Navajo Nation

Navajo Nation (Navajo: Naabeehó Dine'é) is the name of a sovereign Native American nation established by the Diné. The Navajo Indian Reservation covers about 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometres) of land, occupying all of northeastern Arizona, and extending into Utah and New Mexico, and is the largest land area assigned primarily to a Native American jurisdiction within the United States. The 2000 census reported 298,215 Navajos living throughout the United States, of which 173,987 were living within the Navajo Nation boundaries. 131,166 lived in Arizona. 17,512 of these lived in Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix. Because the Navajo Nation encompasses land in three states, its Division of Economic Development has extracted census date for the Navajo Nation, as a whole, and sends a representative to the Census Board.

Government

The Diné have three times refused to establish a new government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Members twice rejected constitutional initiatives offered by the federal government in Washington, first in 1935 and again in 1953. A reservation-based initiative in 1963 failed after members found the process to be too cumbersome and a potential threat to their self-determination. A constitution was drafted and adopted by the governing council but never ratified by the members. The earlier efforts were rejected primarily because members did not find enough freedom in the proposed forms of government to develop their livestock industries, in 1935, and their mineral resources, in 1953.

Related Topics:
Indian Reorganization Act - 1934 - 1935 - 1953 - 1963

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The Navajo Nation is divided into five Agencies, analogous to states, and 110 Chapters, analogous to counties. The Tribal Council presently consists of 88 delegates, elected every four years by registered Navajo voters. The Nation has a three branch system: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

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The United States still asserts plenary power to require the Navajo Nation to submit all proposed laws to the United States Secretary of the Interior for Secretarial Review, through the BIA. Most conflicts and controversies between the federal government and the Nation are settled by negotiation and by political agreements. Laws of the Navajo Nation are currently codified in the Navajo Tribal Code.

Related Topics:
Plenary power - United States Secretary of the Interior - Secretarial Review - Navajo Tribal Code

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Local and federal law enforcement agencies that routinely work within the Navajo Nation include the Navajo Division of Public Safety, often called the Navajo Police, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, often called the BIA, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Related Topics:
Navajo Division of Public Safety - Bureau of Indian Affairs - Federal Bureau of Investigation

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The Navajo governing council continues a historical practice of prohibiting alcohol sales within reservation boundaries. Navajo residents who drink alcohol often obtain supplies in nearby cities, such as Gallup and Grants, New Mexico. For some visitors of the area — often attracted by the Indian jewelry trade, by tourist attractions or by the Interstate Highway that passes through the area — heavy traffic to off-reservation liquor stores, and the public drunkenness that often follows have created impressions that drunkenness seems to describe Indian culture. Leaders and some member groups actively oppose the sale of alcohol, and have taken several measures to find and offer treatment for those members who are suffering from alcoholism.

Related Topics:
Alcohol - Gallup - Grants - Interstate Highway - Alcoholism

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Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. addressed the Navajo Nation Council in the annual State of the Navajo Nation Address on January 24, 2005 and presented his conviction to develop a governing document for the Navajo Nation. President Shirley campaigned to return their government to the Dineh by government reform. The Navajo President Shirley stated that the document must establish the structuve and authority of a central government.

Related Topics:
Joe Shirley, Jr. - Navajo Nation Council

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The Navajo Nation being organized under a code is subject to Bureau of Indian Affairs, unlike other Indian nations that do not need BIA approval for most actions.

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