View source for Peter MacDonald (Navajo leader)

{{other people|Peter MacDonald}}
{{Infobox President
| image = Peter MacDonald.jpg
| caption          = MacDonald speaking to the Navajo Nation Council Chambers at Window Rock, July 2012
| name             = Peter MacDonald
| order            = 7th Chairman of the Navajo Nation
| office           = 
| term_start       = January 20, 1970
| term_end         = January 19, 1989
| vice_president   = 
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = [[Incumbent]]
| birth_name       = Hoshkaisith Begay<br>(or He Who Clasps With Power)
| birth_date       = {{birth year and age|1927|}}
| birth_place      = United States
| nationality      = Navajo Nation<br>United States
| spouse           = 
| occupation       =
| residence        = [[Tuba City, Arizona]]
| education        = [[University of Oklahoma]]
}}

'''Peter MacDonald''' (born 1927) is a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] politician and the only four term [[Chairman]] of the [[Navajo Nation|Navajo Tribe]]. MacDonald was born in [[Arizona]], U.S. and served the U.S. Marine Corps in [[World War II]] as a [[Code talker#Use of Navajo|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==
Born Hashkasilt Begay,<ref>{{cite news|last=Russakoff|first=Dale|date=January 12, 1983|title=A Profound Changing of the Guard Being Felt In Indian Country|work=Washington Post}}</ref> MacDonald was raised among traditional shepherds and groomed as a [[medicine man]]. He entered the [[United States Marine Corps|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 [[UGM-27 Polaris|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|Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT)]] in 1975.<ref name="Olson-108">Olson, James Stuart (1999) ''Historical Dictionary of the 1970s'' Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YKkF8vQRcp0C&pg=PA108 page 108], {{ISBN|0-313-30543-9}}</ref> 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".{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} He was a member of [[Richard Nixon]]'s [[Committee to Re-Elect the President]] (CRP), and was scheduled, at the urging of Senator [[Barry Goldwater]], to speak at the 1972 Republican National Convention.[http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid%3A43998]

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 Hector Castro|Raul Castro]] as governor of Arizona.{{clarify|date=July 2012}}

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.{{clarify|date=July 2012}}

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".{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}{{clarify|date=July 2012}}

==Allegations and charges==
On February 17, 1988, a divided Navajo Tribal Council placed MacDonald on administrative leave. Chairman MacDonald refused to step down from his position, leading to a five-month stand-off. By March of that year, the council appointed an interim chairman. Remaining MacDonald supporters known as "Peter's Patrol" responded by occupying the leader's offices.

In 1990, a Navajo tribal judge ordered Peter MacDonald Sr., after being suspended by the Navajo Council, to face three criminal trials instead of a single trial on 111 criminal counts.[https://archive.today/20121212174513/http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/2001-August/000214.html], raising questions of double jeopardy.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

In the third case, MacDonald was charged with violating tribal election law by accepting illegal campaign contributions from non-Navajos. In this case, MacDonald stood trial with Johnny R. Thompson, the suspended Navajo vice-chairman.

Bud Brown, given immunity, testified against MacDonald, alleging that the chairman pressured him into the Big Boquillas deal. He was allowed to keep the $4 million profit from the land sale and face no jail time.{{citation needed|date=March 2008}}

Government prosecutors, in retrospect, have commented to the New York Times their misgivings of the charges and trial. "I've always wondered if we (prosecutors) were the dupes," one remarked.

==Inciting riots and prison==
The Navajo Nation Council suspended MacDonald in February, 1989. The council had suspected that MacDonald accepted kickbacks from contractors and corporations. Turmoil ensued, culminating in a riot in Window Rock five months later that led to the shooting deaths of two MacDonald supporters and the injury of two tribal police officers. They had stormed the tribal headquarters in an attempt to restore him to power, according to the [[Associated Press]][http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid%3A43998], which is commonly known as the "Peter MacDonald Riot".

MacDonald was eventually convicted of defrauding the Navajo Nation in tribal court, but served only a few months of that sentence before being convicted in federal court of conspiracy to commit burglary and kidnapping charges connected to the Window Rock riot.

MacDonald was convicted on US Federal conspiracy charges for inciting the riot and for taking bribes and kickbacks. MacDonald also served a federal sentence for fraud and racketeering convictions.

In 1990, Peter MacDonald was sent to the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Worth]] Texas. Within several years was convicted of more US federal crimes including fraud, extortion, riot, bribery, and corruption stemming from the Navajo purchase of the [[Big Boquillas Ranch]] in Northwestern Arizona. MacDonald was then moved from the general federal prison unit into a prison hospital after experiencing chest pains.

MacDonald had been imprisoned at the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Worth]], since 1992.

==Commuted prison sentence==
The Navajo Tribal Council pardoned MacDonald in 1995 as he was serving his sentence at the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Worth]].

*noting in their pardon that certain allegations could not possibly have been true and re-establishing the Navajo concept of hozhonji, the Beauty Way, and the need to forgive and ask forgiveness.{{citation needed|date=May 2008}}

===Presidential===
The day before President [[Bill Clinton]] left office in 2001, U.S. Rep. [[Patrick J. Kennedy]] lobbied the White House to commute the sentence of the former leader.

President Clinton granted the request,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons6b.htm|title=List of Clinton Pardons and Commutations}}</ref> along with dozens of other [[Bill Clinton pardons controversy|commutations and pardons]].

==Return to Navajoland==
"I sincerely believe that we will all be better off if we return to the traditional Navajo system in which the family was important and everyone fulfilled their roles and responsibility for preparing our children for life," said the former Navajo Nation Chairman.

Since his return from federal prison, MacDonald has remained a public figure advocating for increased Navajo sovereignty away from federal domains on certain aspects. He speaks at conferences, meetings and education venues.

In 2017, MacDonald, along with [[Fleming Begaye Sr.]] (PVT, USMC), Roy Hawthorne (CPL, USMC), Thomas H. Begay (CPL, USMC), Samuel Holiday (PFC, USMC) and [[Alfred K. Newman|Alfred Newman]] (PFC, USMC) were honored in a White House Ceremony by President Donald Trump. MacDonald spoke alongside the president.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/arizona/trumps-comment-steals-spotlight-from-event-honoring-navajo-code-talkers/75-495005949|title=These are the WWII Navajo Code Talkers honored at the White House Monday|website=12news|language=en|access-date=2017-11-28}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[1989 Navajo Nation Council reforms]]
* [[Bill Clinton pardons controversy]]
* [[Fleming Begaye Sr.]]
* [[List of Native American politicians]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{C-SPAN|Peter MacDonald}}
;Documentaries, topic pages and databases
*[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D8173DF932A35751C0A966958260 The New York Times(1990):Ex-Navajo Leader Is Facing 3 Criminal Trials]
*[https://archive.today/20121212174513/http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/2001-August/000214.html Peter MacDonald and the Navajo Nation]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110517034555/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8197983.html NAVAJO CHAIRMAN SENTENCED TO 6 YEARS IN TRIBAL JAIL FOR BRIBERY, ETHICS VIOLATIONS ]
*[http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid%3A43998 The Price of Doing Business: After eight years in federal prison, former Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald has returned to the reservation.]
*[http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/57449.html Navajo Times endures shutdown, gains independence ]
*[http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=16586 Undaunted muckraker]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823222738/http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/march/030107kh_nvjomillionaires.html MacDonald: Where are the Navajo millionaires?]
*[http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=35&SubSectionID=47&ArticleID=5919 Former Navajo Nation chairman calls for a return to traditional Navajo family values ]
*[http://www.indianz.com/News/2006/017290.asp Former Navajo chairman speaks on elder abuse-2006]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070622134508/http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/august/080605macdonald.html MacDonald applies for city job-Gallup Independent]

{{Arizona during World War II}}
{{Native Americans and World War II}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Peter}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:Navajo code talkers]]
[[Category:Navajo people]]
[[Category:American politicians convicted of corruption]]
[[Category:Arizona Independents]]
[[Category:Arizona Republicans]]
[[Category:Chairmen of the Navajo Tribe]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Recipients of American presidential clemency]]
[[Category:University of Oklahoma alumni]]
[[Category:Arizona politicians convicted of crimes]]