MANDAREE, N.D. - American Indian rancher Keith Mandan believes he could easily double the size of his black Angus herd if he had the money - or if he were white.

Mandan, 53, and his wife, Claryca, 52, have struggled since the late 1970s to keep their ranch in North Dakota's Badlands, despite a pattern of discrimination by the federal government, they say.

The Mandans are among the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit, filed in 1999, alleging the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against Indians in the granting of loans beginning in 1981. Over that time, Claryca Mandan says, the federal government "wiped out whole generation of Indian farmers and ranchers because of racism."

USDA officials refused to respond to specific questions from The Associated Press about the allegations. In a statement, J. Michael Kelly, an attorney for the USDA, said the case is still ongoing and the agency is working to provide documentation requested by the Indians' attorneys.

Earlier this month, attorneys for American Indian farmers filed a motion to bring the case to trial next year - eight years after it was first filed.

A hearing is set for Thursday on the motion.

"Our day in court is what we've been waiting for," Claryca Mandan said.

Keith Mandan said if he could get the financing, he'd buy about 300 more cows and build a calving barn and a machine shed to keep the cattle and farm implements protected from the harsh North Dakota winters. Instead, Mandan uses a heavily wooded gulch for calving. His machinery is exposed to the elements, making the already old implements look even more ancient.

From atop his cutting horse, Bubba, Mandan looks out over his 300-acre spread on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation to his non-Indian neighbors to the south. He says he's not jealous of his non-Indian neighbors. Sometimes, he feels proud knowing that he survived under conditions that might have driven them off the land.

"My white counterparts across the road don't have the problems we have," Mandan said. "We just don't receive the subsidies that non-Indian farmers and ranchers do."

The lawsuit was granted class-action status in 2001 but the case has floundered in federal court since. It mirrors a separate civil rights case brought by black farmers in 1997, and settled two years later.

The federal government has paid out about $930 million to some 14,000 black farmers so far, said Anurag Varma, a Washington, D.C., attorney who helped represent the farmers in the case. Varma also is involved in the American Indians' lawsuit.

"The underlying bad acts by the defendants are virtually identical," Varma said. Hispanic and women farmers also have filed lawsuits alleging discrimination. Those cases also have yet to be settled.

Joe Sellers, the Indians' lead attorney in Washington D.C., said the USDA is stalling.

Attorneys estimate the number of Indian farmer and rancher plaintiffs could be in the tens of thousands. A settlement figure has not been calculated, but would likely be in the "hundreds of millions," Sellers said.

The Indians allege the USDA denied or delayed loans, or did not approved enough to keep farms afloat financially.

Keith Mandan believes it was by design.

"They just want to close you out and take the land and put it in their inventory," he said.

"They have employed every tactical maneuver I can conceive of to postpone the day of judgment," Sellers said. "They are dragging their feet or not devoting the resources necessary to handle this case."

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan "has recently indicated a willingness to extend discovery deadlines for as long as may be necessary," Kelly, the USDA attorney, said in his statement.

"We do take exception that we are dragging our feet," said Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which is representing USDA in the case.

"An appeals court remanded the case back to the judge, and that of course slowed up the process," Miller said.

Indians and their attorneys say a quick settlement was reached with black farmers because of their political clout in Congress.

Sellers and Varma said Congress and the USDA itself have found discrimination against minority farmers, including Indians.

Meanwhile, Sellers said, the agency continues to foreclose on Indian property, which hasn't happened while other minority lawsuits were pending.

"They have accelerated debt collection," Sellers said. "It seems to me it's an effort to drive the final nail in the coffin."

Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall, who also is a rancher, calls it economic racism.

"It's illegal, racist and discriminatory," Hall said. "Every day this continues, we lose another Native farmer or rancher. Families are literally hanging on by a thread."

George Keepseagle, a Fort Yates rancher and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he's been hanging on since 1960.

Keepseagle, 66, said the Agriculture Department has discriminated against him and other Indian farmers for as long as he can remember.

The USDA's Farm Service Agency lends to farmers and ranchers who can't get credit from commercial lenders. The agency, known as the lender of last resort, is the largest agriculture lender in North Dakota.

"White men can walk in to the FSA and get a $100,000 loan for a new tractor and I can't even get $20,000 for a used one," Keepseagle said. "That's how difficult it is.

"They have my hands pretty well tied behind my back," Keepseagle said of the FSA. "Without their approval, I can't do anything. It's a beg-to-borrow situation. They have full control over me."

The case, Keepseagle vs. Johanns, formerly Veneman, refers to Keepseagle and Mike Johanns, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Ann Veneman was Agriculture Secretary when the lawsuit was filed.

Keepseagle said he joined the lawsuit after meeting with attorneys following the black farmers lawsuit.

"I didn't campaign for that job but I had no other option," Keepseagle said.

In the seven years since the lawsuit was filed, Keepseagle said, he knows of many Indian farmers and ranchers have been forced to quit.

Keepseagle, who ranches on the land where he was born, said he's had to sell about 380 acres of his property to pay off debt owed to the federal government. He still owns about 480 acres and is determined to keep it.

He said he has gotten no sympathy from non-Indian ranchers in the region.

"They want me to go out of business so they can grab my land," Keepseagle said. "Nobody has ever told me they were sorry for me, they could care less - they'd like to have my range that I've worked to build up."

Money is not the issue as much as equality, Keepseagle said.

"This is just a small part of the injustices against us," Keepseagle said. A fair settlement, he said, "would make it just a little right, I guess."