A dispute over federal reimbursements to several Indian tribes dating back nearly twenty-five years is finally on the road to resolution. Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen recently described what she called ‘major progress’ in the dispute that has already resulted in settlements in excess of $100 million.

The roots of the dispute date back to 1975 when Congress voted to give Indian tribes more direct control over their local programs, including tribal health services. In 1990 several tribes claimed that the U.S. was not properly funding these programs as they had agreed to, and a coalition of tribes launched a lawsuit against the government seeking to be reimbursed these missing funds as well as interest paid on loans the tribes contend they were forced to take in order to fund these operations themselves.

In 2012, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the tribes, and mediation over a settlement began. Different specific settlements have already been agreed to, but the current mediation is for the entire issue and should put an end to this decades-long disagreement.

In the United States, Native American tribes have a unique legal status, as they maintain direct sovereignty over their territory by treaty with the U.S. government. Many of these treaties require the U.S. government to provide specific services or funds, and were often in exchange for a tribe’s territory. In the modern day many Indian tribes operate outside of much U.S. law – for example, in areas where gambling is illegal in the U.S. many tribes run successful casinos, because the anti-gambling laws are not in effect on tribal land.