#1-Landmark $554 million settlement signed between feds, Navajo Nation

Landmark $554 million settlement signed between feds, Navajo Nation

 

I was wandering around on Facebook and came across a news report that my niece had shared on her page. It is a story about a historic lawsuit in Window Rock, Arizona which awarded the Navajo Nation $554 million dollars last Friday. I had to click on the link to DeseretNews.com and read the entire story because I couldn’t imagine why President Obama would be awarding that much money to anyone. I thought this story would definitely be fallacious. I was wrong. 

The government awarded the Navajo Nation "the largest payout ever to an Indian tribe." The charges are against the Federal Government and claim that they "failed to manage, invest and account for tribal funds and resources in relation to the exploitation of oil, gas and other minerals."

The Department of the Interior and the Navajo Nation have been fighting over this lawsuit for years. They are hopeful that this settlement will bring peace, but now the debate is over how the money will be spent. The Navajo Nation is hopeful that the money will be used to make much needed improvements to the reservation. Improvements they say will give hope to the residents. Some of the improvements may include electricity, phone, water, and power lines. Public meetings will be held to get public input and then a strategy will be put together to make it work.

There are also similar smaller settlements which have been paid out since October of 2010. The Obama Administration has settled 80 cases totaling more than $2 billion and they are trying to settle other cases without going to trial. Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans "received final cash payments last week in one of the largest settlements involving individual trust funds in U.S. history. "

I found the trolling comments on the Facebook post to be very insightful. There were many who made generalizing and stereotypical comments about how the money would actually be used. They inferred that the money would be wasted and not really used to help make the improvements they claim they need. Others made claims that only a few of the leaders and certain family members would even see any of the money. Some made comments that it is their right to do whatever they want with the money and the "white men" need to stay out of their business. A quick response to that comment was, "very true, but what do we do when the money runs out because they did what they wanted? Then it's the white man problem again."

There are so many things which could be said about this article and the trolling comments left on the Facebook page.  While I believe that the article was cogent in the way it reported the story and the facts, I think the payout and some of the reasons behind it may be fallacious. I also think the comments were almost comical and were perfect example of the things we discussed Tuesday night in class. Many of the comments demonstrated our prejudice or precritical thinking. Probably most of those who posted had an unprovisional way of looking at the topic. I would definitely need more background and information in order to make an openminded or provisional decision on lawsuits like this. What do you think?