Some Utah Navajos say their tribe has been cheated
out of at least $52 million in oil and gas money by the state of
Utah during the past 30 years (HCN, 12/16/91). Although the state
says the tribe’s claims are too old to be valid, a district court
judge has rejected that argument and given the tribe time to
investigate the issue.
The state set up a trust
fund in 1933 to hold about one-third of the royalties from oil and
gas drilling on Navajo land, with the state managing the money for
the tribe’s “health, education and general welfare.” But an audit
ordered by the Utah Legislature in 1991 found that nearly all of
the $60 million trust had been spent on poorly managed tribal
enterprise programs like the Utah Navajo Development Council and
its for-profit subsidiary, Utah Navajo Industries, a group
providing financial assistance to tribal
businesses.
After the audit, five Navajos sued
the state for damages, charging the fund’s administrators had a
responsibility to spend the money wisely. “(The state) might have
had good intentions, but there’s no defense called “empty head,
pure heart,” “””says attorney Brian Barnard, who represents the
five plaintiffs. “As a trustee, you’re handling someone else’s
money, and you can’t delegate that responsibility.”
Assistant Attorney General Val Livingston says
the tribe knew what the trust was doing. The money “wasn’t just
lost on the way to the supermarket,” he says. “Over 80 percent of
it was spent by the Navajos themselves.” But in March, U.S.
District Judge David Sam refused to dismiss the case and gave the
tribe four months to gather evidence about the fund’s management
over the past 30 years.
Tribal members want to
see the money replaced, says Barnard, and he hopes that the nearly
six years of litigation will eventually be worthwhile for the
tribe. “The state has thrown up every roadblock they could,” he
says, “but our tenacity is paying off. They’re realizing this case
isn’t going to go away.”
* Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Five Navajos say Utah cheated their tribe.
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