Diné kill Glen Canyon recreation pact

This photo taken on Feb. 29, 2008 of Lake Powell and provided by Aramark shows Wahweap Marina. File photo

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — With limited discussion the Navajo Nation Council approved a resolution last week sponsored by Speaker Lawrence Morgan to terminate a memorandum of agreement related to use and development of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Morgan introduced the resolution earlier this year, stating that the agreement between the National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management and the Navajo Nation signed in 1970 has limited development on the Navajo side at Lake Powell.

The agreement called for the park service to transfer to the Nation an annual franchise fee from concessions at Rainbow Bridge, however, Morgan said the park service failed to live up to that provision of the agreement, which gives the Nation the right to terminate the agreement.

“Rainbow Bridge — we don’t realize how many people come there annually. Imagine how much revenue we’ve lost since 1970,” Morgan told Council. Navajo representatives met several times with members of the park service at Glen Canyon in an attempt to amend the agreement but that didn’t go very far, according to Morgan.

Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur said not only his committee but previous Resources Committees had expressed the same concerns. “So having raised these questions in prior years, we strongly believe Council will be going in the right direction to proceed with what is rightfully in the best interest of the Navajo Nation.”

As part of the agreement, Arthur said, there was a land exchange that took place. “Those of you that are in the Utah Strip of the Nation, you were impacted by this transaction. While the federal government did give additional lands to the Navajo Nation — we know it as the Aneth Annex in the McCracken Mesa area — you would note in this agreement that there are no subsurface rights.

“The federal government has maintained those rights, so the Navajo Nation is only entitled to surface rights. In the subsurface rights that we do maintain within the Lake Powell area, either all of it or a major portion of it is under the lake, and what was available to us has been annexed by the town of Page.”

The agreement also speaks to an elevation which shuts all doors for Navajo interests, Arthur said, because “there is no way the water would ever reach this level.” Navajo was subjected to an agreement that was nowhere favorable to the Nation, he said.

Economic Development Committee Chairman Lawrence Platero said the issue was not something Council needed to rush into and made a request for documents.

“I think this Council deserves to see the memorandums that are related to this document in regard to the mid-channel agreement and how it affects the Antelope Point holdings and development down in Antelope Point right now because it could seriously affect those and terminate those leases as we speak if we approve this termination agreement,” he said.

Speaker Pro Tem LoRenzo Bates asked for the documents to be provided but said that while that was being considered they would vote on the main motion because he already had six people speaking in favor.

Black Mesa Delegate Amos Johnson raised a question of privilege for legislative counsel regarding what the consequences would be if Council approved the legislation, however, Bates had called for the vote. The resolution passed 61-10.

LeChee Delegate Tommy Tsosie, who has a resolution pending on the mid-channel agreement, said afterward that he felt the matter should have been thoroughly discussed by Council. “I’m not opposed to it; I’m in favor of it. I didn’t vote. I just really felt there should be more discussion on the floor before a vote was called for. It was just a rush-rush thing.”

Tsosie said his proposed legislation also relates to the issue being discussed. “It’s gone through all the committees. I’ve got the approval of all of them, but for some unknown reason it just stopped. I need to get back to legislative counsel to see why it’s just sitting there, because it’s been probably about a year ago when I completed my meeting with all of the Council.”