In a $137 billion dollar lawsuit, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is being sued by plaintiff Eloise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian. On behalf of 280,000 American Indians, Cobell accuses the US government of losing billions of American Indian due dollars. The plaintiffs claim that financial records were not kept properly and accounts have been pilfered since the Dawes Act of 1887, in which the US government seized Indian land. The 7-year case rides on the judge’s upcoming decision.
