GEOG rough notes from webster about Navajo Nation

In the Sun's House: My Year on the Navajo Reservation (Trinity University Press, 2009)
Division of Economic Development (DED) Phase I
Over 150 public, private and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools serve students from kindergarten through high school. Most schools receive funding from the Navajo Nation under the Johnson O’Malley program.
Navajo Preparatory School
There are six types of secondary establishments, including:
• Eight Arizona Public Schools
• New Mexico Public Schools
• Utah Public Schools
• Bureau of Indian Affairs Public Schools
• Association of Navajo Controlled Schools
• Navajo Preparatory School, Inc.

Literacy is Empowering Project
local Head Start, the only educational program operated by the Navajo Nation government. Post-secondary education and vocational training are available on and off the reservation.
Navajo Housing Authority, the tribally designated housing entity for the Navajo Nation
unemployment level fluctuates between an overall 40 and 45 percent for the nation of reported taxed income, but in some communities it can go as high as 85 percent or as low as 15 percent
Utah Dine Corporation: Utah Navajo Oil Reserves reenues in Aneth Oil Field sectio of Utah (SanJuan County, Utah)
The Navajo Nation is divided into five Agencies, with the seat of government located in the Window Rock/Tségháhoodzání. These agencies are similar to provincial entities and match the five Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agencies. These five Agencies within the Navajo Indian Reservation are Chinle Agency, Eastern Navajo Agency, Western Navajo Agency, Fort Defiance Agency, and Shiprock Agency. The BIA agencies provide various technical services under direction of the BIA's Navajo Area Office in Gallup, New Mexico. Agencies are further divided into Chapters, similar to counties, as the smallest political unit.

The tribal Trust lands have no private land ownerships, and all Tribal Trust land is owned in common and administered by the Nation's government. On the other hand BIA Indian Allotment lands are privately owned by the heirs and generations of the original BIA Indian Allotee to whom it was issued. With Tribal trust lands, leases are made both to customary land users (for homesites, grazing, and other uses) and organizations, which may include BIA and other federal agencies, churches and other religious organizations, as well as private or commercial businesses
Today
24,078.127 square miles (62,362.06 km2)
24,096.295 square miles (62,409.12 km2). Of water area
Navajo communities now have to face proposed new uranium solution mining that threatens the only source of drinking water for 10,000 to 15,000 people living in the Eastern Navajo Agency in northwestern New Mexico. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) aims to provide the public with information on resource exploitation on the people and their cultures, lands, water, and air of the American Southwest.
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Monument Valley, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, and the Shiprock landmark.
Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation: It has a land area of 230.675 sq mi (597.445 km²), over 95 percent of which is designated as off-reservation trust land. There was a 2000 census resident population of 2,167 persons.[1] The Ramah Reservation's land area is less than one percent of the Navajo Nation's total area.
Alamo Navajo Indian Reservation: lying in northwestern Socorro County, New Mexico, USA, adjacent to the southeastern part of the Acoma Indian Reservation. It has a land area of 256.616 km² (99.08 sq mi), and a 2000 census resident population of almost 2,000 persons. The Alamo Band of the Navajo Nation Reservation's land area is only about four-tenths of one percent of the Navajo Nation's total area. The remote community has a K-12 school, Early Childhood Center, a new multi-million dollar Wellness Center, a Community Service center that provides non-school related programs, a state-of-the-art Health Center and KABR radio, 1500 AM.
Alamo Navajo Reservation (Tribal Census Tracts 9415 and 9461), Navajo Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Arizona/New Mexico/Utah
Tohajiilee Indian Reservation/Canoncito Indian Reservation: western Bernalillo, eastern Cibola, and southwestern Sandoval Counties in New Mexico, USA, west of the city of Albuquerque. It has a land area of 314.911 km² (121.588 sq mi) and a 2000 census resident population of 1,649 persons. The land area is only about one-half of one percent of the entire Navajo Nation total
Canoncito Indian Reservation (Tribal Census Tract 9459), Navajo Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Arizona/New Mexico/Utah

Bosque Redondo: inprisionment; Fort Sumner was a military fort in De Baca County in southeastern New Mexico charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863-1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.
October 31, 1862 Bosque Redondo reservation, a 40-square-mile (100 km2) area where over 9,000 Navajo (8,500) and Mescalero Apaches (500)
Pecos River
Large numbers in 1864 journey from Navajo land to Bosque Redondo as Long Walk
1865 Mescalero Apaches/strong enough escaped. Navajo not allowed to leave until May
1868 Navajo allowed to leave/failure
Arizona hinterlands (hideout while they were rounding up the Navajo in Arizona)
New Reservation
16 million acres
Navajo Indian Reservation 1868 (100 miles square in New Mexico)
3,328,302 acres- slightly more than half
37th parallel Northern latitude in the North
Fort Defiance southern border
Fort Lyon eastern border
Longitude 109? 30’
Most Navajo ingnored these rules and returned to prior establishments
1868-1934 land increase
Nn_border_hist_map.svg‎ (SVG file, nominally 998 × 857 pixels, file size: 149 KB)
1868 After the return from Bosque Redondo in 1868, listed offenses were handled by the Indian Agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the support of the U.S. Army, while lesser disputes remained under Navajo control
1878 October 28: 20 miles to the west
Eastern boarder shaped by Dawes Act of 1887
Divided into tribal lands(allotments)
Unfarmed/unsuccessfully farmed land was given to settlers
Continued until 1934; until then checkerboard area appeared in the eastern boarder of reservation/non-reservation land
Today Navajo lands are mingled with fee lands, owned by both Navajos and non-Navajos, f
1880
1882
1884
1886
1900
1901
1905 added region around Aneth confirmed by congress in 1933
1907
1913
1918
1930
1934 (2x)
Indian Reorganization Act
1935
Constitutional initiatives rejected Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
1944 to 1986, 3.9 million tons of uranium ore were chiseled and blasted from the mountains and plains. The mines provided uranium for the Manhattan Project, the top-secret effort to develop an atomic bomb, and for the weapons stockpile built up during the arms race with the Soviet Union
1950 the Navajo Tribal Council decided that judges should be elected;
1953
Constitutional initiatives rejected Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
1958 judicial reorganization of, the problems with delayed decisions and partisan politics convinced the Council that appointment was a better method of selecting judges: Navajo Tribal Council on 16 October; current
Navajo Court of Indian Offenses were elimintaed
Sitting judges became judges in the new system
Trail courts of the Navajo Tribe
Navajo Tribal Court of Appeals
1959 1 April Judicail Branch of the Navajo Nation Government became effective
1960s. As the threat of the Cold War gradually diminished over the next two decades, four processing mills and more than 1,000 mines on tribal land shut down, leaving behind radioactive waste piles, open tunnels and pits.
1963
Failed Constitutional initiatives Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
Drafted/adopted by governing council but not ratified by members
1978 Supreme Judicial Council established could hear from Navajo Tribal Court of Appeals
1980 relocate Dine living in the Navajo/Hopi joint area/75-year lease to Navajos who refused to leave the former shared lands
1980 San Juan
1985 Judicail Reform Act; back to
Sitting judges became judges in the new system
Trail courts of the Navajo Tribe
Navajo Tribal Court of Appeals
1988-2006 seven judicail districts
1690 Senate Bill Utah Navajo Oil Royalties

1991 three branch system government established: executive, legislative, judicial
2004 the nation signed a compact with New Mexico to operate a casino at To'hajiilee, near Albuquerque. Navajo leaders also negotiated with Arizona officials for casinos near Flagstaff, Lake Powell, Winslow, Sanders (Nahata Dziil Chapter), and Cameron (the Grand Canyon entrance).

2006 Navajo Constitution started to advocate for Navajo constitutional convention;goal is to have representation from every chapter on Navajo Nation
2008, the Navajo Nation and Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp. reached a deal to build a 500-megawatt wind farm some 50 miles (80 km) north of Flagstaff, AZ. Known as the Diné Wind Project
2010 ten judicial districts, family courts: over domestic relations, civil relief in domestic violence, children custody/protection, name changes,
October of 2010, 77 current delegates to the 88-member Navajo Nation Council were charged with offenses including theft and fraud in the use of tribal slush funds just weeks before the 2010 November election. Not guilty was what the Councilmen charged pleaded, to those tribal charges of fraud, conspiracy and theft.

Long walk to Navajo Nation
1923 Navajo Indian Reservation
April 15, 1969 Navajo Nation
Geographic entity legally defined borders
Naabeehó Bináhásdzo
Diné Bikéyah
Naabeehó Bikéyah
Navajoland
Third World, Niʼ Hałtsooí traditional Navajo creation story: two rivers formed a cross the Sacred Mountain: Tó Ałnáosdlį́į́, Crossing of the Waters. Female river north to south; male east to west
Near the Center of the Yellow World was Dził Náʼoodiłii, Soft Goods or Banded Rock Mountain. And near it, East of center, there was Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, Precious Stones, or Great Spruce Mountain and the four
Fourth world, Niʼ Hodisxǫs: four mountains were reformed from soil in the 2nd world
Dinétah: traditional homeland of the Navajo people
Four sacred Mountains: mountains Dookʼoʼsłííd (San Francisco Peaks) abalone shell mountain, Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain) big mountain sheep, Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak) dawn/white shell mountain, and Tsoodził (Mount Taylor) blue bead/turquoise: They saw that they were on an island in the middle of a bubbling lake[13], surrounded by high cliffs [14]. At first he people could not find a way to get across the water to the shore. They called on Water Sprinkler to help them. He had brought four great stones with him from the Third World. He threw one to the east. When it hit the cliff wall, it broke a hole through it, and water began to flow out of the lake. The threw a stone to the south. He threw one to the west. And to the north he threw one. Each stone created a hole in the cliff, and the water of the lake became lower. A lane now connected the island to the shore to the east, but it was deep with mud. The people called on Níłchʼi dilkǫǫh, Smooth Wind, to help them. He blew steadily for a long time, and finally the people were able to leave the island
first human born in the Fourth World is Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé who, in turn, gives birth to the Hero Twins called Naayééʼ Neizghání and Tóbájíshchíní. The twins have many adventures in which they helped to rid the world of various monsters. Mountain formations
Blanca Peak to the east, Mount Taylor to the south, the San Francisco Peaks to the west, and Hesperus Peak to the north
Center of creation
Dinétah" means "among the people" or "among the Navajo" (diné is the Navajo word that refers to the Navajo people; it also means "people" in the generic sense). In the geographical sense, Dinétah encompasses a large area of northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and northeastern Arizona. The exact boundaries are unclear, and are generally marked by mountain peaks which correspond to the four cardinal directions.
Near the Center they re-created Dził Náʼoodiłii, Soft Goods or Banded Rock Mountain. They left its summit bare, but they created two beings to reside there. They were Yódí neidiitsi ashkii, Boy Who Produces Goods, and Yódí neidiitsi atʼééd, Girl Who Produces Goods.
East of center they re-created Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, Precious Stones, or Great Spruce Mountain. They decorated it with pollen and the clouds that bring female rain. On it they created two beings, Nitłʼiz neidiitsi ashkii, the Boy Who Produces Jewels, and Nitłʼiz neidiitsi atʼééd, the Girl Who Produces Jewels, to live there forever[21].
Dinétah region is marked by high mesas and deep canyons that drain to the San Juan River
United States has plenary power to require Navajo Nation to submit proposed lase to United States Secretary of Interior for Secretarial review by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Navajo Nation Council consists of 24 delegates representing the 110 Chapters, elected every four years by registered Navajo voters. Prior to the November 2010 election, the Navajo Nation Council consisted of 88 representatives.
Navajo Nation Code
Tribal Energy Resource Agreements (TERAs) Tribal land means any land or interests in land owned by a tribe or tribes
Land
Public, Tribal Trust, Tribal Fee, BLM, Private, State, and BIA Indian Allotment Lands
Eastern Agency: Tribal Fee, BIA Indian Allotments, BLM lands
Intention of the Navajo Nation to convert most all of Tribal Fee Lands to Tribal Trust
Individually owned lands are of two kinds:
• Trust land - The federal government holds legal title but the beneficial interest remains with the Individual Indian
• Restricted fee land - An individual Indian holds legal title but with legal restrictions against alienation or encumbrance
Tribally owned lands are of three kinds:
• Trust land - The federal government holds legal title but the beneficial interest remains with the tribe
• Restricted fee land - The tribe holds legal title but with legal restrictions against alienation or encumbrance
• Fee land purchased by tribes - The tribe acquires legal title under specific statutory authority. Fee land owned by a tribe outside the boundaries of a reservation is not subject to legal restrictions against alienation or encumbrance, absent any special circumstances. The law is not clear whether such restrictions apply to fee land within the boundaries of a reservation.