Eagle Bank in Polson is gearing up for three to five days of long lines and paperwork.On Wednesday, Sept. 12, each of the approximately 7,800 members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will receive $10,000 checks as part of a $1.023 billion settlement with the U.S. government. The Salish and Kootenai tribes are receiving $150 million of that, the second-highest payout to a tribal entity in the country.

The tribes are paying out $75 million to individual members on Wednesday; the remaining $75 million has been set aside by tribal leaders.

The payment is part of a response announced in April by the U.S. Department of Justice to a lawsuit filed by more than 40 tribes throughout the country. The tribes alleged that the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Treasury had mismanaged money and natural resources held in trust for the benefit of the tribes.

As the checks are being drawn on Eagle Bank, a tribally owned institution, the bank has been designated by Polson’s banking community as the site where tribal members who do not have bank accounts will be allowed to cash their checks.

An individual could leave the bank with much more than $10,000 however, since the parents of minors will receive half of their children’s payout, with the remaining $5,000 given out on the child’s 18th birthday.

It will be a time-consuming process for his staff of 12, according to Eagle Bank president Martin Olsson.

“When people cash a check in excess of $10,000, we have to file certain transaction reports,” Olsson said. “There are only so many hours in a day, and there is a regulatory burden.”

Olsson said the bank encourages all tribal members to have accounts and “not walk around with that cash,” he said.

However, accounts needed to be set up well ahead of time. In a settlement distribution notice available at the bank, Eagle Bank states it will not be able to open new deposit accounts or process applications for new loans from Sept. 12-14.

Check cashing will be done only inside the lobby, and people will need to provide extra information, such as Social Security number and occupation, for the required Currency Transaction Report.

Grizzly Security is lined up to provide extra security.

“We’ll be taking all the precautions we can,” Olsson said. “We have great concerns for people walking around with that large amount of cash.”

First Citizens Bank of Polson president Rick Skates said he expects extra traffic, but his bank will only be honoring checks for those with current accounts.

“We might be a little busier, but we don’t anticipate a huge influx,” he said. “A lot of people will just deposit their money and go on with business as usual.”

The Blackfeet Tribe received $19 million in the settlement and distributed $9 million in the form of $550 checks to each enrolled tribal member in June. The remaining $10 million was earmarked for investment in projects such as a 90-room hotel to be built on the reservation.

In the early 1970s, more than $5.5 million of a $7,410,000 settlement was paid out to the Salish and Kootenai tribes after it was found that the Flathead Allotment Act was a breach of the 1855 Treaty of Hell Gate.

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.