Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren ran as a change candidate. The businessman is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Navajo presidency and was ushered into office on a wave of hope for the future of the nation’s largest native American reservation.
But that honeymoon is over. A special prosecutor spent three months investigating Nygren and filed an ethics complaint calling for his immediate removal. Now, the Navajo Nation Council is considering a motion to remove him.
KJZZ’s Indigenous affairs reporter Gabriel Pietrorazio has been covering every twist and turn and joined The Show to tell us more about it.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: So begin with a little bit about what the special prosecutor found. What is Nygren accused of doing here?
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Good morning, Lauren. And Special Prosecutor Kyle Nayback essentially outlined two major counts, one being nepotism as well as the alleged misuse of government funds. And specifically when it comes to the misuse of government funds, using P cards, which are used for credit travel expenses, and was allegedly paying for family members' travel while on official Navajo Nation business duty.
But went further, as the complaint alleges, to conceal the fact that family members were part of those expenses, going so far as to falsify documents and even using whiteout to conceal names and directing his staff to do so. And that's what the bulk of the complaint outlines.
But there was also other accounts, including having staff members, at least one, do personal duties like paying bills for the president, also doing like housework, cleaning and cooking and things of that nature while in their official capacity as executive branch staff.
GILGER: OK. So now there is this ethics complaint, the special prosecutor calling for an investigation here for his ouster, essentially. Now the council has stepped in. The speaker of the Navajo Nation Council recently called for a vote for the vice president and the president's removal. But what happened next?
PIETRORAZIO: So essentially that special prosecutor ethics complaint was the catalyst for the resolution, which was part of a 465-page document outlining evidence to show for the malfeasance and misfeasance of the president's role as leader of the nation, as well as the vice president for being complicit essentially in part of this alleged misconduct, financial misconduct.
And so now the speaker, Crystalyne Curley, is looking to oust both of them. That has been temporarily put on hold. A judge in Window Rock, as part of the Navajo Nation District Court has put a temporary restraining order on that motion, which would have allowed the council to start moving to a potential vote on the main council floor as early as Thanksgiving.
But that was brought to a halt just a couple days prior to that until Dec. 8, at least, when there's a hearing that will determine whether or not the bill could move forward entirely.
And that's where we're at currently. So we're kind of waiting and holding until Dec. 8. And then depending on how that goes, the chances of removing Nygren and Vice President Richelle Montoya will become clearer, and the fate of that.
GILGER: So waiting for that hearing. Nygren says that this is politically motivated, though, right?
PIETRORAZIO: That's right. He alleges that Speaker Curley is looking to essentially replace him, take his seat in Window Rock. I spoke to her recently. She denies that claim. And it's a very tumultuous time. It continues to add to a lot of the stresses for Navajo people living on and off the reservation. We see it on social media.
The president openly acknowledges that people are watching very closely what's happening in Window Rock. And it's becoming more and more prevalent as we continue.
We only have 13 months left of this current administration. It's unclear whether Nygren, who would be up for reelection next year, is going to run. Hasn't made that decision yet, but I think he's still weighing that in previous discussions that I've had with him over the last few months.
GILGER: This has come to a head recently. Nygren actually showed up at a council meeting and kind of sat down and talked for hours about this.
PIETRORAZIO: Yeah. So there was a special session on Wednesday, and he was not slated to be part of the meeting. The special session had actually adjourned, and a council member made a motion to allow the president to speak.
He wanted to apologize for text messages that he had sent to Controller Sean McCabe that he believed were confidential or private that were leaked by McCabe, who was fired and is part of another lawsuit that the president's embrawled in, essentially to council members.
And then that went public. So he apologized for explicative language in that, for the harmful words that he had uttered to McCabe. And part of that was Carl Slater, who's the vice chair of the Budget Finance Committee. He actually pressed him on some of the details in that in the 465-page report that outlines alleged evidence of financial misconduct.
GILGER: OK. We'll hear a little bit of that back and forth here.
CARL SLATER: When you see the Innovative Electric invoices, you know, that by itself should be disqualifying. Maybe there's an opportunity for you to explain yourself on those things here. But it sounds like that's not going to take place. So, speaker, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, for coming over here.
BUU NYGREN: Yep. Thank you, Carl. I think anything that's under investigation or in the courts, I will definitely not discuss here on the floor.
GILGER: OK. So, Gabe, before I let you go, I want to back up and just talk about Nygren himself. As I said, he kind of ran as a change candidate. Youngest president ever on the Navajo Nation. He had this kind of exciting campaign. Lots of Navajo influencers supporting him. Are you surprised it ended up here?
PIETRORAZIO: You know, I'm still kind of coming to terms with that as well. And it's interesting because he was presented as the young change candidate, reflective of, like, an Obama from years prior, a Zohran Mamdani in some ways, where he was capturing social media influence and visibility. Arguably probably the most visible Navajo Nation president in history, just taking advantage of the social media platform and making his message and his branding very clear.
And so it is a bit shocking to see how that has changed and how people have soured on his administration. It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here and what comes out of this as a result of whether the ousting does occur and whether he will seek reelection.
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