Andrew Curley is a member of the Hawk Chapter and an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona (PhD in development sociology), running for Navajo Nation President. His interview with Cal Nez was the most policy-detailed of the presidential field, centered on land reform, the structure of the government, and the president's role as a manager. Below are the main topics from the interview — the key question Cal asked on each, short summaries of Curley's answers in our own words, and follow-ups a voter might still want answered.
Watch or read the full interview, and see the scorecard, on Andrew Curley’s profile. This page is a nonpartisan summary; the Diné Civic Center does not endorse any candidate.
Curley is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona with a PhD in development sociology — the study of the structural forces that limit or expand people's opportunities. An “urban Indian” who has lived in Salt Lake, Farmington, and Albuquerque, he stresses that most Navajo members have lived off-reservation since 2000, so policy should welcome those living in border towns.
Curley's number-one issue is land reform. The century-old grazing-lease system makes all reservation land grazing land by default, so home-site, commercial, or industrial use requires bureaucratic withdrawal — strangling development. He would begin a careful, multi-term re-examination of grazing law to open land while documenting and securing family and traditional lands.
Curley would cut the Office of the President and Vice President roughly in half — he argues OPVP has bloated over 20 years with positions that serve the president rather than the people. The president, he says, should run budgets, work with division directors, and prioritize programs instead of creating drama with the council.
Curley calls the conflict structural, not personal — it recurs under every president and council because of how Title II splits power. His fix is an attitude shift (dropping the ego and symbolism of the office, focusing on day-to-day governance), disciplined budget planning to avoid mid-year funding requests, and genuine collaboration with the council.
Drawing on his time on the Commission on Navajo Government Development, Curley argues the Office of Government Development is hamstrung because entrenched interests control reform. He would elevate the most important laws — the Fundamental Law, Title II, the Local Governance Act, the judiciary title — to a “constitutional” status amendable only by popular referendum, so the judicial branch can use them as real checks; he says this is achievable within four years.
Curley rejects the premise — power is divided, and the president manages roughly 75–80% of tribal revenues, so the real question is who is an effective manager of that money. He says he's not running to be powerful but to improve conditions, prioritizing a cross-division sustainable-development program and empowering the judicial branch through fundamental law.
Topics a voter in this district might still want to hear about:
Not a judgment of this candidate — just what a specific, substantive answer includes, so you can weigh any candidate’s response: