Boyds Support Biden's U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Nominee Congresswoman Debra Haaland, Call for Her to End "Culture of Termination" at BIA
February 23, 2021--For Immediate Release
The following is the joint statement of John Boyd, President and Founder of the National Black Farmers Association, and Kara Brewer Boyd, President and Founder of the Association of American Indian Farmers, on the confirmation hearing of President Joe Biden's Nominee Congresswoman Debra Haaland as U.S. Department of Interior Secretary:
"Congresswoman Debra Haaland is certainly experienced in leadership and well qualified to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior." The Interior Department has broad oversight of tribal affairs and energy development. The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) worked tirelessly to seek passage of the Claims Settlement Act a 'long-overdue justice.'
The suit, Cobell v. Salazar, was one of the largest class actions ever filed against the United States for mismanagement of trust funds intended to compensate Native Americans for the use of their lands and resources. It charged that as far back as the 1880s the government mismanaged money owed to Native Americans. These trust funds were collected from farming and grazing leases, timber sales, mining, and oil and gas production from land owned by American Indians and Alaska Natives. The court-ordered payments to more than 400,000 Native Americans from numerous tribal groups from the federal government to begin to settle a landmark $3.4 billion class action lawsuit.
The Native Americans’ case had many similarities to our decade-long battle to claim justice for millions of black farmers who had been wronged in the denial of farm loans and other federal mishandling. It is as complicated as the black farmers’ $1.25 billion settlement. Both cases required an Act of Congress to fund the court settlement — and they were intertwined.
Our settlement with the Obama Administration required congressional approval, so I had to go back to Congress for the funding. During that time Democrats had a super majority in the House and the bill passed there. But the Senate was a whole other ball of wax. The Democrats had a narrow majority there.
In 2009 the Obama administration coupled the black farmers’ suit and the Cobell settlement together, handing me a massive battle to wage for $4.5 billion — a much harder sell on Capitol Hill. I quickly had to become an expert on the Cobell case. The combined bill failed as a stand-alone act 11 times in the Senate. I spent months at a time on the Hill, dressed in coveralls, day in and day out visiting members who opposed the black farmers’ and Native Americans’ proposed settlement. I practically parked my tractor, named “Justice,” which I had driven from my Virginia farm to Washington to highlight the failed congressional actions.
President Barack Obama with John Boyd, Jr. and Elouise Cobell at the 2010 Claims Remedy Act Signing Ceremony, December 08, 2010.
Finally, two years after the Farm Bill passed, Congress passed the legislation that included $3.4 billion for Native Americans, $1.25 billion for black farmers and additional funding for a water line on Indian reservations. That Dec. 8, 2010, President Obama signed the landmark bill into law.
The Cobell case settlement and payments were at least partial justice for people who are members of most federally recognized tribes west of the Mississippi River. At least some of the resources were restored to those who claimed government wrongs, including mismanaging trust funds and assets, improperly accounting for those funds, and mismanaging trust land and assets. But there remains the travesty of discrimination, termination and denial of justice to many historically recognized Native American tribes such as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
"In 2021, I am still seeking justice for my great grandfather Britton Maynor, Application 4, and my family from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I fully support the confirmation of Congresswoman Debra Haaland to address the "Report on the Racial Status of Robeson County Indians" by Carl C. Seltzer (June 30, 1936) and "Culture of Termination" to bring "restorative justice" to the Department of the Interior," states Kara Brewer Boyd, Lumbee.
Britton Maynor, Application #4, "Report on the Racial Status of Robeson County Indians" by Carl C. Seltzer (June 30, 1936)
"We stand ready to work with Congresswoman Haaland as the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary to address the challenges of climate action, the environment and tribal issues that will affect generations of Americans to come." Team Boyd
For interviews, please contact John Boyd at Johnwesleyboydjr@gmail.com or Kara Brewer Boyd at AmericanIndianFarmers@gmail.com or call 804-691-8528.
