By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The three largest U.S. drug distributors will pay more than $75 million to resolve claims they fueled an opioid epidemic in the Cherokee Nation’s territory in Oklahoma, marking the first settlement with a tribal government in the litigation over the U.S. addiction crisis.

The deal announced by the Cherokee Nation on Tuesday came after McKesson Corp (NYSE:), AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:) Corp and Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE:) along with the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) agreed to pay up to $26 billion to resolve similar claims by states and local governments.

The settlement didn’t cover any potential lawsuits by the nation’s Native American tribes. The cases are still being resolved by the companies.

The Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin said that the settlement will cover six and a half years. It would allow him to “enable us increase our investments into mental health treatment facilities, as well as other programs, to assist our people in recovery.”

In 2017 the Cherokee Nation sued the Oklahoma drug distributors and pharmacie operators, accusing them of failing stop opioid addiction.

Over 390,000 people are part of the Cherokee Nation.

Three distributors were charged with flooding the Cherokee Nation’s territory in millions of opioid pills. The oversupply caused overdose deaths and abuse that adversely affected Native Americans.

There have been more than 3,300 such lawsuits filed by cities, states and tribes. The defendants denied wrongdoing. They claimed the responsibility for the explosive sales of painkillers lies with regulators and doctors.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc, CVS Health (NYSE 🙂 Inc, and Walmart (NYSE 🙂 Inc were also sued. They are still being prosecuted and will be tried in the middle of 2022. They denied wrongdoing.