IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
________________________________________ 
ELOUISE PEPION COBELL et al., 
Plaintiffs, 
v. 
)
)
)
)
)
) 
GALE NORTON, Secretary of the Interior, et al., ) 
Defendants. 
)
) 
________________________________________ ) 
NOTICE OF FILING OF DECEMBER 2004 STATUS REPORT BY 
THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS 
The Department of the Interior Office of Trust Records hereby submits its status report 
for activity in December 2004. A copy of the report is attached hereto. 
Dated: January 19, 2005 
Case No. 1:96CV10285 
(Judge Lamberth) 
Respectfully submitted, 
ROBERT D. McCALLUM, JR. 
Associate Attorney General 
PETER D. KEISLER 
Assistant Attorney General 
STUART E. SCHIFFER 
Deputy Assistant Attorney General 
J. CHRISTOPHER KOHN 
Director 
/s/ Sandra P. Spooner 
SANDRA P. SPOONER 
Deputy Director 
D.C. Bar No. 261495 
JOHN T. STEMPLEWICZ 
Senior Trial Counsel 
Commercial Litigation Branch 
Civil Division
P.O. Box 875 
Ben Franklin Station 
Washington, D.C. 20044-0875 
(202) 514-3368 (phone) 
(202) 514-9163 (fax) 
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 
I hereby certify that, on January 19, 2005 the foregoing Notice of Filing of December 
2004 Status Report by the Department of the Interior Office of Trust Records was served by 
Electronic Case Filing, and on the following who is not registered for Electronic Case Filing, by 
facsimile: 
Earl Old Person (Pro se) 
Blackfeet Tribe 
P.O. Box 850 
Browning, MT 59417 
Fax (406) 338-7530 
/s/ Kevin P. Kingston 
Kevin P. Kingston
From- Jan-19-2005 O2:17pm T-835 P 002/004 f-604 
ACTIVITY REPORT 
OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS 
December 1 - 3 1,2004 
PROGRAMMATIC: 
Labat-Anderson (Labat) Indexing Project 
Labat repoded that 3,225 boxes of inactive Indian records were completed in 
December. The total number of boxes completed through December 2004 is 
97,220. 
The Office of Trust Records (OTR) and Labat staff worked at rhe Bureau of 
Indnn Affairs Southern Plains Regional Office and the Anadarko Agency 10 
prepare inactive records for shipment to Lenexa. 533 boxes of inactive records 
were shipped in December from the regional office. It is anticipated that this 
project will conclude in January. 
Movemenr of Records 
OTR moved 4,12 1 boxes from Albuquerque storage facilities to Lenexa, Kansas 
for permanent storage. OTR moved 638 boxes, BIA moved 1,063 boxes 
(includes the 533 from BLA reported above) and OST field offices moved 15 
boxes of inactive records to Lenexa for indexing and storage. In the November 
2004 report, OTR mistakenly reported that OST moved 1,302 boxes of inactive 
records to Lenexa. This resulted 6om including 1,222 boxes that had already 
been reported in the October 2004 report as part of the 4,780 boxes moved by 
OTR during that month. The actual number of boxes moved by OST during 
hTovember 2004 was 80. 
Boxes Requiring Preservation and /or Remediation 
Carino Conservation did not complete its recommendations for remediation of 
boxes it assessed at the 12* Sweet warehouse. It is anticipated that the report 
will be completed by the end ofJanuary. 
Individual Files Requiring Preservation 
As reported in the November montly report, ongoing analysis of data in the Box 
Index Search System identified 7,500 files containing one or more documents 
which may be at risk due to over usage, age or other conditions. OTR has not 
yer had discussions with the National Archives and Records Administration in 
Lenexa regarding the files but is scheduled to do so in January. 
1 1-835 P 003/004 F-604 Jan-19-2005 02:17pm From- 
Site Assessments 
OTR staff continued to draft reports for sire assessments conducted at the 
followhg BIA agencies: Okmulgee Agency, Talihina Agency, Osage Agency, 
Chickasaw Agency, Wewoka Agency and Miami Agency. The Office of rhe 
Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) field office at Osage Agency was 
also assessed. OTR staff also continued to drafc reports for site assessments of 
tribal records management programs at the Creek Nation, Choctaw Nation, 
Chickasaw Tribe, Osage Tribe and Wyandotte Tribe. It is anticipated the 
Written reports will be completed by OTR in January. 
Records Training 
OTR provided a Records Management Briefing for 18 OST supenisors and 
managers during the month. 
Equipment 
285 pieces of fireproof filing equipment were provided lo BIA and OST 
propms. 
Litigation Support 
OTR continued to provide support in research of records for tribal trust 
litigation cases including: Jicarilla Apache, Laguna, Blackfeet, Osage, W a n 
Springs Shoshone and Arapaho of Wind River and Shoshone-Bannock of Ft. 
Hall. OTR continued to provide support to the Office of Historical Trust 
AccounrFng and to BLA and OST offices. 
Records Evaluation - Accession #-M00-03-8001 
OST’s review of rhe 3 1 boxes in Accession #MO0-03-800 1 conrinued in 
December. The review, as reported last month, is intended to determine 
whether their conrenis might be federaVtrust records or whether they had been 
properly marked as non-record duplicates. 
ADMTMSTRATIVE : 
Ordinary administrative activities conrinued. 
2 1-838 P 001/001 F-607 Jan-19-2005 02:22pm From- 
GENERAL, OBSERVATIONS: 
OTR records operations staff continued to struggle to meet the demands placed on them 
by attorneys and tribal and federal researchers for boxes and to continue to meet OTR 
program requirements. 
I declare under penalty of perjury rhar the foregoing is m e and correct to the best of my 
knowledge, information and belief. 1, & 
Ethel J. Ab&a 
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