Navajo’s hit jackpot without building a casino

My great-grandmother was half Navajo, and I want my part of these reparations!

Obama is settling lots of old scores, with Pigford being the payoff for blacks, and now this new payment.

The Navajo Nation will receive a record $554 million to settle longstanding claims by America’s largest Indian tribe that its funds and natural resources were mishandled for decades by the U.S. government.

This is 50 years in the making, and is the largest settlement of its type.

 

The Navajos sued, accusing the Fed of mismanaging Navajo trust accounts and resources on more than 14 million acres of land held in trust for the tribe and leased for such purposes as farming, energy development, logging and mining. The white presidents did it, and Obama is cleaning it up.

The Navajo spokesperson wouldn’t say how much the tribe sued for originally, but then who cares, right!

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly hailed the outcome as a “victory for tribal sovereignty” and promised to host town hall meetings to decide how to allocate settlement funds. Shelly said in a statement:

“After a long, hard-won process, I am pleased that we have finally come to a resolution on this matter to receive fair and just compensation for the Navajo Nation…”

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the agreement historic and said it showed the Justice Department’s commitment to “strengthening our partnership with tribal nations.”

To clarify, this solidifies the Navajo vote for the time being.

Keep in mind that other Indian tribes got their deals done a couple of years ago, a total of 41 tribes at a cost to the taxpayers of $1 billion, and another 40 tribes are vying for over $1.5 billion. That’s beats $28 in beads for Manhattan.

The Navajo Nation is the most populous American Indian tribe, with more than 300,000 members, and the largest by land mass, occupying 27,000 square miles (70,000 sq km) across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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