Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Business: Treasure for the Tribes
From Houston and Albuquerque, El Paso and Denver, tough-trading oilmen from every major company have been converging on the Four Corners area of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico to get in on one of the biggest oil rushes in U.S. history. The sellers: the Navajo Indians, who are fast learning to play what oilmen call "grunt and groan." As the bids for oil lands are announced, the tribesmen merely grunt, and as the prices soar higher, the oilmen groan.
Last week the groans were rising to a new crescendo. In the first 230,000-acre...
To read the entire article, you must be a TIME subscriber. Already registered? Sign in below
Current print subscribers to register
Subscribe now to get TIME All Access
Email, Password or Region is incorrect
A required form parameter was missing.
The System is currently down. Please try again in a few minutes.
Email Address is invalid
Password is blank
Most Popular »
- E.T. Turns 30: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Our Favorite Extraterrestrial
- How Cash Keeps Poor People Poor
- 15-Year-Old Creates Test for Pancreatic Cancer
- Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test
- Obama Stumbles? Why the President's Right to Talk About Bain
- 10 Dangerous Products You Might Have in Your Home
- Could a Fertility Gene Discovery Lead to New Male Contraception?
- Euro Crisis: Why A Greek Exit Could Be Much Worse Than Expected
- Fourth Flesh-Eating-Bacteria Case Confirmed in Georgia, Possible Fifth
- Star Wars Turns 35: How TIME Covered the Film Phenomenon
- Researchers Probe the Potential Health Benefits of Palm Oil
- A Visit with Turkey's Controversial Religious Movement
- Feeding the Planet Without Destroying It
- Bubble on the Potomac
- Falcon's Liftoff: How a Private Firm Could Change Space Exploration
- The Fatal Flight of the Superjet 100: Why Did It Slam Into a Mountain?
- Learning That Works
- The Man Who Remade Motherhood
- Bibi's Choice
- Seoul: 10 Things to Do
More News from Our Partners
Top Stories on TIME.com
Quotes of the Day »
RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
