The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council announced that its 2009 per capita payment will be $200, its largest in decades.

The payments will be handed out in Browning on Dec. 14 and mailed the same day to out-of-area members. Every enrolled member of the tribe — about 16,500 people — will receive a $200 check. That’s a total of more than $3 million. Per capita payments have in most years been $50, and never topped $75. Council chairman Willie Sharp Jr. said the large payment is the result of better money management.