Citizens group seeks grievance regarding Dec. 15 election

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Chee (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake).

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Chee (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake).

LEUPP, Ariz. - Small chapters of the Western Agency stand to be severely affected by the reduction of chapter delegates authorized by the Dec. 15 election that reduced the number of delegates from 88 to 24. Further, Navajo Nation law will be unfairly changed should either initiative - to reduce the council or to award Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley with line item veto power - go unchallenged.

This is the position of a newly-formed grassroots group that calls itself Diné for Fairness in Government.

Leonard Chee and Thomas Walker Jr., both council delegates for Birdsprings, Leupp and Tolani Lake Chapters, have actively campaigned against both initiatives as directed by the Navajo citizens they represent.

"I've been very active on the reduction forefront," Chee said. "I have been one of the advocates against it. The three chapters I represent all voted by resolution against it. Our constituents have instructed us to actively oppose it, and that's what we did.

It turns out that our three chapters unanimously voted against it, that is my back up that this is what my constituents want," Chee added.

Of the 18 chapters comprising the Western Agency, 11 voted against it, according to Rosita Kelly, who serves as the Treasurer Secretary of Leupp Chapter. She is also one of the founding members of the Diné for Fairness in Government (DFG) group.

"The Western Agency is made up mostly of small chapters," Kelly said. "The only one large enough to have its own delegate is Tuba City, and it voted in favor of the reduction."

DFFG members filed a grievance Dec. 23 with the Navajo Nation Office of Hearing and Appeals enumerating 10 reasons why the results of the election should be nullified.

One of the major reasons is that the election changes Navajo Nation Code, Title 2 Section 102(A) that mandates the Navajo Nation Council be made up of 88 members - and that 51 percent of registered voters must approve any change to Navajo Nation law, according to Chee and Kelly.

Tim Nelson, a member of Leupp Chapter who served as the Deputy Director for the Elections Office in the 1990s when Title 2 was first enacted, learned of the initiative from a billboard he saw in Ft. Defiance. After visiting the Web site listed there, and an additional Web site for the Speaker's Office, Nelson decided he had to get involved.

"Title 2 reads that Navajo Nation Council is the governing body of the Nation, with 88 delegates - further it reads that it will take a majority of registered voters in all precincts," Nelson said. "There was a reason why it was written that way - because it is supposed to be hard to change Title 2. Yes, the Attorney General of the Navajo Nation issued an opinion that a change could be made with a simple majority. When I read the law, it does not lead me to believe this change could be made by a simple majority. An opinion is not law - it is just the opinion of a given attorney or judge."

According to Kelly, only 44 percent of registered voters on the Nation voted.

Robert Carr, a Navajo activist who ran for mayor of Winslow several years ago - only narrowly losing - is well known and recognized for his work for the Navajo people, has a very personal reason for his involvement in DFG - his 108-year-old grandmother who still lives without running water, electricity and other amenities most Americans take for granted.

"I have received information that President Shirley had the audacity to spend hundreds of thousands of Navajo Nation money on attorneys for his defense - yet he continues to speak in terms of 'the People's money, the People's voice; the People's government.'

"One day my grandmother will pass away - with a broken heart. She has made numerous requests for assistance to receive electricity and running water, and never got it.

"I'm a registered voter," Carr continued. "I am entitled to my voice and to my rights as a voter - these rights have been violated. We will continue to have meetings - to which the public is invited. We are not meeting behind closed doors like the President's administration."

Kelly echoed Carr's concerns, stating that one of the reasons the reduction was justified to voters was that council delegates have been guilty of misusing funds.

"A few delegates may have abused discretionary funds by helping their own family for example, but our delegates have made it possible for us to help rebuild homes - we've had two burn-outs in the past two years - and we are able to help replace shingles on homes that are blown away by our extreme winds. The abuse by a handful of delegates has given a black eye to the whole council."

Carr, Nelson and Kelly all spoke of their concern that newspapers have not responded to DFG press conferences or letters to the editors.

Other concerns expressed by the group include that the voting public, especially the elderly, were never properly educated on either initiative; that people do not understand what the terminology means (such as the words "line item veto" or "comprehensive budgets") and that no one really knows what they voted for - there was never a written reapportionment plan until the weekend before the election when division directors traveled to Albuquerque to begin formulation.

"The majority of the Western Agency did not support the initiative," Kelly said. "Where does that leave us? Will they just force this thing upon us?"

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