Rights report confirms problems, charts strategy

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission has approved a report stating that Navajo people have endured racism and discrimination in towns and cities that border the Navajo Nation.

The commission unanimously approved the "Assessing Race Relations Between Navajos and Non-Navajos" report July 2 during its regular monthly meeting.

"The completion of this report - the full realism (of Navajo people's testimony) - certainly signifies a major accomplishment," said commission Chairman Duane "Chili" Yazzie.

Yazzie, an activist for Navajo rights since the 1970s, said he doesn't recall the Navajo Nation ever compiling a report like this before.

It is nearly 100 pages and distills many hours of testimony taken in hearings held around the region over a nine-month period. It will be presented to the Navajo Nation Council later this month but is not being released until then.

An executive summary of its findings was provided to the Navajo Times.

"It is confirmed that racism and discrimination is present in the border towns," the executive summary states in its conclusion.

At the same time, said Yazzie, most border town residents don't condone racist behavior.

"We realize that there will always be a minority segment of the population that will harbor ill will and even hatred on the basis of the color of skin. We accept that the majority of those communities will not tolerate that," he said.

Commission member Steve Darden approached the findings of the report with softer language.

"(The report) confirms the presence that there are challenges in race relations in the border towns," he said.

Yazzie said the report documents what until now had been mainly anecdotal accounts of discrimination experienced by Navajo individuals.

"We've taken every effort to document the problem as best we could," he said.

NNHRC Executive Director Leonard Gorman said the report's recommendations and conclusions result from testimony delivered by Navajo people.

"The intention (of the report) is to provide what exists out there from the perspective of the Navajo people - from the individuals that delivered testimony that is very important," Gorman said.

The commission conducted 25 public hearings over nine months starting in December 2008. The hearings were held on and off the Navajo Reservation, according to Rachelle Todea, NNHRC spokesperson. She added that 158 people testified and nearly 450 people attended the hearings.

The eight-page executive summary was the only portion of the report released to the Navajo Times because the full report is still in final editing, Gorman said.

The executive summary is broken into the summary, findings, recommendations and conclusion.

One of the 11 recommendations calls on the commission to establish memorandums of agreements with neighboring cities.

Gorman said the MOA would help the commission investigate formal complaints from Navajo citizens into allegations of mistreatment.

Currently, the commission has an MOA with the city of Grants and is scheduled to meet with the Community Relations Commission of Farmington in early August to work on a similar agreement.

The executive summary didn't prioritize cities for negotiations for a MOA.

The summary also recommended that the Navajo Nation adopt some anti-discrimination legislation, establish a Navajo Nation Better Business Bureau, beef up the Office of Navajo Labor Relations, create a tribal income tax, and advocate for sovereign recognition by the United Nations.

Other recommendations were to establish a MOA with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to negotiate Indian hiring preference with border towns, amend home-site and grazing leases to require preservation of sacred sites and Navajo traditional practices, that any student receiving a Navajo scholarship show Navajo culture competency in order to receive scholarship money, and that all Navajo students should be required to attain an associate's degree from Navajo colleges before attending institutions elsewhere.

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