Elouise P. Cobell

Elouise Pepion Cobell
Born	Elouise Pépion (1945-11-05) 5 November 1945 Blackfeet Reservation, Montana, U.S.
Died	16 October 2011(2011-10-16) (aged 65) Great Falls, Montana, U.S.
Other names	Yellow Bird Woman
Occupation(s)	Tribal elder, activist, banker, rancher
Known for	Principal plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar class-action lawsuit

Elouise Pepion Cobell, also referred to as Yellow Bird Woman (November 5, 1945 – October 16, 2011) (Niitsítapi of the Blackfoot Confederacy), was a respected tribal elder, activist, banker, rancher, and the principal plaintiff in the significant class-action lawsuit Cobell v. Salazar (2009). This case contested the federal government's mishandling of trust funds held for more than 500,000 Native American individuals. Starting in 1996, she sought justice regarding fees collected from resource leasing.

In 2010, authorities authorized a $3.4 billion settlement—the largest class-action payout ever awarded against the U.S. government. This agreement provided partial restitution to individual account holders, financed the repurchase of fractionated land interests to restore tribal territories, and created a $60 million scholarship fund named the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund in her memory.

Efforts to reacquire land have persisted, with expenditures reaching $900 million to regain 1.7 million acres of fractionated property, thereby returning control to tribal governments. By November 2016, these land transactions had contributed $40 million to the scholarship fund.

Posthumously in November 2016, President Barack Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Cobell, with her son Turk Cobell accepting the distinction on her behalf.

Biography

Born as Elouise Pépion in 1945 on Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation, she was the fifth of nine children born to Polite and Catherine Pépion. She descended from Mountain Chief, an influential leader within the Blackfeet Nation. Raised on her family’s cattle ranch without modern utilities such as electricity or running water, she initially attended a one-room schoolhouse before continuing to high school. Pépion completed studies at Great Falls Business College and enrolled at Montana State University - Bozeman, though she left early to care for her terminally ill mother.

Following her mother’s passing, Elouise relocated to Seattle where she married Alvin Cobell, also a member of the Blackfeet Nation; together they had a son named Turk Cobell. She later returned to assist with managing the family ranch and took on the role of treasurer for the Blackfeet Nation.

Cobell established the Blackfeet National Bank, marking it as the first national bank located on an Indian reservation that was owned by a Native American tribe. In recognition of her contributions to banking and promoting financial education within Native communities, she was honored with a MacArthur genius award in 1997. Part of this award was donated to support her 1996 class-action lawsuit against the federal government concerning mismanaged trust funds and leasing revenues.

When twenty tribes collaborated to create the Native American Bank, Cobell assumed leadership as Executive Director of its nonprofit branch, the Native American Community Development Corporation. The bank’s headquarters are situated in Denver, Colorado.

Her professional portfolio included serving as Co-Chair of Native American Bank, holding a board position at First Interstate Bank, acting as Trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian, among various other board roles.

Beyond banking, Cobell contributed significantly to managing her family’s ranch operations involving cattle and crop production and was deeply engaged in agricultural and environmental advocacy. She founded Indian Country’s first land trust and served as a Trustee for Montana’s chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

Elouise Cobell passed away at age 65 on October 16, 2011, in Great Falls, Montana, following a brief illness due to cancer.

Previously president of Montana's Elvis Presley fan club, Cobell eventually set aside these pursuits to concentrate fully on her groundbreaking lawsuit. During her funeral procession, attendees tuned car radios to Elvis Presley songs; life-sized Elvis figures were present at her viewing alongside photographs depicting Cobell’s family at Graceland. The reception featured a cake adorned with "In Loving Memory of Elouise Cobell" alongside an image of Elvis Presley.

Federal Oversight of Trust Funds Under Scrutiny

During her tenure exceeding ten years as Treasurer for the Blackfeet Tribe, Cobell identified extensive mismanagement of trust funds held by the United States government on behalf of tribes and individual Native Americans. These monies derived from government-collected revenues linked to leasing Indian trust lands for resources such as timber, oil, grazing, natural gas, and minerals, with royalties intended for the rightful Indian beneficiaries. As these trust lands were subdivided among heirs over generations, account complexities increased, and Cobell discovered that many tribal members were not receiving their entitled portions.

Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, Cobell, alongside the Intertribal Monitoring Association—which she led—advocated for reform in Washington, DC, but their efforts failed to yield results. Subsequently, she engaged Dennis Gingold, banking attorney Thaddeus Holt, and representatives from the Native American Rights Fund, including John Echohawk and Keith Harper, to initiate a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Interior. This legal action sought comprehensive reform and an accounting of individual Indian trust accounts.

They founded the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, a nonprofit organization created to pursue claims against the United States for mismanagement of Native American trust lands. The Lannan Foundation, a supporter of Native American initiatives, contributed over $7 million between 1998 and 2009 to finance the litigation, anticipating reimbursement following resolution. Nevertheless, as of 2013, the foundation was still attempting to recover funds from Gingold and had only received $1.8 million in repayments.

Resolution and Settlement

The class-action lawsuit initiated in October 1996, known as Cobell v. Salazar—named after Interior Secretary Salazar at the time of settlement—was concluded in 2009 during President Barack Obama's administration. In 2010, Congress allocated $3.4 billion to resolve the case. The settlement provided compensation payments to individual plaintiffs; established a $1.9 billion fund dedicated to repurchasing fractionated land interests through voluntary transactions aimed at restoring tribal landholdings; and created a $60 million Cobell Education Scholarship Fund financed by proceeds from land sales.

By July 2011, notification letters had been dispatched to hundreds of thousands of affected Native Americans, with most recipients receiving settlements averaging approximately $1,800. By November 2016, approximately $900 million had been utilized to reacquire 1.7 million acres of fractionated land interests to enhance tribal governance over these lands, alongside an additional $40 million contributed to the scholarship fund.

At the time of settlement, Cobell stated:

While we have secured a settlement exceeding $3.4 billion, it remains substantially less than the full accounting individual Indians rightfully deserve. We could extend our fight for a larger sum or complete accounting; however, our class diminishes daily as elders pass away without receiving just recompense.

Portrayal in Media

Filmmaker Melinda Janko produced and directed 100 Years: One Woman's Fight for Justice (2016), a 75-minute documentary chronicling Cobell’s life and accomplishments. The film debuted at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival in October 2016.

Honors and Enduring Impact

• 1997: Awarded the "Genius Grant" by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• 2002: Received an honorary doctorate from Montana State University
• 2002: Honored with the International Women's Forum accolade for "Women Who Make a Difference" in Mexico City
• 2004: Presented with the Jay Silverheels Achievement Award by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development
• 2005: Granted the "Cultural Freedom Fellowship" from the Lannan Foundation in recognition of revealing over a century of governmental misconduct related to the Indian Trust
• 2007: Earned the AARP Impact Award for notable societal influence
• 2007: Recognized as one of the first Rural Heroes by the National Rural Assembly
• 2011: Conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth College
• 2011: Recipient of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association's Citizens Award
• 2016: Posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, accepted on her behalf by her son Turk Cobell
• 2018: Inducted into the National Native American Hall of Fame during its inaugural event

External links

• "Addressing Over a Century of Shame: The Cobell v. Norton Case", Center for American Progress
• "Elouise Cobell", Lannan Foundation
• Indian Trust Settlement information site
• "Accounting Coup", Mother Jones, Sep/Oct 2005