Subj:	[NativeNews] Robbing the Indians
Date:	8/18/01 5:42:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From:    ppureau@yahoo.com (Paul Pureau)
Reply-to:    NatNews-owner@yahoogroups.com
To:    NatNews@yahoogroups.com (natnews), ndn-aim@yahoogroups.com (ndn-aim)



Subject: dn: Robbing the Indians AZ Daily Star,
8/17/01 Robbing the Indians Daniel P. Hodel, a cabinet
member under former
President Ronald Reagan,
outrageously arranged for Arizona's Indians to be
cheated out of vast
amounts of money while he was Secretary of the
Interior.
A U.S. Court of Appeals decision, reported in
Tuesday's Star, said that
in 1985 Hodel ordered his subordinate to conceal
a decision by the Board
of Indian Appeals that would have provided the
Navajos with enormous
royalties for coal extracted from Black Mesa by
Peabody Coal Co. Hodel's
duplicitous action was unconscionable, especially
coming from an
individual whose free market blather frequently
invoked morality as the
framework for public and private policy. Black Mesa is
a sandstone formation in Northern
Arizona, inhabited by
Hopi and Navajo Indians. The northeastern portion
of the mesa is leased
to Peabody, which mines a thick layer of
low-sulphur coal.
In exchange for the rights to this ore body,
Peabody's predecessor,
Sentry Royalty Co., agreed to pay the Navajos a
royalty of no more than
37.5 cents per ton. That rate was to be
readjusted to a "reasonable"
level 20 years later. "As that anniversary approached,
due to increases
in the market price of
coal the rate of 37.5 cents per ton was
equivalent to about 2 percent of
gross proceeds. It is not disputed that this was
well below
then-prevailing royalty rates," the appeals court
decision said. Peabody and the Navajos entered
negotiations over
the new royalty rate,
but couldn't reach an agreement. The next step in
the process called for
the Department of Interior - specifically the
Bureau of Indian Affairs -
to resolve the dispute. The BIA, using an
analysis provided by the U.S.
Bureau of Mines, set the royalty rate at 20
percent. Peabody appealed
that decision to the Board of Indian Appeals. What
happened next was a classic case of theft
and exploitation. The
Board of Indian Appeals affirmed the 20 percent
royalty but Hodel
evidently decided that was too much of a burden
for Peabody, so he
withdrew the decision. Instead of following normal
procedures, Hodel
sent a memo to John Fritz,
the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Indian Affairs, stating, "I suggest
that you inform the
involved parties that a decision on this appeal
is not imminent and urge
them to continue with efforts to resolve this
matter in a mutually
agreeable fashion." Fritz did as his boss
suggested. The Appeals Court finding also notes that
during
this period,
representatives of Peabody Coal had "numerous
contacts" with Hodel and
other officials of his department. "The Navajo
were not told that a
decision on Peabody's appeal had been made in
their favor," the court
wrote. As a result, the Indians eventually agreed
to a royalty of 12.5
percent. This sort of despicable behavior should not
be
ignored. As the court
pointed out, Hodel's job called for him to look
out for the Indians.
Instead, he "violated the most fundamental
fiduciary duties of care,
loyalty and candor." The new Appeals Court ruling in
favor of the
Navajos simply overturns a
lower court decision. We hope the decision leads
to a more just remedy.
The Navajos should be compensated for the
millions of dollars in
royalties lost because of Hodel's scurrilous
behavior. Reprinted under the Fair Use
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international
copyright law. Full copyright retained by the
original publication. ... many prayers ... dn: daily
news code for auto mailbox placement William "Sky"
Crosby, director E C C O
Environmental and Cultural Conservation
Organization
Tucson, Az
tel 520 749 0585

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