Shock. Bewilderment. Dismay. Anger.
Emotions are running high among Utah Navajos in the wake of an audit by the legislative auditor general that revealed their own tribal leaders were among others who auditors say skimmed thousands of dollars in bribes, kickbacks and undeserved bonuses."I think about the people named in that report and they are good people. I know them personally. Or at least I thought I knew them," said Karolyn Romero, who for five years worked for the Utah Navajo Development Council, one of the organizations targeted by the audit.
It does not come as a great surprise to Utah Navajos that funds were being mismanaged or being misused. Most have suspected abuses for some time.
But few anticipated the extent of the corruption. And few expected that elected tribal elders were taking money that was intended to build roads and houses, pay for scholarships and health care, and to help erase decades of poverty that have made Utah Navajos among the poorest people in the United States.
"If we can't trust our own people, who can we trust?" said Jenae Herrera, a Navajo woman who grew up in poverty in Monument Valley. "Taking bribes is not the Navajo way, and those involved have to be held accountable."
The audit revealed corruption within Utah Navajo Industries and the Utah Navajo Development Council. UNI is a for-profit company designed to create jobs and funnel money back to UNDC, the non-profit entity that distributes welfare services to Utah Navajos.
The funds to operate both organizations are the result of congressional action that mandated 37.5 percent of oil royalty monies from oil fields around Aneth, San Juan County, be spent exclusively for the health, education and general welfare of Utah Navajos. The state was subsequently made trustee of the Utah Navajo Trust Fund.
That fund has been subject to repeated criticisms by Navajos who said it was not being spent properly. Responding to those concerns, the Utah Legislature in February created the Dineh Committee, a predominately Navajo board to oversee the trust fund, as well as UNDC and UNI.
Ironically, most of the 6,000 Navajos living on the Utah portion of the Navajo Reservation know nothing about the audit. Television and newspapers are rare. The Navajos are so isolated that few have electrical power, and fewer still have running water or other amenities.
"It doesn't surprise me a lot," said Janice Frank, who runs the Halchita Head Start program near Mexican Hat, San Juan County. "There's never any money to do anything for the people down here, but every year, the UNDC drives around in new vehicles. No one around here has any faith in UNDC or the tribe. They are just caught in the middle."
Many tribal leaders named in the audit didn't even know they were named. "I've heard nothing about it," said Francis Shorty, a tribal official with the Oljeto Chapter House in Monument Valley. "No one down here knows anything about it."
As damning as the audit is, Utah Navajos are unanimous in opposing Gov. Norm Bangerter's intention to give the trust fund monies directly to the Navajo nation in Window Rock, Ariz.
"It seems there was another figure in history that washed his hands of a situation he did not understand," said Cleal Bradford, a longtime Navajo advocate and a member of the Dineh Committee.
"The Navajo problem will not go away by (Bangerter's) washing his hands of the problem. These people have been forgotten and ignored too long. I'd like to see the governor recognize the history of the problem and accept the state's role, but not walk away from these people. That's been done too often before."
While Navajos have no great faith in Utah government, they have even less faith in tribal government. For generations, Utah Navajos say, they have been ignored and discriminated against by tribal leaders who take 62.5 percent of the oil royalties from the Utah oil fields but refuse to do anything substantial for the general welfare of Utah Navajos.
"To give the Utah share to Window Rock is foolishness," said Pat Macey, principal of Monument Valley High School. "It would never be spent in Utah. As bad as the situation is, most here still feel the money is ours. If it goes to Window Rock, it no longer is."
While the Utah portion of the reservation has rich oil reserves, it does not have the Navajo population to influence tribal government as to how that money would be spent. "No question the Utah chapters will be forgotten," said the Oljeto chapter vice president.
Bangerter has frozen the Utah Navajo Trust Fund pending a criminal investigation, but Utah Navajos are pleading with the governor to help resolve the problems, not abandon them.
The governor's deputy chief of staff, Enid Greene, said she believes Utah Navajos will be better off if their trust fund is administered through the Navajo Nation.
"This was a paternalistic set-up. Congress said to the Utah Navajos, `You can't take care of your own money so we're going to have the state take care of it for you,' " Greene said.
"This is a holdover from when Navajos and indeed all Native Americans were treated like children," she said, adding that Navajo tribal leaders are "much more culturally aware" of the needs of their people.
As long as the state remains the trustee of the fund, the governor's office promises that the health and education services that had been provided to Utah Navajos by UNDC will not be interrupted.
"We want to help them in any way we can. We still consider them citizens of the state," Greene said.