Lawsuit hobbles historic trading post

GRAND CANYON — National Park Service officials at the Grand Canyon and the nonprofit that helps support them cooked up a bogus case of accounting fraud to boot the only true Indian Trader at the Hubbell Trading Post, a recently filed lawsuit claims.

In his 12-page complaint, Billy Malone alleges that nine federal employees and officials for the nonprofit Western National Park Association conspired to strip him of his pseudo-celebrity status and his post at the post.

He claims a series of accounting errors that were attributable to the nonprofit itself were unfairly pinned on him, despite his long history as an established Indian Trader throughout the Navajo reservation.

He wants his old job back, plus compensatory and punitive damages. Chandler lawyer William R. Hobson is representing Malone.