Compilation of Raw Footage for Report on American Indian Movement take over of Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation on Navajo Nation.

Alright, this is cut number one from March 5th. It's Mercer Curtis from Fairchild talking about the damages to the plant by the Indians. Okay, what exactly are the damages? Well, there's been some severe damages to the office area and almost every desk in the building has been broken into and pried open along with cabinets and there are many personal items missing from the people in the plant that have gone out of the plant apparently. And there's some damage to the ceilings in terms of the ceilings that have been broken through in certain areas of the front part of the plant. There's quite a bit of damage to chairs and furniture and the cafeteria was quite a shambles

and each of the vending machines were broken into and all the contents taken out of the vending machines and the money taken out of and much of the petty cash we had lying around is all gone. Alright, well it wasn't that way before the Indians came in. Of course it wasn't. Okay, I'm just asking. Sure, do you ask a question like that, John? Huh? Sure. Do you ask a question like that? Okay, let's splice it off. Yeah. Let me see. Did they do anything to the Krypton 85, that storeroom or anything? No, they didn't do anything to that Krypton 85. They had it roped off as a dangerous area, it's not going to air. Okay, so how much do you estimate the cost of all this being? Well, I don't really have any estimate right now at all. The fact is what we've done is we've brought in a work crew, a lot of the people in here are listing the damages to find out how much damage was done so that our insurance adjusters can go ahead and total up the damages and come back with a number to us.

Alright, so what do you plan to do then to aim or what action are you going to take about it? No, at this moment our legal counsel is looking at what action we should be taking and no decision has been made yet. Right. Also, can you tell me, are you going to close down Fairchild now? No, that decision, the plan is effectively closed right now and what we're doing at is looking at whether we should reopen or not. I see. And are you aware of the charges that aim is made against Fairchild? And I just wondered if you had any comment about that where they said that you were misusing federal funds and all the rest of it as well. No, I think in that case there's been quite a bit of checking done on that and they'll find that that is not the case, that we're entitled to those things and through the BIA and that's part of the unjob contract that we have and it's perfectly the way it should be.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Curtis. Okay, good enough, John. Bye-bye. This is going to be cut to with Dave Taylor, KGGM News Director. He's talking about the congressional investigation he's asked for into the beating of the two KGGM newsmen. Congressional delegation to have a look at it because first of all, we wanted them to know what happened from our point of view. There are several questions involved. One is the question of the attack reporter's civil rights. It's just a clean cut question. Beyond that, there is an infringement of our First Amendment right by AIM, which the last I understood did not hold ratification judgment over anyone's First Amendment right. I was at that press conference with Trudell the other day and some of your reporters were

there and they said, the Indians said that is, that the newsmen were warned plenty of times in advance not to take pictures down there and that's primarily the reason that they got slugged. Do you have any comment about that? Well, Mr. Trudell said at his news conference that my reporter was refused to turn over the film when it was requested. I don't know whether Mr. Trudell was on the scene, but what happened was that my reporters were confronted. Virtually as soon as they got out of the car, they had shot no more than 10 feet of film and the Indians approached them using abrasive, abusive language and attacked them. There was no question of whether my men resisted. It was simply an attack. Taylor was then asked if he was going to investigate the charges the Indians made against Fairchild.

That really is not my concern. I will let that be handled through other processes. My concern in this incident is one, to make it known to AIM and any other interest group that they do not hold ratification powers over the First Amendment. Two, to prevent an assault on a man's civil rights, such as our reporter Jim Terazus in this case. It's cut three. George Roberts AIM spokesman about March 13th or 14th. This is a portion of a letter which is addressed to Mars Thompson, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. The employment situation in the Navajo Nation is a disgrace and an indictment of the U.S. government's mismanagement of Indian affairs. We cannot and should not force Fairchild to reopen the plant to continue illegal subsidy payments, which liken the performance to one of Fairchild's overseas operations.

Instead, the Bureau and the tribe have an unusual opportunity. Currently, there are 1,700 trained assembly workers at Shiprock. The tribe owns the land, building and fixtures. Fairchild may own some equipment, but much may have been supplied GFV under Department of Defense and government contracts. We feel that the plant should be reopened by the tribe with the government's direct assistance in providing management consultants to train Indian management personnel. All Department of Defense or government contracts with Fairchild should be redirected to the Navajo plant immediately, thereby opening a direct economic base for plant operation. Failure to take the initiative in this urgent situation will only add to the suffering of the Navajo people. Okay, this is the Trudel press conference. It was about a day or two after the Indians left the Fairchild plant. But we have to have issues that we're talking about. We have to have objective journalism against these issues.

We don't have to have a press for just to say, have it in commandant, and come in and perpetuate the image of the stereotype of the American Indian people. We're not talking about stereotypes, we're talking about issues. We didn't go into Fairchild because we were a bunch of millipedes. We went into the Fairchild Corporation because the Fairchild Corporation has been exploiting its Navajo employees and the Navajo tribes in general. We can prove it. All right? Now there are officials, there are people that have documents in their hands at this time that are going to take action on it. All the coverage I see on this whole thing at this point is AIM gets amnesty. Well, let's clear this up. AIM did not ask for amnesty. It was never one of our issues or one of our demands. The issues were at the beginning and they remain Fairchild and the exploitation of the Navajo tribe. You need some specifics. Check into the on-the-job training contracts. Start from there. And the legality of Fairchild's little job there, and I don't mean to stop or go on and ask for their reply.

Because that's not getting it either. All the time we have to defend ourselves and justify ourselves to you because you're the ones that carry the message out into the white community. Well, our intention is, you know, is that we feel that we should be respected and then maybe you will be respected. And then maybe these incidents that happen out there won't be happening. It was unfortunate that the dude got his nose broken. But maybe if he would have been doing some research and analyzing of Fairchild's corrupt practices, he wouldn't have got his nose broken. Everybody's there to take pictures of the Indians. So what we want to see is we want to see some objective journalism. And if you don't like us, well, we're sorry about that. You know, that's just the way life goes. Because we feel that the Indian community is entitled to as much respect as anyone else is. How many reporters have had their heads cracked open by police? And how much have you responded to that?

Did you attack from the same objective that you're attacking what happened here on the grounds the other day, you know? People keep telling us that keep trying to assure the Indian community that racism isn't the problem in this country, but, uh, there's two types of language, you know, and we check them both out. One is the language of rhetoric and the one of action. And we hear a lot of rhetoric about no racism, and we see a lot of actions that make that rhetoric alive. The Navajo Tribal Council agreed to a federal audit, to getting a federal audit of all the contracts that Fairchild has with the federal government. The Tribal Council agreed to bring in civil rights investigations of all employees of Fairchild, past and present. And I'm going to explain something to you. Fairchild was getting on the job training contract, which means that the federal government will pay one half of the employees,

of the trainees' salary. Fairchild keeps complaining about a high turnover of Navajo personnel. The oddity of this is that the high turnover in personnel is after Fairchild assumes full responsibility for paying the wages. After they become permanent employees, they are no longer trainees. And as these employees leave for one reason or another, in comes a new batch of trainees, which perpetuates the cycle of on-the-job training, which perpetuates Fairchild's federal subsidies, not only in that program, but in its defense department contracts and others the other way it gets its training, Manpower Development Act. Now, this maybe doesn't grab a lot of sensationalism, you know? But that's the kind of thing that was going on there. And we feel that Navajo employees somewhere in the area of 1300 might have a nice little story to tell about their treatment there.

Fairchild runs its plant on the merit system. They get 18 points. You can lose three points for getting sick and going to see your foreman and getting okay to take the rest of the day off. You lose points just for getting sick. You can't even go to the bathroom without asking permission. If you take authorized leave without pay, you lose points. Now, you run into that kind of a little setup. It tells two things. One, it's not very respectful of the employees' rights. Fairchild was also found guilty of interfering in union elections. Fairchild management. So we feel that a lot of people, you know, maybe they deserve some answers from Fairchild. And that's what the issue was when our people went in there. That's what the issue remained when our people come out. And that's what the issue will stay. We will not be sidetracked by rumors and reports of shots of random violence

and aim was going to do this and aim was going to do that. And we're just letting you know we're a little tired of the name call. It's time, you know, that maybe some people start understanding that Indians are going to treat people the way that they are treated. And maybe people can relate to that. I don't know, you know, they seem to have an easy time manipulating people's thoughts. Yes? You say you don't need to press, but it was your people that called the press after you took over the plant. You invited the press to come up there. And they came forward and answered any and all questions that were asked voluntarily. And then all of a sudden two guys were attacked. Yeah, it's just exactly how it happened. Let me tell you something. Working with people, working with existing agencies, alright, is a reality.

You look at the reality of America, the press is an existing agency. They notify. Don't try to tell you why we were in there, alright? And if that's objectable to the press, then we won't do it anymore. But then after the press fulfilled your purposes? No, the press didn't fulfill our purposes. The press came in and said that we were there. And then the press came in and started asking questions. What do you think about Peter McDonald, blah, blah, blah? The press didn't come in and start asking and checking in to the fair child. The local press did not. It did not. Some of the national press may have a clue and get into this kind of a thing, but I don't even know how well they picked up on it. And I don't really care, you see, because it's what the Indian community understands. It's what the Indian community knows. And when you guys come out there and put the distortions out, it affects them also. So from that concept, my personal feelings as National Chairman of the American Indian Movement, alright, or that the press are not gods, they should be treated like people,

just like the people should be treated. Alright? And we won't call you. Leave your name or station or whatever, and we'll make it a point never to get in touch with you. Do you condone what happened up there? I don't condone a lot of things, but I can't change it. I don't condone poverty, and I don't condone people ripping off land through illegal trees. Do you? One thing, one of your people said, they were attacked because they didn't ask permission of aim to shoot film. That's rumored hearsay. That's not rumored hearsay. Bring me the person that said it. I can bring you the report as I said it. No, I want the person who told him that. I can bring her to you tonight. I want the person that told him that. Let's play court. Oh, I don't know who told him. No, this is how we have to answer the rumored hearsay. You ever been in court? You ever been on trial? Well, we're not on trial. We're not in court. Well, we are. We're always on trial. This is what the switchboard operator told the reporter.

I think those pictures were inside the plant. Outside the plant, people are generally touchy because they use these same pictures against them in court constantly. Let me explain it this way. You're trying to make us justify one little incident. No. Let's look at the whole situation. Tensions run high. How many different rumors did you hear going on? How many different stories did you hear about what was happening? So sometimes tensions get a little high and unfortunate things do happen. And it happens to both sides. You can't fix your nose, you know? You can't change what's been done. Getting away from beating up a couple reporters and rock throwing and everything was aimed to objectives achieved. We feel that they were. Because let's look what we started out with. We started out with nothing. What we ended up with is at least negotiations are going to take place for the hundred and forty, the last group of the employees that got fired.

And at least now attempts are being made to get federal audits. So to show the people how these corporations operate on their reservations. So that the people can understand what's going on. Those objectives were made. And one thing that there were no fair child employees, current employees involved in the people with that plan whatsoever. And the reason for that is reprisals. It's as simple as that. These people did not, we'll do what we can to help because they're doing what they can. They supported. And there was always, you know, a lot of questionable doubt about the amount of support that we had there. And I think if anyone would have really taken the time and went to the chapter meetings and listened and tried to understand what was going on, they would have found that we had a lot of support. We had more support than anybody else did. Would the takeover ever have been necessary to handle those tribal officials that have been monitoring the plan the way they should have been?

Sometimes tribal councils are caught into this bind. They handle all the business of the tribe. So sometimes there's not enough council members to really get into the understanding, every detail of it. You see, but I'd say that the number one blame goes there. I'd say a tribal council wasn't watching them. They were weak in their duty in watching, you know, being a watchdog. The BIA is the one that I think we should accept those that have responsibility here because they were the ones that approved contracts and got the money. What are they doing? I mean, I thought they were supposed to be here to help us, you know, by letting all things like this slide through. Were these negotiations on the contracts directly and only exclusively with the BIA? Tribal council, now they would have... Let me think of a name now that I think of the name from the council. See, I read a lot of names in here, you know, right? Some of them I don't fully know because I'm not... You mean on the documents, huh? Yeah, on the documents that I found. But there's a man, a palette, who works with the tribe, the agency.

I don't remember any... Mark, I think is his name. I don't know if he's with the council, with the BIA, all right, but he's with the bureau. And a man by the name of Daniel McDonald, he's with the interior of the bureau. I think he's in B.C. I think now they know... Do you think these negotiations should be about the BIA? Yes. They should be involved. They should know, they should know all the documents. I mean, you know, all right, maybe not documents, but they should know the workings of all the contracts. They should know all of them. I mean, understand what the program is about if they're going to represent their people, and then they won't be manipulated into a position of having to fight against us on an issue they know that we're right on. Because that happens. Is this information kept from the tribe? I imagine that the tribe... Well, the tribe can get it. Now, I don't know, you know, it's like the public information act, but one of the Indian people from the Navajo community wanted to go up and find out about it. They went up and asked for it.

They wanted to give them the run-around about getting public information, and they would be entitled to it. So the same kind of thing happens. John, in regards to obtaining information that is available to your everyday ordinary tribe, non-Indian citizens, would you say that the Indians have a lot more difficulty in obtaining information, which is available to, say, like these people? Yes. They're just going to tell them, you know, they're just going to come around. They'll tell Indian people, well, we don't have that here. You have to go to such and such a place to get it. And after it, or narrowly after someone seeks information after the second or third term, they won't pursue it any further. But the law complies whoever you ask has to give you the information they have. There's a lot of conjecture and rumors that the fair child will use this takeover now as a good excuse to close their plant down. Would you accept any of the responsibility for the remaining Indian workers

if they're losing their jobs, if they do in fact close the plant down? Well, I don't see how we can accept responsibility. The fire of people who are not physically fired. It's a simple step. How about, you know, them closing the plant down? I think that this is what we're talking about, those on-the-job training contracts. We saw written verbal threats to reduce the employment force in Shiprock if the monies didn't keep coming in on those contracts. And the legality of it was brought up by the McDonald's in Washington. We have seen in the documents how they keep comparing the cost of this Shiprock operation to its offshore plants overseas, specifically the Korean plant. In their documents they said that the Korean plant operated much cheaper than this and they used this as a wedge in contract negotiations for the on-the-job training contracts. Fairchild has approximately a half a dozen little outlets in the United States.

Not one time did they ever compare the Shiprock plant to its domestic outlets to show that Shiprock could operate at a cheaper rate. They came in January the 15th of this year. They had little men, memos sent out through their things here, evaluating their soonest possible option to terminate leases without penalties. And they had, in written documents, they were telling the Bureau that Mountain View, management at Mountain View, California was making decisions. This was in last June. Management was making decisions that were going to affect the entire Shiprock situation. And this is about the same time Fairchild got hit with the higher federal minimum wage law and that they were notified with information that on-the-job training contracts were going to have to be stopped. That they could no longer justify Fairchild getting it and that if word came out it would be embarrassing both to the company and to the Bureau for their own words. See, so the plant was going to become a much more expensive operation for Fairchild so they were going to leave.

We're sure of it. Because in their lease, they have the option as to whether they want to stay or go. It comes up every two years. Now if they intended to stick around and really help them out with the tribe and to development, why would they write that into their lease clause? Why would they ask the tribe to build the building if they really intended to stay and make a working program out of it? Or if they just come in for the ride to see how it would work? Everything leads up to something, you know? And it leads up to the fact that Fairchild is getting ready to dump this reservation. What about some of the other big employers on the reservation? These big power plants, so on, that you guys are checking into them? Or is anybody checking into them? Yeah, there's some work being done on that. I don't remember the name, specifically one of them. I told you which name it is, one of the power plants.

Because there's two over there, right? Well, anyway, some work is being done on that, checking that out. It's all the same, you know, because I don't know. I mean, so we don't know what's going to happen. We just check things out. It's how the response is. You know, it's like we're talking, people get down because you've got to take to the streets sometime. But what else do you do, you know, when you go and you work through the system? People are just, you find that the agencies are shutting the doors of your face. And the press is living on an image, you know, that that but line it created with his dying novice. And the image has just changed clothes. You know, Indians don't wear war paint anymore, it's just now the image has changed clothes. We dress like militants, but it's the same concept. So everybody keeps shutting doors in our face. You know, we're just talking about some little thing called justice. Personally, I don't have to think anybody in America anymore is getting any justice.

Speaking for the AIM organization, we know we're entitled to it. Are you concerned with the possibility that because of this recent incident, other corporations might be leery to set up a plant on the reservation? I'm not, I don't try to see it from the corporation's point of view. All right, so I haven't thought about that. But let me put it this way. This is what I'm concerned about, all right. I'm concerned about corporations coming in into reservations and exploiting the land and being disrespectful and exploiting the people. And sometimes, you know, maybe we're going to have to sit down and evaluate, is it worth it to get a few people some jobs if it's going to reflect on the credibility of the whole Navajo Nation? Got to think about these things. No use prostituting your people, you know, just to get a job if it means you're not going to get any human respect. There isn't a job in America that's worth that

to cost a people or an individual their respect. No way. That's what we're concerned about, you know, but the corporations may think, well, that's, you know, that's, they're the way they are. We're the way we are. And we've got a right to exist here just as much as anybody else and we've got a right to exist under good terms. Considering that this land belonged to some people a long time ago, we're not being treated like animals. When you mentioned that the Fairchild was found guilty about the National Labor Relations Board, is this in connection with tampering with union elections? Yes, it is. It happened within the last six months, all right? It was just a little side thing we come across.

You know what, a strange thing, they weren't planning to leave, all right? We come across a member of Shiprock Plant Progress Report, their child semi-conductor company private. And it's a monthly progress report. And in June, Shiprock said that we're going to have to keep an eye on AIM, the American Indian Movement, the DNA and U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, regarding the termination policies of the recent termination policies. And then they went into some corporate mumble jumble about movement of indirects to directs and special types, special type jobs to bonding, et cetera. You see, now, if this 140 that just got laid off was due to the recession, this recession that they laid them off for, hey man, everybody was talking about everything was going to be wonderful last June. The government was putting out the story that the recession was avoidable.

Nixon was the problem last June. Recession wasn't. So how come Fairchild's laying out some plans here to get rid of some people? How come they knew about the recession? That's why we think that they're ready to pull out. Free ride, you know. Fairchild is a subsidiary of the Polaroid Company. They have questionable job hiring practices and they have questionable ways of treating people in the Union of South Africa. Now, I'm not going to call them racist, but I will say that maybe they have found it is quite profitable to exploit people when these people have no rights. And they do it for the rationalization of to maximize, maximize, maximize profit potential. That's it. Very nice little term of rhetoric they have. So, give us a break and get off our case and check out Fairchild for a while.

We haven't done anything wrong. In going throughout Indian Country, do you find the so-called Fairchild set up the same as on other Indian reservations? From what? The whole setup in so far as business and everything is concerned. Do you find that common throughout Indian Country? That seems to be the story. See, at one point, the Tribes, the Tribal Councils got blamed for it. But we must remember about Tribal Councils. There's this organization called the Bureau of Indian Affairs that does all the paperwork. The Councils are the fall guides. They're out in front, you know. They give them the only time anybody listens to a Council member is when they're going to have a conference somewhere and they'll fly them in and pay a little bit of attention on them, send them home and ignore them until they meet again. And that's about basically how it goes. And I'm not saying that the Council members aren't conscientious, hard-working people, but the Bureau just withholds certain facts from them.

Council members, your average Council members come from the people in the beginning. I don't know, some of them don't always stay there, but they come from the people. They don't have a working relationship and knowledge as a law and a little bit of fine print handwriting on contracts. They rely on what the Bureau tells them. In short, it happens. It happens all over this country. You know, I mean, you know, one part of the country, the corporate philosophy, you know, it's one, no matter what the names of the corporations are, it's one maximized profit potential. You know, you do a little thinking about it. They talk about the economy and the gas and the oil shortage. You guys are all involved in the news. How many of you know how much profit Exxon made? Or Gulf? Or Standard Oil of California? How much money did they make last year? They sell oil and there was an oil shortage. And some of them made 200 more percent profit than they made the year before.

It happens to you too, you know, just because we're Indians, don't mean it just happens to us, but it happens to everybody. But you see, we know that you, you in general, you won't do anything about it when it happens to us. Because I heard an editorial on the station last night about the press was always there the first to bring out the cause for Indians. It's right, the press was always there. And they were always describing us the same way. This is what really, you know, I think kind of sets some tempers off here. Everywhere the press comes in, always five years ago, they were saying, what do you think about this other Indian over here? And they were saying, justify your militant action. And then when we would get around to attempting to justify our action, they'd already psych themselves up on the rest of the garbage. That's the problem we've had.

Don't you take any violent measures that you do take further that view? I don't take no violent measures. But I'll damn sure protect myself. No, wait just a minute now. I'll protect myself. Sometimes, you know, think of it this way, press people want to wander around inside a camp of Indians. There's a lot of Indians here, maybe they don't want their picture taken. And maybe they got a lot of reasons for it. Maybe they don't believe in it, you know, maybe it's religious, maybe it's got some other social connotation. And maybe that should be respected. The press has rights, that's right. But so do the people. I don't think in the case of these reporters that got beat up, I don't think they got a chance. Let me tell you about getting beat up. Getting beat up to getting your ass kicked, man. That means getting worked over and clubbed and gassed. It means having three or four goons jump on you at once. That's getting beat up.

Somebody that found him offensive hit him in the nose. The only thing that shows is the man that hit him in the nose is very strong. That's all that it shows. He didn't get beat up. We know about beating up. Whatever you choose to call it. He got hit. It was unfortunate. Well, that's what I'm trying to point out. He wasn't given the chance to respect somebody's view. He was told. I know he was told. They asked him to give him the film. That's right. And he didn't give him the film. He didn't give the film first. He tried to resist. No, they tried to get the camera to break it. And he was going to give him the film. And they hit him. But all right, it was an incident. I got my information from a pretty close source. Listen, well, anyway, see, everybody's got their information. Well, that's not the point. But it was an incident. It was unfortunate. Right. Well, that's not the way it was. All right, you there? You there? I was there. Oh, you was there?

I thought you didn't get beat up. I don't know. Because from the way I talked to you, it seemed like you were the first target that they was out to beat people up. Because I'm talking about attitudes. I can talk to you. You want to talk? You seem to be wanting to nitpick things here. I haven't said anything. Oh, that's right. There's one other rumor that ought to be squelched. They talked about an exchange of gunfire and aim high-tailed over the fence. There was one-shot fire in this exchange of gunfire. It was across the fence. It wasn't even inside the factory. There was an arm that went off accident that we found out this. Now, the police didn't know what happened. So they took off because if something happened, they were sitting ducks. I mean, I don't blame them. Okay, so there was one-shot fire. And all of a sudden, we hear it. We high-tailed it over there. We stayed until we found out what happened. When it was all over, we left. Let me ask you one question that doesn't concern anything

that happened. What's your opinion of the BIA and the way they handled this? I think the BIA... They're not nitpicking. The BIA tried to sit back. They didn't want to get involved. And the strange thing about the BIA, all right? All the so-called militant activities and confrontations, alcohol traps. The BIA took no position. Gordon Nebraska BIA took no position, all right? Wounded knee, BIA did not take any position. I mean, they took one in their actions, you know? They took a very... A military... A military offensive position with their actions. Appropriations, contracts were about the defense, about arming police up there in South Dakota. All right? But that was no reaction out front that people were going to see that they're going to expound on anything. The only time we got a reaction from the BIA was when we went in and were... stayed in the BIA for about a week. Then they took a position. This was during the Dakota? No, this was during Nixon's election. Oh, okay.

When Nixon won by the largest landslide ever. I see. So, uh... Then they had to take a position. This is why I also had to think they're guilty. See, because they're involved. Every confrontation ever took place. The bureau's involved. And they stayed quiet as they came. Quiet as a mouse. See, if these kind of things were looked at and at least analyzed, you know? Then I think there would be a better working relationship amongst everybody. Was there any action taking previous to the takeover to where you, I'd say, you brought these facts up to McDonald? Or was there any type of... In other words, did you try to get an investigation of this thing before the takeover? Or did you decide that this would be the best way to bring it out? I'll put it this way. I know about this reduction in plant force. I know of you. And he knew for quite some time, all right? And when 140 were laid off, all right? And no action was taken, you know?

You can tell which way everybody's heads at. That they just don't care. What's going to happen now with the whole plant being unemployed? About reopening that plant. All right, so in practical terms, the plant could be operating by the end of the week at the very latest, all right? That's for them to take inventory. Not to replace anything because nothing was taken. For them to take inventory. And that plant can be operating this week if Fairchild so chose to do. And how come if Fairchild plans on sticking around and treating the people just, how come they made this passable decision that affects their whole operating plant? It affects their whole corporation structure. They didn't just make that decision to close this plant down in a week. They have been making that decision for a long time because they wouldn't close it down the way they did and shut it off indefinitely if they didn't know what the immediate consequences

were going to be because that's called corporate management. You see, so the employees at this point are Fairchild's responsibility because if Fairchild had been treating them fairly in the first place and had been honoring the law in the first place, there would have been no incident. Couldn't the tribe themselves pick up Fairchild if they violated their agreement? See, I ain't better tacked than that. Better than kicking Fairchild alive. I couldn't say that. No, yeah, I imagine they could. But better than that, see, I don't solve any problems either. You know, it just changes an immediate situation. But other than that, they could hold Fairchild to its 40-year lease and it could manage me to that company because it could become more tribal-oriented. Well, is that what the tribe wants? I don't know what the tribe wants. I'm just saying that that's something that could be done. Yeah, but you were there to help the tribe. See, what the tribe wants at this point, they want their jobs back.

The workers want their jobs back. They have no better working conditions. That's right. No better treatment, better all around. Okay. What do I say? Wouldn't that be a part of it? Well, I think that's what the tribe wants. That's right. I misunderstood your question, but I think that's what the tribe wants. I think the tribe wants Fairchild to honor that lease. They want to keep Fairchild alive? Sure they do. Why would they have made the bargains to bring them in? Why would they have built the building for them and gave them the most attractive lease anybody's going to ever get? Well, that's a good one with practice in small towns to bring in a company to give them certain benefits. All right, let's relate it in dollars and cents. How long? Let's relate it in dollars and cents. I know the wage structure would load there. Let's look at it in dollars and cents. All right. Why would the tribe want Fairchild to leave? They got too much money invested in Fairchild through loans that the tribe got to build these buildings. All right? So the tribe would want them to leave for that. That's what's going to fake a loan back.

All right? From that end of the day. And then you look at the money that the Indian community in general has invested in it through the on-the-job training type contracts, federal grants, federal aid. They've got ten years' worth of it invested in training Navajo employees. Now what the hell's a good training? They wouldn't have no job. What I'm saying is... So yes, I would imagine that the tribe wants them to stay. The people want justice, man. They want fair treatment. What the tribe's official position is, I couldn't even begin to tell you. As far as AIM's involvement in the situation of Fairchild goes, are you done with it? Are you going to continue? Well, see, it was AIM that... I don't know, you'd have to speak to Larry Anderson about that. Because Larry's local, all right? And he's the one that's involved in that. You know, he knows all of it. So that's up to, you know, however, whatever his decision is. AIM didn't just step in. Larry is a national officer.

It's not outside influence. What it is, it's just health. But it was brought about by the Navajo people themselves. We heard that all this outside influence coming, and it wasn't. Tell you about outsiders. The biggest outside influence trip happened 500 years ago. You know? That's when it happened. So anything other than anything happens now, is just people trying to get together. We don't allow, we don't like outside influence either. More than anybody else. So I guess that's about it now. But I'm going to the krypton 85. It's still under a nice savings queue. What's that? We were trying to make sure nothing would happen to it. You know, we tell you that. How scary was there a race to live? Nobody had nailed in here. No. We weren't fine if they did. Let me tell you about that though, you know. And this is something here, I think,

that on that whole krypton 85 situation, that's a radioactive gas. It's very dangerous too, all right? I mean, it don't explode on you or blow you up or anything, but it gets into the air and people breathe it. What causes leukemia? You know, all right, now the real issue to be raised on that, you see, they have 200 curies of that stuff there. Now did the council know that that kind of radioactivity was said right there on the reservation? Did the community of Shiprock know about that? Because if they brought radioactive equipment like that into, say, a middle class community, they would know about it. Because, you know, because they would have a say on whether they did or not. What about your convention in G? Oh, that's right on. Is that the sense that they're going to have any effect on that? When you're being allowed to have it in Farmington? Yeah, we're going to have it in Farmington now. I can't say what kind of effect it will have on our people. No, I mean on the Farmington issue that will allow it.