Members of the Mescalero Apache tribe are scheduled to receive checks of $1,500 each from a $32.8 million windfall received through federal settlement.
The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/TDydQa) that Tribal Council decided to issue the checks next week after getting pressured by community members to split up the entire $32.8 million settlement.
The remaining $10 million is expected to be set aside to pay tribal members dividends next year.
The Mescalero Apache's windfall of nearly $33 million came from an agreement, announced by the Interior Department in early April, to pay more than $1 billion to 41 tribes across the country to settle dozens of lawsuits over the mismanagement of funds and natural resources held in trust by the federal government for the benefit of tribes.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.