As part of a settlement of a sweeping class-action lawsuit against the United States, American Indian students will receive about $60-million in federal scholarships to attend colleges, universities, and vocational schools, the U.S. attorney general’s office announced today. The lawsuit, known as Cobell v. Salazar, was filed in 1996 and contended that the Department of the Interior had mismanaged hundreds of thousands of individual Indian land trust accounts for more than a century. Payments totaling $1.4-billion will be divided among the more than 300,000 Indians involved in the suit.
- 1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.
- Washington, D.C. 20037
- Copyright © 2013 The Chronicle of Higher Education
Yes! About d**m time!Now let’s see those Vice Presidents for Diversity gear up for the new students by adding Native Americans to their lists of minorities for whom real services (as opposed to lip service) are offered.
I agree with the first comment. It’s a drop in the bucket, but something anyway. I hope that the schools getting these students and their $$ will offer support services as well. It’s one thing to be admitted into a university or college, and another to be able to remain and obtain a degree in places where one may feel isolated or unwelcome.
I sincerely hope they hire more VP’s of Diversity or minority affairs in order to recruit and attract talented Native students to the university.
Just checked “Indian Country Today,” and they say the settlement also adds 2.0 billion dollars to buy up claims and turn over individual land to the tribes. As long as the land doesn’t go to whitemen that may be progress (as long as no one has to sell their land, of course).