Aneth backs Navajo Nation as trustee of oil fund

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Residents of this remote chapter, which produces nearly all the oil and gas lease revenue for the Utah Navajo Trust, on Jan. 28 voted to "vehemently" oppose Utah Sen. Robert Bennett's bill naming the new Utah Dineh Corp. as trustee of the $30 million fund.

The chapter resolution instead names the Navajo Nation as trustee, as the Navajo Nation itself has proposed. The chapter meeting attendees voted 68-24-5, a 3-to-1 majority, in favor of the tribe over UDC.

Meanwhile, however, the tribe's position may be changing. On the very day the chapter was meeting to discuss the resolution, Attorney General Louis Denetsosie sent a memo to President Joe Shirley Jr. urging him to reconsider his position and support Bennett's bill, S-1690.

In addition to naming the Navajo Nation as trustee, the Aneth resolution also proposes that 75 percent of the trust money stay in Aneth Chapter, to be allocated by a local board of trustees - a provision that addresses concerns of those who fear tribal control would result in the total loss of that money for the chapter.

At least part of that money, the resolution specifies, would be used to mitigate the impacts of the dozens of oil and gas wells pumping on chapter land, in some cases a stone's throw from homes.

Andrew Tso, who proposed the resolution, said he was proud of his chapter for upholding the resolution and likened it to the 1978 "Texaco Rebellion" when a handful of local residents took over an oil installation and presented a list of 30 demands.

"We got the Navajo Nation, the oil companies and even the secretary of the Interior to sign a contract with us," Tso said. "If we can do that, we can get Congress to listen to us."

But Mark Maryboy, the former Navajo Nation Council delegate and San Juan County commissioner who helped Bennett draft the bill giving control to the Utah Diné Corp., said it will take more than a chapter resolution to budge the U.S. government.

"You can pass a hundred resolutions or a thousand resolutions," Maryboy told the crowd of about 120 people overflowing the chapter house. "It won't change an act of Congress."

Maryboy was referring to the 1968 Act spearheaded by Bennett's father, then Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, which expanded the trust's beneficiaries to include all Navajos living in San Juan County, Utah, not just the Aneth Extension.

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Since then, trust money has been used to build clinics, schools, homes - and a few ill-advised businesses that quietly failed without leaving a paper trail for the accountants.

Starting in the 1970s, the state of Utah relied on a nonprofit corporation, the Utah Navajo Development Corp., and its for-profit contractor, Utah Navajo Industries, to spend the trust money. Some of it was spent wisely but a lot went missing.

That's why, said chapter member LaVerne Yazzie, she voted for the Aneth resolution.

"Some of the same people who were involved in spending that money are on the board of the new corporation," Yazzie said. "They want to turn this to their own benefit."

But Maryboy said trusting the Navajo Nation to manage the money is a worse idea.

"I used to be the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee," Maryboy said. "I know how it works. You will never see a penny of that money. 'Ádin (zero).

"It will go with the other 62 and a half percent," he said, referring to the portion of Aneth oil revenues already allocated to the tribe's coffers.

While the resolution states the Navajo Nation has never abused the trust fund, Maryboy countered that all one has to do is look at the nation's other accounts. He pointed to the recent Head Start fiasco and also said the Transportation Department, which gets millions in federal funds, is currently operating at a deficit.

While the resolution states Bennett's bill would create a conflict of interest in placing the beneficiaries of the trust as their own trustees, Maryboy argued that only Utah Navajos can be counted on to manage the money in the best interest of Utah Navajos.

Aneth Chapter is the only one of the seven Utah Navajo chapters to oppose Bennett's bill. But since the chapter has allied itself with the Navajo Nation government, and is the most heavily impacted chapter, Tso thinks the Aneth people can get Washington's ear.

And there is one other factor for Congress to consider.

"I don't think Congress will want to ignore the Navajo Nation's sovereignty by passing a bill affecting Navajos that never went through the Navajo Nation Council," he said. "That's not the way things are supposed to be done."

The state of Utah resigned as trustee effective Dec. 31, so Congress will have to appoint a new trustee soon to avoid tying up the fund.

Bennett, who as a Republican in the Senate minority, had urged passage of his bill by the end of last year, but as of this writing it was still being reviewed by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Committee Chair Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said at the time he would seek input from the Interior Department. The Navajo Nation Council has passed a resolution opposing the bill and is seeking a sponsor in Congress for alternative legislation, but if Shirley takes Denetsosie's advice and changes his position, the council could follow suit.

The stakes on who wins control of the Utah Navajo Trust could get much higher if the recent settlement of Pelt v. Utah - the case accusing the state of mismanaging the trust for decades - is accepted by Congress and a federal judge. The settlement would infuse the trust with another $33 million, minus legal and accounting fees, more than doubling its current value over the next three years.

In his memo, Denetsosie says the successful suit proves Utah Navajos are well equipped to grow the trust on their own, and he feels turning the trust over to Utah Navajos would be the best solution to the tension between the council, the majority of Utah Navajos, and Aneth Chapter.

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