The following is an Oct. 7, 2019, Letter to the Editor. that Duane “Chili” Yazzie, Dine’ citizen, Shiprock Chapter president and former Navajo Nation Council delegate, regarding the effort by Navajo Transitional Energy Company for the Council to approve an increase in its financial backing of NTEC’s bonds from more than $520 million to an additional $407 million, which would be about $927 million in bonding that the Nation would back with all its assets, including the Nation’s $1.5 billion Permanent Trust Fund.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The bottom line with the NTEC Wyoming/Montana coal mine deal is the Navajo Nation is being suckered into committing $1.2Billion of our Permanent Trust Fund to secure bonds to guarantee clean-up costs for these dying mines.
Every Navajo parent and grandparent should be alarmed this is happening.
The financial security of our grandchildren and coming generations is being gambled away and it sounds like the Navajo Nation Council may let it happen.
I hear some saying, let’s “not micromanage, let NTEC do what it wants”.
Hey Mr. Councilman, over a billion dollars of our grandchildren’s money is on the line, you better micromanage on this one!
If this fiasco deal is allowed to happen, I understand the credit rating of the Navajo Nation is going to drop from an A rating to a D rating. That is going to affect every big dollar project on the Rez, all of the big dream vision projects for our communities lost into the coal ash pit.
It is clear that our coming generations are headed into difficult dangerous times, they will need every advantage to make a comfortable survival.
We all need to look into our hearts and imagine what our future grandchild is going to say about us, will they say “see what our Cheis, Nalis and Masaanis did for us” when they are thankful we defended their future.
Or will they say “look what our grandparents did to us” when they see that a billion dollars of their security was squandered away, and the Navajo Nation was party to the crime of burning up their environment with fossil fuels.
The corporate fat cats who are behind this scheme are saying, “we can get away with this, these Navajos are dumb”.
Where are the brilliant Navajo minds at NTEC?
These bilagaanas are openly cheating us in the spirit of every bilagaana who has ever taken advantage of us.
Warrior UP, peeps!
Chili Yazzie
Shiprock, N.M.
