Crystalyne Curley reflects on her two years as speaker ahead of the Winter Session Council vote

DADEESTŁIN HÓTSAA

Crystalyne Curley is fighting to maintain her role as the 25th Navajo Nation Council speaker.

The Council delegates will decide whether to reelect her today, Jan. 27, when the Council convenes for the first day of the Winter Session, which will test her leadership over the past two years.

“It’s just been work, work, work,” Curley said in an interview with the Navajo Times. “I do enjoy it.

“As a person––emotionally, spiritually, mentally, (I’ve been) self-evaluating myself within this past month––is really, where can I take the team to? Meaning the Council and the big portion I have to consider is administratively too. It is the whole team of the Legislative Branch,” she explained. “I do have a great team that I work with.”

The Council on Jan. 23, 2023, elected Curley, who’s Tséńjíkiní and born for Tó’aheedlíinii, to serve a two-year term as the Council speaker and head of the Legislative Branch. She made history as the first Diné woman selected to serve as a speaker, a position that carries a heavy workload.

“Being a speaker, working directly with the Council, the Legislative Branch administratively, and my five chapters,” she said. “We have done a lot as a team. I keep reiterating two years after, it’s not an ‘I’ or ‘shi’ mentality that I think of myself as. A lot of the recognitions, the accomplishments, I do extend back to the Council because my accomplishments couldn’t happen … without their support and their votes and moving a lot of these issues across the finish line.”

Reflecting on her 2023 speaker campaign speech, where she discussed ARPA funding, she emphasized the importance of ensuring that every dollar was allocated to a specific project. This goal was achieved, as 100% of the ARPA funding was successfully obligated.

Another key success of the ARPA funding was reserving at least a quarter of the funds. This ensured that lost revenues were accounted for and placed into a general fund, with $521 million earmarked for the Navajo Nation chapters.

“One thing I heard (over the past two years) was, ‘Window Rock is taking too long,’” she said, explaining that the central government has numerous internal policies and procedures that cause delays.

One strategy the Legislative Branch considered was finding ways to navigate deadlines, which it has done at the federal level when extensions weren’t granted. When those efforts didn’t succeed, it had to adopt another approach, such as moving the local ARPA dollars into the general fund to ensure they were protected.

“We don’t have to worry about––over 25 percent of the $2.1 billion that we’re looking at. And the rest, the $1.5 billion, is still within FRF (fiscal recovery fund),” she said. “We still have deadlines but within this last special Council session, we made it more flexible, meaning each one of those projects is now identified under one master agreement.

“So we don’t have hundreds and hundreds of agreements that we have to keep track of. I see that as a huge accomplishment, not only for myself but for the Budget and Finance Committee and the Council as a whole, that we have taken the lead within the past two years.”

These goals extend into her upcoming two-year vision, with all the funds already allocated.

“For these next two years, I really want to work closely with the Council as a whole, with Office of the Controller to making sure that each of these dollars stay within their guidelines or scope of works and making sure the expenditure rates are going at a timely manner,” she added. “Policy-wise, that’s been one of my biggest tasks. Halfway through, I think we’re on a good path. We identified a solution, voted on it, presented it to the Council. So, we’re just very fortunate that we have President (Buu Nygren’s) support.”

Another significant achievement is negotiating Navajo water rights, a cause deeply rooted in her upbringing in Fish Point, Arizona, where she grew up without access to internet, cellphone service, highways, or running water.

“Just reflecting on a lot of those things––back to my own community and how hard we had to work,” she said. “So, one area was water rights. As a livestock owner, as a mom, it’s just something that had to be done.”

For years, Curley explains, the Diné endured the consequences of uranium mining, the Navajo Generating Station, and the water consumption required by the coal-fired power plant.

“It’s just so frustrating at times, know that we built so many cities––Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas,” she said. “OK, we gave up our water, now, can we have our chance? It’s kind of like a storyline. Working with the former Attorney General (Ethel Branch) and President Nygren, and the Resources and Development Committee, we said, ‘OK, let’s give this one last try.’ And it is our last try.”

The group created teams internally and techniques that had never been done before. “Overall, it’s just coordination––working with our legal team, admin team––so we created a negotiation team of Council delegates that had a voice,” she explained. “And we met every other day, every weekend, making sure––whatever the feedback from the San Juan Southern Paiute, Hopi, and the state of Arizona, the seven (Colorado River) Basin states––we just made sure we were all sticking on track.”

Eventually, the group reached the finish line during the summer. The speaker shared that she cried, feeling both joyful and reflective as she thought about her elders.

“It was a very emotional moment,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘If this passes, I’ll be good with that for the rest of my life. If I get through this Council, one thing at least I know I had checked off in my life goals … was making sure we have claims to our water rights.’ That’s not a speaker goal or a Council delegate goal, but it’s a lifetime goal.”

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