Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and members of the Navajo Nation Council have not been seeing eye to eye recently — and their disputes center both on policy debates, as well as disagreements over the role each branch of government is playing in those policy debates.
Shondiin Silversmith, Indigenous affairs reporter with the Arizona Mirror, has been writing about all of this and joined The Show to discuss how it seems as though the Navajo Nation president and members of the council haven’t been getting along too well.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: So, Shondiin it seems as though the Navajo Nation president and members of the council haven't been getting along too well. Is that fair?
SHONDIIN SILVERSMITH: I would say that's fair in the sense that they have to work together, but it seems that they both have different priorities. The Navajo Nation Council wants to be able to work with the administration as he makes decisions that will impact the Navajo people.
And recently, in recent events, whether it's on a federal level or on a local level, They haven't been seeing eye to eye, for instance, whether it's when the Navajo Nation signed the agreement with Energy Fuels to approve the uranium haul route to when Nygren invited to the White House to attend the signings of executive orders on federal regulations that will impact the Navajo Nation, like the most recent one in terms of like the revitalization of the coal industry.
So there are a lot of these big decisions that are happening that will impact the Navajo people that the Navajo Nation Council is trying to understand why they're not being brought to the table to have these discussions as well. And it's kind of been happening on a regular basis, and so the Navajo Nation opened up their spring session this week, the start of the spring session was on Monday, and as part of the Navajo Nation president's duty as president, he is required to do his state of the nation address. And Nygren was subpoenaed by the Navajo Nation Council to do his address in person because since he has been elected, he hasn't done it. He hasn't done it in person as often as you would expect a president elected to lead the Navajo Nation to do so.
The last time he appeared before the council was the winter session in January, and during that winter session, he ended his address and excused himself and left the Navajo Nation Council chambers before completing it. And when he addressed the reason why he left, it was because of the conduct of some of the Navajo Nation delegates council, which he felt didn't align with the decorum or order in mutual respect expected of Natani, which means leaders in Navajo.
BRODIE: So it sounds as though there are both stylistic and substantive disagreements between President Nygren and members of the Navajo Nation Council. Is that fair?
SILVERSMITH: I think that is fair to say. I mean, they try, they're trying to actively work together and trying to find common ground to work together, so I just think when it comes to both of them sitting at the same table and having these open discussions, it hasn't happened as often as you would expect.
This is the first time, at least in recent history, or at least that I'm aware of as an Indigenous affairs reporter that the Navajo Nation Council has ever had to subpoena a sitting president to come deliver their state of the Navajo Nation address in person.
BRODIE: Yeah, that is kind of striking that that would have to happen. I mean, so, so did he actually show up? I know he was supposed to give his address [Wednesday], did he?
SILVERSMITH: So, before the spring session, Navajo Nation speaker Crystalyne Curley filed a subpoena ordering him to appear before the council at 10 a.m. And in a statement released on social media, and in a statement released to the Navajo Nation Council, Nygren indicated that he he wouldn't be able to appear in person because he is traveling in Washington, D.C., meeting with federal partners, and he indicated that by submitting his written State of the Nation address and has written a report from the office of the Navajo Nation president and vice president fulfills his obligations under Navajo Nation code to present quarterly for the Navajo Nation Council.
The Navajo Nation Council did accept his written report, but he was not there to present it in person. And when the Navajo Nation responded and and when they released their press release indicating that this is what happened, the Navajo Nation Speaker Curley indicated like she feels that they're seeing a lot of like one-way communication from the Nygren administration in terms of like he is only addressing the Navajo people directly either through radio broadcasts or live streams through his social media or even through newsletters that he sends out across the Navajo Nation. So she was hoping that by having him come to the Navajo Nation Council on opening day for spring session, they would allow him to have that in-depth dialogue with the council.
BRODIE: Do you have a sense or did the council speaker indicate why she was OK with President Nygren not appearing in person and just giving a written report this time when it seems as though that was not OK in the past?
SILVERSMITH: So, the, the discussion around it, you did have some council delegates who were disappointed in President Nygren's absence in terms of him undermining the Navajo Nation Council's role as a governing body, but I don't, they ended up accepting his report in the end, because I feel like they understood like that's the right thing to do.
And it's interesting because shortly after the criticism of him not being there on Monday, he released a statement indicating that he would address the council, that he would accept their invitation to do his State of the Nation address in person, but at a time he wanted to. He wanted to be able to do it on Wednesday at 11:30 p.m. but the Navajo Nation Council didn't make moves to re-add him to the agenda.
BRODIE: How was that received by the Nygren administration?
SILVERSMITH: I don't know. He hasn't released a statement indicating on why that happened or a response to why that happened, but when he sent a memo to the Navajo Nation Council speaker's office, he indicated that I am prepared to have a meaningful engagement and productive discussion about the things we were all elected on, which includes like housing, water, electricity, broadband, etc.
But he made it specifically clear within that memo that he wants to be able to do his State of the Nation address uninterrupted, but he also reserved the right to excuse himself if any of the questions or comments that were coming in during his State of Address weren't productive.
