Probe clears Navajo Nation trip to Hawaii conference

Thursday, March 13, 2008  

The Navajo Nation did not misuse federal funds by sending tribal officials and employees to a conference in Hawaii, according to an Interior Department probe.

Inspector General Earl E. Devaney said the tribe's attendance at the National Indian Education Association meeting was "reasonable." Though hundreds of Navajos were at the conference, the tribe itself only sent 61 people, the probe found.

"Other than the host Native Hawaiians, the Navajo Nation had the largest number of representatives in attendance," Devaney wrote in a letter to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), who requested the review after seeing news reports about the trip.

"However, when we compared attendance to tribal enrollment numbers, other tribes had a larger percentage of attendees per capita," Devaney continued. "As a result, we concluded that the Navajo Nation's representation was, in fact, not among the top 10 tribes in attendees per capita."

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said the probe proved that the tribe committed no wrongdoing. He blamed The Farmington Daily Times of New Mexico for misleading the public about the tribe's presence at the conference.

"The Navajo Nation is the biggest Native American tribe in the western hemisphere," Shirley said. "It's not anything alarming when many Navajos show up at a conference like the NIEA conference in Hawaii."

The conference was held in Honolulu last October. Shortly after it ended, the Farmington paper reported that 362 Navajos attended at a cost of at least $500,000.

The paper's reporters and editorial staff said they were hindered when they tried to obtain more information about the trip. Some educators and tribal members criticized the tribe's handling of the affair.

But Domenici, who sits on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said he was satisfied with the results of the probe. He had been concerned about the potential misuse of federal funds and had initially told Devaney that the tribe's initial response was not "substantive."

"I appreciate the Inspector General's findings, and accept his decision that the Navajo Nation was within reasonable boundaries in sending their delegation to the conference," said Domenici, who is retiring from the Senate this year.

"I also appreciate President Shirley’s cooperation with this official review, which I hope answers some of the concerns raised about the Navajo's participation in the education conference," he added.

Of the 61 Navajo officials and employees who went to Hawaii, only 15 were funded by federal dollars, according to Devaney. The money for the 15 employees came from the tribe's Head Start program, which only recently emerged from a federal suspension.

The Department of Health and Human Services, however, interviewed the Head Start employees and "concluded that there were no problems" with their attendance, Devaney wrote in the letter. A review of some travel documents "found nothing of concern," he said.

There were more Navajos who attended than the 61 in the tribe's delegation, Devaney noted. But these were employees of Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and public schools, over which the tribe has no control.

At least one public school district used federal Johnson O'Malley funds to send employees to Hawaii, according to the Farmington paper, The JOM program has been repeatedly cut by the Bush administration.

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