A federal judge plans to start hearings Monday in hopes of resolving a 12-year-old suit claiming the government cheated American Indians.

The American Indians claim the cheating on land royalties goes back to 1887 and they want 58 billion dollars. The group says that's the government's savings from money that should be in individual Indian accounts from the oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties.

A government offer of less than seven billion dollars was rejected last year.

The judge will try to decide how much he thinks the government should pay, but most of those involved in the case expect an appeal.

The class-action suit covers about 500,000 Indians and their heirs.