|
Peter MacDonald (born 1928) is a Native American politician and the only four term Chairman of the Navajo Tribe. MacDonald was born in Arizona, U.S.A. and served the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II as a Navajo Code Talker. He was first elected Navajo Tribal Chairman in 1970. In 1989, MacDonald was removed from office by the Navajo Tribal Council, pending the results of federal criminal investigations headed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. MacDonald was sent to federal prison in 1990 for violations of US law and subsequently convicted of more U.S. federal crimes, including fraud, extortion, riot, bribery, and corruption. ==Life and Politics== Raised among traditional shepherds and groomed as a medicine man, MacDonald entered the Marine Corps as a Navajo language code talker during World War II. The war ended soon after his training was complete and he was deployed in post-war China to guard surrendered Japanese officers. After the war, MacDonald earned an electrical engineering degree at the University of Oklahoma. Upon graduation, his acumen secured a job at the Hughes Aircraft Company, working on the Polaris nuclear missile project. He returned to the Navajo Nation in 1963 and began a career in tribal politics. MacDonald served as Navajo Nation Tribal Chairman for four terms between the years 1970 to 1986. During his tenure, MacDonald stressed self-sufficiency and tribal enterprise as key components of his political goals. He worked to extend tribal control over education and over mineral leases and co-founded the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) in 1975.〔Olson, James Stuart (1999) ''Historical Dictionary of the 1970s'' Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, (page 108 ), ISBN 0-313-30543-9〕 CERT favored accelerated development of energy resources on tribal lands. MacDonald is credited with starting the Navajo Nation Shopping Centers Enterprise, Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority, and many other Navajo-owned enterprises. MacDonald was critical of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and fought against federal encroachments on Tribal sovereignty. During the 1972 presidential campaign, MacDonald was referred to as "the most powerful Indian in the USA". He was a member of Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), and was scheduled, at the urging of Senator Barry Goldwater, to speak at the 1972 Republican National Convention.() Concluding that Nixon's support for the Navajo position in a land dispute with the Hopi was tepid, MacDonald met with Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, chair of a Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs. When McGovern pledged to back the Navajo position, MacDonald considered supporting McGovern's presidential bid. As tribal chairman, he could rally a solid block of votes across the reservation. This displeased Goldwater. Two years later, Goldwater's displeasure increased, when MacDonald delivered 9,006 out of a total 10,274 Navajo votes to help elect Democrat Raul Castro as governor of Arizona. Goldwater supported the Hopi in the land dispute. In the end, thousands of Navajo families lost their homes, cementing the rift between Arizona's senior senator and the leader of Arizona's largest tribe. In 1996, Congress passed a law allowing extended families to stay on their lands for seventy-five more years. The Navajos agreed to a number of restrictions on the economy. The so-called ''Bennett Freeze'' affecting thousands of MacDonald's Navajo was not lifted until 2009 when US President Barack Obama repealed the "Freeze". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter MacDonald (Navajo leader)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|