Navajo Nation to receive $554 million settlement from U.S. government

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The U.S. government will pay the Navajo Nation $554 million to settle claims that it mismanaged funds and natural resources on the Navajo reservation. This is the largest settlement ever for a single American Indian tribe.

The Navajo reservation is spread across several states, with portions located in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The 14 million acres of trust lands are leased for grazing, oil, farming, gas, and mineral extraction, The Washington Post reports, as well as for housing, easements, rights-of-way, and businesses.

This settlement resolves a dispute that has some claims going back more than five decades. Under the agreement, the Navajo Nation will terminate its current lawsuit and will not file any further litigation against the government for its historic management and accounting of Navajo funds and resources held in trust; however, it does not affect any existing or potential claims regarding health issues caused by uranium mining or water rights, the Post said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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