Full Profile · From the Interview Record
Charlie Smith Jr.
B · From the record Summaries are drawn from Cal Nez’s interview. Quotations are not published until checked against the recording. How we verify →
Candidate Snapshot
Background & Why They’re Running
Smith is a U.S. military veteran and former police officer from a well-known Navajo broadcasting family, running for the Cameron–Gray Mountain–Birdsprings seat. He raises cattle and says he lived through the 1989 riots, which shaped his view of allegiance and the rule of law.
Where Charlie Smith Jr. Stands
Each topic below is drawn from the interview — the question Cal asked, and a short summary of the answer, generated by AI from the interview recording.
Roads & Local Priorities
Cal asked: What are the main issues you'd tackle?
Among the long-standing issues he wrote down, Smith puts area road conditions first.
Veterans
Cal asked: Whose responsibility are veterans, and what would you do?
Smith calls veterans a dual responsibility of the federal government and the Nation; PTSD is real — his son returned from Desert Storm with it. He'd encourage homecoming ceremonies and faith-based or traditional counseling, direct veterans to services, and explore waiving home-site-lease hurdles to get them homes.
Title 2 & the Window Rock Conflict
Cal asked: How would you address the president-council gridlock?
Smith is familiar with Title 2 — the post-1989 structure, checks and balances, and authority of the government, from which the LGA also derived — and says the fix never fully took hold: in his words, “It's basically, we're back to how it was before.” He'd support updating Title 2 to strengthen its structure and checks. When Cal argued the branches aren't equally balanced and asked whether he'd back the Council relinquishing some power to make them truly equal, Smith said he would — for him it comes down to courage, integrity, and the oath: you decide on principle even when it costs popularity.
Business Development (His Passion)
Cal asked: How will you grow business in your area?
Business development is Smith's signature issue. When Cal cited the gap — about 1,963 fully Navajo-owned businesses versus more than 91,000 residents commuting to border towns for work — Smith agreed, and in his own telling tied it to dual taxation and to grazing-permit and home-site/business-site lease barriers rooted in the federal trust status of the land. He'd work on the grazing-permit issues to open up home sites, business sites, and alternative energy (solar, wind, hydro), negotiating with the federal government under its trust responsibility.
Sovereignty & Getting Off Dependency
Cal asked: How do you protect the Nation's future?
Smith frames the treaty as having traded Navajo self-sufficiency for federal promises, warns that federal funding will shrink, and says the Nation must take risks, reform its tax codes, and reduce dependency before treaties or protections are pulled.
Topics in the Interview
- Background
- Roads & Local Priorities
- Veterans
- Title 2 & the Window Rock Conflict
- Business Development (His Passion)
- Sovereignty & Getting Off Dependency