Navajo Nation Council

§1006 of the Navajo Code instructs that should vacancy occur in the Office of President and Vice President, the Speaker shall serve as President of the Navajo Nation until a special election is held. The Code further states that the Speaker shall then act concurrently as Speaker and President, and that the speakership shall not be considered vacated.[5]

• Navajo Nation Council
• Naabik’íyáti’ Committee
• Budget and Finance Committee
• Health, Education and Human Services Committee
• Law and Order Committee
• Resources and Development Committee

• Diné Bizaad Subcommittee
• Gaming Subcommittee
• Navajo–Hopi Land Commission
• Navajo Indian Irrigation Project Subcommittee
• Navajo Sexual Assault Prevention Subcommittee
• Quadrilateral Agreement Task Force
• State Task Force Subcommittee
• Title II Reform Subcommittee

The Diné (Navajo) created the ceremonial gatherings called Naachʼid which met every 2 to 4 years, or on an emergency basis as needed.

The traditional Navajo government was organized around the principles of Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí dóó Hashkééjí, the nurturing and protecting aspects of governance. Each Navajo clan chose two representatives to attend these assemblies, with the purpose of protecting and nurturing the Diné. An individual selected to participate in that council was called naalchʼid. The Hashkééjí Naatʼááh, translated as war chief, protected the people from any harm as they moved away from the principles of Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí.

The Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí Naatʼááh, or peace chief, nurtured each individual, assisting the people to live in accordance with the principles of kʼé (peace and friendship) and to maintain relationships with all creation.[8][9][10]

Former Navajo Council delegate Katherine Benally [left] speaking to her constituency after the defeat of the proposed Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement Act.

The Navajo Business Council was created in 1922 by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in order to certify mineral leases on the Navajo reservation. At its first meeting, the Council acquiesced to U.S. pressure to grant oil companies use of the land. In return, the Navajo Nation was promised more land that could be used for subsistence farming and sheep grazing. This first council was headed by Henry Chee Dodge and consisted of one delegate elected from each of the five agencies, along with one alternate delegate.

After refusing to adopt Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier's Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, the Navajo Tribal Council reformed in 1937. The Navajo voters would ultimately reject three attempts at establishing a constitutional government over disagreement of lasting legal language.

Until 1984, the Navajo Tribal Council and Navajo Nation had been supported by funding from the wealth of natural resources on the reservation. In 1984, however, the council established the Permanent Trust Fund, into which 12% of all revenue each year would be deposited. Funds would first become available in 2004.

The name Navajo Nation Council (sometimes called the Navajo Nation Tribal Council) came into use around the middle of 1989. The name change occurred with the Title II Amendments of 1989 which established the three-branch government system used at Window Rock today. This created a clear delineation of executive and legislative powers, vested leadership of the executive branch in the President and Vice President, and created the offices of Speaker of the Council and Speaker Pro Tem.[11]

In 2005, Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan was elected for his second term as Speaker of the Council.

• BCDS Manufacturing Inc.
  • In 2005, the council allowed BCDS to receive a loan of over $2 million from the Navajo Dam escrow account.[14] None of the monies were used for their originally intended purpose. It was reported later that over $1 million was spent on the lavish lifestyle of the chief executive officer and on luxury homes at Aztec and Farmington.[15]
• OnSat
  • Later in 2005, a tribal audit found discrepancies regarding a service contract with internet provider OnSat Technologies, to provide the chapters with Wireless broadband.

On April 29, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. proposed reducing the Navajo Council from 88 members to 24 members. The election would change the dynamics of the council in 2011.[17]

• OnSat
  • OnSat service was disrupted in 2008 over nonpayment disagreements.
• BCDS
  • In December 2008, the tribe and the Council were forced to pay outstanding debt related to the bad loan made to BCDS in 2005. JP Morgan Chase received $2.2 million from tribal accounts.[12]

In January 2009, Speaker Morgan was reelected speaker, to a fourth term. The election made him the first speaker to serve eight years in that capacity in the Council's modern history. President Shirley addressed the Council in the annual State of the Navajo Nation address on January 24, 2009. Shirley spoke of his conviction of the need to develop a new governing document for the Navajo Nation. Shirley had campaigned to return government to the Diné by government reform.

• Shirley ouster
  • During the first week of October 2009, the Council met in private and special sessions. Then on October 26, the council voted 48–22 to remove President Shirley from his official duties. The council had originally included removal of Vice President Shelley as well. Allegations had been swirling around the four-corners states alleging improper dealings with Utah-based OnSat Technologies, and a biochemical company at Shiprock, New Mexico.[18] Shirley's chief of staff and other members of the senior staff were also removed.
  • OnSat CEO Dave Stephens and former Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Office director Ernest Franklin were not targeted in this action.[19]
  • On October 27, 2009, members of the Council released a statement addressing the allegations of retaliation and denying them.[20]
• Discretionary spending
  • In December 2009, the Council called for a special prosecutor to look into the President Shirley's relationship with two companies that had operated on the reservation. Attorney General Louis Denetsosie focused the investigation on the tribe's contractual relationship with the Utah-based satellite internet company OnSat; the $2.2 million loan guarantee to BCDS Manufacturing Inc.; and payments from the council's discretionary fund to family members of several legislative-branch employees.[21]
• 24 votes and the presidential line-item veto
  • In a special election held on December 15, 2009, tribal members voted 61% in favor of reducing the Navajo Nation Council from 88 members to 24 members. In the same special election, tribal members voted 59% in favor of allowing the President of the Navajo Nation to perform a line-item veto.[22]

At the meeting of the council on January 13, 2010, Council Delegate Jonathan Nez announced changes to Title 22 of the Navajo Nation Code that would take place in the wake of the majority of the tribe's membership voting to reduce the size of the council to 24 members.[23] In a decision on May 28, 2010, the Navajo Nation Supreme Court ordered immediate implementation of a redistricting plan.

• Probe of the council's discretionary funds
  • Following a three-judge panel's review of three applications, the special division of the Window Rock district court named Alan Balaran as special prosecutor, to begin work in early February 2011. Balaran, who had served as the court-appointed special master in the Cobell Indian Trust Fund case, would act under the jurisdiction of the special division. Balaran's investigation was later expanded to include a tribal ranch program and discretionary funds given to the Shirley administration.[24]
  • In October 2010, a special prosecutor for the Navajo justice department filed charges against members of the then 88-member Navajo Council, three weeks before the November 2 election. The investigation returned findings of serious misuse of discretionary funds. The funds were designed to be made available at the direction of lawmakers for any number of community causes, activities, and emergencies deemed appropriate by council delegates.[25]
  • Attorney General Denetsosie outlined allegations that centered on an elaborate conspiracy of members of the council to give discretionary funds to family members. The scheme involved participating members hiding the transactions behind the vagueness of the law establishing the funds, and the loosely audited dispersal of funds from the legislators' offices. The investigation and trials would continue to the end of the 22nd Council.
  • Suspected delegates were served official complaints just before the Council convened for the fourth day of their Fall 2010 session.
  • In early November 2010, the Council was unhappy with the special prosecutor's focus on the legislature's misuse of discretionary funds, and it organized the removal of several functionaries that the Council thought were responsible. On November 4, 2010, the council voted 42–0, with two delegates abstaining, to order legislation terminating the employment of Attorney General Denetsosie and his deputy, D. Harrison Tso.[26]
  • On December 23, the council opposed the removal of the deputy attorney general, in a 65–3 vote. Another bill to remove the attorney general was introduced but not debated.[27]

On January 11, 2011, the new, smaller 24-member council was seated, and the restructuring of the legislative branch began. On January 24, 2011, Delegate Johnny Naize (Blue Gap-Tachee/Cottonwood-Tselani/Low Mountain/Many Farms/Nazlini) was selected as speaker.[28]

In May 2011, President Ben Shelly signed council resolution CAP-10-11, sent to him by the council, amending Title II of the Navajo Code. Among the changes in the law was the reorganization of existing standing committees to match the 24 vote membership.[4]

In January 2013, the council reelected Speaker Naize to a second term.

• BCDS
  • In 2013, Hak Ghun, 62, of Durango, Colorado, was found guilty of tax evasion regarding his involvement with misdealings at BCDS.[29] Ghun had funneled $1,078,170 in corporate funds to his personal accounts between 2005 and 2007, and had failed to pay taxes to the IRS.
• Discretionary spending debacle and resignation of Speaker Naize
  • In December 2013, a special prosecutor appointed by the council charged Speaker Naize with 10 counts of bribery and 1 count of conspiracy. Naize was charged along with former delegates Lawrence T. Morgon, David Tom, Lena Manheimer, and George Arthur in misusing over $186,000.[30]
  • On March 11, 2014, Naize pleaded not guilty to misusing $35,550 and diverting the funds to members of his family.[31] On April 4, 2014, Naize was removed from the speakership through forced paid leave via a unanimous vote. On April 7, 2014, Naize filed a petition with the Navajo court to restrain the Council from taking action. Speaker Pro Tem LoRenzo Bates took over the duties of the speakership.[32] Naize resigned his delegate seat at noon on Sept 29, 2014.[33] Later that year, Speaker Naize changed his plea to guilty, after resigning from his district seat. Many Farms chapter's grazing official and former council candidate Roland Tso was appointed to serve the unexpired term of Naize's delegate seat; Tso was sworn in on November 14, 2014.[34]
  • Delegate David L. Tom resigned in October 2014, late in his term, after pleading guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. Prosecutors alleged that Tom had funneled $95,000 in tribal funds to his wife and children.[35] Tom was replaced by former interim Navajo President Leonard Hoskie, who was sworn in on December 1, 2014.[36]
• Navajo code crisis
  • On October 24, the Council passed legislation to amend the Navajo Nation Code. In an 11–10–3 vote, the legislation dissolved the language requirement of the qualifications sections for president. The legislation would have retroactively allowed for Chris Deschene's participation.[37] On October 29, President Shelly vetoed the bill.
  • On January 1, 2015, the Council met to hear a bill that would provide for holding primary elections in June 2015 and general elections in August 2015. The legislation passed the chamber in a controversial 11–1 vote, with over half of the members absent from the vote.[38] On January 5, President Shelly vetoed the bill.[39]
  • January 7, five assistant attorneys general filed petition with the Navajo Nation Supreme Court for clarification on the question of the presidential vacancy issue. Through a controversial agreement and resolution,[40] referenced as CD-80-14 and CD-81-14, the court and the council—with Speaker Pro Tem LoRenzo Bates; delegate Leonard Tsosie; Otto Tso, councilman-elect; and Amber K. Crotty, director Diné Policy Institute as signatories—appointed Ben Shelly to act as interim president. The move was in contradiction to Navajo Code Section 1006.

Council Delegate Kenneth Maryboy informing his supporters of Peter Macdonald's endorsement (2010)

Russell Begaye, Council Delegate & President.