REPORT OF INDEPENDENT PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
To the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of
Northern Funds:
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of Northern
Funds (a Massachusetts business trust consisting of Growth Equity, Income
Equity, Select Equity, Small Cap, Small Cap Growth, Small Cap Index, Stock
Index, Mid Cap Growth, Technology, International Growth Equity,
International Select Equity, International Fixed Income, High Yield Municipal,
High Yield Fixed Income, Fixed Income, Intermediate Tax-Exempt, California
Tax-Exempt, Florida Intermediate Tax-Exempt, California Intermediate Tax-
Exempt, Arizona Tax-Exempt, Tax-Exempt, Short-Intermediate U.S.
Government, U.S. Government, Money Market, U.S. Government Money
Market, U.S. Government Select Money Market, Municipal Money Market,
and California Municipal Money Market Funds) for the year ended March 31,
2000, we considered its internal control, including control activities for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for the
purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to comply
with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal
control.
The management of Northern Funds is responsible for establishing and
maintaining internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates
and judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit
pertain to the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for
external purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with generally
accepted accounting principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of
assets against unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the
design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or
more of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low
level the risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that
would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited may
occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal
course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no
matters involving internal control and its operation, including controls for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as
defined above as of March 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management, the
Board of Trustees of Northern Funds and the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Chicago, Illinois
May 16, 2000
