Elouise Cobell, advocate for American Indians, dies at 65

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 of complications from cancer Oct. 16.

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Sept. 8, 1999

Elouise Cobell, standing in front of an oil well on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation near Browning, Mont., said she remembered her parents wondering why they weren’t getting paid regularly for letting others use their land to farm and drill for oil. As the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit over mismanagement of Indian trust accounts, Cobell took on the federal government in an effort to reform the system responsible for distributing royalties and lease money to Indians for the use of their land.

Ray Ozman / AP

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