LEARNING MISSION
Why this guide matters
The proposed constitution would change how the Nation governs itself. This guide exists so the November 3 vote is informed — whichever way each voter decides.
How we’ll know it’s working
Honest, countable signs only: questions submitted · instruments gathering answers · pages read and rated useful · and more people who can explain how these decisions actually get made. Counts publish, dated, on Community Findings.
Government Reform & the Constitution Referendum
≈ 6 min read · or listen, or skim the bold lines
D · Draft — not verified Not line-checked against the Navajo Nation Code. How we verify →
Data & your voice
Surveys, by subject · the results so far · Where’s the data? — every mission runs on what the community measures.
Quick poll: want to learn more about the proposed constitution?
📤 Shared — anonymous, one tap, published only as a count
The referendum is on the November 3 ballot. Should we build more plain-language lessons on what the proposed constitution actually says and changes?
On November 3, 2026, voters decide on the proposed constitution. This Decision Mission has one job: help the Navajo Nation understand the proposal well enough to make an informed decision. Not support. Not oppose. Understand.
Article XVIII would reconstitute the chapters. What candidates said about how they work today: The layer closest to the people →
§1024 would transfer the Nation’s enterprises to tribal members: what that means, and what candidates said →
Open questions on the draft
Reading the August 7 draft closely raises questions its author is the right person to answer — including two sections that give different vote thresholds for the same citizen-initiative right, and a provision that would transfer the Nation’s enterprises to tribal members. We have written them down rather than guessed at them: What We Don’t Know →
Why this guide is urgent
The complaints that fill the interview record — money unaccounted for, rules made up on the spot, retaliation that outruns the process — all come down to one question: when something goes wrong, is there a venue where an ordinary person’s case gets decided on the merits, in time to matter, with the answer enforced? Government structure is where that gets fixed or stays broken. The Primary is July 21; the referendum is November 3. Understand both — the deciding is yours.
Everything in this guide
Learn
Learning & information
The Proposed Constitution 101 · Title 2 & Title 26 · Government 101 · History of Navajo government
Explore the issue
Learning & information
Title 2 & Government Reform — the full issue page: what's proposed, why, what candidates said, and the questions people are asking.
Official sources
Official resources
Office of Navajo Government Development (ONGD) — home of the proposed constitution · The working-draft constitution itself (PDF) — read the document, not just summaries · August 7, 2025 draft working document (PDF, hosted here for the record) · Referendum voting information
Evaluate
Evaluation tools
Apply the five lenses: What problems is the reform trying to solve — would it solve them? How would accountability and transparency change? How does it align with K’é and Hózhó? Who would need to work together? Does it prevent future problems?
Participate
Community participation
What do you still not understand about the proposal? Your questions shape what gets explained next. Ask a question.
What this guide produced
Your output (private)
Individual
Reform Readiness: I understand what's proposed, why, the tradeoffs, and the open questions — I'm ready to vote on it. Tracked on My Civic Journey.
Community output
Community
The questions the community still has about the reform — compiled and published here, and used to guide future explainers and interviews.
Why this connects to accountability
The same root, seen from the ballot
The "no clear owner" pattern that runs under every issue page is a structure problem — and this referendum is the ballot's structural proposal. Before you weigh it, see how the current system works: how oversight works today — and what you'd fix first, and Fraud, Waste, Abuse & Oversight 101. Then judge the proposal against the problem.
Why this law exists
In 1987 a middleman bought a ranch for $26.25 million and sold it to the Navajo Nation five minutes later for $33.4 million. Two years of crisis followed. On July 20, 1989, Arnold Begay and Jimmy Dixon were killed outside the finance building in Window Rock.
Five months later the Council wrote 2 N.N.C. §§ 223–225: advertise the contract, take bids, cap change orders at twenty percent, file it, and let the people see it. In the same resolution they ordered that the law be codified immediately.
The law behind this guide
A · read in the Navajo Nation Code Annotated unless marked otherwise
- CD-68-89 (December 15, 1989) — the Title 2 Amendments, passed temporarily, until the people chose a government.
- 2 N.N.C. § 221(A) — the Legislative Counsel “shall immediately arrange for codification.”
- §§ 223–225 — bidding, the twenty-percent change-order cap, filing, and public access. Enacted in the same resolution.
What we found
Thirty-seven years later the temporary government stands. The published Code stops at 2009, and five Titles are not in it at all.
How we’ll know it worked
When an up-to-date, indexed Navajo Nation Code is published free.
Background: The Seams in the Law — why the state of the law’s publication is itself a governance issue.