From Deseret News archives:
Battle over oil
Landowners are fighting for payment
Maybe someday water will be carried across this land, but for now only oil makes its way over barren ground in a web of pipes and tubes. In the early morning quiet, you can hear them humming and vibrating.
Water. Oil.
It seems many of Johnson's 81 years have been spent watching the flow of these two fluid resources on the 160 acres given to her family generations ago. Watching each has caused her grief. Water is the reason her ancestors settled where they did, and it is gone now. Oil is the cause of a yearslong battle over payment for the resource pumped and transported across her land.
"It has always been a fight," Johnson, who speaks only Navajo, says through a translator. "No one is representing us."
"All those years, they were never honest with her," said her daughter, Susie Philemon. She is furious at the oil companies.
Johnson was one of 13 children born in a hogan that still stands just down the rise. One day in late summer she takes a visitor there. Through a translator the soft-spoken woman says there used to be three fresh springs within a short walk of the hogan.
"We would take a bucket and get water," she said. Her hands dance like the gurgling spring she is describing. "It bubbled up right here. It was warm in the winter, and there was good vegetation for the animals."
She tended corn, watermelon and squash near the spring.
But the oil wells went in about a quarter-mile away, and the pipelines to carry the resource crossed through the area, heating up and buzzing and clicking.
Comments
- UVU campus briefs 2:09 a.m.
- SLCC campus briefs 2:08 a.m.
- Montana 66, Weber State 65 2:07 a.m.
- Utah Jazz 115, Detroit Pistons 104 1:59 a.m.
- Utah Jazz game at a glance 1:58 a.m.
- Aggie women eliminated 12:48 a.m.
- Utes aim to atone for bumpy season 12:35 a.m.
- Williams leads Jazz over Pistons 12:35 a.m.
- BYU aims to win MWC Tournament 12:34 a.m.
- Taliban talks likely on Karzai agenda 12:21 a.m.
- Student argues with officers over gun
- Tyler Haws ready for strong finish
- Utah crashes leave 4 dead
- Jazz run the Bulls
- So, coach, how do you feel?
- Cougs hope to impress at Pro Day
- Y. 1st on U.S. News most popular
- Green building efforts at City Creek
- De Niro to play Lombardi in movie
- USU's Morrill responds to reprimand
- Hobson edges Fredette for POY
205 - Are Utah charter schools a success?
185 - Health care a human wish, not right
138 - Services for Marie Osmond's son
131 - Student argues with officers over gun
122 - LDS, S.L. work to transform land
115 - Bryce Valley captures first title
108 - Obama appeals for health support
95 - Y., UNM III: a sure showdown bet
93 - Utes fall at CSU; next up: UNLV
90
On Jan. 13 an asteroid whizzed past, buzzing us at only a third of the...
I'm a good mom. I don't say this to brag, nor do I say it sarcastically...
We're building communities by bringing news & events from your city to you
Great effort ladies. You have the grit and determination of a great team and...
Re: Re CL : It would be nice if you would identify yourself. I beg to...
Haws has done a fine job this year. I don't think that there is anything...
That blew me away. I was rooting for you guys all the way...A Total letdown....
When you change/slow your game up to preserve your lead, you allow the other...
Never did fully understand why Harline didn't make a roster somewhere. The...
1-Lone Peak 2-Jordan 3-Pleasant Grove 4-Alta 5-American Fork 6-Brighton...
We can't be "tied" with Denver. There is no such thing. If we end up with...
How can you say "thanks for selling us out" when you have absolutely no clue...
This bill is the epitome of hypocrisy so I guess we shouldn't be surprised...




You can be the first to comment on this story.