RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — The Northern Arapaho Business Council will begin mediation with the federal government in a lawsuit that claims the Bureau of Indian Affairs violated the tribe's sovereignty by preventing the tribe from running its own court.

A federal district court judge on Monday ordered the tribal officials and the government to head into mediation.

The tribe also argues that the BIA infringed upon tribal self-determination rights by refusing to issue federal funds to the Arapaho for some programs that had previously been managed by the Joint Business Council.

The business council and the BIA had been close to reaching a settlement agreement last summer before the BIA announced it would shut down the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court after the Shoshones' contract expired.

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