50 Years Ago

A University of Chicago professor was claiming a major cover-up by federal officials who did not want the public to know what exactly was going on at the Rough Rock Demonstration School.

Dick Hardwick, managing editor of the Navajo Times for the past three years, got a step closer to his goal of going back to his old position as the liaison between the BIA and the tribe when the Advisory Committee voted to put Chet MacRorie back in as managing editor.

Just six weeks after taking office, Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald convinced members of the Navajo Tribal Council they needed to have a hearing to look into allegations that the tribe’s former chairman, Raymond Nakai, took action just before he left office to give him and his vice-chairman thousands of dollars they were not entitled to receive.

An anonymous letter arrived from a Navajo living in Southern California and Dick Hardwick, the Time’s editor decided to publish it although the paper had a policy of not printing unsigned letters.