Descendants of Individual Indian Money account holders who should have received money in a class action lawsuit have until June 30 to submit probate information for compensation.
The Department of the Interior manages individual Indian Money accounts for US citizens with Native American ancestry. They hold assets in trust and earn interest based on the performance of their investments.
More than $38 million is available for over 17,000 deceased account holders whose funds were not awarded after the 2009 settlement in the case Cobell v. Salazar. That case decided the federal government had mismanaged over 300,000 trust fund accounts. It allocated $1.4 billion towards class members and $2 billion towards buying back fractionated land interests.
Around 4,100 deceased members' accounts are in Oklahoma, according to Sloan Savage, director of Forward Global. She said more than $7 million is available in settlement awards.
Citizens can determine eligibility through a relative search on the Cobell Settlement website. Heirs can use a small estate affidavit, a last will, or file a tribal, state or federal probate order, to prove eligibility. They can then file an heir claim to the claims administrator, Kroll Settlement Administration.
Compensation for account holders originally ended in August 2018, except for 24,000 deceased members. William Dorris, a lead plaintiff attorney for the settlement, said funds were held because of a lack of information. Since then, he said, heirs of around 6,000 members have submitted claims.
But the number of submissions has decreased with time. Last December, Dorris helped file a motion to set the June 30 deadline. It notes heirs of only 14 people submitted probate information in the previous two years.
Dorris said the number of unaccounted members could be much higher than 17,000.
"Any one class member could have anywhere from one to five or six heirs that they left their property to, so we're talking about far more than 17,000 heirs," Dorris said.
Dorris asked US citizens, regardless of eligibility, to provide information about who might be eligible.
"Even if you were not one of the direct heirs of one of these people, if you know who is, it's helpful to contact them or provide us with that information so that we can try to get the money paid to the correct people," Dorris said.
Dorris said it will take months to verify the probate information and pay heirs. But he speculates the process could be over by the end of the year.
Unclaimed funds after June 30 will go to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund, which was created in 2009 alongside the settlement agreement. It provides financial aid to Native American students in post-secondary education.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
