And we wonder why we can't find any records on our families

Just imagine how much stuff has been thrown into dumpsters over the years that nobody squawked about.

WASHINGTON – Someone in the Department of Interior may have intentionally discarded records pertinent to Indian Trust accountability, according to a letter from the Office of General Counsel. The National Archives and Records Administration filed a report to Interior, which eventually was filed with the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., indicating permanent federal records were found in a dumpster. The trashed files were allegedly genealogical records, which are used to determine ownership of land and assets. Interior is forbidden by court order to shred or discard any records that may be involved in trust assets for American Indians.

NARA is investigating one or more incidents to determine if the BIA was intentionally destroying records. According to a letter to Interior from Jason Baron, director of litigation for the Office of General Counsel, there were ”one or more incidents at the National Archives involving what may be [an] intentional act aimed at unlawfully removing or disposing of permanent records from the Interior Department.”

The dumpster was located at the main office of the National Archives. Some of the BIA records that were part of the permanent holdings of the National Archives dated back to the 1950s. Additional records were discovered in a wastebasket in the stack areas of the main archives, according to Baron. It is not known if the records found

in the trash container and the ones in the wastebasket are related.

The Office of Inspector General is conducting an investigation, Baron wrote in the letter. Plaintiffs in the Cobell v. Norton case wasted no time in responding to the allegations and referred to the incidents as ”the same repugnant, desperate actions we’ve come to expect from Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her unethical managers.

”Despite numerous court orders to preserve records related to the individual Indian Trust, the Secretary and the Interior Department continue to destroy irreplaceable Trust documents three blocks from the federal courthouse where they were held in contempt for destroying Trust records,” said Dennis Gingold, lead attorney for

the plaintiffs.

”When a sitting cabinet-level official feels that they can destroy protected trust records 60 yards from where the Constitution is displayed, we have a government that is out of control,” Gingold said in a prepared statement.

The letter regarding the destroyed records was dated Sept. 13; the records were found on Sept. 1. Bill MacAllister, spokesman for the Cobell plaintiffs, said the plaintiffs were puzzled why the court was not notified in a more prompt manner. The lack of records preservation by Interior was the basis for some of the contempt charges leveled against Norton and her staff.

”We would never have known about the records if someone hadn’t walked by that dumpster. It would suggest somebody is going through there and pulling things out,” MacAllister said. ”It shows the government is not taking care of the records the way it should to preserve Indian records.”

He added that government records from other agencies were also found in the same dumpster.

”We hope that both the Inspector General at the National Archives and the people from the Department of Justice can get into this and see what went on,” MacAllister said.

The missing records will most likely be discussed with Judge Royce Lamberth at a future time. There are currently no hearings scheduled. Gingold implied that until that discussion takes place, Norton would continue to undermine the 10-year-old lawsuit by destroying trust documents until she is arrested and jailed.

Recently DOJ filed a motion for Lamberth’s dismissal based on unconventional rulings from the bench. A panel of appellate judges deferred the dismissal motion to a different panel of judges, to be heard at a later date.

An injunction issued by Lamberth that ordered Interior to begin immediate work on an accounting plan was heard at the appellate level on Sept. 15. The DOJ and the plaintiffs both have problems with the order and wanted more clarification from Lamberth. But the appeals court does not send orders back for clarification: they either uphold the order or give instructions.

The government argues that it will take nearly $14 billion to create an accounting of the historical records; the plaintiffs argue that because of lost and destroyed records, it is impossible to produce an accurate historical accounting. The government continues the argument of cutting back on the number of American Indians involved in the accounting procedure. As it stands now, the accounting will have to goback to 1887. Plaintiffs argue that it is because of the expense, not the workload, that the government wants the change. Baron’s letter was attached to the August activity report filed with the District Court that details work on active and inactive records and their disposition.

The report stated that through August 2005, more than 120,000 boxes had been reviewed and processed. Also, 2,740 boxes of inactive records from a variety of locations were moved to NARA for storage.

The Office of Trust Review is holding 31 boxes, as ordered by the federal court. The contents will be verified when the hold is lifted, the report stated.