The state of Utah and Southern Utah Navajos entered into a contract in 1956 which would provide services to the nation and its people in exchange for the right by the state to drill for oil, inclusive of digging up burial grounds.
The lawsuit states that the drinking water from once used local springs is unsafe to drink and that royalty money from 1955 to 1990 was not used the way it was contracted to be to benefit the Navajo people, to provide infrastructure, education, electiricty and other services.
For the past 15 years, Utah’s Navajos have been asking the state to account for how the money was spent – or pay some $150 million back into the trust fund.
In January, a federal judge gave the case a nudge forward by ruling the state must account for how the funds were spent in those years.
Assistant attorney general Phil Lott plans to appeal the judge’s recent decision.
“Until we get to the point where we can determine the number of years the state may be responsible for and where the state may have responsibility to pay, it’s impossible to . . . write a check and settle the case,” he said. “It’s not to be difficult or drag the case out, it’s that the state is responsible to protect the taxpayers’ money.”
Representing the tribe and its interests is Utah civil rights attorney Brian Barnard. Barnard states that because the state is creating a case of strong resistance, this lawsuit could take 2-3 years, according to the Salt Lake Tribune article.
According to the Aneth Chapter of the Navajo Nation, Jamie Harvey, In Aneth, 15 percent of the population has water, while the waiting lists for electricity and water funded by the chapter are years long. Many don’t understand the mammoth hurdles to extending power and water, Harvey said. Archeological studies must be done. There are materials and construction costs. And then there are maintenance costs.
Each project must go through the Navajo Nation itself, which in the past has told Utah’s Navajos to look to their trust fund for money.
The land that was once thriving with plant life and freshwater springs now has exposed, rotted in places pipeline, is sparse with plants and in place of springs there are murky pools of water with an oil cap jutting from the ground.
State attorneys want to appeal a recent ruling in favor of Utah Navajos. On April 27, a Utah federal judge will consider how much detail the state must provide in an accounting of funds spent in the past.
Sources for more information and from differing perspectives:
Navajo Nation Council
Independent Web Edition
Shundahai Network
The Political Mark Markboy
High Country News
Associated Press Article in Indian Country Today
State of Utah
Sate of Utah Government site
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 