The tribes filed suit in 2005, alleging the Interior Department failed to protect the tribes’ interests when it sold more than 1.3 million acres of southeastern Oklahoma timber land between 1908 and 1940.

Timber companies earned billions from the land, money attorneys for the Choctaws and Chickasaws argued belonged to the tribes.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Ada-based Chickasaw Nation will receive $46.5 million, and the Durant-based Choctaw Nation will receive $139.5 million. The settlement falls in line with other efforts by the federal government in recent years. In 2009, the Interior Department agreed to a $3.4 billion settlement to a case of alleged mismanagement of American Indian trust assets. The so-called Cobell case has been described as one of the largest class-action action cases in U.S. legal history. Tuesday’s agreement is the fifth largest tribal trust settlement to date.

Corrupt mismanagement of assets is part of the sordid history of decades of federal Indian policy.