Author: Donovan Quintero

When the drum starts, Grace Kaydence Etsitty and Kacee Yazzie do not wait for instruction. They move when the rhythm feels right, stepping into the circle with the calm assurance of children who know where they belong.

Navajo veterans organizing a reservation-wide meeting here say the gathering is intended to confront what they describe as a growing disconnect between long-standing veteran policies and the reality many veterans face after returning home.
Despite decades of veteran-focused legislation, many Navajo veterans say they continue to encounter bureaucratic hurdles, particularly in accessing housing and post-service support.

The Navajo Nation has acknowledged payroll errors affecting some employees following its most recent pay period, attributing the discrepancies to data migration issues tied to the rollout of a new human resources system. A corrective payroll run is scheduled for early January.

A comprehensive audit of the Navajo Nation’s finances and federal programs for fiscal 2024 shows a tribal government with vast financial resources, billions in cash and investments and a comparatively small debt load.

Pallets of red netted potatoes and stacks of flour lined the dirt lot outside the Greasewood Springs Chapter House on Monday as volunteers in neon safety vests moved steadily between boxes and vehicles, loading food into trunks while elders waited from passenger seats.