What's the hold up?
Council questions why tribal lawyers aren't pursuing Navajo arbitration act

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Key delegates wondered Monday why it is taking the tribe's attorneys so long to include the Navajo Nation Arbitration Act in capital improvement projects with New Mexico.

The Inter-government Relations Committee (I-gRC), meeting in the Legislative Branch chief's office on Presidents' Day, ordered Speaker Lawrence Morgan to have Chief Legislative Counsel Ray Etsitty report back within six weeks (30 working days) on how to impose the act into contracts with the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department.

Those contracts, called "joint powers agreements," have funneled millions of dollars over the years into chapter projects.

Tamsen Holm of the Legislative Counsel's Office advised the committee that the state's arbitration act is not included in the boilerplate of the standard agreements because a unique custom-written format is used, with referral to federal court.

New Ethics-Rules Committee Chair LoRenzo Bates (Upper Fruitland Chapter) raised the issue, since he sponsored the act which the council adopted last summer. He viewed the lack of effort as surrender of sovereignty.

Public Safety Committee Chair Hope Macdonald-Lonetree (Coal Mine Mesa, Toh Nanees Dizi-Tuba City) and Government Services Committee Chair Ervin Keeswood Sr. (Hogback) agreed with Bates.

Human Services Committee Chair Young Jeff Tom (Mariano Lake, Smith Lake) and Education Committee Vice Chair Wallace Charley (Shiprock) asked the committee not to penalize chapters for a central government failure.

The question arose as the committee voted 11-0 to approve three more such deals sponsored by Tom. The state funds will be used to help buy a road grader ($30,000) for the Toadlena-Two Grey Hills Chapter, computers and related equipment ($30,000) for the Borrego Pass School in Crownpoint Chapter and bathroom additions ($47,500) in the Smith Lake Chapter.

Delegate Peterson Yazzie (Naschitti, Tohatchi) won a 10-0 vote to approve a fourth contract, for $75,000, to renovate the food distribution warehouse in the Mexican Springs Chapter.

Delegate David Tom (Beclabito, Gadiiahi-Cudeii), however, received a 9-2 vote to refer his request, to approve $200,000 for irrigation improvements on 627 acres, to the Resources Committee after the panel's chair, George Arthur (Burnham, Nenahnezad, San Juan) asked why Morgan had assigned the resolution to the Transportation-Community Development Committee.

In other matters, the I-gRC:

• By an 8-1 vote, removed from the agenda the Navajo Partitioned Lands Grazing Regulations which must be published in the Federal Register. Keeswood said a separate committee meeting devoted exclusively to the topic needed to be held. Several different sets of grazing regulations cover or don't cover, depending upon location, different agencies within the reservation. Sponsor-Delegate Norman John II (Twin Lakes) was absent, so the measure could not have been considered anyway.
• By an 11-0 vote, approved the IHS hospital in Chinle providing medical and health care at the Chinle juvenile hall, operated by the Public Safety Division's Corrections Department. Public Safety Committee member Pete Ken Atcitty (Shiprock) was the sponsor.
• By a 10-0 vote accepted the report by the Lewis and Roca Law Firm of Phoenix, which has been hired by Morgan as a lobbyist, on legislation of interest to the Diné government in the 47th Arizona Legislature. Unlike New Mexico's 30-day and 60-day terms, Arizona lawmakers have open-ended sessions, which they normally try to end in April.
  The Navajo and Hopi Reservations are in the Second District, served by Sen. Albert Hale and Representatives Albert Tom (both Navajos) and Ann Kirkpatrick of Flagstaff.
• By an 11-0 vote, accepted a report by Delegate Rex Lee Jim (Rock Point) on the continuing negotiations of the Organization of American States ad-hoc committee working on a Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, parallel to a similar document from the United Nations. One piece of legislation now before the Arizona Legislature would urge Congress to get the U.S. out of the U.N.
• Because of the lack of a sponsor, automatically continued to the next agenda the resolution by Evelyn Acothley (Bodaway-The Gap, Cameron, Copper Mine) to waive the indirect cost support with Arizona's Transportation Department to build turn lanes in Tuba City.

The committee's next scheduled meeting will be March 7.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 371-5443.