Zah, Dodge call for scholarship fund
Former leaders say Peabody settlement should be set aside for students
By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, Sept. 1, 2011
(Times photos - Paul Natonabah)
TOP: Peterson Zah, former chairman and president.
BOTTOM: Donald Dodge, former director of the BIA's Navajo Area.
On Aug. 25, former BIA Navajo Area Director Donald Dodge and former President Peterson Zah told the Navajo Times they are campaigning for the Navajo Nation Council to assert its fiduciary responsibility over the windfall, noting that they may never see another opportunity to ensure that all young Navajos have access to higher education.
College costs have risen so much that a four-year degree is increasingly out of reach not only for children from low-income families, but for the middle class as well.
The Peabody settlement offers a chance to change that scenario for Navajo youth, said the two elder statesmen, who worked together to increase the royalties Peabody pays for Navajo coal.
Had their efforts not been sabotaged by a Peabody lobbyist working with top Reagan officials, the tribe would be getting nearly twice the royalty revenues it now gets from the company.
Dodge said the driving force behind the Navajo people to endure has been vision and long-range planning for future, which he and Zah interpret as "putting money aside" to prepare for the future and the education of Navajo youth.
Zah explained putting the money from the Peabody settlement into a scholarship trust fund would be investing in the young people. The current tribal scholarship program only has about half the money needed to fund all qualified applicants.
"This is only a once in a life time situation - unexpected revenues to the nation - and we need to make full use of it so it has a long-term impact on the younger generation of the tribe," he said.
The Veterans' Trust Fund, for instance, generates a million dollars a year to be spent on veterans' needs. A scholarship fund could do the same for the youth.
"We understand that some of the settlement money has already been spoken for and earmarked as part of the budgeting process," Zah said. "Our information is that $32 million is left over. But whatever that amount, the Council needs to put it in a trust fund and earmark it for scholarships for young people."
The Council has a lot of cash to work with should it choose to follow his advice, he sad.
Budget and Finance Committee Chairperson Lorenzo Bates (Nenahnezad/Newcomb/San Juan/T'iistoh Sikaad/Tsé Daa K'aan/Upper Fruitland), said Wednesday that the remaining cash from the settlement is in the Undesignated Unreserved Fund. According to the controller's office, the UUF balance was $39.3 million as of Aug. 26.
Besides the Peabody settlement money, the fund contains the annual $6.6 million lease payment for Four Corner Power Plant and $3 million from other sources, Bates said.
Another $13-$15 million is coming thanks to the tribe's approval of Peabody's lease "reopener" - in which the Council and the Shelly administration agreed to keep Peabody's royalty rate at 12.5 percent - but this payment not yet been received, he said.
Once Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signs off on the Peabody lease reopener, the money will drop into the tribal treasury, Bates added.
Zah and Dodge also would like to see the eligibility requirements for scholarships updated to make academic achievement the criteria and eliminate parental income. As it is, students of wage earners are penalized, in essence, because they receive less financial aid.
Students who earn high test scores deserve to be rewarded with a scholarship instead of being told that they can't have a scholarship because of how much their parent or parents earn, Zah said.
"This money that we're talking about is for a child that is born this morning, today," Dodge said. "This money we're talking about belongs to everyone with a census number. We have to think in those terms - every child born deserves an education."
Zah said a press conference is planned for Wednesday, Sept. 7, in Window Rock with representatives from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of New Mexico to approve resolutions supporting the Council's establishment of a scholarship trust fund.
On the same day, the Navajo Nation Museum is hosting a youth summit starting at 6 p.m. at the museum.
For more details about the press conference and scholarship trust fund, contact Peterson Zah at [email protected], or Donald Dodge by fax at 505-371-5502/5506.
comments powered by Disqus