Charges, counter-charges pepper Deschene’s Supreme Court hearing

By Krista Allen
Western Agency Bureau

TUBA CITY, Oct. 2, 2014

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The Navajo Nation Supreme Court last week reinstated and remanded grievances filed against Christopher Clark Deschene to the Office of Hearings and Appeals to determine whether or not he’s qualified.

When Deschene first announced his candidacy on April 14 at LeChee Chapter, he told the assembly, in which Chinle Chapter Vice President Myron McLaughlin was in attendance, “Diné Bizaad doo yaashti’da."

“I’ll tell you, I’m learning, bíhoosh’aah,” said the 43-year-old Deschene. “But I’d say Ben Shelly and (other naat’áanii) probably don’t know how to talk to the decision-makers in Washington, D.C. The contracts that they negotiate, the agreements that they work on, they probably don’t know how or what that looks like."

When asked in an interview with the Navajo Times on April 21 why he doesn’t speak Diné Bizaad, he said he’s a product of cultural destruction in a Trojan horse’s education. What he meant was that he was sent away to obtain a great education, which he says helps a student tremendously.

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