The Navajo reservation is the largest piece of indigenous land in the world, covering over 25,000 square miles. It offers visitors the opportunity to travel back in time and see how the Anasazi people lived thousands of years ago. The Navajo Nation has updated its travel policies and procedures to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for visitors.
All roads through the reservation are open, and there are no hard closures. As part of the Navajo Nation’s COVID-19 reopening plan, attractions and businesses on the reservation are now open at 50 capacity. Masks must be worn indoors, in all public areas, and on all roads.
To ensure safety and protection of the natural and cultural resources of the Navajo Nation, travelers should hire a Navajo guide when trekking off Navajo Tribal Parks or Monument areas. Visitors are welcomed with open arms in Navajoland, but Navajo greetings and social interactions may differ from non-natives. Reservation cops are friendly, but they do not hand out warnings.
While traveling on the Navajo Nation, it is safe to travel alone, as long as you obey tribal laws and follow local laws. Half of the 1,500 miles of paved roads are in poor condition, lacking basic safety features like guard rails. Driving around in Navajo lands would not be fruitful as they live in poverty and are very private about their lives.
In summary, visiting the Navajo Nation is a unique and rewarding experience, offering a glimpse into the history and culture of the Anasazi people.
📹 Inside Navajo Nation with Sheriff (different reality) 🇺🇸
Each Native American Reservation is like a sovereign nation. On these lands, the law works differently for Natives and …
Is there cell service on the Navajo Nation?
Cellular One, headquartered in Northeast Arizona, provides telecommunications services to the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and White Mountain Apache tribal nations, as well as rural communities in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Is it safe to drive through Indian reservations in Arizona?
When driving on reservation land, use caution, especially at night, as small herds of animals can move freely along roads. Reservations are homes for those who live and work there, and should be respected as such. Most communities are open to the public during daylight hours, but homes are private and should only be entered by invitation. All U. S. highways, state roads, and main tribal roads are paved, but travel off recognized and numbered roads is strongly discouraged.
Is there more crime on Indian reservations?
Native American women face the highest rates of violent crime victimization, more than double that of other racial groups. They are more likely to have injuries that require medical attention and face an armed assailant than female victims of other races. On some Native American reservations, Native Women are murdered at a rate ten times the national average. Violent crime rates over all on Native American reservations are 2. 5 times the national average, while some individual reservations reach 20 times the national average of violent crime.
Some scholars suggest that historically, physical and sexual violence in Native American communities was rare in Pre-Colonial society, while others disagree. Traditional gender roles advocated co-dependence, where women’s contributions were honored and respected, and violence against Native women was heavily punished by Native justice systems. Colonial and post-colonial changes in Native American society spurred transformations in these traditional perceptions of gender norms and societal structure.
What must a Navajo girl do to take her place as a woman?
Kinaaldá is a significant life-changing event for Navajo girls, teaching them their role as women from birth. At birth, they are acknowledged by the Holy Ones, and their parents welcome them into the family. As they grow older, they learn the Navajo way of life. Traditionally, kinaaldá occurs immediately during their first menstruation period, but now families prepare and perform it within weeks post-menstruation. Before kinaaldá, the girl is a child and is transitioning to a woman. The adolescent phase, according to Erickson’s eight stages of development, is marked by identity versus identity confusion.
Are Indian reservations safe to visit?
The American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA) is a national nonprofit organization that supports and expands tribal tourism in the United States. They encourage tribal efforts to preserve their unique cultures while diversifying and growing their economies. NativeAmerica. Travel is a leading travel resource for travelers planning trips to native destinations and for tribes and native enterprises looking to grow Indian Country tourism as a means of economic development. Donations to AIANTA support tourism training and capacity-building programs, contributing to the economic well-being of tribal destinations. The term “American Indians” is preferred.
Can you drink alcohol in Navajo Nation?
In certain Navajo Nation areas, state and county law enforcement agencies have concurrent jurisdiction, and the possession of alcoholic beverages is strictly prohibited.
Can you travel through Navajo Nation?
The Navajo Nation’s economy relies heavily on tourism, with high demand for visiting landmarks like Antelope Canyon, Tower Butte, Rainbow Bridge, and Horseshoe Bend. Despite a prohibition on non-natives entering Navajo territory without a permit, Papillon allows passengers from Las Vegas to tour the reservation. The tribe is the only tour operator approved to land atop Tower Butte. Visitors can also take guided tours through Antelope Canyon, led by knowledgeable Navajo guides who share ancient legends and unique rock formations.
What not to do in Navajo Nation?
Navajo Tribal Park lands are strictly prohibited for cremation scattering, climbing, and base jumping. Respect tribal beliefs and avoid disposing of cremated human remains on tribal property. Climbing and base jumping are also strictly prohibited, as they violate the trust of the Navajo people.
Camping fees are $15 per person per night, and a Backcountry Use Permit is required for hiking at each park location. Campers must stay on designated trails and routes to avoid damaging trails and soil composition. A permit is required for fishing lakes or streams and hunting game on Navajo Nation land. Respect the privacy and customs of the Navajo people, do not wander across residential areas, and obtain permission before taking pictures.
Packing into the wilderness must be carried out, and nothing should be left, buried, or burned. Pets are not allowed, and if tagged, they must be on a leash at all times. Photographs or video taken for commercial use are prohibited unless accompanied by a valid permit issued by Navajo Parks and Recreation.
Functional firearms are not allowed on tribal lands, and the Navajo Nation is not responsible for injuries, accidents, or thefts during visits. Fires are permitted in grills, fireplaces, or similar control devices, but open ground fires pose a danger. Disturbing or removing animals, plants, rocks, or artifacts is strictly prohibited, and special permits are required from the Navajo Minerals Department and Natural Heritage Program. Consumption and possession of alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs are strictly prohibited on the Navajo Nation.
What are the problems with the Navajo reservation?
The Navajo Nation in Utah faces numerous challenges, including limited access to water, electricity, phones, and computers, as well as limited access to healthcare. The reservation is also considered a food desert, with only 10 full-service grocery stores and most food shops being convenience stores. This has led to a higher rate of health issues among Navajo residents, with diabetes, prediabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, alcohol use, depression, and domestic violence being prevalent.
Eye disease, often secondary to primary diseases, affects individuals of all ages and is often secondary to primary diseases. Common conditions include treatable cataracts, glaucoma, trachoma, diabetic retinopathy, hypertension retinopathy, trauma, and high refractive errors. These untreated eye diseases not only affect the patient but also their family members and friends, imposing a life of poverty.
Is Navajo Nation safe for tourists?
Visiting the Navajo Nation involves respecting their cultural values and respecting their personal space. Navajos value personal distance and use minimal eye contact, often not hugging when greeting new visitors. They are warm and inviting, and their jewelry and hair are sacred. Non-natives are accustomed to touching jewelry or long hair in admiration, but Navajos prefer compliments in words and avoid touching their hair.
Navajo jewelry is often breakable, easily detachable, or worn for ceremonial purposes. If you feel compelled to touch a piece of clothing or jewelry, it’s okay to ask, but be aware that invitations may not be offered.
Dances and customs are ceremonial, with dances like the Enemy Way Dance and Yeibicheii Dance being held for Navajos and not open to the public. Pow-wows and dances are governed by the seasons and sometimes exhibited in public forums. These events should be treated with the same deference as a church or prayer service, even if tribal members behave informally.
However, many Navajo fairs, festivals, and parades are open to the public, providing an opportunity for non-natives to learn about Navajo culture.
How to respectfully visit Navajo Nation?
The Navajo Nation is urging visitors to respect their culture by leaving sacred sites undisturbed and using normal speaking tones. They are also urging visitors to observe quiet hours from 11 p. m. to 6 a. m. in public areas and to respect the use of teepees for religious purposes. Travelers are advised to obey tribal laws and regulations while on the Navajo Nation, and to stay on designated trails unless accompanied by a tour guide.
Rock climbing and off-trail hiking are prohibited, and off-road travel is strictly prohibited on backcountry roads. Visitors are also encouraged to help keep the Navajo land clean by placing trash and debris in a trash container.
📹 How the Navajo Nation Works (A Country Within a Country?)
Writing by Sam Denby Research by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy Editing by Alexander Williard Animation by Josh Sherrington …
One of my good friends and old roommates grew up in the Navajo Nation and I’ve had the chance to stay with her family there too. Learning about their history and seeing the conditions myself was so eye opening and sad. Our government (and partially the tribal government) makes it so difficult for them to do anything and everything there.
I have driven all over the Navajo Nation many times in a semi. Words can’t express how bad the situation is. Most of the land is not not useful for anything. There are a bunch of abandoned mines from uranium and other materials. You see scattered shacks or trailers that have actual outhouses behind them. There is no water, electricity or even cell phone service on many areas. Not being able to mortgage property or have personal ownership means they can’t upgrade anything and make payments. They just have to do without. Even doing business with people or companies in the US is so risky it is rarely done and even rarer to end well. There is no effective means to enforce contract law. Either side can just decide not to perform as agreed with no consequences. The glass walkway over the Grand Canyon is a recent reminder of the risk. The US provides tribes with very limited support, but it is provided by non tribal members in buildings built by and for the US to remind them of what they don’t have. There are many people that somehow have incredible drive to improve the situation though. Many literally hitchhiker 150-200 miles to get to low paying jobs to at least have the dignity of working. Alcoholism is an ongoing crises on there areas along with the domestic violence that alcohol brings. Oh, and many of these familiar have served honorably with the US in every military conflict since the American Revolution. But we put them on some rocky land with the scars from mining and the destruction of testing nuclear weapons.
Something I almost always see avoided in these articles (probably because of it’s complexity and just generally obscurity) is the existence of the IHS, ‘indian’ health services. Basically a free health care system run for members of native American tribes both on tribal land and in select locations (I know phoenix AZ has an IHS hospital) my understanding is that ihs is run by tribal governments but mostly funded by the federal government. Insanely interesting stuff.
I was in Navajo nation not long ago, 3 weeks maybe. They want you masked up everywhere (which makes sense) and a lot of places are still closed. A random, scruffy dog wandered into the road and my gf wanted to help it so she beckoned it over. A Navajo man (he told us he was) walked over to explain it was his dog and that he was in the Marines in Afghanistan and so was the dog. Explained why the dog looked scruffy. The man showed me his scars on his torso which definitely left an impression on me. Then he asked for a cigarette which I didn’t have and then I was on my way.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to accept I’m a Navajo. I want to feel good about it but then I realize how flimsy our foundation is. I hate pride and feeling bad for myself but … they’re my people and I want them to soar. However, there’s just so many variables and problems that make it impossible to see a future here.
Great article. Spent six years on the Navajo Rez, very interesting legal logistics. In Tuba City, due to the presence of Hopi Tribal land, state land, federal, and Navajo land in close proximity, the time zones were insane whenever parts of the country (federal and Navajo) when on Daylight Savings Time and others (state, Hopi) did not. For half the year, we had to know who had land sovereignty to know what time it was 🙂
Slight correction: the cherokee natiom does not simply “believe” it is entitled to representarion via a non voting delegate to congress, it is the supreme law of the land that entitles us to recignition. The treaty of New Echota, which grants us this representarion, is the same treaty that facilitated our forced removal from our original homelands. We fulfilled our end of the agreement, it is long past time for congress to uphold theirs
I went to a high school graduation for my friend in Navajo Mountain, Utah. Lots of hope in the room then but the hope was for the next generation to go out and bring back prosperity, or to simply go out and build a better life. Life there is so different than suburban folk in Utah and Arizona could ever imagine. Driving a four wheeler an hour to get to school, or seeing many wild stray dogs roaming. The land is so beautiful though, endless red plateaus going off into the sunset, and some people seemed very happy to live there.
This article brought up an interesting linguistic difference between the US and the rest of the world. Generally, being an independent UN-recognised ‘country’ is referred to outside the US as being a ‘state’. This is legally clearer and less ambiguous than ‘country’ – which could apply for example to Scotland and Wales, which are not independent states. The problem in the US is I guess that people will hear ‘state’ and think of something like California or Colorado, which are a dependent part of the United States (which is a UN-recognised state).
March 29th, 2020, we went as we do to Las Vegas to stock our ice cream truck. There was a small group of Navajos buying all of the ice cream they could source. They bought well over 10k in ice cream that day for the reservation. Never let it be said that they did not try to isolate and quarantine. The horrific death toll that devastated the reservation was foreseen by their village elders, they tried to keep to themselves. Our hearts go out to our near neighbors.
Your article is one of many that should be made about the history that’s not talked at all about in our history classes. A genocide of indigenous people that occurred over centuries as a result of european colonization. It’s important to talk about this, because hiding traumatic events and allowing time to pass will never erase the wounds. Only educating people in the present about the past can cause people to reflect and do better
During the Great Famine here in Ireland the Choctow people sent 175$ to the people of Ireland to help even though they had just suffered the trail of tears, this act of kindess has never been forgotten and during Covid when the Navajo Nation was been very badly effected a go fund me page went viral in Ireland with people sending millions of euros back.
As a network systems engineer I used to contract with the US Dept of Interior’s BIE or Bureau of Indian education. I would design deploy all tele/data systems at all the schools in the nation. I got to know so many great people there which took YEARS for them to get comfortable with me. Most still see us a terrorists and rightly so. I would take home 78,000 a month but worked 80 to 90 hours a week. It was hard to step away due to the people and money but after five years it was too much. I do miss it.
Growing up in the Navajo reservation is extremely stressful. Our president isn’t liked as much by the people since he doesn’t really care about anyone besides the money. Just recently we’ve gotten a Hardship check from the government which is very helpful, however the president was considering not accepting the Hardship whatsoever. Overall, the Navajo reservation is a beautiful sight to see and go to one day. But just be warned about the Díne people there and also please be careful as well while traveling.
By accident on way back from Flagstaff to Vegas we stopped off at some town and went into only bar in town. It was a Indian bar. Felt out of place, but when they discovered we were English they warmed and started chatting. They looked a sorry lot. All beer belled getting drunk. They said people call them Navajo, but were Hupa or sounded like Hupili. He said they were treated lowest of the low, even below the black man. They seemed very bitter. Land of the free…they laughed. Reminded me of Australian aboringines.
The map of Reservations at the beginning should’ve included the Reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Since the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision last summer, those boundaries are rather significant when talking about Indian Country. Prior to that, the only Reservation that existed in Oklahoma is the Osage Reservation, and that is for purposes of mineral rights in Osage County.
Fantastic article, I’m a Rosebud Oglala Sioux from South Dakota (PineRidge Indian Reservation) and it’s unbelievable the decades of “red tape” Natives have to go through to approve anything. Which is probably why (and other reasons) my Rez is poorest in the nation. Can’t believe how badly we Natives have continued to be treated. It’s sad 😪💘
Wait… your ad pitch is “when I was done working, I was too tired to make food.. so I ordered out! But now everything is sorted out because Hello Fresh sends you ingrediences.” Don’t you still have to make the food? And isn’t that what you were too tired to do? So it’s no help at all, it’s just same status quo
8:25 Correction: TRIBAL MEMBERS PAY STATE TAXES!! ONLY Tribal members who live AND derive their income from their own federally recognized reservations lands are exempt from paying state income and property taxes. Obviously another government can’t force another government to pay its taxes. The state of Utah isn’t going to force Arizona to pay its taxes much like Arizona can’t force the Navajo Nation to pay taxes. ALL OTHER TRIBAL MEMBERS ARE REQUIRED TO PAY THE SAME TAXES AS ANY OTHER ARIZONA CITIZEN! Over half our Navajo tribal population currently DO NOT live on the reservation and that’s over 150,000 of Navajos WHO PAY STATE TAXES wherever they are! Do your due diligence and produce authentic information. With 3 million subscribers, you’re contributing to the false narrative that Tribal citizens don’t pay state taxes when we do. We are citizens of 3 governments and have contributed financially to the state of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico for GENERATIONS! Do better Wendover Productions!!!
Thank you. This is something we should learn in high school, while we learn about other US history and government. Few understand how Native Americans ended up in pockets of poverty, particularly in the west. I’m glad that some of them learned that Casino’s would benefit them, but it hasn’t solved the heightened alcoholism and drug dependency. Then again, neither has the rest of the country.
The statistics at 14:12 are quite tragic 🥲 Last year I wanted to visit the Big 5 and drive through the Navajo Nation from CA. I was really keen on visiting Monument Valley. Unfortunately the Navajo nation had closed their roads and hence I scraped my plans. Good for them to prioritize their needs. Cheers
I’ve always interpreted it as the Navajo Nation exists alongside of the United States. It implies that the United States is the one imposing on native land. In French there’s more of a difference between the words nation (nation) and country (pays). A nation is a group of people of a similar culture. A country is an imaginary entity.
The ideal way to solve Native American democracy and representation would be to copy the New Zealand approach of “Maori seats”, where people who meet the qualifications to be considered Maori (in the US, this could be membership of a recognised tribe) can choose whether they are part of the “general electorate” (ie voting for a congressman from a district in Oklahoma) or to be part of the “Maori electorate” (ie voting for a specifically Native American congressman and/or senator whose district is not confined to state borders). But not both; they have to pick. This could also apply to those members of tribes who live outside of reservations. But the problem is that it would, like many things, require a US constitutional amendment. And no red state is going to let it happen because politics.
I am a full blood and my family owns our original allotments of 160 acres in Oklahoma. We have houses built on it that we own. Oklahoma has been recognized by the supreme court of never breaking up the reservations. So Oklahoma adds over 19 million acres of reservation land to the total. Also it is the Chickasaws who own the largest casino 90 miles from Dallas on Interstate-35, but the Choctaws have a very large casino 90 miles north of Dallas on Highway 75 as well.
One thing everyone is not saying here is don’t mess around on Navajo land as a non-native. They don’t play around. I know so many people who broke the law and the legal nightmare is unreal and their jails are tough, hard places to survive. Respect them and their land. Remember you’re the one visiting. Most importantly enjoy the beautiful scenery and try to learn something.
I head a story a while ago, In the olden days when thief steel from someone’s house they leave small amount of money in a visible place, so so the home owner can’t say they took everything from my house and the thief felt that they didn’t take everything. Navajo Nation is like that, Took the whole land from them but give tiny portion back to make you feel better
That situation at the beginning with oil and gaz politician reminded me a lot of a skit in Tintin in America. In that comic, Tintin, while on an Amerindian reservation, accidentely discovers an oil source and immediately there are many businessmen that gather around him wanting to buy “his” property, making offers of tens of thousands of 1930s dollars to achieve that. However when Tintin says that this oil does not belong to him but to the natives, the businessmen say “why didn’t you tell us sooner, this changes everything!”. And so, the leading businessman gives to the chief of the tribe $25 with the moratorium of having the whole tribe move out of there within an hour, much to the shock of the chief “Has paleface gone mad?”. And so, in less than a day, the federal army forces the tribe to move out and a bustling Chicago-like city emerges with a police officer poking fun of a confused Tintin in the middle of a street for thinking “this the Far West or something”.
A couple of things; Horse and sheep didn’t exist in the Americas until the Spaniards brought them over The Hopi are the original inhabitants of what is now the Navajo Nation ; the Navajo are the Invaders Lack of electricity and /or running water on the Rez is a sign of cultural preference ; not poverty
wow. never focused on the fact that my dad is a 1st generation u.s. citizen. this sheds a lot of perspective!! he was born in 1932 and after his first divorce in his 30s. I was his 1st son in his second marriage when he was 40. I just entered my 20s when he was 60. he was quite the disciplinarian and honorable. I was just researching the history wars and history of world empires in the midsts of the current wars. and I ended up here.
Thanks for the article. I have driven near/ through many reservations and always wondered why are they generally so poor, and why people choose to live there when there is greater economic opportunity elsewhere. This article answers the first question and both humbles and motivates me to look into the second.
Do a article on the Mohawk Nation in Canada, it’ll definitely show the contrast between trying to gain foothold in representation (i.e., the Navajo Nation) and trying to distance the tribe from any federal politics whatsoever (Mohawk Nation). We fought many gunfights and shed a lot of blood to make sure we don’t have any colonial hands meddling in our affairs.
Finally a article like this. Great work! 2 comments though. There are a lot of countries with similar “domestic dependent nations”, like all other countries on the American continent, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The exact situation differs from country to country (some have reservations like Brasil, Colombia and Australia, some made Treaties similar to the US, like Canada and New Zealand), but in general, they are very much comparable. Also, the status of these nations is less “unknown” than presented here. Both the US, as well as the Inter American Organization, as wel as the United Nations have clearly defined the rights of Indigenous Peoples. That’s why, for example, the US Supreme Court decided in favor of the Creek (Muskogee) Nation in the recent McGirt case.
The problem with all the money generated by those casinos, the casinos are typically private entities and not owned by the Indian nation that they are situated on. The money they generate for the nation is through taxes with the bulk of the profits going to a few individuals. You know, just like it is everywhere else in this country. A few take all the money and leave the rest in poverty.
FYI: the 1/4 blood system is very racist and is used all over the US to indigenous people where the US government is the one who gets to decide who is of north american ethnic background and who is not. In Alaska, you need at least 1/4 indigenous blood to “prove” you are of “native descent” to have tribal memberships across the state.
Here in Washington state we have several different reservations or patches of land remotely owned by a reservation. For some things are going well with gaving land right along interstate 5 or other highways and they have built gas stations, casinos, horse/dog racing tracks, warehousing and manufacturing zones that are ideal for transporting goods, employing the reservation member since the business does not have to pay certain taxes on them & rents that can be far better than the going market. The Yakima reservation is the largest and lucky that they have arable land that can be farmed, some forestry reserves for tree farming, open desert for entertainment of rally races and connects to the city of Yakima so that population can provide customers for Native owned businesses. The area of Yakoma is not very wealthy however so gambling can not bring in the same revenue as other tribes can. The reservations hurt the most are along the coat or in very remote areas of north central and south western WA. Unfortunately this represents the majority of lands in WA. The tribes were given what the concurring settlers did not want. A few of them have built very small casinos and highway convienance stations that bring in just enough to provide some basic housing education and health care for members. Not much beyond that. Those areas are extremely low in population centers, have poor transportation routes for industry, and often a limited to one or two resources that do not provide a lot of money.
In episode 2F09, when Itchy maps the United States, he suggests that an alternate map be more accurate, yet he produces two maps which are both missing Alaska and Hawai’i. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is a map only of the continental United States or something? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
I knew and worked with a Hopi in Arizona. There was a new hire who was Navajo. He tried to be friendly with her and she totally shut him down. He wasn’t doing anything that could be considered harassments, as soon as she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with her he left her alone. I witnessed this interaction, and it kind of surprised me, because she was quite friendly with everyone else. Apparently the bad blood between the Hopi and the Navajo goes way WAY back to when the Navajo first came south and it was clear to me that she REALLY hated the Navajo. She was especially unhappy that the Navajo Nation completely encloses the Hopi Nation. Frankly, I hate that the Native Americans have been getting screwed over by this country right from the start.
Interestingly, there have been several high-end housing developments (usually with golf courses) on Indian reservations in Arizona, Nevada, and California where the homes are “owned” by non-native, non-tribal Americans. These developments are able to attract traditional mortgage financing for home-building even though the homeowner does not actually own the land their house sits upon. Typically these homeowners have a 99-year lease of the property, which was negotiated by the subdivision developer with the tribe that owns the land. Some of the homeowners I’ve spoken with don’t even realize they will never own their land, only the structure, and only have guaranteed rights to use the home unti the 99-year lease runs out. These communities are governed and “public” infrastructure is built and managed by homeowner associations (HOAs), residents pay HOA fees on a monthly basis to cover common-area costs (streets, street lights, parkway landscaping, parks, etc.). I wonder what will happen when these developments, many of which are close to 30 years old now, get to the end of their lease with the tribes? I imagine tribal entities could decide to renew the leases and increase the lease fees (which homeowners associations then pay by charging extra to residents), or simply decide to take their land back, kick out the residents and take control of the high-value homes. If mortgages remained outstanding, I wonder if and how the banks might be able to collect? It is certain that tribes have complete control of their lands and could simply take over the development and tell the mortgage holders to take a hike.
Diné is a two syllable word. The i is said as in “hit” or “bit”. The e is like in “met”. The mark over the e is a high tone mark. The vowels are short in duration. Unlike in English, lengthening the duration of a vowel changes its phonemic value (Japanese does this as well). Navajo is a tonal language. The i is low tone and the e is high tone. The mark over vowels is not an accent or stress mark. It is not pronounced dee-nay. Tones in tonal languages change meaning just as much as changing the vowel in other ways changes meaning. Just like bit, bet and bat are different words in English. In other Navajo words vowels can be nasalized and there is a mark under the vowel. Vowels that are longer duration are written as double vowels. -Erik Painter on Quora
As much as the law around reservations is vague and messy, it’s worth remembering that, until relatively recently, most political organisation around the world worked like this – overlapping areas of political authority with complex relationships to each other. The whole idea that the entirety of earth’s land area can be and is neatly divided between absolute sovereign states with exclusive authority within their borders is a historical anomaly.
The premise was wrong from the outset. Tribal reservations are not excluded from the United States – in fact the US has plenary authority within those lands. “Sovereign” is also used to describe the sovereignty of states, but no one would say such a thing about the individual states. For example, there is the “separate sovereigns” doctrine for double jeopardy. A single sovereign can’t try you for crimes out of the same fact pattern, but the state and federal governments can each try you separately. If a Tribal government can get jurisdiction over the matter, they can try it a third time and not trigger double jeopardy protections.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 requires that states and tribes create a formal compact that regulates gaming activities on tribal lands. These compacts provide for payments to states based on gaming revenue to cover the associated costs of oversight, law enforcement and improvements to roads now choked with vehicles heading to and from reservation casinos, and other related effects of these big developments. All Indian casinos are now regulated by states’ gaming commissions and are not allowed to just set up casinos willy-nilly. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when California tribes were setting up essentially illegal casinos because California refused to allow gaming and would not negotiate a compacts with tribes, Nevada barred any Nevada-licensed gaming company from operating a a casino on tribal lands without a state compact. This was especially impactful in the Palm Springs area, when tribes tried to work with major Nevada casino corporations like Caesars Palace and Harrah’s to build and run casinos…they all had to pull out or lose their Las Vegas casino licenses. Even selling slot machines to an unlicensed casino would mean losing their license to operate in Nevada, so the slot machine companies all stopped working with tribes until the tribes banded together and forced California to compact for gaming with a state referendum they promoted as allowing “Indian Self-Sufficiency.” California lost big by not compacting sooner, as the state is now responsible for regulating Indian casinos but earns a pittance from them; California doesn’t even have the right to know how much the casinos earn.
I am an Arizona resident and you said something that is factually not true. The Navajo Nation does benefit from the Casinos. According to Arizona Casino law, the tribes can build a casino or have their allotment of machines and gaming tables in another tribe’s Casino. So the Navajo Nation has a profit-sharing with Tribes in the Phoenix Area. The Phoenix Area tribes border Scottsdale which has some of the most expensive homes in the state. But it is also tragic extreme wealth in Scottsdale on one side of the line in the Reservation trailer parks and stray dogs on the other. They were not 90 minutes out of town but the students attend the schools that I went to which was a good middle-class neighborhood.
With the Cherokee, you also have their internal mess with 3 major groups of them that have different views on the others…and then the Texas Cherokee which have their own issues with the rest, so seating someone sent by the Cherokee could be a major issue in the first place because of internal issues
The 50 states are also “sovereign”. The US Constitution and courts use that word to mean autonomy. The Indian Reservations have a high degree of autonomy, like the 50 states do, and in many cases their local autonomy supercedes that of the state they overlap with. So, yes, you’re still in the Unitrd States.
The history presented in this article is severely lacking. Not all of us were rounded up and sent to Bosque (Boss-Kay) Redondo. Under Kit Carson’s “scorched earth policy” it was impossible to find all members of the nation. Many hid out in slot canyons or on the edges of the Grand Canyon. The article also fails to present the history of the people from their perspective. We have always lived between the four sacred mountains that define the region of the current “reservation.” It fails to consider the fact that each and every of the nearly 600 federally recognized tribes, has a nation to nation relationship with the United States.
For the most part this is a really informative and interesting article. I do think it would behoove you to check that you’re pronouncing the names of these tribes correctly, though. As a Michigander I immediately caught the mispronunciation of Ontonagon which, to be fair, is a pretty tough one. I think you said something like OnTAGanon, mixing up the emphasis as well as the order of the letters, when it should be OntaNOGin. You also said they were a branch of the ChipAwa tribe (with a long A) instead of CHIpuhwa. You actually pronounce it correctly later in the article when talking about the WinStar World Casino near Dallas… but unfortunately that casino is actually owned by the Chikasaw Nation, not the Chippewa.
I am a lawyer and used to practice Indian law. You did an excellent job of distilling the relationship between the federal government. The legal relationships between individual states and tribes is also complicated and deserves its own article. BTW, the term “Indian” is a legal term. If someone is an “Indian”, then they are an enrolled members of a federally recognized tribe.
I’m Navajo (67 male) what country or continent did we flee to for political asylum or religious freedom?we ran nowhere we dealt with the genocide,boarding schools,Christianity shoved down our throats,diseases,poverty etc etc But when ww2 came along and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor my father and 2 uncles left Ft wingate boarding school ages 16&17 years old with my grandparents permission 2 navy 1 marine codetalker and my mothers uncles 4 army and 1 marine codetalker who lied about his age to join at 15 years old,first 48 hours in the battle for iwa jima Codetalkers sent over 800 messages 1 division alone,3 uncles in the Korean conflict,army 5 in Vietnam 3 army 1 navy and 1 marine who did 2 tours afterwards in the army,my niece Iraq her brother(recently deceased)3 tours Afghanistan and Iraq.
My tribes flag was used for the wrong reservation with no people in it. I don’t know what tribe it was. But it was the wrong Chippewa tribe, not the Saginaw Chippewa Indians Tribe. On my reservation, we are allowed to build nice houses and they can be repossessed by the banks. They can only sell the houses back to tribal members though.
I lived in Chinle for a few months back in the early 2000s. Definitely an interesting place for an outsider. Also go drive through Tuba City one day and you can see how much the Navajo & Hopi hate each other. They won’t even agree to be on the same time zone and split the town right down the middle. Cross the street and you’re in a different time zone.
I have proclaimed the Anthabaskan Federation of the Hisatsinom Nation: Diné Bikéyah Ałhidadiidzooígíí bikáaʼgi ayóo Ánaasází Bináhásdzo (Navajo) Federación Anthabaskan de la Nación Navajo (Spanish) Hisatsinom Nation, officially the Anthabaskan Federation of the Hisatsinom Nation is a tiny nation and a sovereign microstate in Southeastern Utah enclaved by the surrounding United States of America. The Hisatsinom Nation is a landlocked nation within 00.1 miles away from the city of Greenville within the Colorado Plateau Region south of the Abajo Mountains. The country’s capital is the municipality of Ániidí Naabeehó Kin haalʼá (New Navajo City) which is de facto Tségháhoodzání (Window Rock), but de jure “city-state”. Ániidí Naabeehó Kin haalʼá main spoken language is English. The official founding date of the country is 28 April 2022 A.D. The country is officially currently under the temporary American occupation. The nation also claims the entire Navajo Nation as the main government of the Federation. However, the region is disrupted and no official cheif governance of the Anthabaskan Federation claims the main “Mother Earth” or the “Sword Carrier Peoples land”. (History) The nation was established by Noah A. Keith who proclaimed the entire property block owned by the Keith Residence an official independent nation. Noah A. Keith proclaims himself as the President of the Federation, and formally is addressed as Alą́ąjįʼ Dahsidáhígíí. It is unclear of the future presidents of the new Federation.
I promise I’m not a hello fresh shill, just really love them. it is actually not a bad deal at all. The food and recipes are awesome, and after doing some research, it’s about the same price as if I were to go buy all the ingredients at the store. I actually did this once thinking I’d save money, and I ended up with a bunch of wasted ingredients for the same price. All the meals can feed 2 people and have an option to expand it to 4 people. As a single guy, some of the recipes can last me 3 meals. Shits good
The US does tax on residency and even temporary work permits with the same framework as for the citizens. Meaning a citizen of a foreign nation living in the the US under a valid work permit for 5 years has to pay FULL TAXES for those 5 years as any citizen would pay. Not just Federal but State taxes too. Even if that foreign national is never gonna come back to the US after those 5 years. This may look like a small number considering that most people who initially come to the US on a work permit later apply for legal permanent residence or Citizenship, there still is a good number of foreign nationals who work and pay taxes and leave back to their countries. So the point in the article at 8.15 which says the US taxes based on citizenship and not residence, is plain wrong.
I’m Navajo (67 male) what country or continent did we flee to for political asylum or religious freedom?we ran nowhere we dealt with the genocide,boarding schools,Christianity shoved down our throats,diseases,poverty etc etc But when ww2 came along and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor my father and 2 uncles left Ft wingate boarding school ages 16&17 years old with my grandparents permission 2 navy 1 marine codetalker and my mothers uncles 4 army and 1 marine codetalker who lied about his age to join at 15 years old,first 48 hours in the battle for iwa jima Codetalkers sent over 800 messages 1 division and 3 uncles in the Korean conflict,army 5 in Vietnam 3 army 1 navy and 1 marine who did 2 tours afterwards in the army,my niece Iraq her brother(recently deceased)3 tours Afghanistan and Iraq
Ah, yes…visited Canyon de Chelly in the early ’90s and was fully aware we were outsiders. The citizens were welcoming, even inviting an RV pulling a two-horse trailer to stay overnight. The officials…not so much, entrapping my traveling companion by charging him for entering the area without an approved guide, which Navajo (who was driving) was not even charged for illegal possession of beer. Fortunately, I already had some experience in foreign countries (and my friend with authorities) so we agreed to a small fine and moved on.
The deal w/ The US & Native American Nations is essentially passive domestic sovereignty, while no other country may be allowed to recognize them, which would grant them recognition, a modern key factor in being a country. Even if they were somehow recognized, they wouldn’t even recognize themselves most likely. Except maybe Navajo Nation. They’re invisible nations, technically recognised by no country, not even US technically, we have them existing in modernity, peace & perpetuity until such a time comes for maybe Statehood thus making it a Native American Mecca of sorts potentially. Closest Comparisons (comment if you have others): ◾Marshall Islands ◾Isle Of Man ◾Palmyra Atole ◽amazons ◽deserts ◽nuclear sites (including the 1 within Navajo Nation….) Note: FYI, I wrote all of this before the mark of 2:00.
So many problems on the reservation.. alcoholism, drugs,suicide, poverty that are a problem on the reservation.. many ppl can get help from the local governance building or what called chapter houses. Many of them have been caught for embezzling thousands of dollars. When families ask for help.. it’s usually..no money or it’s their families first who get the help. I do wish the tribe would do more to help their ppl like other tribes do… the Dine’ ppl struggled… Over 1300 Dine’ ppl have died from COVID-19.. we still fight and we still persevere . We still fight whatever lies ahead…. We are Dine’…. Resilient… We have faith to stand and we have our Lord God…
I thought this guy was from the Denver suburbs. Granted, it seems that nobody in Denver is from Colorado any more, but some of the pronunciations make me think he might be from New Jersey or some place like that. Diné is not pronounced DEE-nay. Anglos from the region (like myself) pronounce it more like Deh-nay and Navajos themselves pronounce it more like D’neh. Bosque is not pronounced like the name of the Star Wars bounty hunter, it’s pronounced Bos-kay. And of course, as others have pointed out, Cherokee is not pronounced ChurOH-ky. Despite all of that, I’m glad that this article was made, hopefully bringing more awareness of the Navajos as a people. Hopefully this will make people curious about the Navajo’s unique and beautiful culture.
Native American nations within the United States have a very strange but unique place in the republic. We’re often taught that there’s the states and the federal government but many don’t realize is that Native Nations are like the 3rd category in that structure. When the term “sovereignty” is said, it doesn’t mean that Native Nations have the right to do anything they want; they still have to adhere to the authority of the Constitution, however, they are exempt from the authority of the states in which their reservations are in as was mentioned. Native Nations also have to have a democratic structure. A proper term to describe Native Nations and their relation to the federal government is that we have “Limited Sovereignty”; Congress has the power to pass laws that effect the tribes where the state legislatures do not. In order for this system to be changed, it’s likely you’d need to pass a Constitutional Amendment or ask the Supreme Court for a clarification on the status of what Native Nations are but the most recent was when the current SCOTUS recognized that half of Oklahoma should technically belong to Native Nations. Justice Gorsuch, despite being conservative, sees this as a vital component that he think should be upheld to preserve the status of Native Nations. Justice Kavanaugh, however, thinks that there should be a move to repeal that status for a “unification” purpose — which is dumb. The whole point of having some level of sovereignty is so that Native Nations can best decide how to protect their way of life without interference of those who aren’t part of their tribes.
Dude the constitution specifically reserves the right of the States to enter into diplomatic negotiations with foreign States, the requirement that Congress has to consent to a agreement before it enters I to force does not mean that the States somehow can’t conduct diplomacy. Also the constitution explicitly reserves the right of the States to engage in war without consent from congress if invaded or about to be invaded. The power to wage war is the power to declare that a state of war exists because you cannot engage in war without a state of war actually existing from the very moment you engage in war. Keep in mind that the constitution reserves the right of the States to preemptively wage war before being actually invaded if an attack is imminent. So if Texas had intelligence that a group of armed cartel members was about to enter Texas then Texas has the unrestrained authority to preemptively attack these forces outside of the borders of Texas in order to stop them from entering the State or attacking it. If Texas did that then at the very least this act would in and of itself create a state of war between Texas and said cartel or cartels. So yes States can declare war, they just cannot wage war unless Congress gives consent, or the State is invaded or about to be invaded. Also the 1800s definition of invasion means to enter with hostile intent. So yes a small group of criminals entering the State with hostile intent is an invasion. You seriously need to read the constitution and stop just repeating whatever BS the courts pull out of thin air.