SWINE SLAYERS | 5 | AMPHIBIANS WITH ALTITUDE | 8 | MR. TOAD’S WILD TUBE RIDE | 26

High CountryFor N people whoews care about the West

Looking for Balance in Navajoland As corruption charges plague the West’s largest tribe, reformers struggle for traction.

August 22, 2011 $4 | Vol. 43 No. 14 | www.hcn.org 14 43 No. $4 | Vol. August 22, 2011 By Marilyn Berlin Snell. Page 12. FEATURE | By Marilyn Berlin Snell

Navajo Monster Slayers As corruption charges plague the West’s largest tribe, reformers struggle for traction

Window Rock, Arizona

he Nation Council Chamber November, was the first to reflect a suc- is a rounded bit of beauty inspired by cessful 2009 ballot initiative to consoli- the traditional Navajo hogan. It’s set date chapters, or legislative districts, against a natural arch of sandstone that and drastically reduce the governing gives Window Rock its name, a wide and body’s size from 88 delegates to 24. A frequently dramatic sky, and temporary delegate’s proposal to further reorganize government-office barracks that have Council duties and powers had ignited been at their task several decades too the current debate. Tlong. The odd cow or horse sometimes There is no Navajo C-SPAN, and the wanders loose nearby, foraging for grass. tribally owned Navajo Times publishes On a windy day last April, at a meet- just once a week, so people who want the ing of the 22nd Council, blow-by-blow have to attend the sessions, the building was a refuge from swirling held for one week four times a year. And cottonwood debris and blasts of red dust. it’s not easy. The Navajo Nation sprawls Inside, a storm of a different nature was across 27,000 square miles of northern brewing. Dipping in and out of English Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and ing sheep,” said 56-year-old Ed Becenti and Navajo, the Council delegates — southeastern Utah, and travel is compli- softly. His salt-and-pepper hair was legislators for the largest tribe in the cated by poor roads, expensive gas and a thick and short, and he looked fit in West — were in heated debate. From the lack of public transportation. his running shoes and jeans. “We had public gallery, I couldn’t hear the official Two Navajo activists sat next to me. 75 head, and at the end of the day we interpreter well enough to understand Norman Patrick Brown, 51, wore tur- did a full count. If one was missing, my the particulars; my earpiece kept short- quoise earrings; his long hair was pulled grandmother would get a flashlight and ing out. But the overall theme – a con- back and secured by the red bandanna wouldn’t come back until she found that flict over the shape and character of the around his forehead. With his wrestler’s sheep.” Navajo government — was clear, right physique, he seemed ready for a take- If sheep were dollars, 36 million of down to the chamber’s seats. down. He translated the proceedings in them would be missing on the Navajo Most of the delegates’ plush black- a whisper and editorialized: “The old Nation today. Becenti and Brown and leather chairs were empty –– a powerful guard is still in the majority and we’re their allies — including a tough spe- reminder that a majority of Diné, or “The watching them very closely.” cial prosecutor from Washington, D.C. People,” as the Navajo call themselves, “I learned accountability when I –– want to know what became of that want change. This Council, elected last was young, listening to my elders, herd- money. The previous Council allegedly

12 High Country News August 22, 2011 tapped a “slush fund” — discretionary rugs are woven, sheep herded, crops guiding principle, the ’ is hózhó. Navajo Council funds intended for the reservation’s watered, horses fed. In several battle There is no exact English translation, but watchdogs Norman neediest people — to benefit their own scenes, Navajo warriors wield bows and “balance” and “harmony” come close. This Patrick Brown, left, families and friends, while the Navajo arrows against white men with guns. ideal permeates how Navajo laws are and Ed Becenti, outside president and others looked the other The Long Walk of 1864, when the U.S. made and justice meted out — not eye- the Navajo Nation way. The questions, and the push for Army forced many Navajos to walk to for-an-eye punishment, but restitution Council Chambers in Window Rock, Arizona. reform, reach into both the president’s Fort Sumner, N.M., is painted along the and the restoration of harmonious rela- Diego James Robles office and the judicial branch, and in- south wall. Hundreds died, yet many tionships. Hózhó requires constant stock- clude renewed calls to create a Navajo survived and returned to their homeland taking, the thoughtful weighing of one’s Constitution to guide the relatively — a triumph that’s also celebrated. The own behavior and that of the tribe. Any- young government. story in the mural reminds everyone thing that causes imbalance, disharmony Above the thinned ranks in the coun- that the Navajo Nation is a sovereign or discord is naayee, the Navajo word for cil chamber, a long mural painted in entity — with its own dramatic history, “monster.” Changing Woman, who cre- 1935 encircles everyone. It portrays the creation stories, and distinctive ideas ated humans, had two sons who are cen- history of the Navajo, beginning with about government and justice. tral to the Navajo pantheon because they images of women grinding corn. Then If democracy is the United States’ were the first monster slayers.

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 An updated mural showing current in the 17th century, they did not find a Indian Affairs), without Navajo consul- events would depict a battle as ferocious tribe ruled by a centralized authority. tation, established procedures to create as any in history. This time around, Navajos had allegiances to immediate the first versions of the Navajo Tribal though, both the naayee and their slay- family and clan and neighbors, more Council. At times, early on, the feds se- ers are Navajo. And the timing is strik- than to the tribe as a whole. The head- lected delegates based on their level of ing: The Navajos are reshaping their men among the disparate groups didn’t assimilation, Westernized education and own dysfunctional government even as rule by lineage or election. They came to belief that the traditional Navajo way Washington, D.C., seizes up in ineffec- power because they were wise, or skilled blocked progress. Even when delegates tual gridlock. The reform effort proceeds at hunting, or had ceremonial knowl- were elected by Navajos, they could be in fits and starts, but it’s the biggest up- edge. And they could lose that power removed for cause by the secretary of In- heaval here since 1989, when the Navajo quickly if they fell out of favor, according terior — pretty much guaranteeing they government tore itself into pieces and a to Peter Iverson’s landmark 1983 book, would go along with whatever the feds political riot left two people dead. At its The Navajo Nation. Back then, it was wanted. At the first Council meeting in heart, it’s about the desire to finally cre- easy to throw the bums out. 1923, reports David Wilkins in his 2003 Most of the plush chairs ate an effective, modern democracy that But when oil was discovered on book, The Navajo Political Experience, in the Navajo Council emphasizes traditional Navajo values. the reservation in 1922, decentralized the 24 delegates “unanimously approved Chamber are empty, since a 2009 ballot initiative It’s a battle for balance –– for hózhó. decision-making made it harder for out- a resolution — drafted in Washington — reduced the number of side interests to access those resources. which gave (the commissioner) the au- delegates from 88 to 24. When Spanish colonizers roaming So the federal commissioner of Indian thority to sign all oil and gas leases ‘on Diego James Robles the Southwest encountered the Navajo Affairs (the precursor to the Bureau of behalf of the Navajo Indians.’ ” From the 1920s to the 1980s, the tribal government made a series of ques- tionable deals with companies seeking coal as well as oil and gas. Yet there were also attempts to establish political checks 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 after federal codes — soon followed. A Navajo Constitution was proposed on three separate occasions but not adopted; voters were confused about how it would impact Navajo life, and one effort failed simply because the Council never put the draft constitution before voters for ratification. The Council, which increased to 88 delegates as a result of the reservation’s population growth and reapportionment, drafted and approved the tribal budget and passed laws. But power began to shift in the 1970s, when the Council gave a charismatic, ambitious chairman, Peter MacDonald, the authority to ap- point members to standing committees. (Imagine if the U.S. president could appoint members of key congressional committees.) MacDonald became “the most powerful Indian in America,” in the words of the Associated Press, over the course of his four nonconsecutive terms. As master of his nation’s legisla-

14 High Country News August 22, 2011 Scenes from the mural that covers the wall of the Navajo Council Chamber. Diego James Robles

tive priorities, he asserted tribal sover- tion’s 110,000 registered voters cast bal- eignty against federal authority. He also lots during regular elections; the special launched economic development schemes initiative vote came out 25,206 to 16,166. to try to ease the reservation’s wide- A good-faith law written to protect the spread poverty, and further tipped the Diné was being used against them. balance of political power in his favor, Council supporters had also filed a with moves such as temporarily shutter- lawsuit attempting to force the Navajo ing the Navajo Times, which had been a Nation to abide by the supermajority frequent MacDonald critic. law. In May 2010, the Navajo Nation But then MacDonald overreached: Supreme Court refused to do that. In his He convinced the Council to buy the ruling, Chief Justice Herb Yazzie noted 491,000-acre Big Boquillas Ranch, near that the supermajority “is an extraordi- the Grand Canyon, for $33.4 million. A nary majority impossible to be obtained.” reporter was tipped off that he’d received The Supreme Court voided Section kickbacks and bribes in connection with 102 and effectively overruled the Coun- “The people’s the deal. The U.S. Senate began hear- cil by relying on Navajo Fundamental ings in 1988, and a fractious tribal Coun- Law. In traditional Navajo philosophy, laws are cil voted to place him on involuntary Holy Beings handed down foundational administrative leave. He refused to give doctrines like hózhó that form the basis superior to up power, and tensions erupted into a for Fundamental Law. These doctrines the statutory melee at tribal headquarters: A crowd of are increasingly being interpreted and his supporters roughed up some outnum- incorporated into Navajo jurisprudence. laws enacted bered policemen, and two of the crowd In this case, the court ruled that the were killed by police bullets. (MacDonald Council upset the balance of Navajo so- by the was ultimately convicted in both tribal Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald in ciety by neutralizing the ability of voters Council.” and federal court for election-law viola- early 1989, just weeks before he was suspended to choose the type of government they tions, bribery and corruption; he served in the face of federal and tribal charges for wanted. As Chief Justice Yazzie put it: —Navajo Supreme eight years in prison before being par- various offenses. He later served eight years in “The People’s laws are superior to the Court Chief Justice doned by President Clinton.) federal prison. Associated press statutory laws enacted by the Council.” Herb Yazzie, To check the virtually unlimited pow- The Navajo Supreme Court took emphasizing the importance of Navajo er MacDonald had amassed as chairman, youth employment, to allocate $50,000 another gutsy stand in July 2010, rul- traditions the delegates amended Title 2 of the Na- to buy gold rings for all the delegates, to ing that Joe Shirley, who had served vajo Nation Code in 1989. They replaced commemorate their service. two terms as president, could not seek the offices of chairman and vice chair- a third consecutive term — enforcing man with a less powerful president and In 2009, Navajo voters unhappy with limits the Council had created after the vice president. The new president would the delegates’ service approved two bal- struggle with MacDonald. The chief not run the legislative branch. That role lot initiatives designed to shift the bal- justice is nominated by and serves at was given to the speaker of the Council, ance of power again. They not only re- the pleasure of the president, and his who is chosen by fellow delegates. duced the number of delegates; they also appointment must be confirmed by the These amendments were seen as a gave the president a line-item veto over Council. In his tussles with the two other stopgap measure to guide the tribe out of specifics in the annual budget passed by branches of government, Yazzie appears chaos and hold the nation together until the Council. Yet a majority of delegates to have had the Holy Beings on his side. the Diné could decide for themselves refused to reduce the Council’s size. They Navajo news organizations heralded what kind of government they wanted. cited a law — Section 102 of the Navajo these events: The 2009 popular vote was Until the 2009 special election, however, Nation Code — that was enacted by a “the first time the Navajo People them- they didn’t have the chance. previous Council session to stabilize the selves enacted new Navajo Nation law Meanwhile, there were increasing in- fragile government in the wake of the through the initiative process,” according dications that the Council delegates had 1989 crisis. It required that any change to Kayenta Today, a newspaper and blog begun to abuse their power and spend in the government’s structure had to be covering the reservation. And Yazzie’s lavishly, including controversial trips to approved by a majority of registered vot- enforcement of the popular vote was the Las Vegas and Hawaii justified as tribal ers in each of the 110 chapters. It wasn’t court’s “most wide-ranging” decision and business. In 2007, a vast majority of del- surprising that the popular vote fell “changed the course of Navajo history egates voted for a special amendment, short of that “supermajority” threshold, forever,” according to the Navajo Times. tacked on to a measure funding summer because only about half the Navajo Na- I spoke with Yazzie in his Supreme

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 Houses in the Two Court offices, located in a strip mall on Grey Hills area of the Route 264. He has a wide face and gray Navajo Reservation, hair. His black cowboy boots were well (above), represented broken-in and nicely veined from long- by Council Delegate time use. “There is a basic provision in David Tom, right, the Navajo Nation Code that says the shown here at the Navajo Tribal Council is the governing body of the Na- Council meeting vajo Nation. People have noted that that in July. Tom has has been used to stifle their rights,” he been charged with said. “They see ... that the Council, in its diverting nearly own self-interest, reads that to mean that $280,000 of tribal all government power comes from them. funds to himself and And when the court interprets that pro- his family. vision and says, ‘No. The power of gov- Diego James Robles ernance comes from the people,’ a lot of members of the Council don’t 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 two controversies: how the Council had spent millions of dollars, and several badly failed business ventures that originated in President Shirley’s office. Balaran, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, had an im-

16 High Country News August 22, 2011 pressive résumé. In the early 2000s, he Council Delegate Russell Begaye, was the “special master” in Blackfeet left, in Shiprock, Indian Elouise Cobell’s massive class- which was a vibrant action lawsuit against the Department of commercial center Interior over the inept leasing of millions when he was growing of acres of Indian Trust lands for drill- up there. Now, he ing, mining and grazing. Balaran dug up says, people have to evidence of Interior’s misdeeds on many leave the reservation reservations, including the Navajos’. to shop. (The Interior Department finally settled Diego James Robles the case two months ago, agreeing to pay $3.4 billion to individual Natives across the country.) Balaran speaks to the public through communiqués and indictments, and avoids talking on the record to journalists. But I will risk his wrath to report that he has a strong Brooklyn accent, a penchant for well-placed profanity, and a palpable disdain for rule-breakers. His critics call him messianic. He works long and lonely hours next to the Navajo Council Chamber, in a borrowed barracks-office at the Department of Justice, which pays his salary. His family and private law officially, at just over 50 percent, accord- it was a thriving community,” Begaye practice remain in D.C. as he labors to ing to the Navajo Nation. The actual un- said. Now, people have to leave the res- untangle tribal affairs. In October 2010, employment rate, as the tribal Division ervation to shop. “There’s just an outflow before the Council was downsized, he of Economic Development (DED) has ac- of revenue from Shiprock into surround- filed criminal complaints against 78 of the knowledged, is much higher: over 70 per- ing towns.” 88 Navajo Nation delegates. cent. A person must be actively looking Only around 36 percent of all Navajo The charges were various combina- for a job to be included in the labor force; monies are spent on the reservation, tions of fraud, forgery, theft, conspiracy if you’re not looking –– as is the case with according to a recent study. Businesses and abuse of office. Over the course of five many on the reservation, since there are avoid the reservation, in part because years, according to Balaran, delegates no jobs –– you’re not considered unem- of bureaucratic red tape. In a speech engaged in shameless self-dealing — even ployed. According to the DED’s 2009-’10 to the , Arizona siphoning money from a fund intended to status report, the service sector, which Sen. John McCain, R, observed that “it buy eyeglasses for poor Navajos, to fill the includes schools, hospitals and motels, takes three to five years to get the gov- coffers of their families and friends. was the largest employer, with 15,215 ernmental approvals necessary to open Council Delegate David Tom rep- jobs, about 49 percent of the Navajo labor a dry-cleaning shop in Window Rock. resents the chapters of Red Valley force. The government employed 8,214 The same approvals can be obtained in Tse’alanaozt’i’i’, Sheepsprings, Beclabito, people, or 26.6 percent. There were only a Flagstaff (Ariz.) in just three days. Now, Gadiiahi/To’Koi and Toadlena/Two Grey few hundred jobs in basic industries like why on earth is this tolerated? What Hills where, legend has it, Spider Woman manufacturing and agriculture. kind of business climate is that?” Mc- first taught Navajos to weave their exqui- Delegates don’t campaign for office Cain made the criticism in 1996, but it is site rugs. He was charged with diverting as Republicans or Democrats. Russell telling that the Navajo Nation’s 2009-’10 $279,175 to himself and his extended fam- Begaye, a newly elected delegate from the Comprehensive Economic Development ily, the largest haul of any delegate. In his Shiprock area, told me that what mat- Strategy Report continues to cite it. photo on the Council website, he wears a tered was “family and clan connections Begaye is a businessman, and it tuxedo rather than the typical delegate’s and serving the people.” A successful irked him that favors were handed out uniform (a basic suit with a handcrafted delegate needs to know how to work the on a piecemeal basis while overall de- turquoise bolo tie and necklace). He did system. “It’s hard to defeat an incumbent. velopment foundered. He campaigned not return High Country News’ calls and You control the resources and can dole on “creating opportunity.” Although an emails asking for comment. them out. If you can help somebody, they unknown, he won, he said, by buying “The directness with which the Dele- remember it a long time. So you can actu- an hour of radio time on the Navajo Na- gates and their staff stole millions of dol- ally buy votes in a way.” This may explain tion’s KTNN and inviting young Navajos lars earmarked specifically for the poor why David Tom was re-elected last No- to come talk about success. “A 19-year- was notable not only for its brazenness vember, after he was indicted. And it may old told us about starting his own busi- but for its callous disregard of the needs also help explain why Begaye, who had ness; a young girl had got her M.D. I of their indigent constituents,” Balaran never before run for office, won. just lined ’em up and let them tell their stated. Begaye was born and raised in stories.” Economics drive both the alleged cor- Shiprock, N.M., hauling water and using Many tribes struggle with lousy ruption and the push for reform. Most horses to plow his family’s farm. He left economies and flawed political systems of the 300,000 Navajos live on the reser- the reservation for college, graduated that were established by the federal gov- vation, and delegates’ constituents are from UCLA, and worked his way up in ernment, of course. But Begaye studied mostly poor: Whereas delegates’ annual the building industry, founding his own economic success stories, especially the salaries are a modest $25,000, plus per firm in Atlanta. He returned in 2007, Mississippi Band of the Choctaws, whose diem perks for travel to Window Rock to find a reservation changed in all the visionary leaders made constitutional and various committee meetings, the wrong ways. Shiprock used to be a viable reforms in the 1970s, strengthening average per capita income for Navajos is commercial center near Farmington, but the executive branch and making other abysmally low (about $7,000). More than now it, like the rest of the reservation, is changes that helped the tribe become an 40 percent live below the poverty line, mired in hard times. economic powerhouse. “The Choctaws and over 18,000 households lack basic “When I was growing up, we had a went from being one of the state’s poor- infrastructure such as electricity. First National Bank in Shiprock. We had est communities to being a big employer. Reservation unemployment stands, several sit-down restaurants, two hotels; They brought in industry of all kinds. So

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 bles in the future. Hózhó is still at work, then, just not in the way the delegates’ defenders contend.

Reformer Ed Becenti, who’s trained in computer repair, emails his observations on council meetings to a long mailing list via frequent “Rezztone” blasts. He also thinks that the delegates are misusing the revered doctrines. “Once they get into office, they go into this power thing, like they’re somebody special and they can do whatever they want. And they use the Navajo language to do what they do. They softened us to stealing people’s money by using words like k’e. It’s just an escape from their mistakes.” His friend Norman Brown (they met during the early 1970s heyday of the U.S. House of representatives USDA rex lee for Navajo nation president American Indian Movement) also assails “the 88,” as he calls the previous Council. “The 88 was a continuous party, and now Former Navajo now I’m in Shiprock, and I’m thinking, ership ability, not gender, is important, we’re $25 million in the hole,” Brown told Nation President ‘I’ve seen it and I know it’s possible.’ ” there’s a strong prejudice against women me, referring to the tribe’s current deficit Joe Shirley, left, being in charge. During the campaign, out of a total general fund budget of about was targeted by a Special prosecutor Balaran contin- several traditional Navajos were quoted $170 million for 2012. The head of the prosecutor’s lawsuit ued to dig into President Shirley’s role in in the press, blaming Lovejoy’s presiden- Navajo Office of Management and Budget in July, which alleged doling out discretionary funds, as well as tial bid for upsetting nature and causing that he failed to carry blames Council overspending for the defi- out his fiduciary duty his involvement in two companies with a tornado. cit, according to the Navajo Times. Gen- to the tribe. Current tribal contracts, OnSat and Biochemi- Just before their inauguration in eral fund revenues come mostly from oil, President , cal Decontamination Systems (BCDS), January, Shelly and Jim settled the gas, coal and taxes. The external budget, center, and Vice but was hampered by Shirley’s refusal charges against them, agreeing to repay which is generated from outside revenues, President Rex Lee to release some documents. BCDS had the money and work with Balaran to en- is much heftier (in 2009 it was $408 mil- Jim were both elected planned to build a manufacturing plant act reforms. Repeated inquiries, asking lion) and comes mostly from federal, state last November, on the reservation, and the tribe was the President Shelly’s office to provide spe- and private grants. despite being under only stockholder that contributed capital; cifics about the promised reforms, were “We are at a real critical phase,” said investigation for the company defaulted on loans and left never answered. Brown, a filmmaker who lives in Gallup, theft of tribal funds. They later settled the tribe saddled with debts of more than In my research for this story, I did my N.M. “And I don’t think this government and repaid funds to $4.7 million. OnSat was one of Shirley’s best to avoid the stable of outside experts in its present form has the ability to the tribe. pet projects, hired to install public Inter- who are often quoted about the need to solve these problems.” net access at all chapterhouses and emer- reform many tribes’ governments. Dur- Delegate Leonard Tsosie, a member gency response agencies. A 2007 tribal ing interviews in Window Rock, Navajos of the 88 who voted against the notori- audit found the company overcharged the invariably said, “You need to talk to Ray” ous commemorative gold rings, was tribe by more than $600,000. to understand what’s happening. Ray re-elected to the new Council — “the The Navajo Nation on the whole has Austin was a Navajo Nation Supreme 24.” He sponsored the April legislation a poor record backing enterprises. The Court justice for 16 years, and is now a to further reform it, which passed after board members of its economic develop- professor in the Indigenous Peoples Law four days of wrangling. It will create a ment agencies often lack experience and Policy Program at the University “committee of the whole,” where all del- and professional business credentials. of Arizona law school. He’s been at the egates debate legislation before it comes Shoddy business plans and a lack of due forefront in developing tribal courts and to the chamber floor in a way more akin diligence contribute to problems, the tribal law. Due to his severe hearing loss, to traditional, consensus-building forms Navajo auditor general has said, add- he and I conversed by email. of Navajo decision-making. Further re- ing that even a basic Internet search for Some Navajos defend the delegates’ structuring of government is necessary, information on BCDS head Hak Ghun allegedly criminal actions by saying they but decisions about that must be left — aka Hak Soo Dickenson — would were honoring the doctrines of hózhó as to the Diné, Tsosie said. He and other have discovered that he was one of seven well as k’é (peacefulness and solidarity) delegates, including Russell Begaye, are people charged in federal court in New and k’éí (kinship). Essentially, the money working toward that. “We don’t have York with defrauding investors out of was doled out to keep things harmoni- three hogans,” or three branches of gov- $11 million in 1984. ous. Austin, a longtime advocate of using ernment; “we have one,” said Tsosie. President Shirley’s vice president, foundational doctrines to guide modern The reform movement also seeks to Ben Shelly, was also caught in Balaran’s self-governance, would have none of it. draft a Navajo Constitution, to write net — charged with the theft of $8,850 “There is nothing wrong with helping kin down the Navajos’ founding principles when he was a council delegate. Yet even and clan relatives in time of need,” he so that everyone is on the same page. while Shelly was under that cloud, last said. “A person can give money (or things Ivan Gamble, a writer who dropped out November, Navajo voters elected him of value) to assist kin and clan relatives, of law school and returned to his home as the new tribal president. They also but the money given is personally owned, in Lechee, Ariz., in 2005, is a leader of elected former delegate Rex Lee Jim, not money that comes from the public that effort. Where Tsosie is reserved in charged with conspiracy and the theft of treasury. … The delegates’ conduct, if the traditional Navajo way, Gamble, 33, $3,200, as the new vice president. A kind true, is corruption.” has an in-your-face style. He has enthu- of gender bias might help explain those The tribe is experiencing the “grow- siastically pushed for a constitution for results: Shelly ran against a woman, ing pains of a nascent government,” six years, using both Facebook and foot- Lynda Lovejoy, a New Mexico state sena- Austin wrote, adding that the current work, walking across the reservation to tor. Though Navajo society is matrilineal scandals would generate new laws and make his pitch. “I carried a petition ask- and Shelly himself had argued that lead- policies that would prevent similar trou- ing for a constitution and got 9,000 sig-

18 High Country News August 22, 2011 natures. I talked at schools. The young people pick it right up. I don’t think our generation is big on protesting but they will certainly talk about it online, and it spreads even faster that way,” Gamble told me one afternoon in Window Rock. Three former Navajo Nation presidents are founding members of Gamble’s con- stitutional committee. “Constitutions weren’t a Western discovery,” Gamble said. “The Iroquois developed the first written constitution. As a matter of fact, that American ver- sion that 56 white dudes wrote? A lot of its defining characteristics come from the Iroquois.” For one thing, the Iroquois Constitution — called the Great Law of Peace, and drafted by the tribe in what is now upstate New York, sometime be- tween 1000 and 1400 — guaranteed free- dom of religion, something Gamble wants to enshrine in a Navajo Constitution as well. As Navajo Fundamental Law makes its way into current laws and regulations, some protections are needed, because the Navajo Nation is religiously diverse and includes followers of various Christian denominations, as well as Mormons and es im

members of the Native American Church. T o o “We have the definitions and the prob- j lems of a nation now,” Gamble said, “and one of the defining characteristics of a nation is a constitution.” . Jimmie, Nava Jimmie, . T

What would a truly Navajo govern- h eig ment look like? Gamble won’t say; that’s L also up to the Diné to decide, he believes. He thinks that each of the 110 chapters The lawsuit called for “the immediate Becenti wrote: “We are also wanting to An officer stands should select a representative to attend removal from office of those Defendants (produce) a COUNTER RADIO state- guard as Special a constitutional convention. They would still occupying positions of authority.” ment to wot da (delegates) are ranting Prosecuter Alan Balaran (blue shirt) meet for a week, debating and honing Tsosie didn’t return phone calls asking about ... but we hav to raise at least and investigators ideas, then break for a week and return for comment; in a press conference, he $1,800 to do dis. I do acknowledge dat from the tribal to their chapters to discuss all that had and several others refused to resign. there are some GREAT council delegates attorney general’s been proposed. The back-and-forth would Balaran’s lawsuit charged former right now who are not involved in dis office conduct a continue for 60 days. Then they’d be se- President Shirley with breach of his mess ... but dey need to step-up to da search-and-seizure questered for a week to prepare a unified fiduciary duty for, among other things, plate on behalf of the grassroots folks warrant in May document. “Everybody then votes on it “sanctioning the passage of dozens of who elected dem in da first place.” at the Office of –– the entire Navajo Nation,” he said. unlawful budget appropriations that Even with the turmoil over the big the Management As Navajo reformers work to answer resulted in the unlawful conversion of lawsuit, on Aug. 1 the Council voted and Budget and Controller in the age-old question Thomas Jefferson tens of millions of dollars of Navajo Na- unanimously to remove the federal Bu- Window Rock. wrestled with — “What kind of nation?” tion funds” and for failing to stop the reau of Indian Affairs from the process of — Special Prosecutor Balaran remains Council’s discretionary spending spree. approving mineral leases — another step in the trenches. In May, Chief Justice In an ironic twist, Balaran also charged on the path to Navajo sovereignty. “Na- Yazzie gave him permission to withdraw that the man who had hired him, former vajo people need to form a government the outstanding criminal complaints Attorney General Louis Denetsosie (who using Navajo culture, sense of place, and against all but a few of the previous resigned in January), had withheld evi- spirituality,” Ray Austin told me. “We council’s delegates and refile them as dence related to Shirley’s business deal- need to have a ‘cultural match.’ I believe civil complaints so that the cases could ings and then hid the fact that he hired there should be a foundational, written move more expeditiously. And in the Na- an outside law firm to defend Shirley governing instrument. Call it a constitu- vajo way, the goal of the civil litigation against the special prosecutor’s investi- tion, governing Diné laws, The Great would be restitution of the missing dol- gation. Denetsosie told the Navajo Times Law, whatever, but it should outline the lars rather than punishment. that “there is no merit whatsoever” to government and its powers.” Marilyn Berlin Snell Then, on July 28, Balaran dropped the claims against him. Russell Begaye is enthusiastic about is an Arizona-bred, another bombshell. He filed the sweep- In all, Balaran’s lawsuit targeted 142 the future of the Navajo Nation but so- San Francisco-based ing lawsuit in Navajo District Court as people, including 50 “John Does” to be bered by the challenges. “Right now, we freelance journalist. Her promised, but added still more names, named later. It described a “wholesale are just shuffling things around, but we work has appeared in a including all the delegates in the previ- pattern and practice of corruption con- need to get serious about structuring a range of publications, ous Council of 88 and the current attor- ceived and coordinated by the branches government that will really work,” he including Discover, ney general, Harrison Tsosie. Balaran and agencies of the Nation” — a viola- said. “If people are interested in helping The New York Times, charged that a total of $36 million had tion, said the Brooklyn-born outsider, of to build a nation, one that really fits our Mother Jones and the been handled improperly, and each del- Fundamental Law. culture, now is the time.” radio program This American Life. She has egate had “unlawfully” diverted about Becenti’s Rezztone email about the been writing about $250,000 to “families, friends, other dele- big lawsuit encouraged Navajos to meet This story was funded in part by a grant Navajo politics and gates and their friends.” This time, Leon- with the special prosecutor to report from the McCune Charitable Foundation. environmental issues ard Tsosie was also caught in the net. other violations. In a voice uniquely his, since 2000.

www.hcn.org High Country News 19