This June, a federal judge approved an unprecedented $3.4 billion settlement over mismanaged Native American trust funds and assets in a case that represents the largest settlement ever approved against the U.S. government. The judge’s final approval was the last step in an enormous outreach effort that has been covered extensively as of late in local, regional, and national news.

It was the cap on quite the portfolio piece for DHC.

It was our team here in Spokane who alerted over a thousand media outlets across the nation about the Settlement in order to inform class members of their rights under it. How did we get involved? Why? Well we’re a tribally owned firm with years of experience helping tribal entities, and we recognized early on what a momentous case this would be for Indian Country.

It all started with Elouise Cobell, featured below, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, who fought a 14 year legal battle with the federal government. The Cobell vs. Salazar Settlement is the result of her class action lawsuit seeking accounting for mismanaged trust funds and assets belonging to over half a million Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders.

The Court mandated a comprehensive notification process take place to alert the hundreds of thousands of class members of the settlement, requiring all class members be informed of their rights under the Settlement. The agency that was required to notify all these people around the nation, Kinsella Media of Washington D.C., chose Desautel Hege Communications to execute the earned media strategy.

Our team personally contacted over 1,100 news rooms and placed individual calls to approximately 800 reporters, editors, and tribal representatives. It was our charge to present newsworthy information to the media in an unbiased fashion to inform class members so they could decide for themselves to participate in, object to, or comment on the Settlement.

It was important for us to remain neutral as we presented the facts of the Settlement—it wasn’t our place to convince class members to act one way or the other, and we recognized that a media campaign could never fix decades of broken trust and mismanagement. They nevertheless needed the full facts, because class members would never again be able to make this particular choice.

Our team began calling at 6 a.m. on the first day of the notification period and we called non-stop until it was dark, every day for days straight.

One of the best indicators that this campaign was successful was the sheer volume of coverage – over 88 million impressions across the nation from December 21 - April 20, 2011 with an advertising equivalency value of $3.9 million. Of course, ultimately it is about quality over quantity when it comes to media coverage. In this case, it was critical that we reached the tribal readership so they could make up their own minds. That’s why we reached out to publications ranging from small tribal newsletters to the big daily, national publications.

At the end, we were left with our largest media relations campaign in the firm’s history, the most comprehensive list of contacts for tribal media publications in existence, and a pivotal part in a Settlement that will leave an imprint on Indian Country long into the future. Time will tell how the Settlement will be judged by Native Americans years from now, but we are proud of our part in this historic campaign.