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When the Founding Fathers created a constitutional guarantee of speedy trials, it's a good bet they didn't envision having major litigation plodding along 12 years after the filing of a lawsuit.

But since its beginning, this particular case has made a mockery of every principle of due process. A class-action suit was filed in 1996 by a group of American Indians who claim that since 1887 they and their ancestors were swindled out of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the U.S. Department of Interior.

The fact that these original Americans were short-changed is not in question. The issue is now how much it will take to settle and close the case.

A $58 billion claim has been filed, but government lawyers are arguing that's too much. The plaintiffs at one time offered to settle for $27.5 billion and the government countered with an offer of about $7 billion. Neither was accepted, and here we are in court again.

Opening arguments began Monday in a trial that U.S. District Judge James Robertson has called to determine how much the government should pay the plaintiffs -- about 500,000 Indians and their heirs. He ruled earlier this year that efforts by the Interior Department to account for the trust money were inadequate -- a common complaint since the court process began.

Robertson is actually the second judge assigned to the case. In 2006, the case took a bizarre turn when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth removed from the case, saying he had lost his objectivity.

If he did, it's little wonder.

In 1999, it was revealed that 162 boxes of records that contained potential evidence in the lawsuit had been shredded as part of a routine housecleaning at a Treasury Department facility. That they could be caught up in a "routine" housecleaning speaks volumes about the lack of any effort to protect them.

In February 1999, Lamberth found then-Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Assistant Interior Secretary Kevin Gover in contempt of court for failing to ensure that records were turned over to attorneys representing the Indians. Lamberth later ordered the government to pay $625,000 to cover the Indians' legal fees.

In 2002, then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton was found in contempt of court by Lamberth, who said she not only failed to comply with his order to account for the money in the Indian accounts, but committed fraud by misrepresenting the department's efforts to repair the trust and protect Indian money.

"In my 15 years on the bench, I have never seen a litigant make such a concerted effort to subvert the truth-seeking function of the judicial process," Lamberth wrote at the time. "The Department of Interior is truly an embarrassment to the federal government in general and the executive branch in particular."

If a dollar amount were awarded now, it is uncertain how the government would pay it. Congress may have to set the money aside. The plaintiffs argue that the money could be paid directly by the federal government and does not require action by Congress.

We repeat our previous editorial position on this national embarrassment: The parties must come together and close the books on this case of historical abuse of a trust. Then it goes without saying (but we're going to say it anyway) that from this time forward, the government must keep record-keeping safeguards in place to ensure such a thing never happens again.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.