Word: navajos
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...figure in the lawmakers' investigation is Peter MacDonald, 60, Chairman of the Navajo nation, whose reservation encompasses 17 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Raised to be a medicine man, MacDonald went on to become a successful aerospace engineer. In the 1960s he gave up a lucrative job to return to his people and help manage their finances. It turns out, investigators say, that he managed only too well...
Except for a four-year break, Peter MacDonald Sr. has ruled the 200,000-member Navajo nation as its strong-willed chairman ever since 1970. Presiding over a Southwest desert reservation larger in area than Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined, he has lived well on his $55,000 annual salary plus, according to witnesses, some expensive perks. Yet last week MacDonald lost his grip on his honored post. Tainted by allegations that he had accepted bribes from contractors seeking business with the tribe, he declared that he would take an extended leave, but then changed his mind and attempted...
MacDonald insisted he was innocent of charges raised during recent hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, and pleaded with the 88- member Navajo council to let him retain his salary and to give him legal help as he fights to clear his name. When the council refused to grant him these conditions, MacDonald vowed that he would not vacate his elective position after all. The council then voted to place MacDonald on indefinite leave, with pay. The Navajos had never before questioned the conduct of one of their chairmen, assuming each had only the best interests...
...Thief of Time, his detective, Joe Leaphorn, is coping with his wife's death and his impending retirement. But Hillerman's most striking virtue is his evocation of the Southwest: the barren, craggy land and the complex social interactions between whites and Native Americans and among mutually mistrustful Navajo, Hopi and Apache. Here the plot centers on traditionalists who want to preserve ancient burial places, anthropologists and archaeologists who seek to study them, and "pot hunters," who pillage the sites for quick profit. Hillerman offers plenty of surprise and danger. But what lingers is the scenes of digging by moonlight...
...reservation, the images of poverty blot out the virtues of cultural identity. "Look at the houses, look at the shacks," he says. "Most likely she'd grow up, get disgusted, leave and never come back." Last week Allyssa awaited her fate wearing a layer of sweet powder. A Navajo medicine man had covered her with it during a ceremony performed to expel evil spirits. Perhaps it will protect her from the injuries of a bitter custody fight...