Fire, fire, fire: Nygren’s 8-hour report, political career

By Nicholas House | May 15, 2025 | News |

Naabik’íyáti’ Committee meeting tuckers out youngest president

TÓ ŁIZHIN, N.M.

From the opening of his overdue Spring Session report to sundown, some Council delegates kept President Buu Nygren in the hot seat, firing questions with urgency, and no mercy and no time limit.

After campaigning on promises of basics, accountability, and collaboration, Nygren appeared before the Navajo Nation Council last Thursday. It was Nygren’s first appearance before the Council since his January mid-report walkout during the Winter Session on Jan. 27, a moment that drew criticism for evading and leaving Vice President Richelle Montoya, who was stripped of authority by Nygren and without contribution, to finish his report.

On April 21, the first day of the Council’s Spring Session, a “subpoena for attendance” was ordered by Speaker Crystalyne Curley and the 25th Navajo Nation Council, after his absence, to deliver the “State of the Navajo Nation Address.” Nygren also chose absence at the Summer and Fall sessions in 2024.

Yet, May 8 was the day. Flanked tightly by his new chief of staff, Kris Beecher, and deputy chief of staff, Candace Begody-Slim, Nygren addressed his report to the Naabik’íyáti’ Committee while second in command, Montoya, remained absent from the table. Again, left without voice, purpose in governance, and contribution, she sat in the Chamber and watched from afar at whom she campaigned for.

First in the queue, after the president’s report, was Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty. Nygren’s off-the-cuff remarks attempted to acknowledge Crotty’s extensive concerns, ranging from missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW/MMIP) to uranium exposure, utility access, and decades-old housing inequities.

To read the full article, please see the May 15, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.

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