Navajos poor — their land rich

MONTEZUMA CREEK, San Juan County — Against the soft blue sky, oil wells steadily pull the black riches from Mary Johnson's land. She can hear the oil running through the brown pipes that crisscross through hills and valleys like twisted licorice.

It wasn't so long ago that Johnson, 78, a member of the vast Navajo Nation, believed all this production meant dollars for her. The federal government managed her royalties for her, sending statements and checks — sometimes for $3,000, sometimes $200.

But the checks never seemed to come regularly, even though the wells kept pumping, the oil kept flowing. Johnson still lived in a tiny, pale yellow house with no running water, a propane stove and just one bedroom.

It didn't seem right.

Across the country, but mostly in the West, many other Indians claim they, too, haven't been paid properly for oil and gas production from their land. A class-action lawsuit representing a half-million Indian landowners accuses the Interior Department of mismanagement dating back to 1887.

The government admits it could have done a better job and is now revamping the system. But many Indians are skeptical the problem will ever be resolved.

As oil pumped from her land, Johnson drew her arms tight around her waist in the brisk afternoon breeze and asked, "Why do I have to suffer so much?"

Decades of disarray

When the government took the land from Indians and forced them onto reservations in the 1800s, the reservations were divided into sections, or allotments. Those allotments can be leased by oil, gas and timber companies, who pay the federal government for that privilege. The government, in turn, holds the money in trust accounts for the Indians.

But the trust accounts have been in disarray for decades. Records have not been kept up. Required appraisals on property leases have not always been done.

AP graphic Poverty amid a wealth of resources Requires Adobe Acrobat.

In 1996, Blackfeet banker Elouise Cobell, determined to find out why the system was so inefficient, filed the class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department. The plaintiffs claim they are owed as much as $137 billion.

But unless a historical accounting is done, there is no way of knowing if every Indian — or any Indian — received what was due.

In the 1950s, oil was discovered here in remote Montezuma Creek and nearby Aneth, two communities that are part of the Navajo Nation — one of the most mineral-rich tribes in the country. The reservation covers 18 million acres through Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.