"It was shoebox accounting," said Brian Barnard, a Salt Lake civil rights attorney who represents tribal members.

A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the state must account for millions of dollars spent out of the fund from 1955 to 1990. The state appealed the decision, adding at least another year to the litigation.

Other than the fund being administered by three state-appointed Anglos — including state treasurer Ed Alter — Navajos have no complaints about how the money is managed.

The Navajo Utah Commission has proposed turning the trust fund over to Navajos, said Clarence Rockwell, executive director. Short of that, it has requested that a Navajo immediately be placed on the three-member board.

The trust fund took in $2.7 million last year, bringing the total account to about $21 million, but none of it goes to economic development. The fund doesn't do anything in the way of job creation anymore.

"That's one of the programs we stay away from because of our history," said Tony Dayish, trust fund executive director.

Due to the prior mismanagement and, as Alter says, "cockamamie proposals that didn't make a lot of sense," state law now severely restricts dollars for economic development.

A large chunk of money each year is used to build medical and dental clinics in an area where tooth decay is rampant, as are disease like diabetes. "It's one of the things that benefit everyone," Alter said.

About $500,000 a year today goes to college scholarships for Navajo students, Dayish said. Another $500,000 annually is used for new and rehab housing, water and electricity on a house-by-house basis.

The scholarships are a two-edge sword: Educated students rarely return to the reservation to work or start businesses.

"There's not many job opportunities here in San Juan County. There's not anything for them to come back to. We don't get too many coming back," Dayish said.

A share of the annual royalties is socked away for the day when the oil no longer flows.

Denver-based Resolute Natural Resources partnered with Navajo Oil and Gas Co. to buy out the ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil operations in Aneth, knowing it is in its "11th hour," said Resolute operations manager Dale Cantwell.

"We're trying to wring a little more oil out of the field," he said, estimating production of 10,000 barrels a day.

And when the well atop the highest mesa grinds to a halt in perhaps 10 or 20 years, Navajos in southeastern Utah will have to find other ways to sustain themselves.

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E-mail: romboy@desnews.com