BIA has allowed The California Fee to Trust Consortium, to pay the salaries to its employees

Since 2000, the BIA has allowed the salaries of its employees to be paid by a group of tribes calling itself the California Fee to Trust Consortium, this according to Capitol Weekly, a publication of Open California, a California Public Benefit Corporation. Not surprisingly, a 2006 Inspector General’s investigation found that tribes that put in the most money got the fastest fee-to-trust results. The Chumash are a major player in this Consortium, and by 2008 had already contributed $450,000. Only two tribes have given more, according to Capitol Weekly.