A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court’s decision and ruled that the Interior Department must fully account for more than a century’s worth of land royalties owed to Native Americans. The ruling comes thirteen years after 500,000 Native plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in federal court to collect the $47 billion in royalties they say the federal government owes them for its use of their lands since 1887. An earlier decision by a district court judge stated that accounting for the land royalties would be impossible and awarded the plaintiffs $455 million.