Bennett wants Navajos to manage own royalties

For 76 years, the Navajo tribe technically has been receiving oil and gas royalties — but the state of Utah has been in charge of the Navajo Trust Fund that manages the money.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, says that should stop. He introduced a bill Tuesday to let the tribe manage the funds itself.

"This money belongs to all the Navajo residents of San Juan County, and they — not the government — know best how to address their needs," he said.

"This bill allows the Navajo people to take control over their transportation, health care, and education without having to rely on the state to pass through funds that already belong to them," he said.

Herman Farley, the tribe's Red Mesa Chapter president, said this is a "historic opportunity for San Juan Navajos to collectively manage our resources and invest for our children and future generations of our people. It would be foolish to let this opportunity to slip away."

Since 1933, Utah has managed royalties for the tribe from oil and gas coming from a portion of the Navajo reservation known as the Aneth Extension.

That 52,000 acres north of the San Juan River was added to the reservation to compensate it for land that had been taken to establish Lake Powell. That extension was the first part of the reservation to produce oil and gas.

Legislation in 1933 mandated that 37.5 percent of the royalties from oil and gas production there be used for the education of Navajo children, building and maintaining reservation roads and other benefits to the tribe.

Bennett's bill would relieve the state from overseeing such funds and instead appoint the Utah Dineh Corp., a corporation formed by the tribe, as the new trustee for the Utah Navajo Trust fund.

The bill would require the corporation to submit annual reports to the secretary of the Interior reporting how the royalties were used.

e-mail: lee@desnews.com