ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ tribes have the right to sue the federal government for allowing a developer to default on payments to obtain the old Phoenix Indian School, a federal appeals court ruled.
The three judge panel said the Inter-Tribal Council of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ showed there is evidence the federal government failed to maintain sufficient financial security to deal with what would happen if Barron Collier Co. defaulted on its payments. That was important because the state’s senators, in getting Congress to approve the deal with the developer, said the funds would be used for education of Native American students.
As it turned out, the company did default, leaving the trust fund that was set up about $20 million short, according to attorney Melody McCoy, who represents the council.
A trial judge in Washington tossed out the tribes’ claims. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded there was enough basis to support a claim that the federal government failed in its duty to protect the trust.
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The ruling does not guarantee that the tribes will win. But it does get them their day in trial court.
The new ruling is the latest in what has been a complex set of dealings after the federal government, as part of a larger movement, decided to close the 99-year-old boarding school in 1990.
All this came as the federal government was interested in about 108,000 acres of wetlands that Collier owned in the Florida Everglades. The deal, valued at about $122 million, was for Collier to get most of the Phoenix Indian School property in exchange.
