Author: Donovan Quintero

With roughly eight months left to spend its remaining share of $1.86 billion in federal pandemic recovery funds, the 25th Navajo Nation Council opens its Spring Session Monday with a vote that could reshape who signs off on those expenditures.

Candidates seeking Navajo Nation office in the 2026 election have until 5 p.m. April 22 to submit their filing paperwork, with all agency filing offices closed on the final day and remaining submissions routed to the Department of Diné Education auditorium in Window Rock.

Attorney Justin Jones drove to the Navajo Election Administration office in Shiprock on Thursday morning with his son, daughter, nephew and two sisters, filed to run for Navajo Nation president on the first day of the filing period, and by evening stood before a packed parking lot in Farmington arguing that a government he says is crippled by corruption, infighting and bureaucracy must be reclaimed by the people it was built to serve.

The Trump Administration’s decision to revoke the 20-year mineral withdrawal around Chaco Culture National Historical Park has exposed sharp divisions among those closest to the land, pitting a Navajo allottee and chapter president who welcomed the move against a former Council delegate who has spent decades fighting to protect eastern Navajo communities from oil and gas development.

The Navajo Nation Washington Office works both sides of the political aisle to protect the Nation and its citizens from federal decisions that could threaten health care, food assistance, water, land and other core interests, Executive Director Vince Redhouse said.