Greg Bigman is a businessman and former president of the Diné College Board of Regents who has also run for Navajo Nation president. His interview with Cal Nez ranged across culture and leadership, government transparency, Title II and the balance of power, 638 health-care financing, Section 17 enterprises, and small-business policy. Below are the questions Cal asked, short summaries of Bigman'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 Greg Bigman’s profile. This page is a nonpartisan summary; the Diné Civic Center does not endorse any candidate.
Bigman called language important but not the only thing — understanding the culture and connecting with people, including on a spiritual level, is what drives real leadership. He pointed to the Diné thinking-and-planning model (thought first, then word and action) as a governance framework that parallels the judicial branch.
Bigman placed himself more on the entrepreneurial side — a biochemist with finance and pharmaceutical experience — valuing an independent mindset and disciplined risk management, while stressing that leadership in any sector is fundamentally about managing people, building teams, and communicating.
Bigman likened the executive-legislative fight to parents fighting while the children — the public — are neglected, and said the core problem is that things are hidden from the public. He would push a transparency / full-disclosure act, citing his own recall experience at the elections office where policies were produced only when convenient.
Bigman explained Title II lays out the executive and legislative functions (the judicial branch sits outside it), and that while the code makes the Council the governing body, in practice the executive controls a large funding base through the Attorney General and litigation funds — so whether power is balanced depends on the circumstance, not just the code.
Bigman noted roughly $7 billion in health-care funds flow through Navajo and that care isn't guaranteed off-reservation in the treaty. He would make tribal insurance more accessible and usable by Navajo members, and pointed to the Indian Managed Care Entity (IMCE) concept as a way to coordinate care and ensure funds are spent against federal requirements.
Bigman supports Section 17 federal corporations when properly structured — the danger is loading the board with government actors, which makes enterprises political instead of business-like. He stressed that however enterprises are structured, they were started with the people's money, so accountability follows the dollars (citing grants like the Zinni Homes example with no accountability).
Bigman said the NBOA applies only to Navajo entities (not private firms) and doesn't help sole proprietors, and that other tribes use an outside procurement body. He criticized the Regional Business Development Offices for becoming paperwork help rather than producing real businesses, and praised Title 26 for giving chapters autonomy in principle while everything still funnels slowly through Window Rock.
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: