Letters | Nygren didn’t win ‘presidency in a silo’

Nygren didn’t win ‘presidency in a silo’

Editor,
Mr. Buu Van Nygren, have you no shame! Have you not retained any of the Diné philosophical teachings about leadership, presumably instilled in you during your upbringing? Your recent questionable actions and conduct as a young Navajo sitting president are bringing unnecessary embarrassment to the entire Navajo Nation, its people, our resilient history, and our distinguished Navajo Code Talker chronicle.

To say nothing of the Navajo Nation’s relationship with the federal government, state, county, other tribal nations, and many companies and investors. The Navajo Nation’s creditability and good name are teetering over our self-governing cliff.

I will call you out based on our paternal Tódích’íi’nii clan, close extended family ties, we’re both from Red Mesa, AZ/UT, and we’re both registered voters at Red Mesa Chapter. I’m older than you by three generations (Baby Boomers to Millennials). May I also remind you that you campaigned on the name of my Tódích’íi’nii forefathers, descendants of your cheii, and it’s only fair that I convey my profound thoughts as one of the eldest from your home region.

Before your presidential candidacy, you frequently came to my office seeking genuine advice and querying me about the ins and outs of the Navajo government, which I gladly shared with you. During one of our last encounters, I vividly recall advising you never to disregard the “hogan centered Diné teachings” coupled with “sustainability,” which are interchangeable and interconnected. I’m sure you remember these words while enjoying our lunch from Blake’s Lotaburger.

Let’s call out the elephant in the room here at the outset. Your complete lack of Navajo government work experience and absence of holding any public office shows. Since the Title II Amendments of 1989 were established, amendments that created the Office of the President and Vice President, each of the prior nine presidents (Peterson Zah, Albert Hale, Thomas Atcitty, Milton Bluehouse Sr., Kelsey Begaye, Joe Shirley Jr., Ben Shelly, Russell Begaye, and Jonathan Nez) had vast political experience in Navajo government as Council delegates and some as state house representatives.

Even all the past Navajo Tribal chairmen from 1923 to 1989 (Chee Dodge/Zealy Tso to Peter MacDonald Sr./Leonard Haskie) had tribal government and political experience before seeking chairmanship. So, as you can see, you’re the first Navajo Nation leader to have no prior governmental or political experience. Is it any wonder that your administration is mired in turmoil, upheaval, and allegations among his staff, vice president, and the Navajo Nation Council? What’s even worse is how this story, so quickly, has become a political satire among the people of the growing punchline that the chief of staff is exerting authority as “President Sandoval.”

I want to focus here on two specific issues: your line-item veto in Navajo Nation Council Resolution CS-39-24 and your Facebook news conference on October 15, 2024. Your far-reaching line-item vetoes in CS-39-24 (Continuing Resolution for the Navajo Nation for Part of Fiscal Year 2025) are unmistakably targeted at the 25th Navajo Nation Council and the Legislative Branch. You overstrike the budgets of the Navajo Nation Council, all 5 of its standing committees, the Office of Legislative Counsel (attorneys), and the Office of Legislative Services. Your action is nothing short of retribution or revenge against your nemeses, the Council, and the Legislative Branch, which you refuse to work with or view as co-equals but rather view as an adversary.

You did not strike through the budgets of any Judicial Branch programs nor any of your bloated executive branch programs. The delegates, collectively, serve as the voice of the Diné people, and this is whom you target for vengeance? Shame on you! Because of your unwilling cooperative interaction with the Council, refusing to adhere to their long-standing traditional protocol for reports and timeliness, obeying their legislative oversight powers, and consensus compromise based on k’é and respect. A Council delegate is closest to their constituents than you as the president. I doubt you’ve visited all 110 chapters, the people from each of these communities, compared to a delegate who stands before their constituents more frequently than you (you’ve hardly visited your own Red Mesa Chapter).

In one of your visits to my office before announcing your candidacy, I shared with you the need to amend or repeal the Line-Item Veto Authority because it gives too much power to the Executive Branch, and since the adoption of this initiative in 2009, every Navajo Nation president have abused this power, and it’s only getting worse. You took this to a new level by weaponizing it as an “ultimate power check” (former Chief Legal Counsel Bobroff’s words) against the Legislative Branch – Navajo Nation Council. I see that you love this “power” to get your way or to bully another branch of government while dismissing any notion of cooperation or extending a conciliatory tone in governance to the Council. In the short 15 years of the line-item veto, this power by Navajo Nation presidents has been illegally exercised as legislative powers, and it’s being abused to the point of retribution and now as a personal punishment tool.

Suppose the Navajo Nation is so inclined to copy-cat or resemble the 3-branch government federal system. In that case, it’s worth noting the United States Supreme Court declared the federal line-item veto unconstitutional in the landmark case of Clinton v. City of New York (1998). The line-item veto authority must be revisited through a referendum measure via legislation by a delegate (albeit adopted through an Initiative Petition) to ultimately have the Navajo Nation Court weigh in on this contentious concern.

The argument for line-item veto repeal has been that the initiative petition and referendum measure are two different vehicles (a Ford and Chevy, if you will). Still, ultimately, they achieve the same thing – a ballot measure to put before the people to vote on. Such task is supposed to be the job of the Commission on Navajo Government Development and its administration, but they are appallingly inept and asleep at the wheel.

Just as you abused the line-item veto in CS-39-24, you are abusing your office by announcing you’ve removed responsibilities from your vice president and said she no longer represents your administration. Worst, you insist that she resign as the vice president. Really, junior?!

During your campaign, you spoke highly of your mother, grandmother, wife, and baby daughter and how you were surrounded by “women” in your upbringing.

Have you no regard or respect for the philosophical teachings of Changing Woman, Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé, as a central figure in our Navajo creation narrative, the mother of the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer, and Born for Water – associated with fertility and regeneration; and, the White Shell Woman, Yoołgai asdzáá, the sister of the deity Changing Woman and a wife of Water?

You chose to reach out to a woman for your vice president, presumably based on your childhood narrative, and, quite frankly, to select a woman as a running mate to help you win the presidency.

Ms. Richelle Montoya helped you secure the votes while you howled on the campaign trail, “Anybody can become a Navajo vice president, even a chapter manager….”

If you had selected anyone else, a male running mate, you would not be on your power trip sitting behind the Navajo Nation Seal as the 10th Navajo Nation president. Let’s not forget you won by a slim margin of 5.3% (3,551 votes), with most of the votes coming in from New Mexico for a history-making first female vice president. You did not win your presidency in a silo. Your margin of victory is directly attributed to Richelle Montoya. Rather than bashing and demeaning her, thank her for your presidency.

You have no right to remove responsibilities from her as our vice president. I, like many other Navajo electorate, voted for you and her. You’re not about to disenfranchise and disqualify my vote and that of 34,890 Navajo voters. Who are you to announce to the world that you “removed all responsibilities” from her and that she “no longer represents your administration?” Who made you an emperor? Holding an Ed.D. doesn’t give you any more intelligence, and indeed not wisdom, than a layperson.

Here’s the strangest part: Vice President Montoya does not have to report to you, give you updates on assignments or daily schedules, or request travel. She is not your subordinate, nor are you, her supervisor. You are co-equal teammates. You cannot bring your brazen NECA Chief Commercial Officer swag and attitude to the Navajo Nation’s highest office; it doesn’t work like that.

What blatant audacity of you to call for your vice president’s resignation. If you’re so bold to call for her resignation, then we—the Navajo electorate as your ultimate boss—also call for your resignation.

Concerning the recall effort, you noted your vice president signed the petition, and thus, according to your flawed rationale, this supposedly gives you more reasons to have her resign. Ms. Montoya has every civil right and liberty to sign a recall petition to oust you. She’s simply exercising her civil rights! Your approach to this matter is child’s play as if probing to see who signed the recall petition to exact retribution against your opposition. These are the early tendencies of authoritarianism. It’s simply none of your business who signs the recall petition. I was once your greatest supporter and now your staunchest critic, so you better believe I signed the petition. As an 8-year veteran of the United States, I most certainly earned that right!

As I conclude, I want to comment on your unjustified feeling of self-absorption. The cheii hat you initially dawn during your 2022 campaign is perhaps too big for you, figuratively and symbolically, and here’s why:

In the Navajo-way, a cheii hat is typically worn by respectable medicine man, Diné epistemological knowledge holders, and humble healers. A deeply revered eagle feather carries strong medicine and guides the mind, body, and spirit toward courage, strength, and hope. It symbolizes high honor, power, wisdom, trust, and strength. Eagle feathers are seen as gifts from Father Sky. Quite frankly, your questionable and shameful decisions in no way equate to that of an esteemed symbolism of a cheii hat and an eagle feather.

You simply could not personify the qualities of a strong mind, trust and strength to attend the Navajo Nation Council Fall Session to delivery your State of the Nation address to your Navajo people. This is a dereliction of duty!

Also, it is reported that you slapped your Billy Jack Felt Hat silhouette (outline) atop the Great Seal of the Navajo Nation. Really? Your action is self-glorification with a grandiose sense of self-importance. This begs the question of whether your action violates the seal trademark or artificially amends the Navajo Tribal Council resolution CJ-9-52, the official adoption of the Great Navajo Nation Seal. Your fixated hat is too small for the Great Navajo Nation Seal.

Have we crossed the threshold of the narcissistic self in a constant struggle for self-confirmation? I strongly suggest revisiting the rudimentary teachings of the Diné Hogan-centered lifeway to realign with reality. Or, should your defiance persevere, resign!

Edward Dee
Red Mesa, Ariz.

Editor’s note: Edward Dee is the former Navajo Government Development executive director.

Voting progressive

Editor,
It seems that 99 percent of Navajo voters, voted for Biden the last election. I hope that the Hopis, Pimas, Hualapais, Zunis, Yavapais, Apaches, and all of the other Indigenous people of the southwest, continue the tradition of voting progressive. The data clearly shows the discernment that Native Americans have for doing the right thing and not being mesmerized into voting for some weird candidates, intent on messing up our environment (aka Mother Earth) even further. Truth and truthfulness seem to always have been cornerstones of the Navajo and I appreciate that fact.

In 2005, I made a trip to visit my former NAU roommate, Ray Chase (then living in Fort Defiance). I had wondered about Ray for the intervening years after 1967, until I wrote a letter to the Navajo Times newspaper, revealing my respect for “Ray” the student and family man, after sharing a dorm room for only a few weeks. Ray’s son recognized that it might be his father in the letter, and responded. A year later, I was able modify a hunting trip to Utah, through Fort Defiance, so that I could stop by to visit Ray. It was a wonderful, short, reunion, but sadly, just four years later, the effects of diabetes, took Ray’s life.

Again, I want to express my appreciation for the Navajo people, and for their influence, in helping to elect the far better presidential candidate in this election.

Gerald Lance Johannsen
Carlsbad, Calif.

John Kinsel, a towering man

Editor,
I was fortunate to have received a link to Donovan Quintero’s article regarding the passing of John Kinsel Sr. through a news feed I scan occasionally.

The Nation has lost a towering man. I was moved to send this brief note because we have lost a man of a type and quality that seems hard to find today. I hope many others learn of Mr. Kinsel’s life and that our young people strive to emulate those qualities he found important to him.

Please convey my thanks to Mr. Quintero for providing this important and meaningful article. With sincere condolences and kind regards.

John Johnson
Tobaccoville, N.C.

Maintaining a powerful voting block

Editor,
We, as “Native Americans,” must educate ourselves on the critical issues we face collectively as Indigenous peoples. What happens to One happens to All. We must dominate the narratives in the campaigns of both political parties with meaningful input as we maintain a powerful voting block that could sway the outcome of the election 2024 as the “November Surprise,” regardless of the continued Lies of Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery.

Voting is already difficult for Natives in the cities and for Navajos who live 50-miles away from the nearest voting poll station, it is mingled with voter suppression and legal entanglements in a system created by people that know nothing of our conditions on the reservations and can offer us no solutions. We have to speak with our votes.

Nationally, we have two choices: 1. The Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the prosecutor and the coach, who offer an economic plan riding the current Biden-Harris Administration upsurge on Wall Street leaving other world economies in the dust coupled with integrity, long-term planning, balance and listening ears when Americans speak no matter what party affiliation; and, 2. The Donald Trump and JD Vance Republican GOP, both MAGA January 6 election deniers with loyal zealots that deify Trump with a golden idol, as he hawks $100,000 watches and golden sneakers, vodka, bizarre NFT cards, concepts of plans and of course, a $60 Trump-endorsed Bible.

Educate yourselves on the Donald Trump Republican GOP agenda magnified by the Christian nationalists who are pushing a “revolution” for a fascist dictatorship under the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan … “bloodless, if the left allows it to be.” Trump promises “retribution” and “American carnage.” What is the Navajo Nation prepared for when the impending massive changes are implemented at the national level?

Native Americans have the most to lose under Trump/Vance. Project 2025 contains only two paragraphs regarding us in its 920-page manifesto simply because we have no place in the agenda of the authoritarian plans set out in their own documents. Harris/Walz will continue to honor the treaties, tribal sovereignty and self-determination, give the Indigenous nations a “seat at the table” and participation in government-to-government trust responsibility.

In light of this and in support of Leonard Peltier, I join the multitudes across the globe who are calling upon President Joe Biden to grant clemency to the Indigenous leader and activist, the one who marked his 80th birthday behind bars on September 12 after nearly a half-century in prison for a crime he says he is not guilty of.

Peltier has had no trial and no opportunity to present full evidence that will exonerate him as he is a political prisoner held by the U.S. government, a historical practice but with outstanding precedent in the length due process has been denied to one individual in spite of the rule of law, evidence, public outcry and overdue justice.

Ask POTUS Joe Biden to grant clemency to Leonard: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500; Write to Leonard Peltier and let him know you care and support him: # 89637-132, USP COLEMAN I, P.O. Box 1033, Coleman, FL 33521, USA.

Mervyn Tilden
Church Rock, N.M.

A long dark history

Why would anyone want a narcist, who has no loyalty to anyone or anything other than himself as their president? Why would anyone vote for a racist who has a long dark history of insulting, demonizing and exploiting people and countries that are not Caucasian? Why would anyone want a president who ridicules the handicapped, degrades military war heroes, and calls his running mate a retard? Why would anyone want a draft dodging convicted felon who pretends to love his country but secured loopholes to avoid serving it? Why would anyone vote for a con man who pretend to love his religion, but peddles $60.00 Bibles, printed in China, despite the fact that when asked, he was unable to identify a single passage – perhaps it’s because he’s never read the book and it’s just another one of his scams to pay his legal fees.

Vote for Trump and say goodbye to your sacred sites and burial grounds. For him, the earth is simply a commodity to be exploited for monetary profit. The only thing he considers sacred is money.

Vote for Trump and prepare to be insulted. In the 90s when his casinos were struggling in New Jersey, and Natives were gaining entry into the gaming industry, he accused Native leaders of being cocaine traffickers and career criminals who had fallen under mob control. He even spent one million dollars lobbying and buying newspaper adds to convince the public that Indian casinos and tribal leaders were a menace to society.

Vote for Trump and expect sever cuts federal funding that are vital to the Navajo Nation in areas such as food distribution for the needy, education, housing, safety, and other services.

Vote for Trump and pray we don’t have another pandemic. With 200,000 Americans dead, he untruthfully continued to downplay the deadly consequences of the disease because it was adversely affecting his “economic legacy.” Unfortunately, too many believed him and died as a result. I lost two dead friends who believed him, and I miss them.

Leo Hand
Columbus, N.M.

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