Ranking of Navajo as Poorest of Indians Overlooks Peculiarities of Wealth : Census: U.S. report cites poverty, family income. But tribal leaders say figures ignore thriving barter economy, richness of cultural skills.

Leroy Yellowhair lives in a cramped, one-room home carved out of a dirt hill. The roof is draped with plastic bags to keep out dust and rain. A stove concocted from the bottom of a corroded oil drum heats the center of the circular room.

The dugout and the scrap metal, broken crates and more rusty oil drums littered around it stand in contrast to the stark beauty of the muddy red cliffs and canyon the home overlooks.

“It’s all I’ve known,” the 48-year-old Navajo said of the home where he lives with his younger brother and their 75-year-old mother.

The Navajo Nation, an area the size of West Virginia that stretches across northeastern Arizona and portions of New Mexico and Utah, is home to the poorest of the 10 largest Indian tribes, the Census Bureau recently reported.

Based on 1990 census figures, the tribe had the highest proportion of people in poverty, 48.8%, and the lowest median family income, $13,940. The Navajo also had the lowest per capita income, $4,788.

The Iroquois, situated mostly in Upstate New York, had the smallest share of tribal members living in poverty, 20.1%. The median family income for the Iroquois was $27,205, while the per capita income was $10,568.

Navajo officials and Indian rights advocates say the statistics overlook factors unique to tribal culture--a thriving barter economy and a philosophy of wealth that’s difficult to judge by mainstream American standards.

“I’m not surprised by the census figures. It shows the great need to educate the federal government on what is happening,” said Duane Beyal, a spokesman for Navajo Tribal President Peterson Zah.

LaDonna Harris, director of Americans for Indian Opportunity, said that one of the nation’s poorest rural tribes--she wouldn’t say which one--had a $10-million barter economy.

“Among Indians, possession is never perceived as a form of wealth--unless you can give it away,” she said.

Some of the primary sources of income on the Navajo Reservation are mining, tribal government, agriculture and the sale of native art.

Some Navajo had hoped casino gambling on the reservation would generate enough revenue to reduce an unemployment rate of 30% to 50%.

But Navajo voters, worried about the effect on their culture, narrowly rejected gambling in a referendum recently at a time when many other tribes have turned to casinos as a major source of revenue.

The reason for the economic disparity among tribes may be a matter of geography, said Mary Helen Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department.

“For instance, the Iroquois are in a demographic area of large populations and are in a better position to attract more economic development,” she said. “The Navajo are in a more isolated situation.”

Roman Bitsuie, executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission office in Window Rock, said some of the Navajo living without electricity or running water have simply chosen a traditional way of life.

Many Navajo gauge wealth by such factors as family structure and the ability to pass on cultural skills like rug weaving and jewelry making, said Percy Deal, a Navajo County supervisor. Owning livestock also is a determinant of wealth.

“We see a lot of economic and religious value in livestock. Caring for livestock teaches responsibility and having enough of it means you are not poor, even if you live in a hogan with a dirt floor,” Deal said.

Don Wharton, a lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., said the census figures obscure serious health issues affecting Indians, such as high infant mortality and a greater incidence of disease.

“What the federal government is doing is to provide programs through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, Housing and Urban Development and other federal program agencies that are largely unrelated to real local priorities and concerns because they are nationally managed,” he said.

While tribal members like Yellowhair are considered poor even by Navajo standards, others like Freddie Hatathlie are seen as fairly well off, although he, too, would be classified by the U.S. government as living below the poverty level.

Hatathlie, a plant operator at a power plant in Page, lives in a spacious but rundown stone-brick hogan outside Tuba City.

His home and his parents’ nearby sit on land that was recently turned over to the Hopi tribe by the U.S. government. Repairs and other improvements are forbidden without approval from Hopi officials.

That has meant living with cracked windows and missing floor tiles. It also means the family has had to leave a third hogan--an octagonal log cabin--unoccupied because of a sagging roof and termite-infested walls.

With 10 siblings who often visit and stay over, the number of people in Hatathlie’s household fluctuates, making it hard to calculate per capita income or other government measures of wealth.

“In terms of money, I’m just like anybody else,” he said. “But yes, I consider myself rich.”