The Obama administration has reached a settlement in a long-running class action lawsuit over federal mismanagement of Native American land trusts dating back to the nineteen century. On Tuesday, the Interior Department announced it would pay $3.4 billion to settle claims by more than 300,000 Native Americans for unpaid royalties on seized lands. The settlement is a fraction of the estimated $176 billion Native Americans have maintained they’re owed. On Tuesday, the lead plaintiff in the suit, Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, said it was time to reach a compromise.

Elouise Cobell: “Although we have reached a settlement totaling more than $3.4 billion, there is little doubt this is significantly less than the full accounting to which individual Indians are entitled. Yes, we could prolong our struggle and fight longer, and perhaps one day we would know, down to the penny, how much individual Indians are owed. Perhaps we could even litigate long enough to increase the settlement amount. But we are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller each year, each month and every day, as our elders die and are forever prevented from receiving their just compensation.”