ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A federal court has ruled the U.S. government owes the Jicarilla Apache Nation more than $21 million because the Bureau of Indian Affairs mismanaged funds it held in trust for the northern New Mexico tribe.

Judge Francis M. Allegra of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said in the opinion issued Monday that the agency “grossly mismanaged” the funds and breached its fiduciary obligations.

The amount awarded represents less than a quarter of the $103.8 million the tribe felt it was owed.

The agency held the funds in trust from 1974 to 1992 and was primarily responsible for managing the money.

The tribe sued in 2002, claiming the BIA failed to invest the money prudently to obtain an appropriate return; made unauthorized disbursements; took too long to deposit funds into interest-bearing trust accounts; and charged interest for covering overdrafts that were caused by the federal government.

The BIA is the Interior Department agency that manages the 55.7 million acres of land held in trust for American Indians. The federal government has long been dealing with claims that assets held in trust were mismanaged.

In 1996, Native American representatives filed a massive class-action suit against the federal government, claiming it had incorrectly accounted for income from trust assets.

That case was settled for $3.4 billion in 2009, with $1.4 billion going to the plaintiffs and $2 billion allocated to repurchase land and return it to tribal ownership.

The Jicarilla Apache Nation has more than 3,000 members and spans about 900,000 acres. The majority of the Jicarillas live in Dulce, near the Colorado border.