The Federal government will spend $3.4 billion to settle a 13-year-old lawsuit over mismanagement of American Indian land and resource trusts. According to the settlement [PDF, 648k], The U.S. Interior Department will distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Native American tribe members, and will spend $2 billion more to buy back tribal land lost by previous generations. We speak with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. We also speak with Ivan Posey, chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. 

Today, President Obama follows up on a campaign promise: He is sitting down with 564 Native American and Alaskan Native leaders as part of the White House Tribal Nations Conference. It is the first time tribal leaders have been invited to the White House since Bill Clinton did it in the '90s. Can something be gained from bringing so many leaders together in one place, or is it all just for show? For answers, we turn to Ivan Posey, chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in Wyoming; Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, director of Indian Health Service for the Obama administration; and Victor Merina, senior correspondent for Reznet, a Native American news web site.