Elouise Cobell
Class Representative, Cobell v. Salazar
Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation from Browning, MT, is the lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar, a class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 on behalf of an estimated 500,000 Native Americans whose Individual Indian Money Accounts have been mismanaged by the federal government. She is a great granddaughter of Mountain Chief, one of the legendary Indian leaders of the West.
Ms. Cobell is the Executive Director of the Native American Community Development Corporation, a non-profit affiliate of the Native American Bank. She was a founder and former chair of the Blackfeet National Bank, the first national bank located on an Indian reservation and owned by a Native American tribe. As one the Bank’s organizers, she was instrumental in the formation of the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. She has been active in the Individual Indian Monies Trust Correction and Recovery Project to reform the U.S. Government's management of Individual Indian Trust Assets.
A graduate of Great Falls Business College, Ms. Cobell attended Montana State University, which awarded her an Honorary Doctorate. She received a Genius Grant in 1997 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Fellowship Program. In 2005, she received a Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, in recognition of her persistence in bringing to light the government's more than a century of malfeasance and dishonesty with the Indian Trust. In 2007, she was one of ten earning the AARP Impact Award for making the world a better place; and in 2004, The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development presented her with the prestigious Jay Silverheels Achievement Award.
Ms. Cobell's professional, civic experience and expertise includes serving as co-chair of the Native American Bank, N.A., a former board member for First Interstate Bank, and a former trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian. She served as Treasurer for the Blackfeet Indian Nation in Montana for 13 years.
Ms. Cobell and her husband operate a working ranch that produces cattle and crops. She remains active in local agriculture and environmental issues, founding the first Land Trust in Indian Country and serving as a Trustee for the Nature Conservancy of Montana. Ms. Cobell received the 2002 International Women's Forum award for "Women Who Make a Difference" in Mexico City.