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by Howard Bitsui (Author)
Peter MacDonald was elected Chairman of the Navajo Nation for an unprecedented fourth term with Johnny R. Thompson as his chosen Vice-Chairman. MacDonald convinced the Tribal Council that the purchase of the Big Boquillas Ranch will help rejuvenate the Navajo Nation's economy. The Tribal Council agreed and approved the purchase in lopsided vote. It was purchased by the tribe for $33.4 million dollars, just minutes after Byron Brown, a Scottsdale developer and MacDonald friend and another associate paid a California company $26.2 million for the same ranch. The Tribal Council approved the sale with its members unaware of the double escrow of the fact that the tribe was paying $7 million more than the ranch was actually worth. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs established a Special Committee on Investigations to uncover "fraud, corruption and mismanagement in American Indian Affairs, no matter where or to whom it led." As part of the committee's mandate, it also called to examine Indian tribal governments to ascertain the degree of corruption in those institutions. The committee paid attention to Peter MacDonald's leadership. The Senate Committee's investigation of political corruption in Peter MacDonald's administration, centered around the "Big Bo" land purchase and other deals to intense conflict in the Nation. A majority of the Tribal Council became dissatisfied with MacDonald's leadership and organized against him. MacDonald agreed to leave office peacefully if the Council will furnish him with a legal defense fund. The Council refused. The Council by a vote of 49 to 13 placed MacDonald on involuntary administrative leave without the defense fund he demanded. This led to a series of protests, confrontations and division culminating in a deadly confrontation which erupted in Window Rock; wherein, two Navajos were killed and ten were injured pitting supporters of MacDonald against the Tribal Council, tribal police, and others.
