It turns out one of the problems the new chairman will have to look into is the tribe’s mineral leases with outside companies.
The Navajo Times never reported any real news about the tribe’s mineral reserves during Raymond Nakai’s eight years in office with the exception of reports put out by the BIA about new contracts bringing in millions of dollars to the tribe.
But there were no new contracts signed during the last three years and neither the tribe nor the BIA ever made public information about how the tribe was faring in selling rights to its natural resources.
But now that has changed probably because one of the promises that Peter MacDonald made during his campaign was to make the government more transparent. He provided the Times with an opportunity to bring readers up to date on this issue.
In an article written by P.K. Hurlbut, a tribal minerals supervisor, he brought up oil sales. While this was bringing in the most money of all the mineral resources, he had some disturbing news:
For the rest of this article: https://navajotimes.com/50years/50-years-ago-tribe-explores-new-directions-in-mining-leases/