FORT THOMPSON, S.D. (AP) – South Dakota’s Crow Creek Tribe over the weekend celebrated a settlement it reached last month with the Internal Revenue Service.

The tribe will regain about 11 square miles of land seized and sold by the IRS in December to help pay off a $3 million tribal debt.

Tribal Chairman Brandon Sazue says the IRS is forgiving about $540,000. The tribe is getting a loan from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux in Minnesota to buy back the land, which sold for about $2.6 million with the stipulation that the tribe had 180 days to buy it back.

The tribe maintained the sale was illegal and unnecessary because it planned to pay the tax bill. The tribe filed a lawsuit, and Sazue camped out on the land for a time in protest. The tribe will now drop the lawsuit.

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Information from: Pierre Capital Journal,
http://www.capjournal.com