Letters | Gratitude for president

Gratitude for president

Editor,

I wish to express my appreciation for a great man, Dr. Buu Nygren. Thank you for all you did for the Navajo Nation. You are a man of your word.

As a school board president, I asked you to consider funding for our program when you were campaigning and when you became president you stood behind your word and assisted St. Michael Association for Special Education with funding and saved jobs for the people employed there along with people with disability needs.

As a teenager, I attended chapter meetings and was involved in politics and never did I experience a president/chairman who worked with the Navajos like you.

1. You communicate with the people.
2. You listen.
3. You had our roads repaired.
4. You got trailers for people. Although I still live in a storage house, I felt at my age I had my share of houses off the reservation and was thankful for those that got homes.
5. You assisted in us getting food monthly.
6. You did so much for us and your spouse was by your side. Never have had the first lady so involved in the past.

Thank you so much for your interest in our needs. I don’t think it’s over after your term. We still want you in office.

People know that leaders aren’t angels, they are people just like us, so you’re a true leader, not an angel. We appreciate you.

Anabeth Nez
Newcomb, N.M.

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Stop the deal

Editor and Speaker Crystalyne Curley,

I am writing to you today as a concerned member of the Navajo Nation to formally express my strong opposition to the proposed commercial partnership between the Navajo Nation and Disa Technologies regarding the use of High-Pressure Slurry Ablation (HPSA) on uranium mine waste.

While this proposal has been presented to the Eastern Navajo Land Commission and the Eastern Navajo Agency Council under the guise of “cleanup,” technical data and recent administrative actions reveal that this is not a remediation project. It is a commercial uranium extraction venture that threatens our land, our health and our sovereignty.

We urge the Office of the Speaker and the 25th Navajo Nation Council to intervene based on the following critical concerns:

1. Extraction is not cleanup. HPSA is a mechanical separation process designed to recover uranium as a critical mineral. It is not a technology capable of restoring our land to Navajo Nation cleanup standards. According to the EPA’s own 2023 Tetra Tech Treatability Study, approximately 83% of the material remains radioactive on-site after processing. This “83% problem” confirms that HPSA concentrates uranium for sale while leaving the bulk of the contamination behind.

2. Lack of transparency and rushed timelines. This proposal is being advanced with alarming speed to meet a Jan. 15, 2026, Department of Energy grant deadline. This timeline prioritizes federal funding over the informed consent of the Diné people. Furthermore, these resolutions were approved in agency meetings without any written documentation being provided to the public or the voting members, bypassing the transparency our government requires.

3. Violation of the 2005 Diné Natural Resources Protection Act. This proposal stands in direct conflict with the 2005 Diné Natural Resources Protection Act, which explicitly prohibits uranium mining and processing within the Navajo Nation. By entering an extraction-based partnership, the Executive Branch is effectively circumventing a law that was passed to protect our people from the multi-generational trauma and environmental devastation of the uranium industry.

4. Erosion of Navajo sovereignty and liability protections. In a letter dated Nov. 6, 2025, NNEPA requested that the EPA recognize HPSA as a CERCLA (Superfund) remedy and provide “liability comfort letters” to Disa Technologies. These requests would:

Shift liability: Shield the company from future cleanup responsibility, leaving the Navajo Nation to carry the long-term environmental and health risks.

Loss of control: Once uranium enters an NRC-licensed extraction stream, the Navajo Nation loses regulatory authority over how that material is transported, processed and sold.

5. Requirement for site-specific review. Every Abandoned Uranium Mine is unique and affects a different community. This proposal seeks a “blanket” federal approval that would strip local chapters of their right to a transparent, site-specific environmental review and direct community approval.

Madam Speaker, our land is not a laboratory for unproven extraction technologies disguised as environmental remedies. I respectfully request that you and the 25th Navajo Nation Council halt the advancement of this partnership until a full, independent, Navajo-specific environmental and legal analysis is conducted and shared with the public. We recommend holding uranium public hearings.

Thank you for your leadership and for standing in protection of our Nihimá Nahasdzáán.

Anna Rondon
Chichiltah, N.M.

Cora Max Phillips
Tuba City, Ariz.

Norman P. Brown
Gallup, N.M.

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