Treasure for the Tribes

From Houston and Albuquerque, El Paso and Denver, tough-trading oilmen from every major company have been converging on the Four Corners area of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico to get in on one of the biggest oil rushes in U.S. history. The sellers: the Navajo Indians, who are fast learning to play what oilmen call "grunt and groan." As the bids for oil lands are announced, the tribesmen merely grunt, and as the prices soar higher, the oilmen groan.

Last week the groans were rising to a new crescendo. In the first 230,000-acre sale four weeks ago, 23 oil companies paid $27.5 million for leases, plus a 12 1/2% royalty on every barrel of oil produced. A fortnight ago the Navajos got $3.2 million for a second 82,200-acre block of land. Last week a third and final 158,505 acres went on sale, brought $2.9 million and pushed the total Navajo take to $33.6 million.

What sent the bids soaring was the promise of the biggest oil pool in the West, under the barren Navajo buttes and mesas. Texas Co., which had started exploring the area about three years ago, recently drilled its exploratory Navajo C-4 well on tribal land located between the big Aneth oilfield in San Juan County, Utah and another series of proven wells farther south. Texas Co. wanted to find out how far the Aneth field went and whether the two pools might be connected. Though Texas Co. tried to keep the well secret, every oilman suspected that something big was happening. At the first sale a combine of Pure Oil Co., Ohio Oil Co. and Sun Oil Co. bid $7,941,000 for a nearby 2,500-acre lease, nearly $3,200 an acre and $2,500 more than Navajo land had ever brought before.

After the sale Texas Co. announced that its Navajo C-4 was indeed a producing well, pumping an average 642 bbls. of high-grade oil daily, and oilmen felt much of the nearby leasehold could be considered proven oil land. Then two more wells came in on Navajo land. Superior Oil brought in its Navajo B-1 well, with 1,402 bbls. daily, and Gulf Oil brought in its Desert Creek No. 1 well.

For the 78,000 Navajos, one of the poorest Indian tribes (per capita income in 1955: $420), the cash from the auctions added up to $423 per capita, will double the tribal income this year, provide money for new reservation roads, schools and irrigation projects. Said a Navajo brave: "Let the white man have the oil. My people want irrigated lands. We now know how we can get them."

The Navajos are not the only lucky Indians; lease payments to other tribes are also skyrocketing. In 1951 Indians got $13 million from oil and gas leases. Last year their income soared to $41 million and is still climbing fast. Oklahoma's Osage tribe alone took in some $11 million last year, split it into $7,000 packets for the holders of "head rights," i.e., ownership shares of reservation land. Other tribes, such as Montana's Crow and Blackfeet, Colorado's Utes and Utah's Uintah-Ourays, turn all funds over to tribal councils for community projects. Last year Colorado's Southern Ute tribe signed a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield for group medical insurance, while New Mexico's Jicarilla Apaches have been able to set up a $1,000,000 scholarship fund to give their youngsters a college education.

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