Navajo President Buu Nygren has criticized the tribe’s Legislative Council after it quickly removed a new attorney general during an emergency hearing. She was the second person to be ousted from that role in less than a year.
The council voted last week to oust Attorney General Heather Clah from her position with no public explanation. Some legislative councilmembers appeared to support Clah before then voting to remove her.
Legislator Amber Crotty said she had opposed Clah because of how she managed negotiations with Energy Fuels for uranium transport across the Navajo Nation as acting attorney general. But she still she wanted to know why Clah should now be removed and asked for more information.
"Because this is a huge pivot from just a few days ago on the council floor and how that vote was processed," she said.
"I'm not invalidating the concerns. What I'm saying is how they're being presented and what mechanisms have we used to explain these conflicts or these concerns to the public that we represent," she told the council.
Shortly after, the council met in private and then voted. The vote passed 11-1, including Crotty.
The council had only recently confirmed Clah.
Nygren has now accused the council of removing two Navajo women from that position. Former Attorney General Ethel Branch was removed in December after her office cleared the president of wrongdoing in a harassment investigation prompted by the tribe’s vice-president.
