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 JANUARY 2006 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 January 2006. A copy of the report is attached hereto. Dated: February 15, 2006 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 February 15, 2006 the foregoing Notice of Filing of January 2006 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 Feb-14-2006 04:lCpm From- T-336 P.002/004 F-COG ACTIVITY REPORT OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS January 1-31, 2006 PROGRAMMATIC: Labat-Anderson (Labat Indexing Project) Labat reported that 2,736 boxes of inactive Indian records were completed in January 2006. The total number of boxes completed through January 2006 is approximately 134,445. * Movement of Records The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and OST moved 867 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 andlor Remediation As reported, 283 boxes of inactive records that were or may have been damaged or contaminated by mold, mildew, mouse droppings or other adverse elements were shipped to NARA for remediation in June 2005. As reported in the OTR Activity Report for November 2005, the number has increased to 289 boxes as a result of holdings maintenance being perfonned. Some boxes cannot hold the entire contents of the original box and are placed in an "overflow box" which is kept with the original box. As reported in December, of the original 283 boxes, 145 boxes were released by NARA and sent for indexing and subsequent storage in AIRR. The remaining 138 boxes remained in NARA's custody in January 2006 for appropriate treatment. OTR did not receive a treatment plan from NARA in January 2006. * Records Retention Schedules Six electronic records schedules for BIA systems (GIS, MAIDS, Keyfile System, GLADS, Alaska Title Plant Database and Land Title Mapper) and the record schedule for the Box Index Search System (BISS) are pending review and approval by the Archivist. No approvals were received in January 2006. a Site Assessment Statement During the month of January. OTRA issued a final records assessment report for Ft. Apache BIA and performed record assessments for the BIA and OST offices located at the Papago Agency. 1 Feb-14-2006 04:lGpe From- 1-336 P003/004 F-CBS a Records Training OTR did not provide records management training in January 2006. a Equipment OTR delivered 66 pieces of fireproof filing equipment to B]I.A, OST arid tribal offices during this reporting period. o Records Evaluations - Accession #M00-03-S00I 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 the 12th Street warehouse. Litigation Support and Research Requests OTR continued to provide litigation support in research of records for tribal trust litigation cases which included researchers from the Osage Tribe. OTR continued to provide significant support to the Office of the Soheitor, Office of Historical Trust Accounting and its contractors, and the Department of Justice and its contractors. AIRR staff provided responses to approximately 220 research requests from BTA and OST. ADIW]jNTJSTRATIS/E; General administrative activities continued. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: None. 2 Feb-14-2006 04:lBpn From- 1-336 P.004/004 F196 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 perjury that the content of the Site Assessments Statement described above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belieE I express no opinion on the contents of other sections/subsections of the report. Acting Director, Office of Trust Review and Audit 3