Senate Agrees On Funds To Black Farmers, Native American Settlements
The U.S. Senate has approved a payout of more than $4.5 billion to settle longstanding claims of government mismanagement and discrimination against black farmers and Native Americans.
Host Allison Keyes speaks with Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians and John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association about the settlement and whether it goes far.
Correction: Nov. 24, 2010
The language used suggested that only Native American farmers were to receive payments from the settlement, when that settlement reaches well beyond farmers. It deals with complaints from 300-thousand individual Native Americans of all backgrounds who said the government mismanaged royalty payments for natural resources mined on tribal lands. Meanwhile, Native American farmers who specifically faced discrimination involving farm loans from 1981 to 1999 reached a separate settlement last month that doesn't require action by Congress, but does still require approval from the courts.
