IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ) ELOUISE PEPION COBELL, et aL, ) ) No. 1:96CV01285 (RCL) Plaintiffs, ) v. ) ) GALE A. NORTON, Secretary of ) the Interior, et !j, ) ) Defendants. ) ___________________________________________________________________________) NOTICE OF FILING OF OCTOBER 2005 STATUS REPORT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS The Department of the Interior Office of Trust Records hereby submits its status report for activity in October 2005. A copy of the report is attached hereto. Dated: November 15, 2005 Respectfully submitted, ROBERT D. McCALLUM, Jr. Associate Attorney General PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General STUART E. SCHIFFER Deputy Assistant Attorney General J. CHRISTOPHER KOHN Dir ector /s/ Robert E. Kirschman, Jr. ROBERT E. KIRSCHMAN, Jr. (D.C. Bar No. 406635) Assistant Director Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division P.O. Box 875 Ben Franklin Station Washington, D.C. 20044-0875 Phone (202) 307-3242 Fax(202) 514-9163 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certif!y that, on November 15, 2005 the foregoing Notice of Filing of October 2005 Status Report by the Department of the Interior Office of Trust Records was served by Electronic Case Filing, and on the following who is not registered for Electronic Case Filing, by facsimile: Earl Old Person (Pro se) Blackfeet Tribe P.O. Box 850 Browning, MT 59417 Fax (406) 338-7530 /s/ Kevin P. Kingston Kevin P. Kingston ACTWITY REPORT OFFICE OF TRUST PJWORDS October 1 -31, 2005 PROGRAMMATIC: Labat!Anderson (Labat Indexing Project) Labat reported that 1,970 boxes of inactive Indian records were completed in October 2005. The total number of boxes completed through October 2005 is approximately 126,295. * Movement of Records The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and OST moved 2,064 boxes of inactive records from various field locations to Lenexa, Kansas for indexing and subsequent storage at the American Indian Records Repository (AIRR) during this reporting period. * Boxes Requiring Preservation and/or Remediation The approximately 30 boxes which the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) determined will require additional care were fUrther evaluated by NARA during October 2005. It is anticipated that NAR!A will be making recommendations to OTR on treatment of these boxes in the next reporting period. * Records Retention Schedules OTR was informed by NARA that the records schedules for the BrA Office of Law Enforcement Services and the BIA Office of Indian Education were approved by the Archivist of' the United States on October 24, 2005, NARA fbrther informed OTR that the five BIA electronic records schedules which were sent to NARA for appraisal and approval during the last reporting period are still undergoing review, * Site Assessment Statement During the month of October, OTRA issued one final records assessment report for OST Colville field office and performed site assessments for the Sisseton and Yankton Agencies for both the BIA and OST offices. * Records Training OTR did not conduct records management training in October! * Equipment OTR provided seven pieces of fireproof filing equipment to NA offices during this reporting period. * Records Evaluations - Accession #MOO-03-8001 The 31 boxes continue to remain with OTR pursuant to a litigation hold. Once the boxes are released, OST can carry out its plans to verify whether any potential records in the boxes are also filed at the field office- The boxes continue to be stored at thc 12th Street warehouse! * Litigation Support and Research Requests OTR continued to provide litigation support in research of records for tribal trust litigation cases including the Shoshone-Arapaho Tribes of Wind River and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Ft. Hall. OTR continued to provide significant support to the Office of Historical Trust Accounting and its contractors, and the Department of Justice and its contractors. AIRR staff provided responses to approximately 200 research requests from BIA and OST. ADMINISTRATIVE: General adinini strative activities continuel GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: None. 2 I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief I express no opinion on the content of the Site Assessments subsection described above. I declare under penalty of penury that the content of the Site Assessments Statement described above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. I express no opinion on the contents of other sections/subsections of the report. Je Lords Acting Director, Office of Trust Review and Audit 3