Lawyers representing 16 Native American tribes in Indian trust litigation against the federal government have hired Quinn Gillespie & Associates to lobby for a settlement as the cases move slowly through the courts. Chairman Jack Quinn, a former counsel to President Bill Clinton, and lobbyist Manuel Ortiz are representing the law firms and the tribes involved in the suits, pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. In a statement, the lobbying firm said, “At this stage we are simply gathering intelligence.”
Gregory Yates, a solo practitioner in Los Angeles and co-lead counsel on the tribal cases, said the lawyers turned to Quinn Gillespie because, even if the tribes win in court, “whatever judgment we got would have to be ultimately legislatively endorsed and approved.” Tribes involved include South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Sioux and Oklahoma’s Eastern Shawnee. The tribes’ effort comes as a Feb. 28 deadline nears for Congress to approve a $1.4 billion class action settlement with more than 300,000 American Indians in the Cobell case, which raises similar issues. — Carrie Levine
