Howard Bemer didn't think he'd survive life without e-mail after a federal judge disconnected the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the Internet.

"I thought it was like the end of the world," said Bemer, now superintendent of the BIA's Fort Berthold Agency in North Dakota. "But after you get used to not having it, honestly, I don't even miss it."

After nearly seven years, his e-mail-free days are over.

This week, the Interior Department announced it had brought 5,000 computers in 148 bureau sites back to the 21st century.

Since December 2001, bureau employees -- many in outlying posts of the BIA and Office of Indian Affairs -- have been off-line, working in a world with no forwarded messages, no Indianz.com, no hint of breaking news.

A federal judge ordered the Internet disconnected to protect individual Indian trust data stored on Interior Department information technology systems used by several agencies, including the BIA, Bureau of Land Management and Minerals Management Service.

The shutdown initially cut every Interior Department agency from the Web, at one time even preventing people from reserving campsites in national parks.

Gradually the computers have been reconnected. As Interior Department agencies proved they could protect their data, they have been allowed to reconnect beginning in 2002.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, presiding judge in the Cobell vs. Interior Department suit, finally brought the BIA's Washington and Albuquerque offices back online in May and June.

But as of the end of July, BIA regional offices, agencies, and field offices were still off-line.

The Internet shutdown arrived after five years of litigation in Cobell class-action suit, which pits a half-million landowners against senior Interior officials, who have been responsible for managing Individual Indian Money accounts since 1887.

The department retains a federal trust responsibility to collect and distribute lease and royalty revenues earned from millions of acres owned by Native landowners.

Cobell, a community development expert from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, filed a suit in 1996 against the government for mismanaging IIM accounts.

Judge Robertson ended the 12-year case in August, deciding the most the Interior Department owes landowners for its historical mismanagement is $455 million -- a sliver of the $47 billion sought by lawyers for Cobell, who plan to file an appeal.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department continues to try to fix the broken trust system.

Reconnecting BIA employees to the Internet marks a tremendous leap in allowing employees to effectively do their jobs.

The BIA provides services for 1.9 million Native people, ranging from road management and forestry to social services and education.

George T. Skibine, the bureau's acting deputy assistant policy and economic development secretary, thanked the public and tribes "for their patience" for not being able to e-mail bureau employees or access BIA Web sites for nearly seven years.

Although Bemer said he didn't miss access to the e-mail and the Internet, he said the reconnection will allow his workers to do a better job, particularly the probate workers who can access electronic databases to track down addresses of landowners.

Sanjeev Bhagowalia, chief information officer for the Office of Indian Affairs, said now that the BIA's regional, agency and field offices were online, they'd "use the Internet to better serve and communicate with Indian Country. We have instituted policies and mandatory training so that everyone is aware of each employee's role in ensuring the security of Indian Affairs' systems."

As a landowner who has frequent questions about ongoing leasing and right-of-way activities on land I own and share with others, I welcome the BIA's reconnection to e-mail and the Internet.

I now have Bemer's BIA e-mail address.

It's hard to imagine a day without the Internet and e-mail.

If I were cut off, it really seem like the end of the world.