Reimagining the political landscape of Diné Bikéyah

By Brett Colby Clark

Editor’s note: Dr. Brett Colby Clark, a Diné family medicine physician from Page, Arizona, is committed to serving his community, the Navajo Nation, upon completing his residency. His professional interests include economics, the Native American reservation system, and biotechnology. Dr. Clark is also the founder of the Indigenous Property Freedom Movement.
Dr. Clark is Kinyaa’áanii and born for Bįįh Bitoodnii. His maternal grandfather is Tł’ízíłání, and his paternal grandfather is Deeshchii’nii.

Politics in Native Country remain a mystery after all these years. Our model of government is based on the three branches of government developed in part by James Madison and those who drafted the Constitution.

What makes our Navajo government interesting is that the three branches work like the United States, however, we try to incorporate Diné teachings and utilize traditions to guide our governing. Unfortunately, this is flawed in one alarming way, no matter what we do, this form of government will never capture our Diné teachings and traditions.

Of course, we can try to include Diné teachings into this western style of governing, but if we founded the government with the framework of Diné teachings, we could utilize our culture to improve governmental effectiveness in the nation. This would require constructing a novel constitution to reimagine governing in Native Country.

Many of us remember the construction of the Constitution from social studies/U.S. history in middle school and high school. Additionally, I also took Navajo government, a requirement for the Chief Manuelito scholarship. What I remember from that course is how our government is structured after the U.S. government with three branches, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, each branch responsible for its own powers and with checks and balances.

The U.S. Constitution developed a new government based on ideas of unalienable rights, property, pursuit of happiness, anti-tyranny, right to bear arms, et cetera, which were all concepts created to fight monarchies. Europe for thousands of years subjected everyday people to harsh working conditions and no guaranteed rights. The intellectuals of the 17th and 18th centuries wrote extensively on how a republic and democracy were important for the rights of all peoples. In the early American colonies, these ideas began to rise up and are now the basis of the Constitution.

Now that Native Country is post-American-Indian Wars and are now over 100 years into assimilation, we must revisit our status. Are we better off now than we were before the union conquered the West? I would say no. Just like Europeans of the 17th century wanted to flee from Europe in hopes of a better future and government, I think our time to reconsider our governing is warranted. Just like those who drafted the Constitution, we need to start with our framework. This is an opportunity to change the whole system and be a model for the rest of Native Country. We can correct the mistakes of those in the past and help create a path forward for healing.

How would this work? We ideally would need to get Diné culturalists, intellectuals, previous presidents, councilmen/councilwomen, previous judges, anthropologists, medicine men, and others to come together to start from a Diné perspective. For the executive branch, possibly bring back a two-person executive leadership, a war naat’áanii and peace naat’áanii.

The war naat’áanii would be in a suit and spend a lot of time in meetings with government officials, possibly in Washington, D.C., and Arizona/New Mexico. Their job would be to secure rights like water rights, economic rights, et cetera. If we were to establish a military, they would be the commander-in-chief.

The peace naat’áanii would spend most of their time in the Navajo Nation. They would not wear a suit and would be in traditional garments. Their duty would be that of a spiritual leader, telling others how to live in hózhǫ́. Both leaders would be responsible for different bills. The legislative branch would designate the bill as a W-Bill or P-bill and would need the signature of the respective executive leader.

A war naat’áanii would be responsible to protect their people from outside forces. The peace naat’áanii would be important for building our people up and spreading hózhǫ́.

The Legislative Branch would operate the same way as they do now, but amendments need to be made in how things are performed. There is a lot of red tape, and this is an opportunity to produce a framework that expedites certain processes, like allocating funds for elders, and so forth. Our nation needs to be updated for the future, but not like any other city. We need to work with outside engineers to produce a new kind of Native American city. So this is an opportunity to create a framework that allows for our Legislative Branch to pass specific legislation important to our people. The Legislative Branch would become more effective, and these amendments and clauses would need to be ironed out to make them more conducive to nation building and community building.

The Judicial Branch would need to be overhauled. I think incorporating a hataałii (medicine man/woman) component is necessary. Along with the supreme court, there needs to be those of traditional laws guiding our people. These individuals will need to be educated and a school for medicine men/women would need to be constructed to produce them for these positions.

In addition, they will act as a small counsel for conflict resolution. As we are now dealing with issues regarding conflict in this current administration, their job will be to act as a mediator and have the people of the Navajo Nation in mind. Their verdict will be final, and all parties are to agree to the verdict. They would meet twice a year and would help decide what things need to be addressed, and they will report to both the Council and Executive Branch.

Finally, the people of the Navajo Nation will be separated back into clan systems for voting. It would be close to a democratic republic where we vote as clans.

For example, I am Kinyaa’áanii and when I vote, I will be voting for a candidate through my clan. All those whose first clan is Kinyaa’áanii will be compiled up and whoever has the most votes, the clan representative will state that the majority vote for x candidate. Therefore the Kinyaa’áanii will vote for the one with the most. In addition to going back to our clan systems, we would then take a different view of what we believe. In America, this is progressive, moderate, or conservative.
In Native Country we might use these terms but in reality, our view of these concepts are vastly different. We shouldn’t use these terms but invent new ones like traditional, neo-traditional, modern, anti-traditional, and others. That way if I feel like I’m more modern than traditional instead of saying I’m a “moderate (political party)” I would then say I’m a modern Kinyaa’áanii. Others might say I’m a traditional Bįįh Bitoodnii. That way you know what clan you are and how you think politically. Let’s get away from American terms because politics in Native Country are massively different than American politics.

If you asked 100 Natives in Native Country, they would all say we need a change, one that focuses on our cultures and language. The longer we do nothing, our languages and cultures will slowly die out. This was the intent of the U.S. and their policy when rounding up Native Americans over the country. They wanted us to assimilate, and now it’s time to fight that long standing policy. We can start by reimagining our Native governments. It’s time for de-assimilation and “re-indigenization.” We have an opportunity to create a new government that represents our people, our language, and our way of life.

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