The Department of the Interior favors proposed legislation to provide that judgment funds on claims against the United States awarded to any of the constituent Indian tribes on the Colville Reservation in Washington shall be deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the confederated tribal group on the reservation, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., announced today.
Under terms of the bills supported by the Department, S. 2123 and H.R. 8236, the judgment funds on deposit, after payment of attorney fees and expenses, could be advanced or expended for any purpose authorized by the tribal governing body and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
There are, Assistant Secretary Carver explained, Indians of nearly a dozen different tribal origins residing on the Colville Reservation and several of these tribes have already been awarded judgments or have claims pending against the United States. Because the constituent groups are so intermingled, the procedure embodied in S. 2123 is the only practical way to handle the problem.
It also represents the fulfillment of an agreement reached between the Department and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in connection with similar legislation enacted several months ago covering a judgment award to the Nez Perce Indians, some of whom have become members of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
About a million dollars, representing the net amount recovered by some of the Colville constituent groups in Indian Claims Commission Docket 181, would be immediately affected by enactment of the legislation.
