LEARNING MISSION

Ranches & Enterprises — a working guide

A · Primary source Statutes below were read in the Navajo Nation Code Annotated. How we verify →

The Navajo Nation owns ranches and enterprises. Thirty-six of the 42 interviews discussed them substantively. Until now this site had no mission for it.

The law behind this guide

2 N.N.C. § 3749 — no public official or member of their immediate family may profit from a Nation contract unless it was competitively bid, at arm’s length, and the official took no part in the specifications, deliberations or decision.
§ 223(E), (F) — advertisement and bidding; the twenty-percent change-order cap.
12 N.N.C. § 2(A)(1) — the Auditor General may audit “chapters, related Navajo Nation entities and contractors to the Navajo Nation.”
§ 5 — every enterprise shall make its books available to the Auditor General.

What we found

The most-raised answers were local hiring and enterprises returning revenue — nine candidates each. One presidential candidate said enterprises must “list their salaries… their bonuses… board members… meeting minutes.” No statute currently requires that.

How we’ll know it worked

When an enterprise publishes its board, its minutes, and its executive compensation — or a law requires it to.

What to ask a candidate

§ 2(A)(1) lets the Auditor General audit contractors. When did it last audit one?
Should enterprises be required to publish salaries, bonuses, board members and minutes?
§ 3749 bars an official’s family from profiting from a Nation contract. How many § 3749 cases have been brought in five years?

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.

Open items across the whole site, sorted by who owns them: The Work →

What the candidates actually said about the Nation’s companies: The companies the people own →

What 21 of the 42 candidates said about the ranches, and the Title nobody can read: One ranch and one farm →