Thousands of American Indians are now in line to receive part of a $ 3.4 billion settlement with the federal government , ending a long-running dispute over government mismanagement of tribal lands and accounts . After an initial agreement was outlined in 2009 , Congress approved it in November 2010 and it spent the last two years going through an appeals process . It was finalized Saturday , with government officials announcing and touting it on Monday . `` I welcome the final approval of the Cobell settlement agreement , clearing the way for reconciliation between the trust beneficiaries and the federal government , '' President Barack Obama said in a statement . The settlement is named after the late Elouise Cobell , a member of Montana 's Blackfeet Indian tribe . The deal follows a class-action lawsuit , filed in 1996 , which accused the U.S. Department of the Interior of failing to account for and provide revenue from a trust fund representing the value of Indian assets managed by the government . The missing funds at the center of the class-action case involve what are called Individual Indian Money accounts , which are supposed to represent the property of individual Indians . The accounts are held by the United States as trustee . The lawsuit had accused the government of failing to account for the money , failing to make proper payments , and converting tribal money for the government 's own use . In making the announcement Monday , Obama remembered Cobell for `` her honorable work . '' In 2009 , she said that many represented in the class-action lawsuit `` subsist in the direst poverty , '' and that the settlement is `` significantly less than the full amount to which the Indians are owed . '' `` It 's not fair , '' Cobell said then of the long process to reach a settlement , but `` in the future we may be treated more fairly . '' The agreement calls for $ 1.5 billion to be distributed among those who were part of the lawsuit . Another $ 1.9 billion will go into a `` land consolidation program '' that will allow people to sell fractions of land they own , which are slivers of once larger ancestral plots that have been divided and subdivided over generations . The group ownership of land by American Indians dates back more than 100 years , before American Indians were permitted to write wills . As a result , the government says many pieces of tribal lands are held by many owners -- possibly hundreds , if not thousands of people per parcel . Officials have said the project allows individual landowners to receive greater value for their share , while cutting administrative costs for the federal government , which manages the Indian land trust . Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he hopes the agreement helps the government and American Indians turn the page on the ordeal . `` With the settlement now final , we can put years of discord behind us and start a new chapter in our nation-to-nation relationship , '' he said . Who 's a Native American ? It 's complicated . Opinion : Just say no to Indian dress-up . Crazy Horse memorial not done after 64 years . Activist Russell Means dies .
Thousands of American Indians sued the government for financial mismanagement . Under the finalized settlement , $ 1.5 billion will be distributed among individuals . Another $ 1.9 billion will go toward buying some Indians ' slivers of land . Obama says the settlement clears `` the way for reconciliation ''