IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ELOUISE PEPION COBELL, et aL, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) Case No. 1:96CV01285 ) (Judge Lamberth) DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary of the Interior, ) ) ) Defendants. ) _______________________________________________________________________________________) NOTICE OF FILING OF JULY 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 July 2006. A copy of the report is attached hereto. Dated: August 15, 2006 Respectfully submitted, 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) 616-0238 Fax (202) 514-9163 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certif!y that, on August 15, 2006 the foregoing Notice of Filing ofJuly 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 ACTIVITY REPORT OFFICE OF TRUST RECORDS July 1 -31,2006 PROGRAMMATIC: * Labat-Anderson (Labat Indexing Project) Labat reported that indexing of 1,094 boxes of inactive Indian records was completed in July 2006. The total number of boxes completed through July 2006 is approximately 144,175. * Movement of Records The Bureau of Indian Affairs (131A) and Office of the Special Tnistee (OST) moved 1,889 boxes of inactive records from various field locations to Lenexa, Kansas, for indexing and subsequent storage at the American Indian Records, Repository (A]IRR) during this reporting period. * Boxes Requiring Preservation andlor Remediation The Office of Tmst Records' (CIX) plan to contract for conservator services was not completed in July 2006. As previously reported, the conservator has reviewed the six boxes of materials NARA could not repair. The six consist of one box that has about 25% of its contents covered with a tar-like substance; one entire box that had mold and the files are now stuck together; one box of green bar printouts from 1989 oil and gas royalty disbursements that have holes in the printout caused by insects; and three boxes that have extensive water damage and the contents are stuck together. NARA had recommended that the documents should not be separated or fbrther damage will result. The conservator's opinion was that much of the information can be salvaged by either physical stabilization or recovety of the information through reproduction techniques. It is anticipated that the * conservator's services will be obtained in September 2006. * Site Assessment Statement During the month of July, OTRA issued final records assessment reports for Winnebago Agency BIA and TIM offices, Fort Peck Agency BIA and IIM offices, Fort Belknap Agency BLA and T]M offices, Eastern Nevada Agency BIA office, Crow Agency IIM office and Northern Cheyenne Agency JIM office. OTRA performed record assessments for Fort Berthold Agency BIA and JIM offices, Black Feet Agency BIA and IIM offices and Michigan Agency BIA and JIM offices. S - OTR provided records management. training for 86 MA and OST records contacts in July 2006. Equipment 67 pieces of fireproof filing equipment were delivered to BLA, 22 pieces to OST and 17 pieces to tribal offices in July 2006. * Records Evaluations-Accession #MO0-03-8001 Thirty-one boxes continue to remain with OTR pursuant to a litigation hold. Once the boxes are released, OST can carry out its plans to veiif!' 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 significant support to the Office of the Solicitor, Office of Historical Trust Accounting and its contractors, and the Department of Justice and its contractors. AIRR staff provided responses to 251 research requests from BIA, OST and other requesters. ADMINISTRATIVE: General administrative activities continued. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: None. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true arid correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. I express no opinion on the content of the Site Assessments subsection described above. Ethel J. beita 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 belief. I express no opinion on the contents of other sectionslsubsections of the Jeff Director, Office of Trust P!eview and Audit .1 y 2