Elouise Cobell filed her class action suit in 1996 and
originally thought it would take only three years to resolve the
issues. She joined Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Attorney
General Eric Holder in making the settlement announcement. Tami
A. Heilemann-DOI  On Oct. 22, Elouise Cobell was buried on the
Blacktail Ranch where she and her husband had lived. Blackfeet
and Catholic prayers were said, and Hutterite girls sang hymns,
and the Montana wind never stopped blowing. Some thought that
Napi -- the "Old Man," the supernatural trickster, troublemaker
and ultimate helper of the Blackfeet -- was present, too.
Elouise Pepion Cobell -- Inokesquetee saki or Yellowbird Woman
-- was a member of the Blackfeet Nation, the great-granddaughter
of Mountain Chief. She was a rancher and Blackfeet banker, a
MacArthur Foundation fellow, and, most famously, the lead
plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar and The Department of the
Interior. When she died Oct. 16 in a Great Falls, Mont.,
hospice, after a long bout with cancer, s