Author: Donovan Quintero

A tornado announces itself. A flood, an earthquake, a wildfire, each leaves a wound a person can point to. Drought does none of that. It arrives without a sound and takes its time, and on the Navajo Nation it has been taking its time for the better part of 25 years.

Executives of the Navajo Transitional Energy Company came before the Naabik’íyáti’ Committee June 11 to announce a record $5.5 million dividend and report roughly $121 million in total economic impact to the Navajo Nation in 2025. 

The Naabik’íyáti’ Committee on June 11 rejected a report on Navajo Nation Fiscal Recovery Fund chapter projects after delegates said the figures dated to 2024 and they still could not get clear answers on the status of pandemic-relief projects.

They rolled out of Window Rock at first light, more than 50 motorcycles strong, and threaded their way west through the high desert in a single line that stretched along the red road toward the horizon. Behind them, the buttes and spires of the Navajo Nation rose against a cloudless sky as the riders moved in unison, headlamps lit, escort vehicles trailing the formation for miles.

The Navajo Nation holds roughly $10 billion in investments Controller Sean McCabe told a budget public hearing yet left about $58 million unspent last fiscal year out of roughly $313 million budgeted for its three branches.