INDIAN COUNTRY GRASSROOTS SUPPORT
March 6, 2026 (or March 31?) Deadline for Public Input on ONGD Govt Reform
The Navajo People may not be aware that the Office of Navajo Government Development (ONGD) has set a March 6, 2026 (now possibly March 31) deadline for public input on a massive reform proposal, which it intends to place as a referendum question in the Nov 3, 2026 election. Art. XVIII of the proposal will supersede the Local Governance Act.
Mark-Up of Navajo Government Reform Working Draft
The Office of Navajo Government Development (ONGD) has set a March 6, 2026 (now possibly March 31) deadline for public input on a massive reform proposal, which it intends to place as a referendum question in the Nov 3, 2026 election. It is a 108 page document (now looks like 116 page document), however only 48 pages is available for examination. Below is a marked up copy of these available pages and some related documents to assist your public input.
- Chapter resolutions: Ojo Encino OJOE 02-20-2026-001; Naschitti NAS-26-02-019; Teec Nos Pos TNPCH-02-23-2026-FY26-R-60; Black Mesa BMC-26-02-036; Hardrock HRC 2026-02-01
- Statement of lack of findings
- Mark-up of 48 pages of ONGD’s Government Reform Proposal (retrieved on Feb 3, 2026)
- CNGD-07-01-25 (July 14, 2025) authorizing the working draft only for presentation and further development
- CD-92-20 (Dec 23, 2020) overriding veto, amending CNGD/ONGD Plan of Operations to include a duty to accomplish the People’s project and requirement to “promote, enhance, honor, and to comply with Diné Fundamental Laws — Diné Bi Beehaz’áanii Bitse Siléí 1 N.N.C. §§ 201-206”
- Further resources including Navajo Nation Supreme Court opinions relevant to any reform effort
- Grassroots concerns, Tó Nizhóní Ání
Mapping Navajo Nation land history, law and custom
Diné Nihi Kéyah Project
This project gathers information in order to map laws and trace them to their origins. The goal is for Navajo Nation communities to have a whole foundation on which to envision the wellbeing of future generations through practicable reform. Content is frequently revised and added with assistance of scholars and students.
Discussions on Government Reform
The below article Live, Work, Govern Using Diné Fundamental Law, introduces the principled foundations of Diné matriarchal settlements which have been driven underground by the reservation permit and lease land use system. It was published in January 2025 in The Urban Lawyer, the American Bar Association’s national law journal on local government law and urban legal affairs.
Local Governance, Translational Leadership & Ancestral Humility
In the above 2 hour long video, systems thinker and Tlingit tribal member Patrick Anderson discusses with Retired Chief Justice Herb Yazzie and a zoom panel how tribal governments, especially a vast reservation like the Navajo Nation with more than a hundred communities within it, can and should reform their systems towards a Seventh Generation Future State through self-governance compacting, translational leadership, and ancestral humility.
Custom & Holistic Governance
“Custom is law” refers to customary law, derived from long-standing customs, traditions, and practices of a community. These customs, when widely accepted and followed, can be recognized as legally binding, even without being formally written or codified. Customary law relies on the principle of immemorial usage, depending on what today is known as “holistic management” in governance, or holistic governance for short. Click HERE for a rough page in progress.
K’é doo Hozhò Náhilna’
June 4, 2025, 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Shiprock, NM
These are critical times.
We humbly ask you to begin envisioning the MISSION OF THE NAVAJO NATION in service of our future generations. Without such a mission, we are not in control of our destiny.
We hope the envisioned MISSION will ensure the continuance of language, culture, and familial units across all Navajo Nation governing systems, especially local governance.
Live, Work, Govern Using Diné Fundamental Law
August 5, 2024
Twin Arrows, AZ
We come together in a forum to tell each other our legal and principled frameworks so that, at the very least, the foundations of Diné Fundamental Law will be in the minds of both lawyers and the people. This is in order that both may get to work to relieve the stresses that have long been on Diné cultural practices. These stresses include generational efforts by the federal government to wipe out knowledge among the Diné people.
Envisioning Diné Bikeyah for Our Families 102 Years From Now
July 26-27, 2023
Window Rock, AZ
Intergenerational Family Voices
Áłchíní bizaad íílí
Áłchíní hózhóójí bá Nahat’á
Planning for our kids in a Blessing Manner
Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní
NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES
Navajo Family Voices is the Navajo Nation Family Voices affiliate organization and Family-to-Family Health Information Center (F2FHIC). We are families of children and youth with extra health needs, supporting other families on the Navajo Nation. Our family crew live on the Navajo Nation and for generations have navigated limited healthcare resources and services, and diminishing traditional healthcare knowledge, to address needs of their own families.
Essential Supplies
Northern Diné Covid Relief Effort
NDCVRE was a volunteer coalition network effort begun to move essential supplies, including large quantities of perishables, to 20 Northern Navajo Nation Agency communities. Operating continuously from March 26, 2020 – May 2024, NDCVRE suspended operations in May 2024, resuming some limited relief efforts in July, 2025 in collaboration with Roof Butte Search and Rescue.