Indian farmers settle lawsuit

American Indian farmers and ranchers, who brought a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for unfair treatment in the department's farm loan program, have settled with the federal agency and will receive $760 million in monetary relief as well as institutional reforms.

"We have been waiting nearly three decades for this day to come," Marilyn Keepseagle of Fort Yates, North Dakota, said Tuesday when the settlement was announced.

She, with her husband George Keepseagle, were the lead plaintiffs in the suit.

"This settlement will help thousands of Native Americans who are still farming and ranching. But more important, through this settlement we will leave to our children and grandchildren a farm loan system far more responsive to our community than the system we inherited from our parents," Keepseagle said.

The Keepseagles began complaining of discrimination from the USDA in 1981. In 1999, the class action lawsuit was brought.

"Today's settlement can never undo wrongs that Native Americans may have experienced in past decades, but combined with the actions we at USDA are taking to address such wrongs, the settlement will provide some measure of relief to those alleging discrimination," said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. "The Obama Administration is committed to closing the chapter on an unfortunate civil rights history at USDA and working to ensure our customers and employees are treated justly and equally."

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President Obama weighed in, calling the settlement "an important step forward in remedying USDA's unfortunate civil rights history," and saying it "underscores the federal government's commitment to treat all citizens fairly."

Joseph M. Sellers, the lead plaintiffs' attorney of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, in Washington, D.C., said that not only will American Indian farmers and ranchers now "receive the justice they deserve,' but in the settlement the USDA also commits "to improving the farm loan system in ways that will aid Native Americans for generations to come." 

According to the plaintiffs, Native American farmers and ranchers were denied the same opportunities as white farmers to obtain low-interest rate loans from USDA, which had been charged by the U.S. Congress to serve as "lender of last resort" for family farmers who can't obtain credit from commercial banks.

According to an expert report prepared by a former USDA economist for the plaintiffs, American Indian farmers suffered economic losses amounting to $776 million between 1981 and 2007 as a result of receiving less than their fair share of credit opportunities from the USDA.

"It was a type of old-fashioned red-lining, except it wasn't being practiced by a realtor, but by the USDA against Indian farmers," said Mike Roberts, president of First Nations Development Institute, a Colorado-based advocacy group for Indians.

Roberts, a Tlingit Indian, explained that a large portion of USDA loan programs are run by individual states, and "state governments routinely ignore Indian tribes."

USDA credit bureaus also overlooked Indian loan requests.

"It was a variation of the Good Old Boys network," Roberts said. "White government officials were looking out for white farmers and ranchers and not for people who weren't white."

Under the agreement, USDA will pay $680 million in damages to thousands of Indian farmers and ranchers and forgive up to $80 million worth of outstanding farm loan debt.

The settlement also provides a broad range of programmatic relief, including creation of a new Federal Advisory Council for Native American farmers and ranchers that will include Native American representation from around the country as well as senior USDA officials, the USDA said.

A new ombudsman position will also be created to address farm program issues relating to Native American farmers and ranchers as well as all other socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and USDA will offer Native American farmers enhanced technical assistance services, the government said.

"While the damage awards and debt relief are vital elements of this settlement, the Native American Farmer and Rancher Council will help ensure that the reforms to USDA's programs are lasting and that USDA honors the civil rights of Native Americans for years to come," said plaintiffs' co-counsel David Frantz of Conlon, Frantz & Phelan.

Roberts of First Nations, although hopeful that the settlement will work out as set forth, noted that the U.S. Congress has a history of not appropriating funds promised to American Indians, and that the national government has a rather infamous record of breaking its official word to Indians.

"I don't know if the U.S. government has gotten any better in keeping its word to American Indians," Roberts said. "It does appear that the Obama administration is making a real effort for equity and fariness. They talk a good game, but we'll have to wait to see the results."

Roberts said that one thing in American Indian-American government relations has definitely improved - the Indians' ability to work within the system to protect and assert their rights.

"Indians have gotten much better at understanding their rights and taking appropriate actions," he said. "They had to. It was a matter of survival."

The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge before it can go into effect, but government officials expected the approval.

Obama took the opportunity of the settlement to urge Congress to take action to implement two other USDA discrimination lawsuits that were recently settled -- the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers, and the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources. 

"My Administration also continues to work towards a resolution of the claims made by women and Hispanic farmers against the USDA," Obama said.