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Show Rep. King to Push Inquiry Into Indian Lands Laws Rep. David S. King Saturday said he has "no intention of dropping" drop-ping" his inquiry on legislation passed by the 85th Congress that fives the Navajo Indians title to "islands" of mineral rich public domain in San Juan County and may cost Utah millions of dollars dol-lars in oil royalties. His statement was a reply to the Department of Interior release re-lease warning that any attempts to disturb the provisions of Law 85-868 would raise "grave moral issues." Congressman King declared: "Certainly grave moral issues have been raised. They have been raised not by my inquiry, but by the law itself, which has the effect of stripping the state and people of Utah of potential oil wealth without "due pro-; pro-; cess." . 1 "I cannot simply drop the matter. mat-ter. Utah's stakes in it are too high." v The revenue from oil production produc-tion on these lands could pour millions of dollars into schools and reclamation projects within the state. "As one of the faster growing states of the nation, a state faced with critical school garded the release from Interior as a "concession" that the lands were, in fact, public domain until un-til Law 85-868 was passed. He said his concern has been deepened deep-ened by Interior's observation, in, the letter, that the lands were the center of a mineral right contest con-test at the time the law was passed. Mr. King referred to a section of Interior's letter which observed: ob-served: While it may well be that absent provision of Section 1(d) concerning which you write, the state of Utah, under the Mineral Leasing Act, would receive returns re-turns in the form of a 37 Vz per cent share of any oil and gas lease revenues accruing, it is equally true that the asserted claims were the subject of vigorous vigor-ous contest and it is by no means clear that such claims would, in the final analysis, have been sus- j tained." The "moral wrong" in the law, he said, "is the effect it has in killing the contest on asserted mineral rights before that contest con-test could be carried to an equitable equit-able and final decision. building needs, Utah can ill afford af-ford the loss of this mineral wealth. I am obligated, as a representative rep-resentative of the state, to do all in my power to restore to Utah an interest in this wealth." Rep. King wrote the Department Depart-ment of Interior in mid-December asking a clarification of Interior's In-terior's position under the new law. He voiced concern over a November decision from Interior which held that the law has the effect of killing oil and gas lease applications which were pending pend-ing before the department at the time the law was passed. The Congressman received a reply in a letter from . Interior Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst. Mr. King said he is "not entirely en-tirely satisfied with the informa tion Interior has presented. My concern has not been quieted by Interior's delay in drafting a reply. I deplore the department's strategy in making its reply public pub-lic before I saw it." -The press received mimeographed mimeo-graphed copies of Interior's letter let-ter 24 hours before the original reached my office. Copies of the letter were contained in the release re-lease which Interior made last Thursday. The Congressman said he re- |
