Elouise Pepion Cobell (1945-2011)
A woman for the ages, Elouise Cobell faced and overcame many unique challenges for the betterment of Native Americans.
A great-granddaughter of Mountain Chief, one of the West's legendary leaders, Elouise Cobell (Yellow Bird Woman) was born into the heritage of Blackfeet activism. She graduated from Great Falls Business College and attended Montana State University. An accountant who was active in community development, Cobell was also involved in many other organizations that benefited Native Indian people.
Cobell never planned to be a banker, but when the residents of Browning, Montana found itself without a bank and had to travel 130 miles to Great Falls, Montana, Cobell sprang into action. She would start a bank herself, and take on all the complications and investment of time that such a venture required.
When the Blackfeet National Bank opened in 1987 with one million dollars of Blackfeet Tribe capital, it was the first-ever national bank owned by a Native American tribe located on an Indian reservation. Its opening spurred the startup of many other Indian-owned businesses.
Over time, as news spread about the bank's success, Cobell negotiated with eleven other tribes to purchase it. The move formed the Native American Bank-the first ever multi-tribe-owned national bank.
By 2007, its ownership included more than two dozen tribes with assets of 86 million dollars. Its success also encouraged development throughout many Native American communities.
For all her accomplishments, however, Cobell is best remembered as the Native American lead plaintiff in the Cobell v Salazar suit filed in June 1996 that challenged the United States' mismanagement of trust funds that belonged to more than 500,000 individual Native Americans.
According to a 2009 Los Angeles Times article, during her more than ten years as treasurer of the Blackfeet Confederacy, Cobell discovered that funds held in trust by the United States Government that were set up as part of the 1887 Dawes Act for the Tribe, and also individual Indians, were mismanaged.
The article further stated that the Dawes Act issued land to individual American Indians, while holding it in trust and not allowing Native Americans to control their properties. They were to be compensated financially through royalties paid them for grazing, recreational use, and the resources of oil and gas. But the Indians were paid little or nothing.
With the aid of the Intertribal Monitoring Association (of which Cobell was president), she fought for reform for a decade (mid-1980s through mid-1990s). Although she was unsuccessful, she remained undaunted.
Her next step was to solicit help from John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. He is also recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. Cobell also teamed with "super lawyer" Keith Harper and renowned attorney, Thaddeus Holt, whose focus is primarily on litigation and administrative law.
Together, they filed a class-action lawsuit that forced reform and an accounting of the trust funds that belonged to individual Native American Indians. Under the Obama administration, on December 6, 2010, the government finally negotiated a settlement at $3.4 billion. The major portion was to be used to buy back and restore lands to Native American tribes. Other portions were used to settle four Indian water-rights cases.
Cobell was bestowed many honors. In 1997, she received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, for those who "show exceptional merit and promise, and for continued and enhanced creative work."
She was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Montana State University. In 2002, she received the International Women's Forum Award for Women Who Make a Difference, and the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Fellowship for bringing to light "more than a century of government malfeasance and dishonesty" with the Indian Trust.
Cobell received several additional awards in 2011: an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College; the Montana Trial Lawyers Association's Citizens Award; and the Congressional Gold Medal, awarded Cobell in legislation co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada, a Democrat.
A woman for the ages, Elouise Cobell faced and overcame many unique challenges for the betterment of Native American Indian people.
A version of the above article by KB Schaller appears in her latest title, 100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, due for publication November, 2013.
Sources: Nelson, Valerie J., Elouise Cobell dies at 65, Native American Activist, the Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2011; Partnership for Progress, Minority Banking Timeline, Elouise Cobell, 1987; Wikipedia
KB Schaller (Cherokee/Seminole heritage), journalist, novelist, historical researcher, is author of Gray Rainbow Journey, winner, USABook News National Best Books Award; Florida Publishers President's Best Books Award; Journey by the Sackcloth Moon, sequel (both OakTara). She lives in South Florida. http://www.KBSchaller.com.
