Letters | Parlay the stakes
Parlay the stakes
Editor,
President Buu Van Nygren. Chief Legal Counsel Bidtah Becker. Alfreida Nez. Candice Yazzie. Alray Nelson. Five subpoenas. Five no-shows. More names are coming.
The Budget and Finance Committee asked simple questions during its ongoing investigatory hearing. Acting Deputy Attorney General JoAnn B. Jayne, not confirmed to her post and still acting anyway, told them they should not attend or testify.
She then walked into the Council Chamber and asked for a closed room to explain it. Attorney-client privilege, until Delegate Carl Slater asked the same question several different ways and got the same closed door.
That is the woman managing what the Diné are allowed to know about the $24 million tied to Executive Branch agreements with ZenniHome. The Law and Order Committee recently declined to confirm her as chief justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court: 3-0.
Acting Attorney General Kris Beecher is also unconfirmed. The Council voted unanimously to reject his confirmation as attorney general. Beecher’s résumé reads long until you look at the dates. Law degree, 2020. National firm, two years. Then, the Nygren shuffle, still writing itself. A deliberative body looked at both and was not ready to say yes. They stayed anyway.
Nygren arrived with a doctorate, a construction résumé, and a surname now permanently written into the history of the largest tribal nation in the United States. He made Richelle Montoya the first woman vice president of the Navajo Nation, then stripped her of her duties and told her to resign. The firsts were real. So was what came after them.
The $24 million came from Washington, American Rescue Plan Act funds drawn from the accounting of a pandemic that killed more than 1,800 Diné. According to historians, between 2,500 and 3,500 Diné lives were lost during the Long Walk and internment at Bosque Redondo.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury wrote the rules on how ARPA funds are to be obligated, spent and accounted for. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General has the enforcement authority to investigate whether those rules were followed. The Navajo Nation is the only tribal nation with a permanent Washington office, built on the argument that this Nation’s business is serious enough to maintain a federal address. Use it. Ask Washington what it thinks of two unconfirmed acting officers blocking a legislative inquiry into federally appropriated pandemic relief funds. File the FOIA.
The Navajo Times has the reach. It has the obligation. Parlay the stakes.
The Nygren Administration will end. This record will not. Every name on this record made a choice. The closed doors. The no-shows. The privilege invoked to protect the powerful from the people. That math moves forward when this administration ends. It always looks different when it finally bleeds black on white.
Is it worth it?
Nicholas House
Prewitt, N.M.
Navajo reform vote
Editor,
I turned 18 years old and reached the age to vote. I live in Mesa, Arizona, miles from the Navajo Nation. From my outlook on things the Navajo Nation is not doing well. Summarizing what I researched, the Nation has collided with reality. Since 1990, no matter how smart, how educated, how good the talk, the system was created to destroy the Nation from within.
My cheii told me after Chairman MacDonald got removed, the Navajo Nation Council adopted a government that resembled the United States government: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. I call it the “three-legged monster.” By reading newspapers, Google search, YouTube, and other forms of media, I learned more about the Navajo government. My cheii were saying the Council were given the authority to temporarily run the Navajo government.
Every Navajo president fought with the Council and Navajo Nation DOJ and vice versa. That is how the system was set up. The main reason is because of béeso. My cheii say money is the root of all evil. I see what they say is the truth. Social media says the president’s office wants money, the Navajo Nation Council says, “No way, John Wayne!”
The Council wants money, the Navajo president’s office says, “No way!”
Washington D.C. Navajo Nation Office was a waste of the people’s money. They are broken!
The Navajo people needed that ARPA money. Hardship hit the Navajo families with COVID-19 and many people died. Children left behind. Breadwinners died. Wouldn’t the hardship money been worth giving them to survive?
After all, it is not the Navajo Nation’s money. They did not earn or produce the money. Then $24 ($24.9) million disappeared into the “dark side.” That was Covid money. Money that should have been given back to the Diné for their suffering from this pandemic.
Reform will bring prosperity back. Reform is the only true fix. So, despite all the promises you hear, the question back to them is, how? They say, “I will unite the Dineh people,” but how will you do that?
I am voting for a person who is sincere about reforming the Navajo government. That will be my start on voting in the Navajo Nation’s election.
Ambrose Descheny
Mesa, Ariz.
Earn our vote
Editor,
It is that time again for catchy campaign slogans promising progress, change, integrity and unity. These phrases sound great but offer no sense of “how.” We are tired of empty promises.
Campaign rallies and debates should be held within our communities for everyone, not VIPs, and they should be held locally at chapter houses, not in fancy air-conditioned hotels or meeting rooms in the city. Many voters lack transportation to travel long distances. We want politicians to answer our questions and address our specific community economic and social anxieties, not recite preplanned scripts written by campaign managers.
What matters to us:
Homelessness and youth – Young people are taking to the streets due to addiction, mental illness and severe poverty. Many have no idea how to plan for adulthood. When they move to the city, they struggle to navigate the shift from rural to urban life and end up isolated, even more destitute than on the Navajo Nation. They have no money, no place to live, and are often ineligible for welfare. They need accessible health services. Shelters are needed for children, women and men, as well as detox centers for those struggling with alcoholism.
Our children need safe outdoor places to play – playgrounds, swimming pools, walking trails and skate parks so they are not stuck indoors on their phones. Right now, youth are creating their own unsupervised spaces, which are unsafe. Invest in our children before they turn to the streets.
Language, culture and youth spaces – Efforts to reverse language loss and preserve our cultural heritage must be supported with real resources, not just words. We also need community-driven programs where youth can learn from our ranchers and elders how to take care of animals, shear sheep, plant, weed and harvest traditional crops during the summer or after school. These hands-on projects, hosted by our chapter houses, would teach our youth and parents the language and traditional ways of livelihood while keeping them engaged and connected to their heritage. Invest in our children before they turn to the streets.
Economic development – Politicians have been promising business development on the reservation for decades. In 1991, my 18-year-old son attended a Navajo Nation business development and rural addressing conference. In 2026, they will still hold the same conferences. Thirty-five years later, little has changed. While some chain grocery stores and fast-food restaurants have opened, the rural addressing initiative remains incomplete. Many communities still lack proper addresses, making it nearly impossible to explain our locations to outside businesses. When a local entrepreneur opens a business, nobody supports it. Everyone drives one to two hours to shop at border towns. If you cannot explain how, you will keep local dollars in our community, stop making the promise. We need real strategies, not slogans.
Public safety – Build up our police force and address jurisdictional loopholes that leave others vulnerable.
Land and environment – Stop illegal dumping, manage feral horse populations, and address critical water shortage.
Financial independence and self-sufficiency – We understand that money is the key to making improvements, and we depend heavily on federal funding. But what happens when that funding disappears or gets cut? We need to figure out how to do things on our own. We need leaders who will help us build sustainable, self-sufficient communities, not just ones who know how to apply for grants. Teach us how to fish, do not just give us the fish.
Most of all, tell us the plan. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. We do not want to hear, “I will create jobs” or “I will build centers” without explaining how. If you cannot iterate the process, do not make the promise.
Come to our communities. Listen to our voices. Earn our vote.
Marilyn Decker
Nazlini, Ariz.
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