Native American leader Elouise Cobell dies at 65
 | FILE - In a Dec. 17, 2009, file photo, Elouise Cobell watches a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the multi-billion dollar Cobell v Salazar law suit regarding decades of mismanagement of Indian lands in Washington. A spokesman for Cobell says the Blackfeet woman has died. She was 65. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) |
By Matt VolzAssociated Press / October 17, 2011
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HELENA, Mont.—Elouise Cobell, the Blackfeet woman who led a 15-year legal fight to force the U.S. government to account for more than a century of mismanaged Indian land royalties, died Sunday. She was 65.
Cobell died at a Great Falls hospital of complications from cancer, spokesman Bill McAllister said.
Cobell was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in 1996 claiming the Interior Department had misspent, lost or stolen billions of dollars meant for Native American land trust