And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >From the Navajo/Hope Observer news Briefs http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/ Police report in Wilson death raises more questions than answers By Catherine Elston The Observer FLAGSTAFF, (Ariz.) A report prepared by the Coconino County Sheriff's Office raises more questions than answers around the shooting death of Alonzo Wilson. The 68-page investigative report is now in the hands of the Coconino County attorney. It will be up to County Attorney Terry Hance to determine whether or not to pursue charges in the Wilson death. Wilson, 38, died on May 28 from injuries sustained during a confrontation with two men in the Alpine Ranchos area, north of Flagstaff. Wilson was Dineh from Wide Ruins, Arizona. Two Euro-American men, Craig Arthur Darnsteadt, 48, and Gary Lynn Netzley, 41, were initially arrested after the shooting. Sheriff's deputies interrogated them while Wilson was in critical condition, fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit of the Flagstaff Medical Center. After telling several different stories to Coconino County deputies, emergency room personnel, and residents of the Alpine Ranchos community, the two were released from custody. Currently, Darnsteadt is in the Sunset Crater vicinity. Netzley, who finally admitted firing the fatal shot in a confession to police, apparently fled Arizona and is now in Colorado, according to Sheriff's deputies. During the arrest, deputies found crystal meth and marijuana. Both Darnsteadt and Netzley admitted to being drunk and high on speed at the time of the Wilson shooting. An outstanding warrant was found for Darnsteadt as well. According to the County Sheriff's report, on May 24 at 3:37 am, Deputy Paul Lee Wible arrived at the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Room to look into a shooting that occurred at Alpine Ranchos. He contacted Flagstaff Police Officer Brian Merrill, who was speaking with Darnsteadt and Netzley in the emergency room. According to the report, "Officer Merrill said that these two subjects had told him that their friend...Alonzo Wilson, had been shot." They told the officers that Alonzo had "shown up " and told them that he had "shot himself with a 20-gauge [shotgun]." At that time, Officer Merrill informed the duo that Darnsteadt had a valid warrant out of Flagstaff City Court for failure to pay a bond of $880. However, according to emergency room personnel Dr. Michael Richards, Nurse Susan Ward and Flagstaff Police Officer Sergeant Gilliland, who were with Wilson during treatment, the shooting victim said, "Somebody shot me." Upon further discussion with police, the Darnsteadt and Netzley story changed. "I shot him and it was self-defense," Netzley told police. Deputies arrested both Netzley and Darnsteadt. Navajo Nation charges Peabody with fraud By S.J. Wilson The Observer The Navajo Nation contends that the Peabody Holding Company (PHC), along with two utility companies, conspired to influence the Department of the Interior and to cheat the Nation out of $600 million in coal royalty payments since the 1960s. The Nation has filed a lawsuit seeking triple damages and $1 billion in punitive damages. In the complaint, the Navajo Nation claims that the defendants, PHC, Peabody Western Coal Company (PWCC), Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP), the Southern California Edison Company (Edison), along with Gregory J. Leisse, Edward L. Sullivan and Christopher Farrand, participated in activities which include mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and the transportation of property, namely coal, obtained by fraud. The principal claim upon which the lawsuit is built is that royalty payments made to the Navajo Nation by Peabody have been knowingly unfair. Historically, the lease in question, Lease no. 14-20-0603-8580, originally between the Sentry Royalty Company and the Navajo Nation, was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on August 28, 1964. Under provisions of this lease, the Navajo Nation would receive a royalty rate of less than 2% for its coal. Later the Sentry Royalty Company transferred its interest in the lease to the Peabody Coal Company, which then entered into contracts with the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) and Mohave Generating Plant (Mohave) to supply coal mined under the lease. In 1976 Congress established a 12 1/2% royalty rate for federally-owned coal. Since 1977, the policy of the Department of the Interior has been to set this royalty rate as the absolute minimum that could be approved for Indian coal. The idea here, according to the lawsuit, is that "the trust relationship mandated that the federal trustee could not approve an Indian coal lease providing for lower royalties than the trustee would receive for its own coal." In September 1979, the area director of the BIA notified Peabody that because the corporation breached the lease by failing to provide a fair royalty rate, consideration of cancellation of the lease by the Department of the Interior was warranted. Such cancellation was appropriate as terms of the lease violated federal regulations, including those limiting acreage and outcrop, according to the area director. Peabody's response was to turn to the Navajo Nation itself for help, asking that the Nation request that the area director suspend such action, promising to raise royalty rates substantially. The Navajo Nation made the request, and the area director complied with it, because, according to the lawsuit, Peabody agreed that renegotiated royalty rates would apply retroactively to January 1, 1980. "Peabody soon thereafter repudiated this agreement," states the lawsuit. The BIA again attempted to pressure Peabody to raise royalty rates in 1981, when it challenged Peabody's failure to obtain right-of-way over Navajo Nation lands for the access road to the mine. In response, Peabody Western's then-president Kenneth R. Moore claimed that an agreement had been worked out with SRP and Edison that would raise the royalty rate paid to the Navajo Nation to no less than 12 1/2 %, and that the final proposal would soon be offered to the Nation. Once again the BIA stepped back. Resulting negotiations between Peabody and the Nation continued fruitlessly through late 1983. By this time Peabody had already received approximately $141 million for Navajo-owned coal. The Navajo Nation had received only $2.7 million in royalties for that same coal. In March, 1984, the Navajo Nation again sought adjustment of the royalty rate. Two months later, the DOI emphasized the need for the BIA to act promptly, due to an estimate that the Navajo Nation was losing $50,000 for each day that an adjustment was delayed. Based on a recommendation from the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the area director of the BIA notified Peabody on June 18, 1984, that the royalty rate of the lease would be adjusted to 20% effective August 28, 1984-twenty years after federal approval of the lease. Peabody, according to the lawsuit, immediately sought to undermine this decision, seeking reduction of royalty rates to 12 1/2%, despite the fact that the Navajo-owned coal was and is "extraordinarily valuable, high-BTU, low sulfur 'compliance' coal." Peabody also acted in full knowledge that the federal government possessed a trust duty to the Navajo Nation. Further, the defendants "recognized that the Navajo Nation relied heavily on the advice, counsel and protection of its trustee the United States." Nonetheless, charges the Navajo Nation, the defendants took action to compromise and corrupt this fiduciary relationship. <<end excerpt New paper to serve northwest Navajo KAYENTA, (Ariz.) A new monthly publication serving the Kayenta and Monument Valley region of the Navajo Reservation has made its debut. Kayenta TODAY, a free paper aims to serve the northern Navajo communities of the reservation: Kayenta, Shonto, Chilchinbeto and Dennehotso chapters announced Peter Deswood, Jr., town manager for the Kayenta Township Commission. "We want to keep local people informed about township activities and focus on important local and regional issues," Deswood said. "The Kayenta area is growing. Right now there are some 20,000 to 25,000 people in this region of the reservation who are not getting the information that they need," he said. "We hope this publication will help us bridge that gap." <<end excerpt INDEPENDENCE DAY OPINION: Independence Day The Navajo Nation is suing Peabody Coal for fraud, seeking damages in excess of $1 billion (story, page 1). Last March, the Supreme Court upheld the hunting, fishing and gathering rights of the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota. In May, after a 70-year hiatus, the Makah Tribe of Washington State resumed its traditional whale hunt. Three hundred thousand Native Americans are suing the Department of the Interior, alleging mismanagement of trust funds. And Senator Slade Gorton (R-Washington) seems to have modified his positions on Indian funding in response to pressure from tribes. These are a few of the recent events that indicate the growing political influence of Native America. Individuals and tribes alike are asserting sovereignty in ways that are politically effective in the dominant culture. This is very good news indeed. Good news, but not all the news. Sovereignty is not a given and the control of resources, both natural and human, will remain an issue for many decades to come. The ability of Native Americans to assert their rights depends not only on a growing political sophistication but also on education. Tribes need not only astute lawyers to fight in the courts, but professionals in all fields-from sciences to social work-if these battles are to be won and if creative strategies are going to be developed for tribes to assume their rightful control of their own resources, whether these be coal or water, whales or mountains, elders or children. It is education that will support these efforts and that will give a new meaning to the celebration of Independence Day as Native America enters the twenty-first century. - Tanya Lee Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
