Volume 6, Number 1

This study attempts to examine governmental complicity with corporate malfeasance; it interprets how the original trust doctrine has been misapplied by federal agencies in such a way that the practice of internal colonialism subsidizes corporate control over indigenous peoples‘ lands and resources. These governmental policies are veiled under the rhetoric that utilitarianism promotes the well-being for the people of the American West. However, utilitarian practices come at the sacrifice of ―the others.‖ Utilitarian logic supports policies, which promote the commodification of nature. As long as the goal of furthering production for the greatest sum of good for the majority is satisfied, the others‘ interests become, from a bureaucratic standpoint, inconsequential. 5 5 Giancarlo Panagia is an Assistant Professor of Justice Studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. He holds a Ph.D. in Justice Studies and Social Inquiry from Arizona State University and a S.J.D. from Indiana University at Indianapolis. He is also a member of the Virginia State Bar. He publishes on issues of environmental racism and public lands as they relate to the practices of the BLM and the Forest Service. Green Theory and Praxis Journal 36 ISSN 1941-0948 Volume 6, Number 1, December 2012 Washington sent three men out West. They threatened the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes with loss of their winter food supplies if they didn‘t hand over the land: "If you don‘t make any agreement with the government, you will just have to kill your cattle, and then you will have to starve," one commissioner warned. The tribes sold the 40,000 acres for $36,000. They didn‘t starve that winter... 6