Chronology of American Indian History

P

Osage, and Northern Cheyenne. (See also entry
for 1983.)

July 12

Appeals court removes judge from Cobell
case.
After nine years on the case, U.S. District Judge
Royce C. Lamberth is removed from Cobell v.
Kempthorne, a class-action suit in which thousands
of Indian plaintiffs allege that the Department of
the Interior grossly mismanaged individual trust
accounts established in the 19th century (see entry
for JUNE 10, 1996). The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia finds that, based on the
language of past rulings, Lamberth is incapable of
judging the case in an unbiased manner. The appeals
court specifically cites a opinion from July 2005, in
which Lamberth referred to the Department of the
Interior as “a dinosaur—the morally and culturally
oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist
and imperialist government that should have been
buried a century ago, the pathetic outpost of the
indifference and anglocentrism we thought we had
left behind.” Lamberth’s removal is seen as a victory
for the Bush administration, which has viewed the
judge as overly sympathetic to the Indian plaintiffs’
cause.

July 12

Delegation of Virginia Indians travels to
England.
A group of Virginia Indians, including 12 tribal
leaders, attend a departure ceremony at the
National Museum of the American Indian in
Washington, D.C. The event marks the begin-
ning of a trip sponsored by the Jamestown 2007
British Commission, which is helping organize
the commemoration of the 400th anniversary
of the founding of the English colony of James-
town (see entry for MAY 1607). It will be the
first official visit of Virginia Indians to England
in more than 230 years. The Virginia delegation
plans to travel to the coastal town of Gravesend

to perform ceremonial dances at a multicultural

festival. There, they will also visit the grave of

Pocahontas (see entries for DECEMBER 1607 and

for JUNE 1616), the famous Virginia Indian who

died in Gravesend in 1616 after touring London

to help raise funds for Jamestown. The Virginia

tribes, many of whom are seeking federal recogni-

tion, hope the trip will draw attention to their

continuing existence as culturally unique Indian

peoples.

“People like to say that post-

mid-17th century, there were

no Virginia Indians. We’re going

to dispel that notion. We’ve

been kind of the best-kept se-

cret in Virginia for 400 years.”

— Stephen Adkins, chief of the

Chickahominy tribe of Virginia

July 18

Court ruling threatens the Bureau of Indian

Affairs’ education reform.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier orders the

federal government to halt a plan to restructure

Indian education programs overseen by the Bu-

reau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in North and South

Dakota. The BIA is seeking to eliminate most line

officer positions. These BIA officials are charged

with a variety of responsibilities for reserva-

tion schools, including monitoring educational

standards, maintaining maintenance and safety

programs, and ensuring that schools receive proper

accreditation. The BIA plan also calls for the hir-

ing of a new tier of managers to work out of the

agency’s Washington, D.C., offices. Several Plains

tribes joined together to fight the restructuring in

court. They claimed that the restructuring would

do nothing to improve educational programs and