The Obama Administration has agreed to pay the Navajo Tribe a record $554 million dollars in a landmark settlement.
Navajo, America’s largest Indian tribe, claimed the U.S. government had mishandled its funds and natural resources for decades. Due to the settlement, the tribe has agreed to waive all lawsuits for mismanaging resources on their tribal lands, including leasing purposes for energy development, logging and mining and farming.
The settlement, which dates back as far as 50 years, marks the largest U.S. legal settlement with a single tribe, will be formally signed at a ceremony on Friday in Window Rock, Arizona, the capital of the sprawling Navajo reservation.
The deal comes over two years after the administration dished similar settlements with 41 tribes, totaling $1 billion collectively. Since then, the government has resolved breach of trust claims by nearly 40 additional tribes for more than $1.5 billion, according to a U.S. Justice Department official said.
The Navajo Nation is the most populous American Indian tribe, with more than 300,000 members, and the largest by land mass, occupying 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.