BlogWonks

The lamestream media told you:

American Indian plaintiffs, who had sued the U.S. government for unpaid back royalties on natural resources extracted from their lands, were awarded $455 million by a federal judge, a fraction of the $47 billion they sought, according to Mary Jalonick, writing for the AP.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Reporters and editors, who are known to have little command of math, recognized that the award to American Indians was a fraction. The fraction is less than one one-thousandth of the unpaid fees the tribes had sought. That’s a small fraction. The original demand had been for $100 billion.

American taxpayers needn’t worry however, because the court didn’t decide who should get the money, meaning it will not be paid for a long time, if ever. The back payments are as much as 121 years overdue. Taxpayers did however get the benefit of the oil, gas, timber grazing and other resources which they got by promising to pay, without actually paying.

The half million Indians in the class action suit would get $910 each, for the unpaid royalties since 1887, if the award is divided equally. Because this is a number that requires use of a calculator, it was not reported.