WASHINGTON - An appellate court decision last week that slapped down an order for a detailed tally of money owed to American Indians will not stop the Indian effort to recover billions in lost money, the lead plaintiff in the case says.

"The government is not off the hook," said Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian who accuses the government of cheating Indians out of billions of dollars in royalties owed them for resources taken from their lands since 1887.

The Interior Department still has to account for the money - just not in the way the District Court ordered, Cobell said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"We'll fight on until we get that," Cobell said. "Or, if they admit the truth, that they can't do an accounting, then we'll take it from there."

On Tuesday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth's order to do a detailed historical accounting was unreasonable and an abuse of discretion. Such an accounting could cost up to $13 billion and take two centuries, the court said.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton declared victory, saying the appeals court validated the government's less-detailed plan to account for the estimated $13 billion it has handled in trust for the Indians for more than 100 years.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the case now returns to District Court over the question of how - or whether - to do the accounting.

But exasperation with the case is growing in Congress. Some lawmakers said this week's decision underscores the need to end the court fight, which has dragged on for nearly a decade.

"I think it's incumbent on Congress to come up with a fair settlement that is not only fair to the individual Indians involved but the taxpayer," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif.

Pombo and Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the committee's senior Democrat, filed a bill Tuesday to settle the case. Their bill is a companion to one in the Senate sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Neither bill specifies a settlement amount.

"It's in everyone's best interest to get this settled as quickly as we can," Pombo said.

Although Cobell and her attorneys say they plan to keep fighting, the plaintiffs offered to settle earlier this year for $27.5 billion. McCain has said that amount is too high.

The Indian plaintiffs say the government has mismanaged oil, gas, grazing and other royalties it has held in trust for individual Indians under an 1887 law. In 1994, Congress agreed and ordered the Interior Department to account for the money.

But the plaintiffs now argue the government has so badly mishandled the trust and the records that an accurate accounting would be impossible.

A spokesman for the Justice Department said he wouldn't speculate what is going to happen next in the case. Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray also declined comment.

Cobell blamed the government for dragging out the case.

"Shame on Gale Norton," Cobell said. "She's a trustee to over 500,000 who need this accounting desperately. If the government can't do the accounting, she should tell the truth. That's what this is all about."