Native American farmers have been involved in a decade-long lawsuit that alleges the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) discriminated against Indian farmers and ranchers in disbursing funds made available through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.In the latest update in this case, Judge Emmet Sullivan has given the sides 60 days for settlement talks that will be followed by a status hearing on February—the hearing was supposed to take place today. Judge Sullivan wants the sides to issue a joint recommendation on how to proceed at that time. If a joint recommendation can’t be reached, then individual recommendations must be submitted.
Blake Nicholson with the Associated Press writes in the Dickinson Press online that federal judge Sullivan was asked for the time for settlement talks by both sides of the case. For his part, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has stated the administration looks forward to resolving this lawsuit.
As previously stated, the lawsuit was brought in 1999 by an Indian couple, George and Marilyn Keepseagle, who ranch on the state line between South and North Dakota in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The case was granted class-action status in 2001 and is named for the couple.
The Indians maintain that over the past three decades they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of Farm Service Agency discrimination in the disbursement of federal agriculture funds. The agency disburses loans to farmers and ranchers who cannot otherwise get credit from commercial lenders.
If this type of lawsuit sounds familiar, it should. As Nicholson writes, back in 1999, the USDA under President Bill Clinton settled a similar lawsuit with black farmers. The government ended up paying $980 million in damages. The Indian farmers and ranchers claim they have lost $600 million in income from 1981 to 2007.
To read the Associate Press article found on the ABC news website on this story, click here.
To read the Nicholson article for the Dickinson Press online click here.
Posted: 12/09/09
