$93 billion is the difference between the $7 billion the Department of Interior has offered to pay holders of Native American tribal and individual land trust accounts and the $100+ billion those account holders claim they are owed. Tribal land accounts date back to 1820 when the U.S. government initially authorized each Native American to receive 160 acres of land to be held in trust by the U.S. government. The land trusts originally totaled 146 million acres of land, of which the U.S. government then sold 90 million acres to non-Indians, leaving 56 million acres in trust. Beginning in 1887 the federal government, through the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, became trustees for individual Indian accounts. The Historical Accounting Project for Individual Indian Money (IIM) Accounts is the first comprehensive attempt to ascertain exactly who is owed how much. The project began in 1999 and will continue into 2011, unless Congress determines the project is not yet completed, a good possibility. 40 million pieces of documentation have been coded thus far and included in a database, at a cost of $274 million.

The end of this project is nowhere in sight. The Bureau of Indian Affairs can only reconcile tribal, not individual, accounts from 1972 to the present. A century of paperwork is missing, not counting the 162 cartons of documents dating back to 1900 the government "accidentally" destroyed when the project began as a result of a lawsuit filed by Blackfeet Nation member Elouise Cobell (Cobell vs. Kempthorne). There are an estimated 320,000 individual trust accounts involving more than 4 million payers who made more than 100 million transactions. Neither side in the lawsuit can reliably estimate the number of possible beneficiaries involved in the case.

The previous presiding judge, Judge Royce Lamberth, termed the Department of Interior "the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist and imperialist government." He has since been removed from the case. The Department of Interior last month flat out refused to abide by another federal judge's order to turn over electronic records to Cobell defendants. Small wonder that Native Americans believe the accounting project is merely one more attempt by the federal government to shirk its fiduciary duties and limit its liability.

Taking another step toward affiliating their brand with social responsibility, Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) has created a shoe specifically designed for Native Americans, the Nike Air Native N7. The athletic performance shoe was designed with the input of 70 Native American communities, to fit their particular foot geography, and features a graphic design inspired by Native American culture.

The shoe is stuffed with feel-good features, too. It is constructed from materials intended to minimize waste and "deliver sustainable innovation," whatever that means, and designed with Seventh Generation ethos, which calls for decision makers to take into account the impact of their actions seven generations down the line.

Nike has earmarked profits from the sale of the shoe to support the extension of its new "Let Me Play" program on Native American lands. "Let Me Play" is an advercharity program launched this July by Nike to build and restore playgrounds around the world.

Don't look for a pair of N7s at your local shoe store, though; they will only be available through Nike's Native Business Program.

And no, this does not mean in your local casino. As far as I know. Addendum, 9/27: I asked Jill Zanger of Nike just what was the difference between the feet of Native Americans and Nike's core customer? She told me that, after checking the feet of 224 Native Americans from across the country, the company found that the feet of Native Americans are, on average, wider by a size and taller than Nike's average customer. The N7s are made to a last that takes this difference into account.

Addendum 10/9: In response to the many 'where can I buy these?" questions, I asked Nike, who responded "The Nike Air Native N7 is only available in the to registered users of Nike's Native American Business Program. This program makes Nike products, including the Air Native N7 beginning Nov. 1, available to Native American community health and wellness centers at preferential prices to encourage physically active lifestyles. Individuals interested in the shoe should contact their local tribal health facility or urban Indian Health Center."

I have to wonder if Martha Stewart asks for anyone's opinion before she attempts some of the moves that she does. I wanted to write a simple post regarding her settlement with shareholders stemming from her ImClone stock shares debacle but then I ran into this other interesting stuff. Now, CBS News reports that Martha Stewart has upset the native American community where she lives by filing an application to trademark a name they revere so she may use it for her own commercial purposes.

Martha would like to trademark the name "Katonah." It's the name of the village where she lives and it was the name of a 17th century Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation tribal chief. Representatives of the tribe find Martha's trademark application offensive and stand in strong opposition to the move. Ms. Stewart explains that she wishes to honor the name by using it in conjunction with a line of home furnishings and interior paint. The tribe however refuses to surrender the name to commercial status. "We welcomed her when she came, but we're frustrated and confused that she would try to exploit the town in this way," said local newspaper editor R.J. Marx in February, when his paper first broke the story.

I'm hoping that Martha will just let this thing die easy. After all, for her it's just a name. For the tribe and for the native American community at large it represents a tangible piece of heritage and I can fully understand why they stand against it being used for profit generation. Perhaps the Wisconsin tribal communities will get the idea from this situation and remove all the native American names from their casinos, but I'm thinking they probably won't.