Cobell Settlement Appeal Dismissed
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has dismissed a challenge to a $3.4 billion Cobell settlement between the federal government and hundreds of thousands of Native Americans whose land trust royalties were mismanaged by the Interior Department. The judges said last week that the deal Congress approved in 2010 was fair and was the best that could be hoped for without more years of litigation. Kimberly Craven of Boulder, Colo., had objected to the settlement, saying that it did not account for how much money was lost and that some beneficiaries would be overcompensated.
