IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ________________________________________ ELOUISE PEPION COBELL et al., Plaintiffs, ) )) ) v. ) Case No. 1:96CV10285 ) (Judge Lamberth) GALE NORTON, Secretary of the Interior, et al., ) Defendants. ) ) ________________________________________ ) NOTICE OF FILING OF OCTOBER 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 October 2004. A copy of the report is attached hereto. Dated: November 9, 2004 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) 2 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that, on November 9, 2004 the foregoing Notice of Filing of October 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 T-749 P 002/005 F-448 Nov-09-2004 04:OZpm From- ACTMTY REPORT OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS October 1 - 3 1,2004 PROGRAMMATIC: Labat-Anderson (Labat) Indexing Project Labat reported that 3,583 boxes of inactive Indian records were complered in October. The total number of boxes completed through the end of October 2004 is 90,45 1. The Office of Trust Records (OTR) and Labat will assist field offices in preparing inactive records for retirement to the American Indian Records Repository (AIRR). We have identified the Southern Plains Regional Office as the pilot site for retirement of inactive records. It is anticipated that OTR and Labat staffwill meet with personnel ar the Regional Office nexr month to draft the logistical plan required ro prepare the inactive records from the field for shipment, indexing and retirement. Movement of Records OTR moved approximately 4,780 boxes of records &om Albuquerque storage facilities to Lenexa, Kansas. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) moved 176 boxes of inactive records and the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) field programs moved 65 boxes ofrecords to Lenexa. Boxes Requiring Preservation and/or Rmcdiarion The contractor began assessing the boxes located at the 12"' Sueet warehouse on October 18,2004. As of October 3 1,2004, the contractor has gone through 98 of 269 boxes that may have been contaminared or damaged by warer, mouse droppings, mold or other adverse elements. It is mncipated that the contractor Will complete the assessment during November and recommendations will be prepared on any necessary remedial actions thereafter. Bureau of Indian Affairs Records On October 4,2004,I was lnformed thar there was a water leak in a bathroom at the Crow Agency in Montana. The OTR Regional Records Lixson reported rhat warer seeped through the ceiling of the Lnigation Office and some active working files got wet. I conracled the Rocky Mountain Regional Dfrector's Office and the Acting Re@onal Director told me he would check fnro the matter. The figafion staff lnformed the OTR Liaison that the documents were copies of realty documents, OTR Liaison provided a report on the matter, On October 18,2004, From- 1-749 P 003/005 F-448 I requested that the Regional Director or the Superinrendent provide me with a statement that rhe affected records were indeed copies. A second request was sent on October 28,2004. As of October 3 1,2004, I have not received a response. Site Assessments No site assessments were conducted this month. A survey meeting was conducted by the Office of Trust Review and Audit (OTRA) and OTR with the BIA Eastern Oklahoma Regional Director in anticiparion of assessments to be conducted in November 2004. Records Training Twenry OST field sraff completed records training conducted by OTR. OTR conducted a Records Awareness Briefing for thirteen staff of the OTRA. Equipment No filing equipment was purchased or provided in October. Litigation Support OTR continued to provide support in research of records for tribal trust litigation cases including: Jicarilla Apache, Laguna, Blackfeer, Osage, Wam Springs, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; OTR also continued to provide support to the Office of Hisiorical Trust Accounting; and for the tribal research teams identified in the August monthly report, including Jicarilla Apache, Lagma. Blackfeet, Osage and Warm Springs. Nov-09-2004 04:02pm 0 0 0 Records Evaluation - Accession #MOO-03-8001 Some boxes of materials provided to atromeys conducting discovery were found to contain tom documents. The boxes had been set aside by OTR, pending fiurher evaluation, because they were marked by the origmaring office as containing duplicates or orher non-record marerial. The boxes containing tom documents are part of a group of 99 boxes that were received by OTR from the OST field office located at the BLA Southwest Region in 2003. Back mound : OST field personnel submitted a Records Move Request for 99 boxes to OTR on May 7,2003. The “Records Transmittal and Receipf2 (SF-135) attached to the request listed the contents of a portion ofthe 99 boxes (boxes 43-73) as %on- docummts-99 2 Nov-09-2004 04:14pm From- BISS until October 18,2004. storlng non-record marerials. T-753 P 002/002 F-452 On May 2 1 , 2003, I received an ernail from the OST field personnel asking when the request would be approved and informing me the 99 boxes were “posing a safety hazard in the office.” I approved the request on May 22,2003, which included the move of the 3 1 ‘hon-document” boxes. OTR records operation staff picked up the 99 boxes on May 23,2003. The boxes were taken to the OTR Hawkins facility where they were stored until March 10, 2004, when Labat requested the 99 boxes for indexing. OTR delivered the 99 boxes on two pallets on March 10,2004, to the indexing facility. On or about March 12,2004, OTR was given a copy of a memorandum written by the Labat Floor Supervisor to the Albuquerque Project Manager. The memorandum stared that they had come across boxes that had the word “Shred” marked out and “Duplicates Pending” written on the outside of the boxes and that when they opened the boxes they discovered that some papers in the boxes were tom in half, but not all the boxes had papers tom in half. The contractor indicated that there were 3 1 of these boxes; and that of the 3 1, nine boxes had tom documents, but the rest of the boxes seemed to be ok. OTR set aside the 31 boxes The other 68 boxes were indexed. The indexed boxes were numbered in the Box Index Search System (BISS) as 1 through 68 All 99 boxes were kept together and delivered to the AADF Warehouse. The outsides of the boxes were not renumbered to reflect the numbers assigned in the In March 2004, OTR was notified of the court orders issued in the tribal trust lihgahon cases involving the Pueblo of Laguna and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe (Lagunzu‘Jicarilla), which provided that records for those cases could not be moved from the Albuquerque OTR facilities to the ATRR until production of the documents is completed. Alter conducting initial research using the BISS in OTR’s office, the LagundJicarilla attorneys requested 52 of the 68 indexed boxes fiorn the OST Southwest Region collection. Because rhe boxes had not been renumbered OR the outside of the boxes, the QTR staff mistakenly delivered 21 boxes from that group of 3 1 thar had not been indexed. Four unindexed boxes were designated by Laguna/Jicarilla attorneys as containing documents that they wanted imaged. On October 27,2004,27 of the 31 unindexed boxes were taken to the OTR 12‘h Streer warehouse (the other four boxes had been sent for imaging) where OTR is On October 28,2004, the Assistant Deppury Secretary directed that all 3 1 boxes be reexamined caref5lly to ensure that all federabust records continue to be preserved. 3 T-749 P 005/005 F-448 Nov-09-2004 04:02pm From- Current Status: All 3 1 boxes in question are being retained by OTR. OTR contacted OST management on October 29,2004, and requested that knowledgeable personnel be sent to look through the 3 1 boxes to determine whether some of the contents might be federal/trust records. As of this report, it has yet to be determined wherher these boxes contain any federal/.trust records or whether they had been properly marked, originally, as non-record duplicates. ADMINISTRQTIW : OTR managers worked on finalizing the Fiscal Year 2005 budget. The limitations ofthe Continuing Resolution affect OTR programs. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: OTR Albuquerque records operations staff continue to struggle to meet the demands placed on them by anomeys, mbal and federal, and researchers for boxes and to meet OTR program requirements. I declare under penalty of p q u r y that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. 4