Navajo to get $554 million in settlement with US

FILE In this Jan.e 30, 2014 file photo, Jaydon Yazzie, VanteJren Atene, and McKalette Clark ride home from Monument Valley High School on their horses in Monument Valley, Utah. The school, which has grades seven-12, must prepare its 216 students, who grow up amid the Navajo Nation's iconic red mesas, for success in the wider world: jobs, college, trade school, Anglo culture. The Navajo Nation is poised receive $554 million from the federal government over mismanagement of tribal resources in the largest settlement of its kind for a single Native American tribe. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Rick Egan) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; MAGS OUT FILE In this Jan.e 30, 2014 file photo, Jaydon Yazzie, VanteJren Atene, and McKalette Clark ride home from Monument Valley High School on their horses in Monument Valley, Utah. The school, which has grades seven-12, must prepare its 216 students, who grow up amid the Navajo Nation's iconic red mesas, for success in the wider world: jobs, college, trade school, Anglo culture. The Navajo Nation is poised receive $554 million from the federal government over mismanagement of tribal resources in the largest settlement of its kind for a single Native American tribe. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Rick Egan) DESERET NEWS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; MAGS OUT

By Associated Press September 25, 2014 3 min read

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – The Navajo Nation is poised to receive $554 million from the federal government over mismanagement of tribal resources in the largest settlement of its kind for an American Indian tribe.

Much of the land on the 27,000-square-mile reservation has been leased for things like farming, grazing, oil and gas development, mining and housing.

The leases once were largely overseen by the U.S. government, which mismanaged the revenue and failed to properly invest and account for it, according to the tribe.

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is scheduled visit Window Rock on Friday to formally recognize the settlement.

“The historic agreement strengthens the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Navajo Nation, helps restore a positive working relationship with the Nation’s leaders and empowers Navajo communities,” Jewell said in a statement Thursday.