Federal Ruling May Mean Millions for Texas Indian Tribe
ALABAMA-COUSHATTA RESERVATION, Texas — A federal court has ruled that white settlers wrongfully took a 2.8-million-acre tract of Texas forest from the Alabama and Coushatta Indians, possibly entitling the tribe to millions of dollars in reimbursement.
About 400 members of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe, who are closely related to the Creek and Cherokee, want the government to pay for timber, oil, natural gas and land the tribe never got to sell.
On June 19, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Claims Court sided with the tribe and ruled that it has title to land in nine Texas counties, stretching from the Louisiana line to just north of Houston.
Now leaders on the tribe’s 4,600-acre reservation 90 miles northeast of Houston hope their legal battle will be resolved by the Justice Department, which is reviewing the claim. Congress ultimately must approve any settlement.
“We don’t see any reason we can’t negotiate a settlement in this case,” said Morris Bullock, chairman of the tribal council. “It has gone on too long already. We are just going to try to make sure the other side doesn’t do anything to change it.”
The Alabama and Coushatta began the fight for the land rights in 1967 with the now-defunct Indian Claims Commission.
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