Thursday, Jan 5 2012 2:55PM
Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land Department head Madeline Roanhorse recently requested the government to keep AML funds intact and continue to assist Navajo people financially.
Navajo Nation Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Department head Madeline Roanhorse recently wrote an editorial for Indian Country Today Media Network, in which she requested the government to keep AML funds intact and continue to assist Navajo people financially.
Roanhorse stated that the federal government is looking for various ways to reduce the national budget deficit, but urged U.S. lawmakers to avoid cutting funds from the AML program, which supplies millions of dollars to Navajo tribes.
"With the assistance of Congress, the Navajo Nation, the Crow Tribe and the Hopi Tribe continue to oppose these efforts," Roanhorse wrote. "We hope the Federal government will see that AML programs in Indian Country are important and must be shielded."
Fees from the AML program are provided to members of the Navajo Nation as income for coal production from hundreds of mine sites nationwide.
Roanhorse added that some legislators have been supportive of the Navajo Nation in its quest to maintain funding, including U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman, Jon Kyl and Max Baucus.
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Indian Country Today Media Network