CNN: Native American farmers hopeful about suit involving USDA loans
CNN
Alyse Shoreland
7/2010
Since 1999, Native Americans have been involved in a class action lawsuit which accuses the U.S. Department of Agriculture of discriminatory lending over a 25-year period. A recent settlement on behalf of African-American farmers is giving Native Americans hope that their case will also be resolved in their favor.
According to plaintiffs' counsel, the lending practices of USDA regional offices have cost Native American farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue, although they added that it's a hard number to estimate because of how many farmers may have been affected. The attorneys say their expert witness, agricultural economist Patrick O'Brien, estimated that over 18 years, Native American farmers received only half the loans they could have expected to obtain.
The Native Americans' lead counsel, Joseph Sellers, said the USDA loans are vital to the existence of Native American farmers.
"The precondition to getting these kinds of loans is the USDA is regarded as the lender of last resort," he said. "So the people who get these loans have already demonstrated that they can't get loans at two commercial lending institutions. So if they don't get credit from the USDA, they get credit from no one."
Cohen Milstein represents the plaintiffs in Keepseagle, et al. v. Vilsack, et al.
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