$3B to end royalty dispute with tribes

$3B to end royalty dispute with tribes

MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON

The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed spending more than $3 billion to settle claims dating back more than a century that American Indian tribes were swindled out of royalties for oil, gas, grazing and other leases. Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Montana who was the lead plaintiff in the case, called the proposed settlement crucial for hundreds of thousand of Native Americans who have suffered for more than a century through mismanagement of the Indian trust. "Today is a monument...