The Ponca Tribe filed a federal lawsuit against 26 drug manufacturers and distributors Tuesday, accusing them of contributing to the tribe's opioid epidemic by fraudulently misrepresenting the risks and benefits of the addictive painkillers.

The lawsuit is similar to a number of other lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors that have been sweeping the nation.

Opioid manufacturers and distributors "flooded the market with false declarations designed to convince doctors, patients and government entities that prescription opioids posed a low risk of addiction," The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma alleged in its Oklahoma City federal court lawsuit. "Those claims were false."

The result has been an opioid epidemic, with 1 in 10 Native Americans over the age of 12 using prescription pain medicine for nonprescriptive purposes, the tribe said, citing 2012 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.