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In 2010, $680 million was awarded to American Indian farmers who had been discriminated against for decades by the federal government. But in August of 2013, after the three-year deadline for claimants to apply had passed, only $300 million had been distributed, the Associated Press reported.

The AP said that lawyers had expected 10,000 people to apply, but only 4,000 had done so. The American Indian plaintiffs’ lead attorney Joseph Sellers cites the loss of documents, mistrust of government, and the death of potential claimants as potential reasons for the lack of the expected recipients. As of five years ago, the Agriculture Department said that the country had about 80,000 American Indian farm operators.

Although the remainder of the settlement was supposed to be given to existing American Indian farmer organizations, none are equipped to handle that kind of money, the AP says. So the plaintiffs’ attorneys have applied to the court to allow them to set up an Indian-led foundation which would assist farm owners and operators. If approved, Sellers told the AP that the foundation would be “the largest philanthropic organization devoted to native Americans in the history of this country.”