LEARNING MISSION
The Executive–Legislative Conflict
A · Primary source Statutes below were read in the Navajo Nation Code Annotated. How we verify →
Health care reached substantive discussion in 35 of the 42 interviews — among the most-covered subjects of all. Until now this site had no mission for it.
The law behind this guide
- CD-68-89 (December 15, 1989) — abolished the Chairmanship, created the President and the Speaker. Passed temporarily, in the Council’s own words.
- 2 N.N.C. § 102 — the Council is the governing body of the Navajo Nation.
- § 3780 — the ethics office may impose sanctions including removal from office. § 3777 — special prosecutors.
- CMY-17-15 — an ethics judgment, unsatisfied, bars candidacy. An allegation is not a judgment.
What we found
Andrew Curley: “It doesn’t matter… whoever’s in president and whoever’s in council… they all end up fighting with each other. So to me, that says it’s a structural problem.” Fourteen candidates named communication as the fix. A complaint against a president was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction — nothing was decided on the merits.
How we’ll know it worked
When the Nation can say, in one sentence, who has authority to hold a President to account — and cite the section.
What to ask a candidate
- Under § 3780, who may remove an official from office, and by what procedure?
- A complaint was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Which body does have jurisdiction?
- The 1989 government was passed temporarily. What would finishing it require?
Related: A Short History · Ethics & Rules · Title 2 & 26 · The Root Problem
FINDING
Weigh what you find — the lenses
The lenses evaluate ideas, never people: the five lenses · how to weigh an answer · did they answer? · questions to ask, by category. Transparency & accountability · root cause · culture and K’é / Hózhó · collaboration · prevention versus damage control.