HCN.navajo Politics

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HighCountryNewsFor people who care about the West

SWINE SLAYERS | 5 | AMPHIBIANS WITH ALTITUDE | 8 | MR. TOADS WILD TUBE RIDE | 26

Looking for Balance in NavajolandAs corruption charges plague the Wests largest tribe, reformers struggle for traction.

By Marilyn Berlin Snell. Page 12.August22,

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12 HighCountryNews August 22, 2011

WindoW Rock, ARizonA

he Navajo Nation Council Chamberis a rounded bit o beauty inspired by

the traditional Navajo hogan. Its setagainst a natural arch o sandstone thatgives Window Rock its name, a wide andrequently dramatic sky, and temporarygovernment-oce barracks that havebeen at their task several decades toolong. The odd cow or horse sometimeswanders loose nearby, oraging or grass.

On a windy day last April, at a meet-ing o the 22nd Navajo Nation Council,the building was a reuge rom swirlingcottonwood debris and blasts o red dust.Inside, a storm o a dierent nature wasbrewing. Dipping in and out o Englishand Navajo, the Council delegates legislators or the largest tribe in theWest were in heated debate. From thepublic gallery, I couldnt hear the ocialinterpreter well enough to understandthe particulars; my earpiece kept short-ing out. But the overall theme a con-fict over the shape and character o theNavajo government was clear, rightdown to the chambers seats.

Most o the delegates plush black-leather chairs were empty a powerulreminder that a majority oDin, or ThePeople, as the Navajo call themselves,want change. This Council, elected last

November, was the rst to refect a suc-cessul 2009 ballot initiative to consoli-date chapters, or legislative districts,and drastically reduce the governingbodys size rom 88 delegates to 24. Adelegates proposal to urther reorganizeCouncil duties and powers had ignitedthe current debate.

There is no Navajo C-SPAN, and thetribally ownedNavajo Times publishes

just once a week, so people who want theblow-by-blow have to attend the sessions,held or one week our times a year. Andits not easy. The Navajo Nation sprawlsacross 27,000 square miles o northern

Arizona, northwestern New Mexico andsoutheastern Utah, and travel is compli-cated by poor roads, expensive gas and alack o public transportation.

Two Navajo activists sat next to me.Norman Patrick Brown, 51, wore tur-quoise earrings; his long hair was pulledback and secured by the red bandannaaround his orehead. With his wrestlersphysique, he seemed ready or a take-down. He translated the proceedings ina whisper and editorialized: The oldguard is still in the majority and werewatching them very closely.

I learned accountability when Iwas young, listening to my elders, herd-

ing sheep, said 56-year-old Ed Becentisotly. His salt-and-pepper hair wasthick and short, and he looked t inhis running shoes and jeans. We had75 head, and at the end o the day wedid a ull count. I one was missing, mygrandmother would get a fashlight andwouldnt come back until she ound thatsheep.

I sheep were dollars, 36 million othem would be missing on the NavajoNation today. Becenti and Brown andtheir allies including a tough spe-cial prosecutor rom Washington, D.C. want to know what became o thatmoney. The previous Council allegedly

As corruption charges plague the Westslargest tribe, reformers struggle for traction

Navajo

MonsterSlayers

FEATURE | By MARilyn BERlin SnEll

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tapped a slush und discretionaryunds intended or the reservationsneediest people to benet their ownamilies and riends, while the Navajopresident and others looked the otherway. The questions, and the push orreorm, reach into both the presidentsoce and the judicial branch, and in-clude renewed calls to create a NavajoConstitution to guide the relativelyyoung government.

Above the thinned ranks in the coun-cil chamber, a long mural painted in1935 encircles everyone. It portrays thehistory o the Navajo, beginning withimages o women grinding corn. Then

rugs are woven, sheep herded, cropswatered, horses ed. In several battlescenes, Navajo warriors wield bows andarrows against white men with guns.The Long Walk o 1864, when the U.S.

Army orced many Navajos to walk toFort Sumner, N.M., is painted along thesouth wall. Hundreds died, yet manysurvived and returned to their homeland a triumph thats also celebrated. Thestory in the mural reminds everyonethat the Navajo Nation is a sovereignentity with its own dramatic history,creation stories, and distinctive ideasabout government and justice.

I democracy is the United States

guiding principle, the Navajos is hzh.There is no exact English translation, butbalance and harmony come close. Thisideal permeates how Navajo laws aremade and justice meted out not eye-or-an-eye punishment, but restitutionand the restoration o harmonious rela-tionships.Hzh requires constant stock-taking, the thoughtul weighing o onesown behavior and that o the tribe. Any-thing that causes imbalance, disharmonyor discord is naayee, the Navajo word ormonster. Changing Woman, who cre-ated humans, had two sons who are cen-tral to the Navajo pantheon because theywere the rst monster slayers.

Navajo Councilwatchdogs NormanPatrick Brown, let,and Ed Becenti, outsidethe Navajo NationCouncil Chambers inWindow Rock, Arizona.Diego James Robles


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An updated mural showing currentevents would depict a battle as erociousas any in history. This time around,though, both the naayee and their slay-ers are Navajo. And the timing is strik-ing: The Navajos are reshaping theirown dysunctional government even asWashington, D.C., seizes up in ineec-tual gridlock. The reorm eort proceedsin ts and starts, but its the biggest up-heaval here since 1989, when the Navajogovernment tore itsel into pieces and a

political riot let two people dead. At itsheart, its about the desire to nally cre-ate an eective, modern democracy thatemphasizes traditional Navajo values.Its a battle or balance or hzh.

When SpaniSh colonizerS roamingthe Southwest encountered the Navajo

in the 17th century, they did not nd atribe ruled by a centralized authority.Navajos had allegiances to immediateamily and clan and neighbors, morethan to the tribe as a whole. The head-men among the disparate groups didntrule by lineage or election. They came topower because they were wise, or skilledat hunting, or had ceremonial knowl-edge. And they could lose that powerquickly i they ell out o avor, accordingto Peter Iversons landmark 1983 book,

The Navajo Nation. Back then, it waseasy to throw the bums out.

But when oil was discovered onthe reservation in 1922, decentralizeddecision-making made it harder or out-side interests to access those resources.So the ederal commissioner o Indian

Aairs (the precursor to the Bureau o

Indian Aairs), without Navajo consul-tation, established procedures to createthe rst versions o the Navajo TribalCouncil. At times, early on, the eds se-lected delegates based on their level oassimilation, Westernized education andbelie that the traditional Navajo wayblocked progress. Even when delegateswere elected by Navajos, they could beremoved or cause by the secretary o In-terior pretty much guaranteeing theywould go along with whatever the eds

wanted. At the rst Council meeting in1923, reports David Wilkins in his 2003book, The Navajo Political Experience,the 24 delegates unanimously approveda resolution drated in Washington which gave (the commissioner) the au-thority to sign all oil and gas leases onbehal o the Navajo Indians.

From the 1920s to the 1980s, thetribal government made a series o ques-tionable deals with companies seekingcoal as well as oil and gas. Yet there

were also attempts to establish politicalchecks and balances. Beginning in 1938,Navajo voters selected a chairman and

vice chairman to preside over the Coun-cil, and in the 1950s, the Council estab-lished a court system. A Tribal Code laws modeled ater ederal codes soonollowed. A Navajo Constitution wasproposed on three separate occasions butnot adopted; voters were conused abouthow it would impact Navajo lie, and oneeort ailed simply because the Council

never put the drat constitution beorevoters or ratication.

The Council, which increased to 88delegates as a result o the reservationspopulation growth and reapportionment,drated and approved the tribal budgetand passed laws. But power began toshit in the 1970s, when the Councilgave a charismatic, ambitious chairman,Peter MacDonald, the authority to ap-point members to standing committees.(Imagine i the U.S. president could

appoint members o key congressionalcommittees.) MacDonald became themost powerul Indian in America, inthe words o the Associated Press, overthe course o his our nonconsecutiveterms. As master o his nations legisla-

Most o the plush chairsin the Navajo Council

Chamber are empty, sincea 2009 ballot initiative

reduced the number odelegates rom 88 to 24.

Diego James Robles


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tive priorities, he asserted tribal sover-eignty against ederal authority. He alsolaunched economic development schemesto try to ease the reservations wide-spread poverty, and urther tipped thebalance o political power in his avor,with moves such as temporarily shutter-ing theNavajo Times, which had been arequent MacDonald critic.

But then MacDonald overreached:He convinced the Council to buy the491,000-acre Big Boquillas Ranch, near

the Grand Canyon, or $33.4 million. Areporter was tipped o that hed receivedkickbacks and bribes in connection withthe deal. The U.S. Senate began hear-ings in 1988, and a ractious tribal Coun-cil voted to place him on involuntaryadministrative leave. He reused to giveup power, and tensions erupted into amelee at tribal headquarters: A crowd ohis supporters roughed up some outnum-bered policemen, and two o the crowdwere killed by police bullets. (MacDonald

was ultimately convicted in both tribaland ederal court or election-law viola-tions, bribery and corruption; he servedeight years in prison beore being par-doned by President Clinton.)

To check the virtually unlimited pow-er MacDonald had amassed as chairman,the delegates amended Title 2 o the Na-

vajo Nation Code in 1989. They replacedthe oces o chairman and vice chair-man with a less powerul president and

vice president. The new president would

not run the legislative branch. That rolewas given to the speaker o the Council,who is chosen by ellow delegates.

These amendments were seen as astopgap measure to guide the tribe out ochaos and hold the nation together untiltheDin could decide or themselveswhat kind o government they wanted.Until the 2009 special election, however,they didnt have the chance.

Meanwhile, there were increasing in-dications that the Council delegates had

begun to abuse their power and spendlavishly, including controversial trips toLas Vegas and Hawaii justied as tribalbusiness. In 2007, a vast majority o del-egates voted or a special amendment,tacked on to a measure unding summer

youth employment, to allocate $50,000to buy gold rings or all the delegates, tocommemorate their service.

in 2009, navajo voTerS unhappy withthe delegates service approved two bal-

lot initiatives designed to shit the bal-ance o power again. They not only re-duced the number o delegates; they alsogave the president a line-item veto overspecics in the annual budget passed bythe Council. Yet a majority o delegatesreused to reduce the Councils size. Theycited a law Section 102 o the NavajoNation Code that was enacted by aprevious Council session to stabilize theragile government in the wake o the1989 crisis. It required that any change

in the governments structure had to beapproved by a majority o registered vot-ers in each o the 110 chapters. It wasntsurprising that the popular vote ellshort o that supermajority threshold,because only about hal the Navajo Na-

tions 110,000 registered voters cast bal-lots during regular elections; the specialinitiative vote came out 25,206 to 16,166.

A good-aith law written to protect theDin was being used against them.

Council supporters had also led alawsuit attempting to orce the NavajoNation to abide by the supermajoritylaw. In May 2010, the Navajo NationSupreme Court reused to do that. In hisruling, Chie Justice Herb Yazzie notedthat the supermajority is an extraordi-

nary majority impossible to be obtained.The Supreme Court voided Section

102 and eectively overruled the Coun-cil by relying on Navajo FundamentalLaw. In traditional Navajo philosophy,Holy Beings handed down oundationaldoctrines like hzh that orm the basisor Fundamental Law. These doctrinesare increasingly being interpreted andincorporated into Navajo jurisprudence.In this case, the court ruled that theCouncil upset the balance o Navajo so-

ciety by neutralizing the ability o votersto choose the type o government theywanted. As Chie Justice Yazzie put it:The Peoples laws are superior to thestatutory laws enacted by the Council.

The Navajo Supreme Court tookanother gutsy stand in July 2010, rul-ing that Joe Shirley, who had servedtwo terms as president, could not seeka third consecutive term enorcinglimits the Council had created ater thestruggle with MacDonald. The chie

justice is nominated by and serves atthe pleasure o the president, and hisappointment must be conrmed by theCouncil. In his tussles with the two otherbranches o government, Yazzie appearsto have had the Holy Beings on his side.

Navajo news organizations heraldedthese events: The 2009 popular vote wasthe rst time the Navajo People them-selves enacted new Navajo Nation lawthrough the initiative process, accordingtoKayenta Today, a newspaper and blog

covering the reservation. And Yazziesenorcement o the popular vote was thecourts most wide-ranging decision andchanged the course o Navajo historyorever, according to theNavajo Times.

I spoke with Yazzie in his Supreme

Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald inearly 1989, just weeks beore he was suspendedin the ace o ederal and tribal charges orvarious oenses. He later served eight years inederal prison. associateD pRess

The pepes

aws are

superr t

the statutr

aws eate

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cu.Nj sur

cur ch JuHr Yzz,

hzn hrn Nj

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Scenes romthe muralthat coversthe wall o theNavajo CouncilChamber.Diego James Robles


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Houses in the TwoGrey Hills area o the

Navajo Reservation,(above), representedby Council Delegate

David Tom, right,shown here at

the Navajo TribalCouncil meetingin July. Tom has

been charged withdiverting nearly

$280,000 o tribalunds to himsel and

his amily.Diego James Robles

Court oces, located in a strip mall onRoute 264. He has a wide ace and grayhair. His black cowboy boots were wellbroken-in and nicely veined rom long-time use. There is a basic provision inthe Navajo Nation Code that says theCouncil is the governing body o the Na-

vajo Nation. People have noted that thathas been used to stife their rights, he

said. They see ... that the Council, in itsown sel-interest, reads that to mean thatall government power comes rom them.

And when the court interprets that pro-vision and says, No. The power o gov-ernance comes rom the people, a lot omembers o the Council dont like that.

aS The poliTical STorm cloudS gath-ered in 2010, then-Navajo Attorney Gen-eral Louis Denetsosie recruited an Anglo,

Alan Balaran, as a special prosecutor.

Balaran was supposed to look into twocontroversies: how the Council had spentmillions o dollars, and several badlyailed business ventures that originatedin President Shirleys oce. Balaran, aWashington, D.C., lawyer, had an im-


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pressive rsum. In the early 2000s, hewas the special master in BlackeetIndian Elouise Cobells massive class-action lawsuit against the Department oInterior over the inept leasing o millionso acres o Indian Trust lands or drill-ing, mining and grazing. Balaran dug upevidence o Interiors misdeeds on many

reservations, including the Navajos.(The Interior Department nally settledthe case two months ago, agreeing to pay$3.4 billion to individual Natives acrossthe country.)

Balaran speaks to the public throughcommuniqus and indictments, andavoids talking on the record to journalists.But I will risk his wrath to report that hehas a strong Brooklyn accent, a penchantor well-placed proanity, and a palpabledisdain or rule-breakers. His critics

call him messianic. He works long andlonely hours next to the Navajo CouncilChamber, in a borrowed barracks-oceat the Department o Justice, which payshis salary. His amily and private lawpractice remain in D.C. as he labors tountangle tribal aairs. In October 2010,beore the Council was downsized, heled criminal complaints against 78 o the88 Navajo Nation delegates.

The charges were various combina-tions o raud, orgery, thet, conspiracy

and abuse o oce. Over the course o veyears, according to Balaran, delegatesengaged in shameless sel-dealing evensiphoning money rom a und intended tobuy eyeglasses or poor Navajos, to ll thecoers o their amilies and riends.

Council Delegate David Tom rep-resents the chapters o Red ValleyTsealanaoztii, Sheepsprings, Beclabito,Gadiiahi/ToKoi and Toadlena/Two GreyHills where, legend has it, Spider Womanrst taught Navajos to weave their exqui-

site rugs. He was charged with diverting$279,175 to himsel and his extended am-ily, the largest haul o any delegate. In hisphoto on the Council website, he wears atuxedo rather than the typical delegatesuniorm (a basic suit with a handcratedturquoise bolo tie and necklace). He didnot returnHigh Country Newscalls andemails asking or comment.

The directness with which the Dele-gates and their sta stole millions o dol-lars earmarked specically or the poor

was notable not only or its brazennessbut or its callous disregard o the needso their indigent constituents, Balaranstated.

Economics drive both the alleged cor-ruption and the push or reorm. Mosto the 300,000 Navajos live on the reser-

vation, and delegates constituents aremostly poor: Whereas delegates annualsalaries are a modest $25,000, plus perdiem perks or travel to Window Rockand various committee meetings, the

average per capita income or Navajos isabysmally low (about $7,000). More than40 percent live below the poverty line,and over 18,000 households lack basicinrastructure such as electricity.

Reservation unemployment stands,

ocially, at just over 50 percent, accord-ing to the Navajo Nation. The actual un-employment rate, as the tribal Divisiono Economic Development (DED) has ac-knowledged, is much higher: over 70 per-cent. A person must be actively lookingor a job to be included in the labor orce;i youre not looking as is the case with

many on the reservation, since there areno jobs youre not considered unem-ployed. According to the DEDs 2009-10status report, the service sector, whichincludes schools, hospitals and motels,was the largest employer, with 15,215

jobs, about 49 percent o the Navajo labororce. The government employed 8,214people, or 26.6 percent. There were only aew hundred jobs in basic industries likemanuacturing and agriculture.

Delegates dont campaign or oce

as Republicans or Democrats. RussellBegaye, a newly elected delegate rom theShiprock area, told me that what mat-tered was amily and clan connectionsand serving the people. A successuldelegate needs to know how to work thesystem. Its hard to deeat an incumbent.

You control the resources and can dolethem out. I you can help somebody, theyremember it a long time. So you can actu-ally buy votes in a way. This may explainwhy David Tom was re-elected last No-

vember, ater he was indicted. And it mayalso help explain why Begaye, who hadnever beore run or oce, won.

Begaye was born and raised inShiprock, N.M., hauling water and usinghorses to plow his amilys arm. He letthe reservation or college, graduatedrom UCLA, and worked his way up inthe building industry, ounding his ownrm in Atlanta. He returned in 2007,to nd a reservation changed in all thewrong ways. Shiprock used to be a viable

commercial center near Farmington, butnow it, like the rest o the reservation, ismired in hard times.

When I was growing up, we had aFirst National Bank in Shiprock. We hadseveral sit-down restaurants, two hotels;

it was a thriving community, Begayesaid. Now, people have to leave the res-ervation to shop. Theres just an outfowo revenue rom Shiprock into surround-ing towns.

Only around 36 percent o all Navajomonies are spent on the reservation,according to a recent study. Businesses

avoid the reservation, in part becauseo bureaucratic red tape. In a speechto the Navajo Nation Council, ArizonaSen. John McCain, R, observed that ittakes three to ve years to get the gov-ernmental approvals necessary to opena dry-cleaning shop in Window Rock.The same approvals can be obtained inFlagsta (Ariz.) in just three days. Now,why on earth is this tolerated? Whatkind o business climate is that? Mc-Cain made the criticism in 1996, but it is

telling that the Navajo Nations 2009-10Comprehensive Economic DevelopmentStrategy Report continues to cite it.

Begaye is a businessman, and itirked him that avors were handed outon a piecemeal basis while overall de-

velopment oundered. He campaignedon creating opportunity. Although anunknown, he won, he said, by buyingan hour o radio time on the Navajo Na-tions KTNN and inviting young Navajosto come talk about success. A 19-year-

old told us about starting his own busi-ness; a young girl had got her M.D. I

just lined em up and let them tell theirstories.

Many tribes struggle with lousyeconomies and fawed political systemsthat were established by the ederal gov-ernment, o course. But Begaye studiedeconomic success stories, especially theMississippi Band o the Choctaws, whose

visionary leaders made constitutionalreorms in the 1970s, strengthening

the executive branch and making otherchanges that helped the tribe become aneconomic powerhouse. The Choctawswent rom being one o the states poor-est communities to being a big employer.They brought in industry o all kinds. So

Council DelegateRussell Begaye,let, in Shiprock,which was a vibrantcommercial centerwhen he was growingup there. Now, hesays, people have toleave the reservation

to shop.Diego James Robles


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now Im in Shiprock, and Im thinking,Ive seen it and I know its possible. Special proSecuTorBalaran contin-ued to dig into President Shirleys role indoling out discretionary unds, as well ashis involvement in two companies withtribal contracts, OnSat and Biochemi-cal Decontamination Systems (BCDS),but was hampered by Shirleys reusal

to release some documents. BCDS hadplanned to build a manuacturing planton the reservation, and the tribe was theonly stockholder that contributed capital;the company deaulted on loans and letthe tribe saddled with debts o more than$4.7 million. OnSat was one o Shirleyspet projects, hired to install public Inter-net access at all chapterhouses and emer-gency response agencies. A 2007 tribalaudit ound the company overcharged thetribe by more than $600,000.

The Navajo Nation on the whole hasa poor record backing enterprises. Theboard members o its economic develop-ment agencies oten lack experienceand proessional business credentials.Shoddy business plans and a lack o duediligence contribute to problems, theNavajo auditor general has said, add-ing that even a basic Internet search orinormation on BCDS head Hak Ghun aka Hak Soo Dickenson wouldhave discovered that he was one o seven

people charged in ederal court in NewYork with derauding investors out o$11 million in 1984.

President Shirleys vice president,Ben Shelly, was also caught in Balaransnet charged with the thet o $8,850when he was a council delegate. Yet evenwhile Shelly was under that cloud, lastNovember, Navajo voters elected himas the new tribal president. They alsoelected ormer delegate Rex Lee Jim,charged with conspiracy and the thet o

$3,200, as the new vice president. A kindo gender bias might help explain thoseresults: Shelly ran against a woman,Lynda Lovejoy, a New Mexico state sena-tor. Though Navajo society is matrilinealand Shelly himsel had argued that lead-

ership ability, not gender, is important,theres a strong prejudice against womenbeing in charge. During the campaign,several traditional Navajos were quotedin the press, blaming Lovejoys presiden-tial bid or upsetting nature and causinga tornado.

Just beore their inauguration inJanuary, Shelly and Jim settled thecharges against them, agreeing to repay

the money and work with Balaran to en-act reorms. Repeated inquiries, askingPresident Shellys oce to provide spe-cics about the promised reorms, werenever answered.

In my research or this story, I did mybest to avoid the stable o outside expertswho are oten quoted about the need toreorm many tribes governments. Dur-ing interviews in Window Rock, Navajosinvariably said, You need to talk to Rayto understand whats happening. Ray

Austin was a Navajo Nation SupremeCourt justice or 16 years, and is now aproessor in the Indigenous Peoples Lawand Policy Program at the Universityo Arizona law school. Hes been at theoreront in developing tribal courts andtribal law. Due to his severe hearing loss,he and I conversed by email.

Some Navajos deend the delegatesallegedly criminal actions by saying theywere honoring the doctrines ohzh aswell as k (peaceulness and solidarity)

and k(kinship). Essentially, the moneywas doled out to keep things harmoni-ous. Austin, a longtime advocate o usingoundational doctrines to guide modernsel-governance, would have none o it.There is nothing wrong with helping kinand clan relatives in time o need, hesaid. A person can give money (or thingso value) to assist kin and clan relatives,but the money given is personally owned,not money that comes rom the publictreasury. The delegates conduct, i

true, is corruption.The tribe is experiencing the grow-ing pains o a nascent government,

Austin wrote, adding that the currentscandals would generate new laws andpolicies that would prevent similar trou-

bles in the uture.Hzh is still at work,then, just not in the way the delegatesdeenders contend.

reformer ed BecenTi, whos trained incomputer repair, emails his observationson council meetings to a long mailing list

via requent Rezztone blasts. He also

thinks that the delegates are misusingthe revered doctrines. Once they getinto oce, they go into this power thing,like theyre somebody special and theycan do whatever they want. And theyuse the Navajo language to do what theydo. They sotened us to stealing peoplesmoney by using words like ke. Its justan escape rom their mistakes.

His riend Norman Brown (they metduring the early 1970s heyday o the

American Indian Movement) also assails

the 88, as he calls the previous Council.The 88 was a continuous party, and nowwere $25 million in the hole, Brown toldme, reerring to the tribes current decitout o a total general und budget o about$170 million or 2012. The head o theNavajo Oce o Management and Budgetblames Council overspending or the de-cit, according to theNavajo Times. Gen-eral und revenues come mostly rom oil,gas, coal and taxes. The external budget,which is generated rom outside revenues,

is much hetier (in 2009 it was $408 mil-lion) and comes mostly rom ederal, stateand private grants.

We are at a real critical phase, saidBrown, a lmmaker who lives in Gallup,N.M. And I dont think this governmentin its present orm has the ability tosolve these problems.

Delegate Leonard Tsosie, a membero the 88 who voted against the notori-ous commemorative gold rings, wasre-elected to the new Council the

24. He sponsored the April legislationto urther reorm it, which passed aterour days o wrangling. It will create acommittee o the whole, where all del-egates debate legislation beore it comesto the chamber foor in a way more akinto traditional, consensus-building ormso Navajo decision-making. Further re-structuring o government is necessary,but decisions about that must be letto theDin, Tsosie said. He and otherdelegates, including Russell Begaye, are

working toward that. We dont havethree hogans, or three branches o gov-ernment; we have one, said Tsosie.

The reorm movement also seeks todrat a Navajo Constitution, to writedown the Navajos ounding principlesso that everyone is on the same page.Ivan Gamble, a writer who dropped outo law school and returned to his homein Lechee, Ariz., in 2005, is a leader othat eort. Where Tsosie is reserved inthe traditional Navajo way, Gamble, 33,

has an in-your-ace style. He has enthu-siastically pushed or a constitution orsix years, using both Facebook and oot-work, walking across the reservation tomake his pitch. I carried a petition ask-ing or a constitution and got 9,000 sig-

Former NavajoNation PresidentJoe Shirley, let,was targeted by aprosecutors lawsuitin July, which allegedthat he ailed to carryout his fduciary dutyto the tribe. CurrentPresident Ben Shelly,center, and Vice

President Rex LeeJim were both electedlast November,despite being underinvestigation orthet o tribal unds.They later settledand repaid unds tothe tribe.

U.s. HoUse of RepReseNtatives UsDa Rex lee foR NavaJo NatioN pResiDeNt


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natures. I talked at schools. The youngpeople pick it right up. I dont think ourgeneration is big on protesting but theywill certainly talk about it online, and itspreads even aster that way, Gambletold me one aternoon in Window Rock.Three ormer Navajo Nation presidentsare ounding members o Gambles con-

stitutional committee.Constitutions werent a Western

discovery, Gamble said. The Iroquoisdeveloped the rst written constitution.

As a matter o act, that American ver-sion that 56 white dudes wrote? A lot oits dening characteristics come romthe Iroquois. For one thing, the IroquoisConstitution called the Great Law oPeace, and drated by the tribe in whatis now upstate New York, sometime be-tween 1000 and 1400 guaranteed ree-

dom o religion, something Gamble wantsto enshrine in a Navajo Constitution aswell. As Navajo Fundamental Law makesits way into current laws and regulations,some protections are needed, because theNavajo Nation is religiously diverse andincludes ollowers o various Christiandenominations, as well as Mormons andmembers o the Native American Church.We have the denitions and the prob-lems o a nation now, Gamble said, andone o the dening characteristics o a

nation is a constitution.What would a truly Navajo govern-

ment look like? Gamble wont say; thatsalso up to theDin to decide, he believes.He thinks that each o the 110 chaptersshould select a representative to attenda constitutional convention. They wouldmeet or a week, debating and honingideas, then break or a week and returnto their chapters to discuss all that hadbeen proposed. The back-and-orth wouldcontinue or 60 days. Then theyd be se-

questered or a week to prepare a unieddocument. Everybody then votes on it the entire Navajo Nation, he said.

As Navajo reormers work to answerthe age-old question Thomas Jeersonwrestled with What kind o nation? Special Prosecutor Balaran remainsin the trenches. In May, Chie Justice

Yazzie gave him permission to withdrawthe outstanding criminal complaintsagainst all but a ew o the previouscouncils delegates and rele them as

civil complaints so that the cases couldmove more expeditiously. And in the Na-vajo way, the goal o the civil litigationwould be restitution o the missing dol-lars rather than punishment.

Then, on July 28, Balaran droppedanother bombshell. He led the sweep-ing lawsuit in Navajo District Court aspromised, but added still more names,including all the delegates in the previ-ous Council o 88 and the current attor-ney general, Harrison Tsosie. Balaran

charged that a total o $36 million hadbeen handled improperly, and each del-egate had unlawully diverted about$250,000 to amilies, riends, other dele-gates and their riends. This time, Leon-ard Tsosie was also caught in the net.

The lawsuit called or the immediateremoval rom oce o those Deendantsstill occupying positions o authority.Tsosie didnt return phone calls askingor comment; in a press conerence, heand several others reused to resign.

Balarans lawsuit charged ormerPresident Shirley with breach o his

duciary duty or, among other things,sanctioning the passage o dozens ounlawul budget appropriations thatresulted in the unlawul conversion otens o millions o dollars o Navajo Na-tion unds and or ailing to stop theCouncils discretionary spending spree.In an ironic twist, Balaran also chargedthat the man who had hired him, ormer

Attorney General Louis Denetsosie (whoresigned in January), had withheld evi-dence related to Shirleys business deal-

ings and then hid the act that he hiredan outside law rm to deend Shirleyagainst the special prosecutors investi-gation. Denetsosie told theNavajo Timesthat there is no merit whatsoever tothe claims against him.

In all, Balarans lawsuit targeted 142people, including 50 John Does to benamed later. It described a wholesalepattern and practice o corruption con-ceived and coordinated by the branchesand agencies o the Nation a viola-

tion, said the Brooklyn-born outsider, oFundamental Law.Becentis Rezztone email about the

big lawsuit encouraged Navajos to meetwith the special prosecutor to reportother violations. In a voice uniquely his,

Becenti wrote: We are also wanting to(produce) a COUNTER RADIO state-ment to wot da (delegates) are rantingabout ... but we hav to raise at least$1,800 to do dis. I do acknowledge datthere are some GREAT council delegatesright now who are not involved in dismess ... but dey need to step-up to da

plate on behal o the grassroots olkswho elected dem in da rst place.Even with the turmoil over the big

lawsuit, on Aug. 1 the Council votedunanimously to remove the ederal Bu-reau o Indian Aairs rom the process oapproving mineral leases another stepon the path to Navajo sovereignty. Na-

vajo people need to orm a governmentusing Navajo culture, sense o place, andspirituality, Ray Austin told me. Weneed to have a cultural match. I believe

there should be a oundational, writtengoverning instrument. Call it a constitu-tion, governingDin laws, The GreatLaw, whatever, but it should outline thegovernment and its powers.

Russell Begaye is enthusiastic aboutthe uture o the Navajo Nation but so-bered by the challenges. Right now, weare just shufing things around, but weneed to get serious about structuring agovernment that will really work, hesaid. I people are interested in helping

to build a nation, one that really ts ourculture, now is the time.

This story was funded in part by a grantfrom the McCune Charitable Foundation.

An ofcer standsguard as SpecialProsecuter AlanBalaran (blue shirt)and investigatorsrom the tribalattorney generalsofce conduct asearch-and-seizure

warrant in Mayat the Ofce othe Managementand Budget andController inWindow Rock.

mryn brn sn n arzn-rd,sn frn-drn jurn. Hrwrk h rd n rn un,nudnDiscover,The New York Times,Mother Jones nd hrd rr ThisAmerican Life. sh hn wrn uNj ndnrnn un 2000.

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