Navajo Nation Council Asked to Reconsider Water Settlement Vote

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Challenges. Discussion »

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – During Monday's regularly scheduled Navajo Nation Council's Summer Session, the Shelly - Jim administration asked the Navajo Nation Council to reconsider its July 5 vote of 15-6 that downed the controversial Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Settlement.

Vice President Rex Lee Jim and President
Ben Shelly before the Council

In a joint statement Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and Vice President Rex Lee Jim delivered a joint statement of unity during the State of the Navajo Nation.

The Council Session started Monday morning.

President Shelly and Vice President Jim delivered a more than 20 minute verbal report and addressed issues about the Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Settlement, Navajo Grazing Act, banned uranium mines, and education.

President Shelly said the Little Colorado River settlement, which the Council voted against earlier this month, would have provided portions of the Navajo Nation access to safe drinking water. In addition, the Navajo Council prevented the Navajo Nation from receiving $340 million to build water infrastructure projects.

President Shelly asked the Council to reconsider their position on the settlement,

“We can work with the Council and provide some amendments for a settlement that we can all agree upon,”

President Shelly said.

“In the past few months, we have seen the vast and varied strength of our people. Our strength showed in numbers and in silence, but now we must begin to look ahead and come together again as the Navajo Nation. We must move forward to make the state of the Navajo Nation stronger,”

President Shelly said.

President Shelly stated that he is introducing the Navajo Grazing Act to increase resource management of grazing areas.

Fort Defiance Agency has about 170,000 units of sheep but, according to land management personnel, the land could only support about 7,800 sheep units and that dry conditions have forced livestock to migrate to different water sources causing conflict among livestock owners.

“We must begin to examine our laws that are in place that manage how we utilize and restore the land,”

President Shelly said.

In May, President Shelly signed an executive order that created the Navajo Nation Uranium Task Force that calls for legislative and executive staff members to work together to find solutions from the effects from uranium on the Navajo Nation. In addition, Vice President Jim announced that a multi-agency study was underway to study the effects of uranium on women and their children.

“With coordination from the University of New Mexico, the Center for Disease Control, Indian Health Service, Navajo Division of Health and the NNEPA, we are going to launch a new study that will examine the affects abandoned mines have had on our mothers and children,”

Vice President Jim said.

Vice President Jim also announced the Navajo Nation is exploring the possibility of establishing a Navajo Medicaid Agency.

Vice President Jim told the Council about two educational issues in which the administration took a role in advocating on the behalf of Navajo children.

Firstly, earlier this year, Central Consolidated School District, based in Shiprock, was facing a potential split as disgruntled community members and parents in nearby Kirtland wanted to create a new school district that would've split the school district at the Navajo reservation line.

In June, New Mexico Public Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera issued a statement keeping the school district together.

As reported in the Native News Network last week, Secretary Skandera stopped the closures of three Navajo middle schools by deciding to keep them open despite efforts from Gallup McKinley County School Board's proposal to close schools in Crownpoint, Navajo, and Tohatchi.