Associated Press - September 18, 2009 5:44 PM ET

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - Assistant Interior Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk says he will do what he can to help the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, which manages the federally funded Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.

NAPI general manager Tsosie Lewis says construction on the irrigation project has stalled in the past two decades.

Lewis says the tribe needs Echo Hawk's assistance in the future of NAPI and the irrigation project.

The project was authorized by Congress in the 1960s to provide an irrigation system from Navajo Dam to 110,000 acres of Navajo land south of Farmington.

Echo Hawk - a Farmington High School graduate - toured parts of the 70,000-acre irrigated agricultural operation Thursday.

NAPI ships 98% of its produce nationwide and to Mexico. It reported a profit of $9.5 million last fiscal year.

Information from: The Daily Times, http://www.daily-times.com

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