On the road

The new vice president of the Navajo Nation hasn't been in the news very much since taking office in January, but between traveling and coming up with new ideas on how to strengthen Navajo education and make the Navajo people healthier, he's kept busy.

Rex Lee Jim has been from Washington, D.C., to Bolivia and many other places in recent weeks. He estimates that about half his time since taking office in January has been spent on the road on behalf of the Navajo Nation.

He is somewhat unique in the annals of the tribe's second-highest elective office. He is the first with an Ivy League degree - from Princeton - and even more unusual from a Navajo standpoint, he's the first second-in-command who's not from New Mexico. Lee is from Rock Point, Ariz.

In the past, the vice chairmen and vice presidents of the tribe came from New Mexico and were delegated to handle issues affecting Eastern Navajo, but President Ben Shelly, a native of Thoreau, N.M., decided Jim was needed in the areas of education and health.

Most recently, that emphasis has meant Jim is spending a lot of time at budget meetings in the nation's capital, trying to protect funding for the Navajo Nation.

Last week, he addressed the 13th Annual National Heath and Human Services Budget and Policy Consultation session in Washington.

Jim reminded attendees that the 2010 Indian Health Improvement Act requires full funding of the Indian Health Service this year. He pointed to $2.6 billion in new hospital construction and renovation that IHS says is needed on the Navajo Reservation.

In addition to threatened federal health-care funds, the Navajo Nation is facing challenges at the state level, especially in Arizona, which faces a $1.15 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2012.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has already proposed cutting $542 million from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which operates the state Medicaid program, Jim noted.

She plans to drop 250,000 beneficiaries from the program beginning Oct. 1, the start of fiscal 2012. One in every 10 beneficiaries - 141,432 out of almost 1.4 million - is Native American.

As for proposed cuts in preventive care, Jim told the federal panel that preventative care may be optional for people living off the reservation but "on the Navajo Nation they are critical and essential services to Navajo adults who are suffering from diabetes."

One of Lee's main duties is to speak out at meetings like the one in Washington to make sure that federal and state officials realize how desperately needed these health dollars are for Navajos.

Two weeks ago, Jim was on a different mission, traveling to Bolivia on behalf of the Carter Institute and meeting with indigenous people to learn how they live. Bolivia is unusual in that a majority of its citizens - 55 percent -belong to one of its three dozen indigenous groups, including President Evo Morales, who is Aymara.

"I had a great time," Jim said, adding that the time has come for the Navajo Nation to invest more of its efforts on a global stage.

He found the indigenous people of Bolivia very interested in the way Navajo government operates because they, too, aspire to be independent of the central government that was established under colonial rule.

Back on the Navajo Reservation, Jim has been working on new approaches to solve entrenched health and education problems.

He wants more funding for disease prevention, with a strong emphasis on encouraging healthy, active lifestyles like Navajos traditionally had.

He also wants to help Navajos get off the food they learned to eat during captivity, and to turn away from high-sugar foods in favor of the healthier eating patterns of their ancestors.

One of the obstacles to accomplishing this is the chicken-and-egg dilemma: Stores that peddle mainly soda and snack food say they are just answering customer demand, yet the food industry spends billions to whet people's appetite for unhealthy foods.

Jim wants to tackle this problem by requiring food stores, when they sign a lease with the tribe, to commit to providing customers with better choices.

Turning to education, Jim said the time has come for the tribe to take a more active role in the education system on the reservation. And one way it can do so is by enacting legislation to give the tribe control over the curriculum taught at reservations schools.

He realizes most Navajo children struggle to pass the tests required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but said part of the reason "is that the tests are culturally biased."

He wants tribal educators to create a Navajo version of the AYP tests so that Navajo children can truly demonstrate what they know.

Another problem that Jim said needs to be addressed is the quality of teaching on the reservation.

As the recipient of a prep school education, Jim was surrounded by teachers who were not only experts in their fields but were passionate about sharing their knowledge.

"Today's teachers are generalists and may not be teaching the subjects they are interested in," he said, and he wants to foster programs that would improve the teaching skills of reservation teachers.

To help accomplish that, Jim envisions a grant program in which Navajos would write stories promoting Navajo values and stories, and these would be incorporated into the curriculums of reservation schools to help teach children their traditions.

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