Sheriff candidates pressed on policing gaps in Diné communities

Posted by Donovan Quintero | May 21, 2026 | News |

SHIPROCK

Four Republican candidates for San Juan County sheriff faced a Shiprock audience Saturday over a question that has followed the office for decades, one centered on how the county’s top law enforcement officer can serve Navajo voters in places where the sheriff has no primary criminal authority.

The forum, hosted by the Northern Agency Veterans Organization, drew Jonathan M. Nyce, Daniel Webb, Kevin Burns and Kenneth W. Christesen, who are running in the June 2 Republican primary. The jurisdiction issue dominated the afternoon.

Vice President Richelle Montoya, who attended the forum, said afterward that she did not hear the answer she came for.

“I did not hear anything about how they are going to be accountable,” Montoya said.

Montoya, who is from Torreon, New Mexico, said Navajo voters in several counties help elect sheriffs whose deputies usually cannot respond on tribal trust land.

San Juan County covers 5,538 square miles and has about 122,000 residents. More than 63 percent of the county’s land area is tribal, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including nearly 60.5 percent Navajo Nation land and about 3 percent Ute Mountain Ute land.

On those lands, the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Rangers hold primary policing authority.

To read the full article, please see the May 21, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.

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