FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Osage receive $960k portion of Ramah v. Jewell settlement
By ON Communications
Pawhuska, Okla. (October 18, 2016) –The Osage Nation received a portion of a landmark settlement resulting from the Department of Interior (DOI) failing to fund contract support costs between 1994 and 2013. The portion the Nation received, $960,700.17, was deposited this week into the Nation’s General Fund and its use is yet to be determined.
Ramah Navajo Chapter, et al. v. Jewell is the final chapter of a 25-year-old legal dispute about contract support costs, according to the settlement agreement notice, $940 million total, issued in January 2016. The settlement addresses claims that the DOI contracted with Native American governments to provide education, healthcare, public safety and other service programs defined by the Indian Self-Determination Act then failed to cover administrative costs.
The settlement was reached in September 2015 to finally resolve the quarter century long litigation and improve the government-to-government relationship between Native nations and the United States. Immediately following the agreement, the DOI and more than 700 Native nations and entities began settlement discussions.
“During the past year the case settlement discussions moved quickly and my office was kept well informed. After I received all necessary documents, our General Counsel Terry Mason Moore reviewed them and approved for my signature,” said Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear.
DOI Secretary Sally Jewell said in a joint statement with the Department of Justice, “Tribal self-determination and self-governance will continue to be our North Star as we navigate a new chapter in this important relationship and we are committed to fully funding contract support costs so that tribal contracting can be more successful.”
Other Oklahoma Native Nations
The Osage Nation is one of several Native American nations from Oklahoma who is receiving a portion of the settlement. In a June 2016 interview with The Oklahoman, Native American business attorney Michael McBride, III, said “Examples of anticipated settlement proceeds for some of Oklahoma's 39 federally-recognized Indian tribes include: Cherokee Nation, $8.3 million; Muscogee (Creek) Nation, $4 million; Chickasaw Nation, $3.1 million; Choctaw Nation, $3.6 million; Citizen Potawatomi Nation, $1.8 million; Osage Nation, $955,000; Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, $752,000; Comanche Nation, $583,000; Kiowa Tribe, $563,000; Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, $346,000; and Apache Tribe, $175,000.”
Settlement amounts are varied based on statistical and accounting analyses using a ratio between the alleged amount of contract support services unpaid by the DOI and contract support costs already paid in previous settlements.
Settlement background
Originally filed in 1990, the Ramah Navajo Nation Chapter brought a suit against the United States Government at the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico claiming the DOI underpaid and miscalculated indirect costs rates for International Swaps and Derivatives Association contractors. Three partial settlements followed totaling $113 million in 1999, 2002 and 2008 related to pre-1994 claims seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, and other claims.
In 2012 the United States Supreme Court upheld the rights of Native American nations to receive full payment of contract support costs. The amounts were contested and settlement negotiations began for the final settlement in Sept. 2015.
For more information
Summary Notice of Final Settlment
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Osage Nation Communications | 918-287-9746