Arvin Trujillo — Interview Q&A

≈ 7 min read · or listen, or skim the bold lines

B · From the record Summaries are drawn from Cal Nez’s interview. Quotations are not published until checked against the recording. How we verify →

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Answer summaries in the site’s words, drawn from the recorded Cal Nez interview (Politics on the Navajo Nation, 2026) — not quotations and not the candidate’s own wording. Their exact words are in the video, linked from their profile.

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Background & Three-Part Platform

Cal asked: Introduce yourself and your platform.

A mining engineer with a 40-year career — former Division of Natural Resources director (about 12 years under Presidents Begay and Shirley), an APS government-affairs manager, a Four Corners economic-development CEO, and an NTEC director — Trujillo runs on three priorities: rebuild the working relationship among the three branches, restore a customer-service mentality among Navajo Nation employees, and drive economic development.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Restoring the Three Branches

Cal asked: Why does the president-council conflict persist even when former delegates become president?

Trujillo credits communication and not taking debate personally — “this is business.” From his DNR years he debated delegates, stayed focused on results, and amended projects to win their support. On systemic change, he'd use the existing majority and supermajority process to move near-term change rather than overhauling the whole system, recalling how long the 88-to-24 council transition stalled progress.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Not sure how to weigh this answer? The five lenses, in brief ▾

Transparency & accountability: who is responsible, and how would progress be measured and verified?
Root cause: does this address the underlying problem, or only the symptom?
Culture — K’é / Hózhǫ: does it strengthen kinship, restore balance, honor future generations?
Collaboration: who would need to work together — and does the answer name them?
Prevention vs. damage control: does it prevent harm, or only respond after it?

Questions to carry with you — nothing to click, nothing scored. Full lesson: The Five Lenses · companion: How to weigh what a candidate says.

Navajo Nation Employees & Service Delivery

Cal asked: How do you fix government's responsiveness to people?

Trujillo wants to rebuild a customer-service, service-delivery culture among employees through a strategic process and their buy-in — pointing to how he changed the Division of Natural Resources' mentality toward innovation and faster, more digital processes.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Not sure how to weigh this answer? The five lenses, in brief ▾

Transparency & accountability: who is responsible, and how would progress be measured and verified?
Root cause: does this address the underlying problem, or only the symptom?
Culture — K’é / Hózhǫ: does it strengthen kinship, restore balance, honor future generations?
Collaboration: who would need to work together — and does the answer name them?
Prevention vs. damage control: does it prevent harm, or only respond after it?

Questions to carry with you — nothing to click, nothing scored. Full lesson: The Five Lenses · companion: How to weigh what a candidate says.

Economic Development, Energy & Revenue

Cal asked: How will you multiply the budget “pie” instead of just slicing it?

Trujillo notes revenue fell from $225–270 million in the fossil-fuel heyday (two plants, five mines) to roughly $150–175 million today (one plant, one mine), so the Nation must diversify its energy portfolio and find new revenue, supporting enterprises and small businesses to share in it. He cites a long record — the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, the first New Mexico water-rights settlement, lifting the Bennett Freeze, four-laning US 491/550, the Monument Valley hotel, the Farm Bill census, and extending the Four Corners/Navajo Mine lease to 2041.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Not sure how to weigh this answer? The five lenses, in brief ▾

Transparency & accountability: who is responsible, and how would progress be measured and verified?
Root cause: does this address the underlying problem, or only the symptom?
Culture — K’é / Hózhǫ: does it strengthen kinship, restore balance, honor future generations?
Collaboration: who would need to work together — and does the answer name them?
Prevention vs. damage control: does it prevent harm, or only respond after it?

Questions to carry with you — nothing to click, nothing scored. Full lesson: The Five Lenses · companion: How to weigh what a candidate says.

“Open for Business,” Capital & the Navajo Business Opportunity Act (NBOA)

Cal asked: Do you support the Navajo Business Opportunity Act?

Trujillo says the Nation acts “closed to business” and must show it's open — handling compliance and applications promptly and using enterprises' expertise so deals don't stall and collapse. He backs the NBOA's Navajo-preference classification but stresses training and workforce development, and flags the core problem that reservation entrepreneurs can't borrow against land or sell a business the way off-reservation owners can — an equity-access gap he'd work to close. His driving reason: bring young people home.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Not sure how to weigh this answer? The five lenses, in brief ▾

Transparency & accountability: who is responsible, and how would progress be measured and verified?
Root cause: does this address the underlying problem, or only the symptom?
Culture — K’é / Hózhǫ: does it strengthen kinship, restore balance, honor future generations?
Collaboration: who would need to work together — and does the answer name them?
Prevention vs. damage control: does it prevent harm, or only respond after it?

Questions to carry with you — nothing to click, nothing scored. Full lesson: The Five Lenses · companion: How to weigh what a candidate says.

Veterans

Cal asked: Whose responsibility are veterans — the Nation or the federal government?

Trujillo says the Nation should take the lead, working with state and federal agencies to locate and even build veteran services on the Nation, since today veterans travel far for care. He points to his record securing federal and state support — Senator Domenici on Navajo-Gallup appropriations, Governor Richardson and TIGER grants for the highways — and notes the federal push to devolve responsibility to states and tribes (like the amended TERA energy rules) as an opening for the Nation to lead.

Your take (private):

Did they answer the question?

Not sure how to weigh this answer? The five lenses, in brief ▾

Transparency & accountability: who is responsible, and how would progress be measured and verified?
Root cause: does this address the underlying problem, or only the symptom?
Culture — K’é / Hózhǫ: does it strengthen kinship, restore balance, honor future generations?
Collaboration: who would need to work together — and does the answer name them?
Prevention vs. damage control: does it prevent harm, or only respond after it?

Questions to carry with you — nothing to click, nothing scored. Full lesson: The Five Lenses · companion: How to weigh what a candidate says.

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