In the guise of resolving a non-existing range war between Indian factions in Arizona, John McCain spearheaded legislation that evicted 10,000 Native Americans from their land and granted mining rights on their land to Peabody Western Mining.
The peaceful Dineh-Navajo Indians who had farmed and raised livestock on their land in the Black Mesa region of NE Arizona for centuries are now living on a superfund nuclear landfill site in Church's Hill, Nevada.
A previously non-existent "Tribal Council" of five Hopis, whose leader was working for Peabody Mining, provided the primary evidence given in this dispute. The Dineh were not given an opportunity to testify. Peabody, in association with Bechtel Corporation, strip mined their land of coal for a nominal fee; transporting it via a coal slurry pipeline to the Mojave Generating Station in Nevada, which provided relatively cheap power to the Las Vegas and Reno areas.
That slurry pipeline used over one billion gallons of water per year rapidly depleting the water source that the inhabitants in the surrounding area need to grow their crops and water their livestock. The Mojave Station was put in a "lay up" status due to its owners failure to control environmental pollution.
Clearly, a better and fairer resolution to the problem would have been to negotiate an equitable settlement between the Dineh and the Hopi that would have allowed the Dineh to remain on their land. But then that would have curtailed "progress," access to natural resources and a source of cheap power to the gambling industry in Nevada and, of course, huge profits to Peabody/Bechtel and contributions to the McCain campaign coffers. Common Cause has suggested that McCain has been compensated with street cash funds for his election campaigns. It has been noted that the Cindy McCain beer distributing business has received lucrative contracts from Las Vegas interests.
By any standards, the treatment of the Dineh-Navajos was immoral and shameful. It is another sad, dark chapter in the United States government's deplorable treatment of the Native Americans. The United Nations conducted an investigation of that forced relocation and determined it was in violation of human rights.
Leon Berger, Director of the UN Commission investigating the relocation said in his resignation of the post, "The forcible relocation of over 10,000 Navajo people is a tragedy of genocide and injustice that will be a blot on the conscience of this country for many generations."
Roger Lewis, one of the federally appointed commissioners, said upon tendering his resignation, "I feel that in relocating these elderly people, we are as bad as the Nazi that ran the concentration camps in WWII."
Pretty strong language, but quite appropriate.
The ACSA, American Computer Science Association, a charitable research organization and public advocacy group, devoted to bring about change for the better, has said that "Senator John McCain and his associates' manipulation of the laws and circumstances of this horrific affair is pervasively criminal and quite worthy of the prosecution."
John McCain, as Chairman of the Commission for Indian Affairs, has lauded himself for his "achievements on behalf of the American Indians" while having deprived a gentle, spiritual people of their home and dignity. What does that say for him? Elizabeth Drew, a former friendly McCain biographer, in her recent article, How McCain Lost Me, says, "John McCain is not a principled man." Indeed, and without conscience!