The Bureau of Land Management has distributed about $5 million in royalty payments on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

Members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation were owed the money for oil development on their lands. But the BLM said it was taking a long time to verify the proper owners of the money, resulting in a backlog that was finally cleared this month.

“It is unfair that it took this long to collect the information needed to distribute royalty payments to the rightful mineral owners. Some tribal members waited months, even a year or more, for these long over-due payments while oil was being produced on their land," Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) said in a press release.

BLM has asked for 12 new employees to ensure it can process payments in a more timely fashion.

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Feds forced to clear backlog of $5M in oil royalty payments to local tribes (AP 10/21)