U.S. Reaches Historic $554M Settlement with Navajo Nation

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The Obama administration has agreed to pay $554 million to the Navajo Nation over claims the U.S. government mismanaged funds and natural resources on the reservation for more than 50 years, putting an end to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims back in 2006. The settlement, which is the largest with a single American Indian tribe, will be signed Friday in Arizona.

There are more than 300,000 members of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo reservation, which covers portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, is the largest Indian reservation in the country. The 14 million acres of trust lands are leased by the United States for a variety of purposes, including farming, logging and mining.

The Navajo Nation lawsuit alleged that, for more than half a century, the U.S. government failed to negotiate appropriate deals with entities extracting natural resources from the Navajo land. Further, the lawsuit alleged the U.S. government did not monitor the royalties from the natural resource extraction to ensure the tribe was properly paid, and that it failed to invest the proceeds in a way that would maximize profits. The tribe sought $900 million in damages from the U.S. government.

“This landmark resolution ends protected and burdensome litigation,” U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement. “And it fairly and honorably resolves a legal conflict over the accounting and management of tribal resources.”

Under the terms of the settlement, the Navajo Nation has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the United States for the alleged mismanagement of Navajo funds held in trust by the federal government. The settlement will not prohibit the Navajo Nation from filing lawsuits over future trust claims.

The United States has agreed to pay the settlement within the next two months.

The U.S. government has announced similar settlements with other tribes, and has paid at least $2.5 billion to resolve trust claims. The Salazar v. Cobell Indian Trust Settlement was the largest in history. The funds from this landmark $3.4 billion class action settlement were distributed to Class Members with known addresses in 2012, and the final checks were distributed earlier this month.

A website has been established with more information about the pending class action settlement. However, it currently does not have details about the claim filing process.

Further information about the Navajo Nation class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The Navajo Nation Class Action Lawsuit is Navajo Nation, f.k.a. Navajo Tribe of Indians v. United States of America, Case No. 1:06-cv-00945-FMA, in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.