Cobell slams NMAI choice

New Indian museum director pick criticized

Gover part of suit filed in 1996 against the Interior Dept.Kevin Gover, the Smithsonian Institution's choice to head the National Museum of the American Indian, is drawing fire because of his involvement in a lawsuit that alleges the federal government lost millions of dollars belonging to thousands of Indians.

Elouise Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet tribe and the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, said Wednesday she is outraged that Gover has been chosen to be the museum's new director. Gover is now a professor of law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.