The US government has agreed to pay the Navajo Nation more than half a billion dollars to settle claims that it mismanaged reservation funds for more than 60 years. The $554m out-of-court settlement is the largest ever awarded to a Native American tribe following legal action against the government. The lawsuit alleged that from 1946 to 2012, the government – in its capacity as trustee for the tribe’s natural resources – negotiated poor deals with the firms extracting coal, uranium, oil and gas from the Navajo reservation, a vast area spanning 27,000 square miles across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Navajo representatives also claimed that the US failed to ensure that the tribe was properly paid, or to properly invest the proceeds. (Source: The Week, Oct 2014)

I visited Navajo territory a few years ago with my wife. We came away deeply depressed and ashamed at the way these poor people have been treated. Many seem sadly ill-adapted to the modern world. To add insult to the injury of a reservation comprising mostly arid desert they were short-changed by the Federal government from 1946 to 2012. Unfortunately, money may not help unless they discover a reason for living. They need a plan to use the $554 million for the development of education and skills, or it will be wasted producing tourist trinkets and even more casinos, a market that must be close to saturated by now.

If you live in America you see little or no news about native Americans. Attention is given to every sort of war and crisis around the world, with much posturing about human rights. America led the charge against colonialism years ago and still lectures the world about freedom and democracy. But politicians seem to have a long-term bout of amnesia when it comes to the Navajo and other defeated native Ametican tribes. Epicurus would say that such charity begins at home. But at least the US is compensating them. That says something for the judicial system.