Christopher Curley is running for Council Delegate in District 1 (the Tó Nehelííh / Tuba City area). He has served on the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation board since 2012, so health care and 638 self-governance are his deepest subject. Below are the questions Cal asked, short summaries of Curley's answers in our own words, and follow-up questions a voter might still want answered.
Watch or read the full interview, and see the scorecard, on Christopher Curley’s profile. This page is a nonpartisan summary; the Diné Civic Center does not endorse any candidate.
Curley frames his candidacy around communication and rapport — keeping delegates focused on the fact that they represent the people of all 110 chapters, including Diné who live in cities. His central theme is rebuilding trust and unity among the delegates so the Council works from a shared sense of purpose, and he draws on his experience working with youth.
Curley says the Nation is not yet functioning as a true three-branch government — the roles and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches still need to be clarified, and he describes a 'power struggle' between the President's office and the Council. He is familiar with the Commission on Navajo Government Development (the 1989 reform body) and would support its work to restructure and reinforce the government.
This is Curley's strongest area — he has sat on the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation board since 2012. He strongly supports 638 (Title V) self-governance because it lets communities decide what their hospital needs, versus what he calls IHS's rigid 'one-way' model. He points to the Council's Health, Education & Human Services Committee (HEHSC) as the oversight body that tribal health organizations — Tuba City, Winslow, Sage Memorial, Fort Defiance and others — report to each year. He is a longtime advocate of integrating Diné traditional healers into care (now reimbursable in some cases through CMS), and suggests any Navajo medical-oversight body be staffed by professionals covering patient care, billing and finance, and quality.
Curley calls this one of his founding questions from his board service. He ties it to history — families removed during WWII-era relocation, students at universities, people who left for work — and argues the Nation should start at the grassroots and chapter level, set policy at the Council level, then bring federal lawmakers to the table to honor the treaty responsibility to provide care.
Curley starts with the basics — housing and infrastructure, especially roads — as the foundation for economic stability, and wants the Nation to pool resources to attract funding. His signature idea is building local training centers to grow the Nation's own tradespeople (electricians, welders, carpenters) so a Navajo workforce can bid on the Nation's own projects instead of relying on off-reservation labor. He speaks from experience as a small-business owner — an educational consultant, photographer, and graphic designer.
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: