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National Indian Youth Council
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Bradley H. Patterson Files (Ford Administration)
Bradley Patterson's Native American Programs Files
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Navajo Indians
Legislation
Indians of North America
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The original documents are located in Box 4, folder "National Indian Youth Council" of
the Bradley H. Patterson Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald Ford donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
BICENTENNIAL ADMINISTRATION
12/1/76
FOR: Brad Patterson
FROM: Hugh A. Hall
X FYI
FOR APPROPRIATE ACTION
MAY I HAVE YOUR COMMENTS?
\ GERALD R. FORD
Digitized from Box 4 of the Bradley H. Patterson Files
at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
*
FIRST CLASS
Permit No. 2957
Albuquerque, N.M.
BUSINESS REPLY MAIL
No Postage Stamp Required If Mailed In The United States
- Postage Will Be Paid By -
NATIONAL INDIAN YOUTH COUNCIL
201 HERMOSA, N. E.
ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. 87108
Mr. Hall FYI
National Indian Youth Council, Inc.
NATIONAL INDIAN YOUTH COUNCIL
201 Hermosa N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
1961
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
GERALD WILKINSON
Cherokee
Fall 1976
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
JOHN REDHOUSE
Navajo
Dear Friend,
STAFF ATTORNEYS
THOMAS E. LUEBBEN
MARCIA JANE WILSON
Government legislation is about to destroy 58, 000 acres of grazing land
and consume 479 billion gallons of precious and scarce water. This mindless
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
legislation proposes a reckless scheme to build the nation's first six
President
commercial coal gasification plants. These untested plants are to be built
LAWRENCE ROBERTS
Oneida
in a concentrated area of the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. Each plant
Vice-President
will cost $1 billion. Each plant will be obsolete in 25 years or less.
HERB BLATCHFORD
Navajo
The whole plan just doesn't make sense. First, it represents a Band-
Secretary-Treasurer
VIOLA HATCH
Aid approach to America's energy problem, but it's also a planned invasion
Arapaho
of Navajo natural resources. It will only give labor to a few of the Indians--
AL HENDERSON
a doubtful benefit, considering the inevitable losses to the whole life and
Navajo
MIKE RIOS
posterity of the tribe. Second, coal gasification would steal water from the
Papago
Indian Irrigation Project--a 110, 000 acre, tribally owned and operated farm
DELMAR HAMILTON
that the U.S. government promised the tribe 107 years ago. This project was
Kiowa
only 10% operational this past spring. Moreover, $206 million of your and our
JAMES NEZ
Navajo
tax dollars have already been committed to the Irrigation Project. Even this
BERNARD SECOND
may soon become a futile investment, because predicted water shortages will
Mescalero Apache
force severe cutbacks in food production, which is sorely needed by both the
GERALD WILKINSON
Indians and other Americans.
Cherokee
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Those six gasification plants would consume much of the water reserved
LOUIS R. BRUCE
for the Irrigation Project. They will emit enormous amounts of deadly toxic
Sioux-Mohawk
VINE DELORIA JR.
materials--lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, boron--which will settle over
Standing Rock Sioux
and ruin the land, contaminate food produce, endanger lives and, ultimately,
RAYMOND ICKES
force the evacuation of all people within a 13 mile radius.
ALVIN JOSEPHY
D'ARCY MCNICKLE
Western coal costs approximately $2.00 a ton to mine, the mining com-
Flathead
AL ORTIZ
panies will sell the gasification coal for $4.50 a ton. The Navajo Tribe will
San Juan Pueblo
be paid as low as fifteen cents a ton for this coal.
JIM PIERCE
El Paso Natural Gas Company and Western Gasification Company
(WESCO) will make the profit, but the consumer and taxpayer will pay for it
all. Every dollar spent on the development of strip mines and gasification
plants is another dollar that will not be spent on permanent and non-destructive
alternate energy sources.
If this program is permitted realization, it will set off a chain reaction
of land-grabbing precedents throughout the mountain and plains states. In
every case, Indian Reservations are planned to be the first targets of
CONTRIBUTIONS TO NIYC ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE
exploitation. The second targets are the public lands held in trust by the
government for the American people. Hundreds of thousands of agricultural
acres will be ripped up and rendered useless and ugly by strip mining and
pollutants. And if this dangerous combination of procedures must be tested,
why, we ask, should it begin on Indian farm and grazing lands when, it is well
known, two-thirds of the known coal reserves are available elsewhere in the
country?
The people most directly affected by gasification--the Navajo Indians--
know it will endanger their promised Irrigation Project and threaten their way
of life for generations to come. The Reservation will be forced to accept
unmanageable boom towns already on the drawing boards. In 25 years, when
the investment is paid off and the profits pocketed--the coal and the water gone--
the remains will be a wasteland. Nuclear bombing or chemical warfare couldn't
be more effective to render land useless.
The Navajo Irrigation Project will last as long as food is needed. It's
the prudent choice for the Indians now and later, the best choice for all
Americans now and later.
The National Indian Youth Council has been initiating action on most of the
major Indian survival issues since its inception, fifteen years ago. It has worked
quietly and effectively to eliminate the discrimination and abuses continually
suffered by Indian people. And now NIYC is actively fighting against what is to
be the largest corporate exploitation ever of Indian lands and resources. Your
utility bills will be used to finance this agenda of agricultural destruction and
the twentieth-century genocide of American Indian people.
We are up against giants, who have millions to spend for lobbying, public
relations and legal counsel. We have the commitment, but need your support to
enable us to do the research, testimony, publication and field work required at
each step of the long struggle before us. We must protect our lands and water:
it is all we have, all that we can leave to our children and theirs who come after
them.
So we ask you to do two things--First, read the enclosed letter, and if you
feel as we do, please sign it. Second, return the signed letter in the enclosed
envelope with the largest possible contribution. Twenty-five dollars will do a
lot, any contribution will be greatly appreciated.
Kindly write your check payable to NIYC today. Our needs are urgent!
Thank you, My friend,
Dalin Redhause Derald Wilkinson
John Redhouse
Gerald Wilkinson
Navajo
Cherokee
Associate Director
Executive Director
P.S. All contributions to NIYC are tax deductible.
The National Indian Youth Council Program
NATIONAL INDIAN YOUTH COUNCIL
Opposing Strip Mining and Coal Gasification
1961
THE ONLY MAN-MADE OBJECT GEMINI ASTRONAUTS COULD SEE FROM SPACE WAS POLLUTION
FROM THE FOUR CORNERS POWER PLANT NEAR FARMINGTON, NEW MEXICO.
EACH OF THE PROPOSED PLANTS WE ARE OPPOSING WILL BE SEVERAL TIMES LARGER.
Scientific Research
NIYC is actively researching the following areas that are relevant to the
gasification issue
The availability of water in the San Juan river
The effects of the toxic emissions from the proposed gasification
plants on people, livestock, land, vegetation and the atmosphere
The destruction of Navajo culture which will be caused by gasifica-
tion plants and resultant reservation Boom Towns
The results of this research will be used for expert testimony in the courts
and at public hearings. We desperately need more scientific and tech-
nical data to reinforce our original findings.
Litigation
At present NIYC has only two full-time attorneys and one legal secretary.
They deal not only with the gasification issue, but with all other legal issues
with which NIYC is engaged. To move forward will require at least three
full-time attorneys, three legal secretaries and three legal researchers
To institute legal actions to protect the rights of individual Navajos dis-
placed from their homes and landholdings
To challenge the adequacy of Environmental Impact Statements
To challenge the legality of Department of the Interior water allocations
To prepare the groundwork for these long legal battles requires thousands
of hours for
Legal research
Drafting complaints
Preparation of expert testimony
Writing briefs
Administrative appeals
Community Organizing
Navajo community organizing must meet unique requirements. Navajo is
not traditionally a written language. About one-third of the people on the
Reservation do not read or write English. To be effective, NIYC needs to
Print materials in both Navajo and English
Use radio extensively for communication (in both languages)
Develop and present special audio-visual programs
Contributions to NIYC are tax deductible
over please
NIYC has established field offices on the Navajo Reservation and we are
utilizing our teams of bilingual (Navajo-English) field workers to
Go into the affected areas to inform the people on this issue
Organize at the grass root level
Conduct a full scale petition drive, so the people will be heard
Spreading the Word
NIYC has and must continue to prepare and transmit information nationally
through the various media, radio, T.V., newspapers and pamphlets. We
need to reach millions of people throughout this nation, both Indian and
non-Indian.
Please Help
We are up against giants who have millions to spend for lobbying, public
relations and legal counsel. We have the commitment and the energy but
it also takes money. NIYC estimates it will cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars for the next several years. Please help us WIN this battle
$50 lets us print 5,000 pamphlets
$100 sends one of our organizers into the field for ten days
$500 supplies one day of expert testimony in court
$1,000 enables us to develop an audio-visual package for community
organizing
$5,000 supports one essential water-engineering study to challenge
corporate contentions on water availability
The NIYC is 15 years old. Since its founding by ten Indian young people in
Gallup, New Mexico, it has spread across the country to a membership of
15,000, with 55 chapters. NIYC is a source of identity and strength to Indian
people.
Recent studies indicate that there were between 9½ and 12 million Indian
people living above the current Mexican border before Columbus. In 1970,
however, the United States census takers could only count up to 800,000 sur-
vivors in this country.
The cost of removing duplication is prohibitive. If you receive more than one copy of this
appeal, you can help NIYC by passing the extra copies on to your friends or relatives who
may be Interested.
"Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last
forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long
as the sun shines and the waters flow, this June will be here
to give life to man and animals. We cannot sell the lives of
men and animals; therefore we cannot sell this land. It was
put here for us by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it be-
cause it does not belong to us. You can count your oney
and burn it within the nod of a buffalo's head, but only the
Great Spirit can count the grains of sand and the ades of
grass of these plains. As a present to you, we will give you
anything we have that you canstake with you; but the land,
never."
Blackfeet Chief, Recorded in a
19th Century Treaty Council
Dear National Indian Youth Council,
Please forward the enclosed letter which I have signed
to the President of the United States and the Secretary of
the Interior.
Thank you
To the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Interior.
I am writing to you today because I do not want the proposed
gasification plants to become another blot on my conscience as a
United States citizen. I do not want another part of the continent
ripped beyond recognition, like the desolation already visited upon
Appalachia, in order to satisfy the greed of the few who do profit.
American pride and independence cannot be achieved by expro-
priation of those natural resources we hold in trust, which we are
treaty-bound to protect, solemnly, from even ourselves. American
good faith and goals can be better pursued if the precious water of
the San Juan River were used to make fertile those sections of Indian
land readied for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project that was prom-
ised in their Treaty of 1868. This would give food for all people.
I want to go on record against the inevitable genocide of those
Indians whose rights, dignity and livelihoods will be once again
trampled and ignored. Their ancestors have farmed or raised stock
on these acres for hundreds of years. I am writing because I believe
the wisdom at the core of our Constitution and government is still
intact and not just the bureaucratic shell. And I expect you care, as
I do, for the moral and spiritual health of all American peoples.
Finally, I ask that you and your tax-paid staff share these con-
cerns with the proper parties at the Department of Interior, the Bu-
reau of Indian Affairs, the Federal Power Commission, the Civil
Rights Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Please write me what you are now doing to stop this proposed
genocide.
Signature
(Please Print)
Name
Address
City
State
Zip
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 10, 1976
Note to Commissioner Reifel
Having received two already, I am afraid
that the White House will be getting a
stack of mail in response to this NIYC letter.
I wrote one answer and sent it (copy attached)
but if there is going to be a sizeable influx,
I would appreciate a draft response prepared
by BIA which I can sign; I imagine there are
additional facts, especially on the leasing
arrangements, which should be included in
rebuttal. The letter, as you can see, is
fundamentally a fund-raising enterprise, and
I would imagine that it tends to overstate
if only for that reason
Bradley H. Patterson, Jr.
December 10, 1976
Dear Sister Gillgannon:
The President has asked me to thank you for
your letter of December 1 about coal
gasification plants planned for the Navajo
area.
We consider that the most responsible spokes-
men for the rights add concerns of Indian
Tribes are the elected Tribal Councils of
those same tribes. I have checked and have
been told that in the two cases where
gasification plants are being proposed for the
Navajo area the Tribal Council has indeed been
consulted and is very much in the middle of
the action process. The Tribal Council must
approve any leases and of course also reviews
the necessary Environmental Impact Statements.
You may wish to communicate your own concern
to the Navajo Tribal Council at Window Rock,
and I in turn will send a copy of your letter
to the Office of the Secretary of the Interior
so that he will know of your views.
Sincerely yours,
Bradley H. Patterson, Jr.
Sister Mary McAuley Gillgannon
1801 South 72 Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68124
BHP:lab
file to Loren Rivard, Dept. of Interior
FORD
GERALD
National Indian Youth Council, Inc.
NATIONAL INDIAN YOUTH COUNCIL
201 Hermosa N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
1961
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
GERALD WILKINSON
Cherokee
Fall 1976
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
JOHN REDHOUSE
Navajo
Dear Friend,
STAFF ATTORNEYS
THOMAS E. LUEBBEN
MARCIA JANE WILSON
Government legislation is about to destroy 58, 000 acres of grazing land
and consume 479 billion gallons of precious and scarce water. This mindless
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
legislation proposes a reckless scheme to build the nation's first six
President
commercial coal gasification plants. These untested plants are to be built
LAWRENCE ROBERTS
Oneida
in a concentrated area of the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. Each plant
Vice-President
will cost $1 billion. Each plant will be obsolete in 25 years or less.
HERB BLATCHFORD
Navajo
The whole plan just doesn't make sense. First, it represents a Band-
Secretary-Treasurer
VIOLA HATCH
Aid approach to America's energy problem, but it's also a planned invasion
Arapaho
of Navajo natural resources. It will only give labor to a few of the Indians--
AL HENDERSON
a doubtful benefit, considering the inevitable losses to the whole life and
Navajo
MIKE RIOS
posterity of the tribe. Second, coal gasification would steal water from the
Papago
Indian Irrigation Project--a 110,000 acre, tribally owned and operated farm
DELMAR HAMILTON
that the U.S. government promised the tribe 107 years ago. This project was
Kiowa
only I0% operational this past spring. Moreover, $206 million of your and our
JAMES NEZ
Navajo
tax dollars have already been committed to the Irrigation Project. Even this
BERNARD SECOND
may soon become a futile investment, because predicted water shortages will
Mescalero pache
force severe cutbacks in food production, which is sorely needed by both the
GERALD WILKINSON
Indians and other Americans.
Cherokee
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Those six gasification plants would consume much of the water reserved
LOUIS R. BRUCE
for the Irrigation Project. They will emit enormous amounts of deadly toxic
Sioux-Mohawk
VINE DELORIA JR.
materials--lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, boron--which will settle over
Standing Rock Sioux
and ruin the land, contaminate food produce, endanger lives and, ultimately,
RAYMOND ICKES
force the evacuation of all people within a 13 mile radius.
ALVIN JOSEPHY
D'ARCY MCNICKLE
Western coal costs approximately $2.00 a ton to mine, the mining com-
Flathead
panies will sell the gasification coal for $4.50 a ton. The Navajo Tribe will
AL ORTIZ
San Juan Pueblo
be paid as low as fifteen cents a ton for this coal.
JIM PIERCE
El Paso Natural Gas Company and Western Gasification Company
(WESCO) will make the profit, but the consumer and taxpayer will pay for it
all. Every dollar spent on the development of strip mines and gasification
plants is another dollar that will not be spent on permanent and non-destructive
alternate energy sources.
If this program is permitted realization, it will set off a chain reaction
of land-grabbing precedents throughout the mountain and plains states. In
every case, Indian Reservations are planned to be the first targets of
&
FORD
CERALD
CONTRIBUTIONS TO NIYC ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE
exploitation. The second targets are the public lands held in trust by the
government for the American people. Hundreds of thousands of agricultural
acres will be ripped up and rendered useless and ugly by strip mining and
pollutants. And if this dangerous combination of procedures must be tested,
why, we ask, should it begin on Indian farm and grazing lands when, it is well
known, two-thirds of the known coal reserves are available elsewhere in the
country?
The people most directly affected by gasification--t Navajo Indians--
know it will endanger their promised Irrigation Project and threaten their way
of life for generations to come. The Reservation will be forced to accept
unmanageable boom towns already on the drawing boards. In 25 years, when
the investment is paid off and the profits pocketed--the coal and the water gone--
the remains will be a wasteland. Nuclear bombing or chemical warfare couldn't
be more effective to render land useless.
The Navajo Irrigation Project will last as long as food is needed. It's
the prudent choice for the Indians now and later, the best choice for all
Americans now and later.
The National Indian Youth Council has been initiating action on most of the
major Indian survival issues since its inception, fifteen years ago. It has worked
quietly and effectively to eliminate the discrimination and abuses continually
suffered by Indian people. And now NIYC is actively fighting against what is to
be the largest corporate exploitation ever of Indian lands and resources. Your
utility bills will be used to finance this agenda of agricultural destruction and
the twentieth-century genocide of American Indian people.
We are up against giants, who have millions to spend for lobbying, public
relations and legal counsel. We have the commitment, but need your support to
enable us to do the research, testimony, publication and field work required at
each step of the long struggle before us. We must protect our lands and water:
it is all we have, all that we can leave to our children and theirs who come after
them.
So we ask you to do two things--First, read the enclosed letter, and if you
feel as we do, please sign it. Second, return the signed letter in the enclosed
envelope with the largest possible contribution. Twenty-five dollars will do a
lot, any contribution will be greatly appreciated.
Kindly write your check payable to NIYC today. Our needs are urgent!
Thank you, My friend,
Dalin Redhause Deracd Wilkinson
John Redhouse
Gerald Wilkinson
Navajo
Cherokee
Associate Director
Executive Director
P.S. All contributions to NIYC are tax deductible.