100 years of controversial laws
Courtesy of Navajo Nation Library
A Council meeting is in session inside the Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock, in 1946.
WINDOW ROCK
Celebrating a centennial of government, the Navajo Nation continues to move forward to represent its people, but some laws created in the past did the opposite.
The Dine Marriage Act in 2005, Sovereignty in Water Rights, Indian Child Welfare Act, and the decision to regulate taxes have all undergone the microscope of criticism among the Navajo people on and off the Nation.
Jennifer Denetdale, an American studies professor at the University of New Mexico, said, “You’d think it would be a no-brainer” when discussing the Dine Marriage Act.
In 2005, the 20th Navajo Nation Council passed the Dine Marriage Act prohibiting same-sex marriage within the Navajo Nation.
On Apr. 22, 2005, a quorum of 67 people all voted in favor of passing the act with zero to oppose, on top of not allowing same-sex marriage, marriage between family members (parents, grandparents, children, brother, sister, first cousin, uncle, aunt), plural marriages, and marriages not prohibited outside of the Navajo Nation are also not allowed on or by the Nation.
To read more, pick up the April 13 edition of the Navajo Times.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow