Opinion: 'Biased' review of Navajo trip to Hawaii

"It would be a serious mistake to think that this newspaper will give up so easy.

Hardly.

The results of a biased federal inquiry into the travel by hundreds of Navajo delegates to a conference in Hawaii, many of them using public money, found no wrongdoing and Sen. Pete Domenici accepted the findings Wednesday. However, we found plenty of wrongdoing, if anyone is interested in ethics and responsibility.

To the Navajo president, who has pleaded complete ignorance over the call for him to answer questions posed by this newspaper when all of the newspaper's readers have heard him publicly called out...

To the Navajo president's spokesman, George Houdini, who has issued untrue statements regarding attempts to contact him and who obviously enjoys the spotlight on himself while he tries to make any challenge to his boss disappear...

To the apathetic federal politicians that now include Sen. Pete Domenici, who perhaps has created the most harm in this saga by ignoring the cries for accountability and making it clear that Washington is about politics. All of this while empowering the bureaucrats who think they must answer to no one...

And especially to the elected officials who traveled to Hawaii at the expense of the children you so shamefully represented by spending so much money when a fraction of your delegation could have gone and obtained what was needed...

To all of you... we're not finished.

We're not finished with this fight, and we will not be finished until the cry for reform and accountability is heard from Shiprock to Window Rock, from Angel Peak to Hawaii.

Put that on your surf board and ride it."

Get the Story:
Troy Turner: There is no room for wimps (The Farmington Daily Times 3/14)

Relevant Documents:
Earl Devaney Letter (March 7, 2008)

Related Stories:
Farmington paper not satisfied with Navajo probe (3/13)
Interior probe clears Navajo-Hawaii trip (3/13)
Opinion: Hawaii a special place for Navajos (1/21)
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Probe into Navajo trip to NIEA in Hawaii expands (1/14)
Former education employees in New Mexico sue BIA (1/14)
Navajo Nation leaders travel to Las Vegas and DC (12/10)
Editorial: Investigate Navajo trip to NIEA in Hawaii (11/30)
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DOI launches inquiry into Navajo trip to NIEA (11/27)
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Sen. Domenici seeks probe of Navajo NIEA trip (11/19)
Navajos question trip to NIEA conference in Hawaii (11/12)
Editorial: Navajo Nation wasted money on NIEA (11/8)
Column: Navajo Nation children deserve better (11/7)
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Editorial: Outrage over trip to NIEA convention (11/1)
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