Navajos' Suit Over Royalties Is Thrown Out

February 8, 2000

Navajos' Suit Over Royalties Is Thrown Out
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASHINGTON, Feb. 7 -- A federal judge has scolded a former Interior
Secretary, Donald P. Hodel, for taking a coal company's side in a dispute with
the Navajo nation, but threw out the tribe's $600 million claim against the
government.

The judge, Lawrence M. Baskir of the United States Court of Claims,
has ruled that while Mr. Hodel's actions betrayed the public trust, federal
law
did not explicitly require him to act in the Navajos' best interests.

The ruling, released late Friday, was a blow to the United States'
largest Indian tribe, which gets much of the revenue to serve its population
from coal royalties.

The ruling does not end the court battles over the issue. The Navajo
nation has sued the Peabody Western Coal Company in Federal District Court
here
over the same issues cited in the claims court case.

Mr. Hodel, who was interior secretary in the Reagan
administration and
later headed the Christian Coalition, did not respond to a telephone message
seeking comment today.

The Navajos sued the federal government in claims court in 1993 over
royalties paid by Peabody for coal from two reservation strip mines. The tribe
argued that the Interior Department had violated its obligations to the
Navajos
by rejecting a proposed 20 percent royalty on that coal.

The Navajos and the company agreed in 1987 to a 12.5 percent royalty
on the coal. Previously, Peabody had paid the tribe less than 2 percent.

In 1985, Mr. Hodel met privately with Stan Hulett, a friend who had
been hired by Peabody. Mr. Hodel then ordered subordinates to block a decision
on the 20 percent royalty proposal, sending the tribe and Peabody into the
talks
that led to the 12.5 percent royalty.

The Navajos did not learn about the meeting until it was revealed in
the claims court case.

Such private meetings, "especially those that result in decisions
worth millions of dollars to the party with special access to high officials,
betray the public trust and transgress the high ideals of public service,"
Judge
Baskir wrote.

But because the federal Indian Minerals Leasing Act did not require
the Interior Department to act in the tribe's best interests, the Navajos'
lawsuit must be thrown out, Judge Baskir ruled.

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