americans.

Norton said she intends to appoint an assistant Interior secretary who will be responsible for managing hundreds of millions of dollars in the trust accounts and reforming an accounting system in disarray. The Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management will centralize the work done by various Interior agencies and speed reform efforts, Norton said.

The actions come at a time when U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is showing impatience with Norton's handling of the trust fund, set up to compensate Native Americans for use of their land. He has threatened to hold Norton and 38 other current and former government officials and lawyers in contempt for allegedly misleading him about the extent of problems and the status of reform efforts.

Lamberth is presiding over a lawsuit filed five years ago by Indians who contend they are owed up to $10 billion because of chronic accounting failures. He ordered the Interior Department to repair the system in a December 1999 ruling. Although Norton didn't take office until January, the judge has said he will hold her accountable for continuing problems.

Lamberth demanded a response from government lawyers by yesterday; Norton's reorganization plan was detailed in a filing submitted to the court.

The judge has ordered both sides to return to court Nov. 30.

Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet Tribe member who sued the Interior Department in 1996 for mismanaging the funds, said Norton's action was a "last-minute, backs-to-the-wall effort to stave off" court action.

Seattle Times

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001