40 years ago — November 3, 1975
“Despite a five-year-old federal policy of Indian self-determination, the country’s largest Indian tribe, after more than a century of ‘trustee’ domination, remains today as subject as ever to the redtape and shortsightedness of a still burgeoning federal bureaucracy; the tribe is still the poorest of America’s poor, and still has the worst health and least education of any ethnic group in the nation.”
So opens the summary of a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that examined the Navajo Nation. “Expert testimony at the hearing supported the conclusion that there can be no significant economic development for the Navajo Nation until the political questions surrounding the tribe’s legal status are resolved.” The report concludes on the need for economic development to improve the quality of life for the Navajo people. “Finally, it must be recognized that health problems of the Navajo Reservation cannot be solved on a solely medical plane. Health care, nutrition, and sanitation are an integral part of economic development and must be improved simultaneously and in conjunction with improvement of the education and livelihood of the Navajo people.”
From the article by Aubrey N. Brown, “Poorest of America’s Poor.”
