I've been a fan of the Tony Hillerman books starring Joe Leaphorn and others. He is a Pueblo cop on the Navajo lands and invariably runs up against the feds or the state cops in solving his mysteries. Of course, this is the US government involved, so Joe Leaphorn often finds corruption around. Would that he were on this case, the largest class action suit in US history. And it sure would be nice if the Bush Administration, among others, weren't complicit in stealing Billions of dollars from the Navajo and Souix. . . again.
The story is being followed closely in www.smartmoney.com in an article entitled "Fraud in New Mexico." I guess you can't hit harder than that, huh? Nor harder than the introductory paragraph:
An investigation by SmartMoney.com has found that officials in the Bush administration had detailed knowledge of fraudulent practices that allowed energy companies to cheat impoverished Native American Indians out of vast sums over dozens of years. These officials were aware that employees of the federal government were helping oil and gas companies underpay to operate on Indian lands in the state of New Mexico — and did nothing to stop it. This is the first in a two-part series.
So, the Bushies are aware of fraud going on, but because it's being perpetrated by their friends and campaign contributors, they look the other way rather than perform their sworn duty. People should be sacked for this, or even sent to jail. But the story is truly buried. I can find no other references to it other than in smartmoney.
If you are really interested, go to the Cobell v. Norton website. There are a whole bunch of the documents from the case there, including the scadnalous actions by the Secretary of the Interior, Ms. Norton.
