The history of radiation therapy or radiotherapy can be traced back to experiments made soon after the discovery of X-rays (1895), when it was shown that exposure to radiation produced cutaneous burns. Influenced by electrotherapy and escharotics—the
medical application of caustic substances—doctors began using radiation
to treat growths and lesions produced by diseases such as lupus, basal cell carcinoma, and epithelioma. Radiation was generally believed to have bactericidal properties, so when radium
was discovered, in addition to treatments similar to those used with
x-rays, it was also used as an additive to medical treatments for
diseases such as tuberculosis where there were resistant bacilli.
Additionally, because radiation was found to exist in hot spring
waters which were reputed for their curative powers, it was marketed as a
wonder cure for all sorts of ailments in patent medicine and quack
cures. It was believed by medical science that small doses of radiation
would cause no harm and the harmful effects of large doses were
temporary.
The widespread use of radium in medicine ended when it was
discovered that physical tolerance was lower than expected and exposure
caused long term cell damage that could appear in carcinoma up to 40 years after treatment. The use of radiation continues today as a treatment for cancer in radiation therapy.
Early development of radiotherapy (1895–1905)
The imaging
properties of x-rays were discovered, their practical uses for research
and diagnostics were immediately apparent, and soon their use spread in
the medical field. X-rays were used to diagnose bone fractures, heart
disease, and phthisis. Inventive procedures for different diagnostic
purposes were created, such as filling digestive cavities with bismuth, which allowed them to be seen through tissue and bone.
Discovery of the therapeutic potential of radiation
During
early practical work and scientific investigation, experimenters
noticed that prolonged exposure to x-rays created inflammation and, more
rarely, tissue damage on the skin. The biological effect attracted the
interest of Léopold Freund and Eduard Schiff, who, only a month or two after Röntgen's announcement, suggested they be used in the treatment of disease. At approximately the same time, Emil Grubbe,
of Chicago was possibly the first American physician to use x-rays to
treat cancer, beginning in 1896, began experimenting in Chicago with
medical uses of x-rays. Escharotics by this time had already been used to treat skin malignancies through caustic burns, and electrotherapy had also been experimented with, in the aim to stimulate the skin tissue.
The first attempted x-ray treatment was by Victor Despeignes,
a French physician who used them on a patient with stomach cancer. In
1896, he published a paper with the results: a week-long treatment was
followed by a diminution of pain and reduction in the size of the tumor,
though the case was ultimately fatal. The results were inconclusive,
because the patient was concurrently being given other treatments. Freund's first experiment was a tragic failure; he applied x-rays to a naevus in order to induce epilation
and a deep ulcer resulted, which resisted further treatment by
radiation. The first successful treatment was by Schiff, working with
Freund, in a case of lupus vulgaris.
A year later, in 1897, the two published a report of their success and
this provoked further experimentation in x-ray therapies. Thereafter they did a successful treatment of lupus erythematosus
in 1898. The lesion took a common form of a 'butterfly-patch' which
appeared on both sides of the face, and Schiff applied the irradiation
to one side only, in order to compare the effects.
Within a few months, scientific journals were swamped with
accounts of the successful treatment of different types of skin tissue
malignancies with x-rays. In Sweden, Thor Stenbeck published results of the first successful treatments of rodent ulcer and epithelioma in 1899, later that year confirmed by Tage Sjögren. Soon afterwards, their findings were confirmed by a number of other physicians.
The nature of the active agent in therapeutic treatment was still
unknown, and subject to wide dispute. Freund and Schiff believed it to
because of electrical discharge, Nikola Tesla argued they were because of the ozone
generated by the x-rays, while others argued that it was the x-rays
themselves. Tesla's position was soon refuted, and only the other two
theories remained. In 1900, Robert Kienböck
produced a study based on a series of experiments that demonstrated
that it was the x-rays themselves. Studies published in 1899 and 1900
suggested that the rays varied in penetration according to the degree of
vacuum in the tube.
Niels Finsen and phototherapy
The
Finsen hospital lamp, 1900. The projecting tubes can be adjusted so as
to permit the focusing of the light, which is directed through a hollow
lens that's kept pressed down upon the part under treatment. The nurses
and patients are wearing dark glasses to protect the eyes from the
light.
Niels Finsen,
a Faroese-Danish physician, had by that time already pursued interest
in the biological effects of light. He published a paper, Om Lysets Indvirkninger paa Huden
("On the effects of light on the skin") in 1893. Inspired by the
discovery that x-rays could have therapeutic effects, he extended his
research to examine directed light rays. In 1896, he published a paper
on his findings, Om Anvendelse i Medicinen af koncentrerede kemiske Lysstraaler ("The use of concentrated chemical light rays in medicine"). Finsen discovered that lupus was amenable to treatment by ultraviolet rays when separated out by a system of quartz crystals, and thereafter created a lamp to sift out the rays. The so-called Finsen lamp became widely used in for phototherapy, and derivatives of it became used when experimenting with other types of radiotherapy. Modifications were made to Finsen's original design, and it found its most common forms in the Finsen-Reyn lamp and Finsen-Lomholt lamp .
By 1905, it was estimated that fully 50 percent of the cases of lupus were successfully healed by Finsen's methods. Finsen was soon awarded a Nobel Prize for his research.
Röntgenotherapy
X-ray
apparatus used for treatment of epithelioma of the face, 1915. The tube
is in a localizing shield, and a perforated sheet of metal is securely
fashioned to the surface by adhesive plaster.
From initial therapeutic experiments, a new field of x-ray therapy was born, referred to as röntgenotherapy after Wilhelm Röntgen,
the discoverer of x-rays. It was still unclear how the x-rays acted on
the skin; however, it was generally agreed upon that the area affected
was killed and either discharged or absorbed.
By 1900, there were four well established classes of problems
that were treated by x-ray, based on a set of five classes initially
outlined by Freund: 1. in hypertrichosis, for the removal of unwanted hair; 2. in the treatment of disease of hair and hair follicles in which it was necessary to remove hair; 3. in the treatment of inflammatory affections on the skin like eczema and acne; 4. and in the treatment of malignant affections on the skin in cases like lupus and epithelioma.
Additionally, x-rays were successfully applied to other appearances of carcinoma, trials were done in treating leukemia,
and because of the supposed bactericidal properties, there were
suggestions it could be used in diseases such as tuberculosis.
Experiments were also done using x-rays to treat epilepsy, which had previously also experimentally been treated with electrical currents.
Further development and the use of radium (1905–1915)
Because
of the excitement over the new treatment, literature about the
therapeutic effects of x-rays often exaggerated the propensity to cure
different diseases. Reports of the fact that in some cases treatment
worsened some of the patients' conditions were ignored in favor of
hopeful optimism. Henry G. Piffard
referred to these practitioners as "radiomaniacs" and "radiografters".
It was found that x-rays were only capable of producing a cure in
certain cases of the basal cell type of epithelioma and exceedingly
unreliable in malignant cancer, not making it a suitable replacement for
surgery. In many cases of treatment, the cancer recurred after a period
of time. X-ray experiments in pulmonary tuberculosis proved useless.
Aside from the medical profession losing faith in the ability of x-ray
therapy, the public increasingly viewed it as a dangerous type of
treatment. This resulted in a period of pessimism about the use of
x-rays, which lasted from about 1905 to 1910 or 1912.
Radium therapy
Small tubes containing radium salts are strapped to a woman's face to treat what was either lupus or rodent ulcer, 1905.
Soon after the discovery of radium in 1898 by Pierre and Marie Curie,
there was speculation in whether the radiation could be used for
therapy in the same way as that from x-rays. The physiological effect of
radium was first observed in 1900 by Otto Walkhoff, and later confirmed by what famously known as the "Becquerel burn". In 1901, Henri Becquerel
had placed a tube of radium in a waistcoat pocket where it had remained
for several hours; a week or two after which there was severe
inflammation of his skin underneath where the radium had been kept. Ernest Besnier,
a dermatologist, examined the skin and expressed the opinion that it
was due to the radium, leading to experiments by Curie which confirmed
it. Besnier suggested the use of radium for therapy along the same
purposes as x-rays and ultraviolet rays.
Becquerel for this purpose loaned some radium to Henri-Alexandre Danlos of the hôpital St. Louis in Paris in 1901. Danlos successfully treated a few cases of lupus with an admixture of radium and barium chloride.
Further trials of radium therapy began, though at a much slower pace
than did those using x-rays because radium was expensive and difficult
to obtain.
Methods of application
Glass applicators for radium emanation, 1918Illustration showing a tube for applying radium salts, 1918
Radium was soon seen as a way to treat disorders that were not
affected enough by x-ray treatment because it could be applied in a
multitude of ways in which x-rays could not.
Different methods of applying radium had been tested, which fell into
two categories: the use of radium emanation (now referred to as radon), and the use of radium salts.
One method using emanation was through inhalation, where it was
mixed with air. Radium inhalation had been most studied in Germany,
where regular inhalation institutes were established, and the goal was
to target the lungs. That was done either to treat lung diseases, like
tuberculosis, or to be absorbed through the surface of the lung to the
blood, where it could circulate through the body. It was claimed that
the beneficial effects produced by radium water baths were the result of
inhalation of the vapors.
Another method of treatment was to condense the emanation at
liquid air temperature on substances such as vasoline, glycerine, and
lanoline, to apply externally to the part affected; or on quinine,
bismuth, subnitrate, and arsenic, to be consumed or applied internally.
Radium emanation was also passed into glass or metal tubes or
flat glass-tight applicators and applied in the same way as radium
tubes. In other cases was also deposited on metal points or flat
surfaces of metal using electrical devices, which had the same level of
radioactivity as the parent radium, but lasted a shorter duration. One
way of treatment was to then drive the deposits of radioactive material
into tissue using galvanic current. It was also a method of applying
radium emanation to a specially designed applicator constructed to suit
the needs of the patient, who could later take it home.
Dilute solutions of radium salts were also made, meant to be used
internally. Patients would be prescribed regular dosages. More rarely,
the salts were also suspended in liquids to be injected in subcutaneous
treatments, which could be applied locally to affected tissues. That was
considered the most expensive method, because the radium used was
irreparably lost.
As with radium emanation, solutions of free radium salts were
also placed in tubes; in this case, the tubes were made from platinum.
In metal tubes, the radium could be employed in a number of ways:
externally; to the interior of the body in places like the mouth, nose,
esophagus, rectum and vagina; and into the substance of a tumor through
incisions.
Radium baths
In 1903, the discoverer of the electron, J. J. Thomson, wrote a letter to the journal Nature
in which he detailed his discovery of the presence of radioactivity in
well water. Soon after, others found that the waters in many of the
world's most famous health springs were also radioactive. This
radioactivity is due to the presence of radium emanation produced by the
radium that is present in the ground through which the waters flow. In
1904, Nature published a study on the natural radioactivity of different mineral waters.
Inspired by this, using preparations of radium salts in bath
water was suggested as a way for patients to be treated at home, as the
radio-activity in the bathwater was permanent. Radium baths became used experimentally to treat arthritis, gout, and neuralgias.
X-rays and radium were noted by physicians to have different
advantages in different cases. The most marked effects produced with
radium therapy were with lupus, ulcerous growths, and keloid, particularly because they could be applied more specifically to tissues than with x-rays.
Radium was generally to be preferred when a localized reaction was
desired, while for x-rays when a large area needed to be treated.
Radium was also believed to be bactericidal, while x-rays were not.
Because they could not be applied locally, x-rays were also found to
have worse cosmetic effects than radium when treating malignancies. In
certain cases, a combination of x-ray and radium therapy was suggested.
In many skin diseases, the ulcers would be treated with radium and the
surrounding areas with x-rays so it would positively affect the
lymphatic systems.
Tuberculosis and iodo-radium therapy
After using radium in the surgical treatment of tuberculosis, researchers including Béla Augustin and A. de Szendeffy soon developed a treatment using radioactive methyholated iodine, which was patented under the name dioradin (formed from "iodine and radium") in 1911. Application of this treatment was referred to as iodo-radium therapy, and involved injecting dioradin intramuscularly. It seemed promising to the developers, because in several cases, fever and hemoptysis had disappeared. Inhalation of iodine alone had been an experimental treatment for tuberculosis in France between 1830 and 1870.
Commercialization, quackery, and the end of an era (1915–1935)
Advertisement for a scientifically developed radiation emanation activator. This particular device is suggested for use by Augustus Callé in a textbook on post-graduate medicine.
Widespread commercial exploitation of radium only began in 1913, by which time more efficient methods of extracting radium from pitchblende had been discovered and the mining of radium had taken off.
Commercial products
The Revigator "radioactive water crock" (1930s)"Tho-radia" powder, based on radium and thorium, according to the formula of Dr Alfred Curie
The radium commonly used in bath salts, waters, and muds was in
low-grade preparations, due to the expense, and their usefulness in
curative solutions was questioned, since it had been agreed upon by
physicians that radium could only be used successfully in high doses.
It was believed that even radiation emanation at higher doses than were
useful would cause no harm, because the radioactive deposits were found
to have been absorbed and released in urine and waste within a period
of three hours.
Radiation emanation activators
Radium emanation activators,
apparatuses that would apply radium emanation to water, started being
produced and marketed. Scientifically constructed emanators were sold to
hospitals, universities, and independent researchers. Certain companies
advertised that they would only give them out to others on a medical
prescription and would guarantee the strength of radium in each dose.
Many products which imitated emanation activators were more broadly marketed to the public. One such product was the Revigator,
a "radioactive water crock." A dispensing jar made of
radium-containing ore, the idea was that radon produced by the ore would
dissolve in the water overnight. It was advertised: "Fill jar every
night. Drink freely ... when thirsty and upon arising and retiring,
average six or more glasses daily." The American Medical Association
(AMA) was concerned that the public was being fleeced by charlatans. In
response, the AMA established guidelines (in effect from 1916 to 1929)
that emanators seeking AMA approval had to generate more than 2 μCi (74 kBq) of radon per liter of water in a 24-hour period. Most devices on the market, including the Revigator, did not meet that standard.
Many other quack cures and patent medicines were sold on the market. Radithor, a solution of radium salts, was claimed by its developer William J. A. Bailey
to have curative properties. Many brands of toothpaste were laced with
radium that was claimed to make teeth shine whiter, such as Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste.
Ostensibly, this would be because the radium would kill the bacteria in
a person's mouth. One item, called "Degnen's Radio-Active Eye
Applicator" manufactured by the Radium Appliance Company of Los Angeles,
California, was sold as a treatment for myopia, hypermetropia, and presbyopia.
Face creams and powders were sold, with names like 'Revigorette' and
'Tho-radia'. It was also sold as a supplement to smoking cigarettes.
Companies also marked radioactive pads and compresses for the treatment
of illnesses.
Joachimsthal radium spa hotel
In light of the supposed curative properties of radioactivity, a spa was opened up in Joachimsthal,
the place at which Madame Curie gathered some of her original samples
of radium from spring waters. Radon inhalation rooms were set up, where
air tubes carried the gas up from a processing tank in the basement; the
visitor would then use it through an inhalation apparatus. Baths were
set up which were also irradiated, and irradiated air was also filtered
through a trumpet-like pipe for inhalation.
Public health concerns
Concerns about radium were brought up before the United States Senate by California Senator John D. Works
as early as 1915. In a floor speech he quoted letters from doctors
asking about the efficacy of the products that were marketed. He
stressed that radiation had the effect of making many cancers worse,
many doctors thought the belief that radium could be used to cure
cancers at that stage of the development of therapy was a "delusion"—one
doctor quoted cited a failure-to-success rate of 100 to 1—and the
effects of radium water were undemonstrated.
Around the start of the 1920s, new public health concerns were sparked by the deaths of factory workers at a radioluminescent watch factory. In 1932, a well-known industrialist, Eben Byers died of radiation poisoning from the use of Radithor, a radium water guaranteed by the manufacturer to contain 2 μCi of radium.
Cases sprung up of the development of carcinoma in patients who had
used conventional radium therapy up to 40 years after the original
treatments.
Robley D. Evans made the first measurements of exhaled radon and radium excretion from a former dial painter in 1933. At MIT he gathered dependable body content measurements from 27 dial painters. This information was used in 1941 by the National Bureau of Standards to establish the tolerance level for radium of 0.1 μCi (3.7 kBq).
Coutard method
At the International Congress of Oncology in Paris in 1922, Henri Coutard, a French radiologist working with the Institut Curie,
presented evidence that laryngeal cancer could be treated without
disastrous side-effects. Coutard was inspired by the observations of Claudius Regaud,
who found that a single dose of x-rays sufficient enough to produce
severe skin damage and tissue destruction in a rabbit, if administered
in fractions, over a course of days, would sterilize the rabbit but have
no effect on subcutaneous tissues.
By 1934, Coutard had developed a protracted, fractionated process that remains the basis for current radiation therapy.
Coutard's dosage and fractionation were designed to create a severe but
recoverable acute mucosal reaction. Unlike previous physicians, who
believed that cancerous cells were more affected by radiation, he
assumed that the population of cancerous cells had the same sensitivity
for regeneration as normal cells. Coutard reported a 23% cure rate in the treatment of head and neck cancer. In 1935, hospitals everywhere began following his treatment plan.
"Radiation therapy" defined as the utilization of electromagnetic or
particle radiation in medical therapy has 3 main branches, including external beam radiation therapy
(teletherapy), locoregional ablative therapy (such as brachytherapy
(sealed source radiation therapy), selective internal radiotherapy
(SIRT), radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and optical
therapy), and systemic therapy (i.e. radiopharmaceutical therapy, such
as radioligand therapy and unsealed source therapy)). There are three
branches of radiology dealing with these three therapeutic domains:
Radiation Oncology (teletherapy and brachytherapy), Interventional
Radiology / Interventional Oncology (selective internal radiation
therapy (SIRT), locoregional ablative therapy using RF ablation and
microwave ablation), and Nuclear Radiology / Nuclear Medicine (using
radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) and systemic unsealed sources).
Particle therapy
is a special case of "radiation therapy" in which "emitted atomic
particles" (such as electrons, protons, or neutrons) are used for energy
delivery in therapy. Particle therapy is heavily used in Nuclear
Radiology / Nuclear Medicine (radiopharmaceutical therapeutic agents are
based on alpha particles, beta particles, or auger electrons), and to
some extent in Radiation Oncology (external electron therapy and recent
emerging modalities for external proton therapy). Nuclear Radiology /
Nuclear Medicine specializes in the internal delivery of particle
therapy whereas Radiation Oncology specializes in the external and
locoregional delivery of particle therapy.
Intraoperative radiation therapy or IORT
is a special type of radiation therapy that is delivered immediately
after surgical removal of cancer. This method has been employed in
breast cancer (TARGeted Intra-operative radiation Therapy or TARGIT), brain tumors, and rectal cancers.
Radioactive iodine, which has been used to treat thyroid diseases since 1941, survives today primarily in the treatment of thyrotoxicosis (hyperthyroidism) and some types of thyroid cancer that absorb iodine. Treatment involves the important iodine isotope iodine-131 (131I), often simply called "radioiodine" (though technically all radioisotopes of iodine are radioiodines; see isotopes of iodine).
At roughly 17,544,500 acres (71,000 km2; 27,413 sq mi), the Navajo Nation has the largest land area held by a Native American tribe in the United States, exceeding that of ten U.S. states. It is one of the few reservations whose lands overlap the nation's traditional homelands.
In 2010, the reservation was home to 173,667 out of 332,129
Navajo tribal members; the remaining 158,462 tribal members lived
outside the reservation, in urban areas (26 percent), border towns (10
percent), and elsewhere in the U.S. (17 percent). In 2020, the number of tribal members increased to 399,494, surpassing the Cherokee Nation as the largest tribal group by enrollment.
The U.S. gained ownership of what is today Navajoland in 1848 following the Mexican-American War. The reservation was first established in 1868 within New Mexico Territory,
initially spanning roughly 3.3 million acres; it subsequently straddled
what became the Arizona–New Mexico border in 1912, when the states were
admitted to the union. Unlike many reservations in the U.S., it has
since expanded several times since its formation, therefore reaching its
current boundaries in 1934.
Terminology
In English, the official name for the area was "Navajo Indian Reservation", as outlined in Article II of the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo. On April 15, 1969, the tribe changed its official name to the "Navajo Nation", which is displayed on its seal. In 1994, the Tribal Council rejected a proposal to change the official designation from "Navajo" to "Diné", a traditional name for the people. Some people said that Diné represented the people in their time of suffering before the Long Walk, and that Navajo is the appropriate designation for the future. In the Navajo language, Diné
means "the People", a term many indigenous nations identify within
their respective languages. Among the Navajo populace, both terms are
employed. In 2017, the Navajo Nation Council rejected legislation to
change the name to "Diné Nation", citing potential "confusion and
frustration among Navajo citizens and non-Navajos".
In Navajo, the geographic entity with its legally defined borders is known as Naabeehó Bináhásdzo. This contrasts with Diné Bikéyah and Naabeehó Bikéyah for the general idea of "Navajoland". Neither of these terms should be confused with Dinétah,
the term used for the traditional homeland of the Navajo. This is
located in the area among the four sacred Navajo mountains of Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks), Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain), Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak), and Tsoodził (Mount Taylor).
History
The Navajo people's tradition of governance is rooted in their clans and oral history.
The clan system of the Diné is integral to their society. The system
has rules of behavior that extend to the manner of refined culture that
the Navajo people call "walking in beauty".
The philosophy and clan system were established long before the Spanish
colonial occupation of Dinétah, through to July 25, 1868, when Congress
ratified the Navajo Treaty with President Andrew Johnson, signed by Barboncito, Armijo, and other chiefs and headmen present at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico.
The Navajo people have continued to transform their conceptual
understandings of government since signing the Treaty of 1868. Social,
cultural, and political academics continue to debate the nature of
modern Navajo governance and how it has evolved to include the systems
and economies of the "western world".
Border changes and expansions of the Navajo Reservation from 1868 to 1934Map of the Navajo Nation shown within the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States1904 photograph of a young Navajo man
In the mid-19th century, primarily in the 1860s, most of the Navajo
were forced to abandon their homes due to a series of military campaigns
by the U.S. Army conducted with a scorched-earth policy and sanctioned
by the U.S. government. The Army burned their homes and agricultural
fields, and stole or killed livestock, to weaken and starve the Navajo
into submission. In 1864, the main body of Navajo, numbering 8,000
adults and children, were marched 300 miles on the Long Walk to imprisonment in Bosque Redondo. The Treaty of 1868 established the "Navajo Indian Reservation" and the Navajo people left Bosque Redondo for this territory.
The borders were defined as the 37th parallel in the north; the southern border as a line running through Fort Defiance; the eastern border as a line running through Fort Lyon; and in the west as longitude 109°30′.
As drafted in 1868, the boundaries were defined as:
the following district of country,
to wit: bounded on the north by the 37th degree of north latitude, south
by an east and west line passing through the site of old Fort Defiance,
in Canon Bonito, east by the parallel of longitude which, if prolonged
south, would pass through old Fort Lyon, or the Ojo-de-oso, Bear Spring,
and west by a parallel of longitude about 109º 30' west of Greenwich,
provided it embraces the outlet of the Canon-de-Chilly [Canyon de
Chelly], which canyon is to be all included in this reservation, shall
be, and the same hereby, set apart for the use and occupation of the
Navajo tribe of Indians, and for such other friendly tribes or
individual Indians as from time to time they may be willing, with the
consent of the United States, to admit among them; and the United States
agrees that no persons except those herein so authorized to do, and
except such officers, soldiers agents, and employees of the Government,
or of the Indians, as may be authorized to enter upon Indian
reservations in discharge of duties imposed by law, or the orders of the
President, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside
in, the territory described in this article.
Though the treaty had provided for one hundred miles by one hundred miles in the New Mexico Territory, the size of the territory was 3,328,302 acres (13,470 km2; 5,200 sq mi)—slightly
more than half. This initial piece of land is represented in the design
of the Navajo Nation's flag by a dark-brown rectangle.
As no physical boundaries or signposts were set in place, many
Navajo ignored these formal boundaries and returned to where they had
been living prior to the U.S. occupation. A significant number of Navajo had never lived in the Hwéeldi (near Fort Sumner). They remained or moved near the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers, on Naatsisʼáán (Navajo Mountain), and some lived with Apache bands.
The first expansion of the territory occurred on October 28, 1878, when President Rutherford Hayes signed an executive order pushing the reservation boundary 20 miles to the west.
Further additions followed throughout the late 19th and early 20th
century (see map). Most of these additions were achieved through
executive orders, some of which were confirmed by acts of Congress. For
example, President Theodore Roosevelt's executive order to add the region around Aneth, Utah in 1905 was confirmed by Congress in 1933.
The eastern border was shaped primarily as a result of allotments of land to individual Navajo households under the Dawes Act
of 1887. This experiment was designed to assimilate Native Americans
into mainstream American culture. The federal government proposed to
divide communal lands into plots assignable to heads of household –
tribal members – for their subsistence farming, in the pattern of small
family farms common among Americans. This was intended to extinguish
tribal land claims for such territory. The land allocated to these
Navajo heads of household was initially not considered part of the
reservation. Further, the federal government determined that land "left
over" after all members had received allotments was to be considered
"surplus" and available for sale to non-Native Americans. The allotment
program continued until 1934. Today, this patchwork of reservation and
non-reservation land is called the "checkerboard area". It resulted in
the loss of much Navajo land.
In the southeastern area of the reservation, the Navajo Nation has purchased some ranches, which it refers to as its Nahata Dził, or New Lands. These lands are leased to Navajo individuals, livestock companies, and grazing associations.
In 1996, Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet)
filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf
of an estimated 250,000–500,000 plaintiffs, Native Americans whose trust
accounts did not reflect an accurate accounting of money owed them
under leases or fees on trust lands. The settlement of Cobell v. Salazar
in 2009 included a provision for a nearly $2 billion fund for the
government to buy fractionated interests and restore land to tribal
reservations. Individuals could sell their fractionated land interests
on a voluntary basis, at market rates, through this program if their
tribe participated.
Through March 2017, under the Tribal Nations Buy-Back Program,
individual Navajo members received $104 million for purchase of their
interests in land; 155,503 acres were returned to the Navajo Nation for
its territory by the Department of Interior under this program.
Clan governance
In the traditional Navajo culture, local leadership was organized around clans, which are matrilinealkinship
groups. Children are considered born into the mother's family and gain
their social status from her and her clan. Her eldest brother
traditionally has a strong influence on rearing the children.
The clan leadership have served as a de facto government on the local level of the Navajo Nation.
Rejection of Indian Reorganization Act
In 1933, during the Great Depression, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) attempted to mitigate environmental damage due to over-grazing on
reservations. Significant pushback was given by the Navajo, who did not
feel that they had been sufficiently consulted before the measures were
implemented. BIA Superintendent John Collier's
attempt to reduce livestock herd size affected responses to his other
efforts to improve conditions for Native Americans. The herds had been
central to Navajo culture, and were a source of prestige.
Also during this period, under the Indian Reorganization Act
(IRA) of 1934, the federal government was encouraging tribes to revive
their governments according to constitutional models shaped after that
of the United States. Because of the outrage and discontent about the
herd issues, the Navajo voters did not trust the language of the
proposed initial constitution outlined in the legislation. This
contributed to their rejection of the first version of a proposed tribal
constitution.
In the various attempts since, members found the process to be
too cumbersome and a potential threat to tribal self-determination. The
constitution was supposed to be reviewed and approved by BIA. The
earliest efforts were rejected primarily because segments of the tribe
did not find enough freedom in the proposed forms of government. In 1935
they feared that the proposed government would hinder development and
recovery of their livestock industries; in 1953 they worried about
restrictions on development of mineral resources.
They continued a government based on traditional models, with headmen chosen by clan groups.
Navajo Nation and federal government jurisdictions
Most conflicts and controversies between the federal government of the United States
and the Nation are settled by negotiations outlined in political
agreements. The Navajo Nation Code consists of codified rules and laws
of the Navajo Nation.
The Navajo Nation Code has 26 titles, covering subjects from the Navajo
Nation Government to Commerce and Trade to Water. The 2010 version is
available on the Navajo Nation Office of Legislative Services, as well
as a section for amendments beginning from January 2014 to December 2022.
There is a map that outlines the boundaries of the Navajo Nation, available on the Navajo Land Department's Website. Also, see Dine Land Use's website for the history of the Navajo Nation's land base. Lands within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation are composed of Public, Tribal Trust, Tribal Fee, Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), Private, State, and BIA Indian Allotment Lands. Within the
Arizona and Utah portions of the Navajo Nation, there are a few private
and BIA Indian Allotments in comparison to New Mexico's portion, which
consists of a checkerboard pattern of all the aforementioned lands. The
Eastern Agency, as it is referred to, consists of primarily Tribal Fee,
BIA Indian Allotments, and BLM Lands. Although there are more Tribal Fee
Lands in New Mexico, the Navajo Nation government intends to convert
most or all Tribal Fee Lands to Tribal Trust, which has some benefits
according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Title II Amendment of 1989 established the Navajo Nation
government as a three-part system (changes to the judicial branch had
already begun in 1958). Two branches are independent of the council
(where all government decision making was centralized before the
change).
The president and vice-president are elected every four years.
The Executive nominates judges of the District Courts, and the Supreme
Court. The nation consists of several divisions, departments, offices, and programs as established by law.
Constitution
In
2006, a committee for a "Navajo Constitution" began advocating for a
Navajo constitutional convention. The committee's goal was to have
representation from every chapter on the Navajo Nation represented at a
constitutional convention. The committee proposed the convention be held
in the traditional naachid/modern chapter house format, where
every member of the nation wishing to participate may do so through
their home chapters. The committee was formed by former Navajo leaders Kelsey Begaye, Peterson Zah, Peter MacDonald, Ivan Gamble (a writer/social activist), and other local political activists.
Prior to Long Walk of the Navajo, judicial powers were exercised by peace chiefs (Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí Naatʼááh) in a mediation-style process. While the people were held at Bosque Redondo, the U.S. Army
handled severe crimes. Lesser crimes and disputes remained in the
purview of the villages' chiefs. After the Navajo return from Bosque
Redondo in 1868, listed criminal offenses were handled by the US Indian
Agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs with support of the U.S. Army,
while lesser disputes remained under Navajo control.
In 1892, BIA Agent David L. Shipley established the Navajo Court of Indian Offenses and appointed judges. Previously, judicial authority was exercised by the Indian Agent.
In 1950, the Navajo Tribal Council decided that judges should be
elected. By the time of the judicial reorganization of 1958, the council
had determined that, due to problems with delayed decisions and
partisan politics, appointment was a better method of selecting judges.
The president makes appointments, subject to confirmation by the
Navajo Nation Council; however, the president is limited to the list of
names vetted by the Judiciary Committee of the council.
The current judicial system for the Navajo Nation was created by
the Navajo Tribal Council on 16 October 1958. It established a separate
branch of government, the "Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation
Government", which became effective 1 April 1959.
The Navajo Court of Indian Offenses was eliminated; the sitting judges
became judges in the new system. The resolution established "Trial
Courts of the Navajo Tribe" and the "Navajo Tribal Court of Appeals",
which was the highest tribal court and its only appellate court.
In 1978, the Navajo Tribal Council established a "Supreme
Judicial Council", a political body rather than a court. On a
discretionary basis, it could hear appeals from the Navajo Tribal Court
of Appeals.
Subsequently, the Supreme Judicial Council was criticized for bringing
politics directly into the judicial system and undermining
"impartiality, fairness and equal protection".
In December 1985, the Navajo Tribal Council passed the Judicial
Reform Act of 1985, which eliminated the Supreme Judicial Council. It
redefined the "Navajo Tribal Court of Appeals" as the "Navajo Nation
Supreme Court", and redefined "Trial Courts of the Navajo Tribe" as
"District Courts of the Navajo Nation". Navajo courts are governed by Title 7, "Courts and Procedures", of the Navajo Tribal Code.
From 1988 to 2006, there were seven judicial districts and two satellite courts. As of 2010, there are ten judicial districts, centered respectively in Alamo (Alamo/Tó'hajiilee), Aneth, Chinle, Crownpoint, Dilkon, Kayenta, Ramah, Shiprock, Tuba City and Window Rock.
All of the districts also have family courts, which have jurisdiction
over domestic relations, civil relief in domestic violence, child
custody and protection, name changes, quiet title, and probate. As of
2010, there were 17 trial judges presiding in the Navajo district and family courts.
The Navajo Nation Presidency, in its current form, was created on
December 15, 1989, after directives from the federal government guided
the Tribal Council to establish the current judicial, legislative, and
executive model. This was a departure from the system of "Council and
Chairmanship" from the previous government body.
Conceptual additions were made to the language of Navajo Nation
Code Title II, and the acts expanded the new government on April 1,
1990. Qualifications for the position of president include fluency in
the Navajo language (this has seldom been enforced and in 2015 the
council changed the law to repeal this requirement). Term limits allow
only two consecutive terms.
The Navajo Nation Council, formerly the Navajo Tribal Council, is the legislative branch of the Navajo Nation. As of 2010,
the 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. The Navajo voted for the change in an effort to
have a more efficient government and to curb tribal government
corruption associated with council members who established secure seats.
In 1927, agents of the U.S. federal government initiated a new form of local government entities called Chapters,
modeled after jurisdictional governments in the US such as counties or
townships. Each chapter elected officers and followed parliamentary
procedures.
By 1933, more than 100 chapters operated across the Navajo
Nation. The chapters served as liaisons between the Navajo and the
federal governments, respectively. They also acted as voting precincts
for the election of tribal council delegates. They served as forums for
local tribal leaders but the chapters had no authority within the
structure of the Navajo Nation government.
In 1998, the Navajo Tribal Council passed the "Local Governance
Act" (LGA), which expanded the political roles of the existing 110
chapters. It authorized them to make decisions on behalf of the chapter
members and to take over certain roles previously delegated to the
council and executive branches. This included entering into
intergovernmental agreements with federal, state and tribal entities,
subject to approval by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee of the
council. As of 2006, 44 chapters were LGA certified.
Administrative divisions
Agencies and chapters
The Navajo Nation is divided into five agencies. The seat of government is located at the Navajo Governmental Campus in Window Rock/Tségháhoodzání. These agencies are composed of several chapters each, and reflect the five Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agencies created in the early formation of the Navajo Nation.
The five agencies within the Navajo Nation are Chinle Agency in
Chinle, Arizona; Eastern Navajo Agency in Crownpoint, New Mexico;
Western Navajo Agency in Tuba City, Arizona; Fort Defiance Agency in Fort Defiance, Arizona; and Shiprock Agency in Shiprock, New Mexico. The BIA agencies provide various technical services under direction of the BIA's Navajo Area Office at Gallup, New Mexico.
Agencies are divided into chapters as the smallest political
unit, similar to municipalities or small U.S. counties. The Navajo
capital city of Window Rock is located in the chapter of St. Michaels, Arizona.
The Navajo Nation also operates executive offices in Washington, DC to facilitate government-to-government relations and for lobbying services and congressional relations.
Navajo law enforcement consists of approximately 300 tribal police officers; only three are non-Native.
Certain classes of crimes, such as capital cases, are prosecuted
and adjudicated in Federal courts. However, the Navajo Nation operates
its own divisions of law enforcement via the Navajo Division of Public
Safety, commonly referred to as the Navajo Nation Police (formerly
Navajo Tribal Police). Law enforcement functions are also delegated to
the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife: Wildlife Law
Enforcement and Animal Control Sections; Navajo Nation Forestry Law
Enforcement Officers; and the Navajo Nation EPA Criminal Enforcement
Section; and Navajo Nation Resource Enforcement (Navajo Rangers).
Regional
government functions are carried out by the "District Grazing
Committees" and "Off-Reservation Land Boards", "Major Irrigation
Projects Farm Boards", and "Agency Councils".
Politics
Notable Navajo politicians
Henry Chee Dodge, first chairman of Navajo Tribal Council (1922–1928, 1942–1946)
Tom B. Becenti, tribal judge and chapter official from Eastern
Navajo Agency. WWII veteran. He is known to have helped develop the
Navajo Tribal Court System while preserving traditional Navajo
Fundamental Law.
Peter MacDonald, Navajo Tribal chairman convicted for cause (1971–1983, 1987–1989)
Jacob (JC) Morgan, first chairman elected by the tribe, serving 1938–1942
Lilakai Julian Neil, first woman elected to Navajo Tribal Council, serving 1946–1951
John Pinto, New Mexico state senator (1977–2019), code talker and military veteran, teacher and National Education Association organizer
Amos Frank Singer, early Council delegate from Kaibito and designer of Navajo Seal
Joe Shirley Jr., oversaw the reduction in seats on the Navajo Council
Annie Dodge Wauneka, Navajo Tribal councilwoman and philanthropist (1951–1978)
Peterson Zah, chairman and first president of the Navajo Nation (1983–1987, 1991–1995)
On August 25, 2014, the Navajo Nation held primary elections for the Office of President. Joe Shirley Jr. and Chris Deschene
had the two highest vote counts. In the weeks following, two other
primary candidates sued in tribal court, invoking a never-used 1990s law
that required candidates to be fluent in the Navajo language. They asked for an assessment of the leading candidates' language skills.
On October 23, 2014,
the Office of Hearings and Appeals of the tribe held the first hearing
on the complaint filed against Deschene. The meeting was presided by
chief hearing officer Richie Nez. The court body ruled in favor of Dale Tsosie
and Hank Whitethorne, the former primary candidates, and issued a
default ruling against Deschene, who had refused to participate in
assessment.
Later that day, the Navajo Supreme Court, in a special session on
the matter, enforced the ruling from the lower Court body and ordered
that the Navajo government remove Deschene from the presidential ballot
because of his lack of Navajo language skills.
The High Court ruled that the presidential election scheduled for
November 4 (12 days later) would be postponed, and ordered that it be
held by the end of January 2015. Chief Justice Herb Yazzie
and Associate Justice Eleanor Shirley ruled for the 2–1 majority;
Justice Irene Black wrote in her dissent that the technicality must be
sent back to the lower court for correction there. The decision did not
outline who would act as executive at the end of the current president's
term (January 2015).
In the early hours of October 24, 2014 the Navajo Council passed legislative Bill 0298-14
amending the Navajo Nation Code. The legislation repealed the language
requirement of the qualifications sections for president. This enabled
Chris Deschene's participation in the election.
The following Monday, the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors
(NBES) met but took no action to implement the court directives. Counsel
for NBES motioned the High Court for further instruction. The next day,
the Navajo Nation Election Board commissioner, Wallace Charley (joined
later by Kimmeth Yazzie, Navajo Election Administration) announced that
Deschene's name would remain on the ballot. Though he had vowed to continue, Deschene resigned from the race on October 30.
On October 29, Navajo President Ben Shelly vetoed the bill repealing the language requirement. The Navajo general election was held. Joe Shirley Jr. had the majority of votes by the unofficial tally.
The Navajo Council scheduled a primary and general election for June and August 2015. On Monday, January 5, 2015, President Shelly vetoed the language fluency bill.
On January 7, five assistant attorneys-general filed petition with the
Navajo Nation Supreme Court for clarification on the question of the
presidential vacancy issue. Through a controversial agreement and
resolution, the Court and the Council appointed Ben Shelly to act as
interim President.
In the special election, businessman Russell Begaye
was elected as president and Jonathan Nez as vice-president. In May
2015, they were sworn in. Begaye supports encouraging native language
use among the Navajo, who have the most members of nearly any tribe who
speak their native language. Approximately half of the Nation's 340,000
members speak Navajo. Begaye came to office supporting the Grand Canyon
Escalade, a proposed project to increase tourism at the canyon, as well
as initiatives to develop a rail port to export crops and coal from the
reservation and to pursue clean coal technology.
Infrastructure
The
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority provides utility services for houses.
By 2019 it was conducting a campaign to electrify remaining houses
without electricity. As of 2019 about 15,000 houses, with 60,000
residents, did not have electricity; at that time the authority
electrified, on an annual basis, 400–450 houses. The Navajo Nation has 13 grocery stores, 12 health facilities, 170 hospital beds, 13 intensive care unit beds, 52 isolation rooms, and 28 ventilators.
Coconino County installed a Wi-Fi hotspot
between the Page Magistrate Court Buildings and Coconino County Health
and Human Services Northern Region Office at 467 Vista Ave. in Page,
Arizona. While remaining in a vehicle, this hotspot, named CountyWi-Fi, is freely accessible and does not require a network password. Northern Arizona University
(NAU), with clearance from Navajo and Hopi officials, extended free
Wi-Fi signals to parking lots on the Navajo Nation for any college and
K-12 student.Coconino County offers assistance for rent and utilities based on
income eligibility. Assistance may be granted for electric, gas, wood,
water, propane, rental, or utility deposits when moving.
International cooperation
In
December 2012, Ben Shelly led a delegation of Navajo overseas to
Israel, where they toured the country as representatives for the Navajo
people. In April 2013, Shelly's aide, Deswood Tome, led a delegation of
Israeli agricultural specialists on a tour of resources on the Navajo
Nation. The visit by Israelis was criticized by some indigenous people
who believe that Palestinians in Israel have a status similar to their
own.
Map showing populated places on the Navajo Nation and surrounding areaNavajo. Seven riders on horseback and dog trek against background of canyon cliffs. Edward S. Curtis (1904)
The land area of the Navajo Nation is over 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2), making it the largest Indian reservation in the United States; it is approximately 8,000 km2 larger than the state of West Virginia.
Adjacent to or near the Navajo Nation are the Southern Ute of Colorado, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, both along the northern borders; the Jicarilla Apache
Tribe to the east; the Zuni Pueblo and White Mountain Apache to the
south; and the Hualapai Bands in the west. The Navajo Nation's territory
fully surrounds the Hopi Indian Reservation.
In the 1980s, a conflict over shared lands peaked when the Department of the Interior attempted to relocate Navajo residents living in what is still referred to as the Navajo–Hopi Joint Use Area. The litigious and social conflict between the two tribes and neighboring communities ended with "The Bennett Freeze" Agreement, completed in July 2009 by President Barack Obama.
The agreement lessened the contentious land disagreement by providing a
75-year lease to Navajo who had land claims dating to before the US
occupation of the territory.
Much of the Navajo Nation is situated on the Colorado Plateau.
The large variation in altitude (3,080 to 10,346 feet; 939 to 3,153 m)
throughout the Navajo Nation produces considerable variations in
climate, from an arid, desert climate, accounting for 55% of the area,
through an intermediate steppe region, to the cold, sub-humid climate of
the mountainous 8% of the area.
Average daily temperatures range from 43 to 60 °F (6 to 16 °C), with a
low of 4 °F (−16 °C) in mountainous regions and a high of 110 °F (43 °C)
in the desert. Average rainfall is 16–27 inches (410–690 mm) at higher
elevations, and 7–11 inches (180–280 mm) in the desert.
Daylight saving time
The Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time (DST) on its Arizona land as well as on its Utah and New Mexico lands. But the rest of Arizona, including the Hopi Reservation, an enclave within the Arizona portion of the Nation, have opted out of DST.
On the 2010 census 166,826 residents identified as Navajo or other
Native American, 3,249 as White/European American, 401 Asian or Pacific
Islanders, 208 African American, and the remainder identify as some
other group or more than one ancestry. The 2010 census recorded 109,963 individuals who report speaking a language at home that is neither Asian nor Indo-European.
DiscoverNavajo.com reports that 96% of the Navajo Nation is American
Indian, and 66% of Navajo tribe members live on Navajo Nation.
The average family size was 4.1, and the average household was
home to 3.5 persons. The average household income in 2010 was $27,389.
Nearly half of the enrolled members of the Navajo tribe live
outside the nationʼs territory, and the total enrolled population is
300,048, as of July 2011.
As of 2016, 173,667 Diné lived on tribal lands.
Education
Historically,
the Navajo Nation resisted compulsory western education, including
boarding schools, as imposed by the government in the aftermath of the Long Walk.
Navajo families and society have provided traditional and home
education with considerable scope and depth since before the US
annexation.
Continued education, and retention of Navajo students in school are significant priorities. Major problems faced by the Nations relates to helping students build competitive GPAs and to prevent a very high drop-out rate
among high school students. Over 150 public, private, and Bureau of
Indian Affairs schools serve Nation students from kindergarten through
high school. Most schools are funded from the Navajo Nation under the Johnson O'Malley program.
The Nation runs community Head Start Programs, the only
educational program fully operated by the Navajo Nation government.
Post-secondary education and vocational training are available on and
off the territory.
The Navajo Nation operates Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta', a Navajo-language immersion school for grades K–8 in Fort Defiance, Arizona.
Located on the Arizona-New Mexico border in the southeastern quarter of
the Navajo Nation, the school strives to revitalize Navajo among
children of the Window Rock Unified School District.
Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta' has thirteen Navajo language teachers who
instruct only in the Navajo language. Five English language teachers
instruct in the English language. Kindergarten and first grade are
taught completely in the Navajo language, while English is incorporated
into the program during third grade, when it is used for about 10% of
instruction.
Primary and secondary education
The Nation has access to six systems of primary and secondary academic institutions that serve Navajo students, including:
The Ned A Hataałi Center at Diné College's Tsaile campus
The Navajo Nation operates Diné College, a two-year tribal community college, with its main campus at Tsaile in Apache County,
Arizona. The college also operates seven sub-campuses throughout the
nation. The Navajo Nation Council founded the college in 1968 as the
first tribal college in the United States. Since then, tribal colleges have been established on numerous reservations and now total 32.
Diné College has 1,830 students enrolled, of which 210 are students
seeking transfer to four-year institutions in order to earn bachelor's
degrees.
Center for Diné Studies
The college includes the Center for Diné Studies. Its goal is to apply Navajo Sa'ah Naagháí Bik'eh Hózhóón principles to advance quality student learning through Nitsáhákees (thinking), Nahat'á (planning), Iiná (living), and Siihasin
(assurance) in study of the Diné language, history, and culture.
Students are prepared for further studies and employment in a
multi-cultural and technological world.
Navajo Technical University (NTU)
Located in Crownpoint, New Mexico, Navajo Technical University
is a tribal university offering various vocational, technical, and
academic degrees and certificates. NTU was opened in 1979 as the Navajo
Skill Center, intended to provide opportunity to unemployed people of
the Navajo Nation. The center has since been renamed multiple time in
response to growth and its changing programs.
In 1985 it was renamed Crownpoint Institute of Technology and in
2006 as Navajo Technical College. In 2013 it was named as a "university"
in recognition of its program expansion, under resolution codified by
the Navajo Nation Council.
Extensive uranium mining took place in areas of the Navajo Nation
from the 1940s, and stringent worker and environmental safety laws were
not passed and enforced until the early 1960s.
Studies have proven uranium mining created severe environmental consequences for miners and nearby residents. Several types of cancer occur at much higher rates than the national average in these locations. Especially high are the rates of reproductive-organ cancers in teenage Navajo girls, averaging seventeen times higher than the average of girls in the United States. In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Residents of the Red Water Pond Road area have requested
relocation to a new, off-grid village to be located on Standing Black
Tree Mesa. Cleanup is underway on the Northeast Church Rock Mine Superfund site. They proposed this as an alternative to the EPA-proposed relocation of residents to Gallup.
Navajo neurohepatopathology
The Navajo are uniquely affected by a rare and life-threatening autosomal recessive
multi-system disorder called Navajo Neurohepatopathology (NNH). This
genetic condition is estimated to occur in 1 of every 1,600 live births. The most severe symptoms include neuropathy and liver dysfunction
(hepatopathy), both of which may be moderate and progressive or severe
and fatal, as it often is in cases that develop in infants (before 6
months of age) or children (1–5 years). Other symptoms include corneal
anesthesia and scarring, acral mutilation, cerebral leukoencephalopathy, failure to thrive, and recurrent metabolic acidosis, with intercurrent infections.
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is a major health problem among the Navajo, Hopi and Pima
tribes, whose members are diagnosed at a rate about four times higher
than the age-standardized U.S. estimate. Medical researchers believe
increased consumption of carbohydrates, coupled with genetic factors,
play significant roles in the emergence of this chronic disease among
Native Americans.
Severe combined immunodeficiency
One in every 2,500 children in the Navajo population inherits severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). This genetic disorder results in births of children with virtually no immune system.
In the general population, the genetic disorder is much rarer,
affecting one in 100,000 children. The disorder is sometimes known as
"bubble boy disease". This condition is a significant cause of illness
and death among Navajo children. Research reveals a similar genetic
pattern among the related Apache.
In a December 2007 Associated Press article, Mortan Cowan, director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the University of California, San Francisco,
noted that, although researchers have identified about a dozen genes
that cause SCID, the Navajo/Apache population has the most severe form
of the disorder. This is due to the mutations in the geneDCLRE1C, which leads to a defective copy of the protein Artemis. Without the gene, children's bodies are unable to repair DNA or develop disease-fighting cells.
The COVID-19 pandemic reached the Navajo Nation on March 17, 2020. On March 20, a stay-at-home order was issued after 14 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed, with an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew enforced. Beginning April 12, a 57-hour weekend curfew was declared.
At that point, there were 698 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including
24 deaths, among members of the Navajo Nation living in New Mexico,
Arizona and Utah.
On April 19, the Navajo Department of Health issued an emergency public
health order mandating the use of masks outside the home, in addition
to existing orders for sheltering in place and for nightly and weekend
curfews.
By April 20, the Navajo Nation had the third-highest infection rate in the United States, after New York and New Jersey.
As of May 18, 2020, the Navajo Nation surpassed New York as most affected U.S. region per capita, with 4,071 positive COVID-19 tests and 142 fatalities recorded.
On April 25, the Nation announced that it was joining 10 other tribes in a lawsuit against the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, over what the plaintiffs said was an unfair allocation of money to the tribes under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). On May 5, $600 million of aid money was delivered to the Navajo Nation, a month after the legislation was signed into law.
As of February 2, 2022, there are 50,428 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,619 deaths from the virus.
Water rights and protection
Water rights for the Navajo Nation have been a source of environmental conflict
for decades, as Navajo lands have provided energy and water for
residents of neighboring states while many of the Navajo do not have
electricity or running water in their homes. Beginning in the 1960s,
coal mining by Peabody coal at Black Mesa
withdrew more than 3 million gallons of water/day from the Navajo
aquifer, reducing the number of springs on the reservation. The Navajo
Generating Station also consumed about 11 billion gallons of water per
year to provide power for the Central Arizona Project that pumps water from Lake Havasu into Arizona.
Native American tribes along the Colorado River were left out of
the 1922 Colorado River Compact that divided water among the states,
forcing tribes to negotiate settlements with the states for water. The
Navajo negotiated water settlements with New Mexico and Utah in 2009 and
2020 respectively, but had not reached an agreement with Arizona in
2023.
On June 22, 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled in Arizona v. Navajo Nation
that the federal government of the United States has no obligation to
ensure that the Navajo Nation has access to water. The court ruled that
the 1868 treaty establishing the Navajo Reservation reserved necessary
water to accomplish the purpose of the Navajo Reservation but did not
require the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for
the Tribe.
Additionally, environmental crises, such as the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill have had lasting impact on the Nation's access to clean water.
Economy
Number of sheep (Dibé) present on the Navajo Nation
The Navajo economy and culture have long been based on the raising of sheep and goats. Navajo families process the wool and sell it for cash or spin it into yarn and weave blankets and rugs for sale. The Navajo are also noted for their skill in creating turquoise and silver jewelry. Navajo artists have other traditional arts, such as sand painting, sculpture, and pottery.
Sheep remain an important aspect of Navajo culture and economy.
The Navajo Nation has created a mixture of industry and business that
has provided the Navajo with alternative opportunities to traditional
occupations. The Nation's median cash household income is around $20,000
per year. However, using federal standards, unemployment levels
fluctuate between 40 and 45%. About 40% of families live below the
federal poverty rate.
Economic development within the Navajo Nation has fluctuated over
its history but has largely remained limited. One obstacle to
investment has been the incompatibility of its two land management
systems. Tribal lands are held in common and leased to individuals for
specific purposes, such as home construction or for livestock grazing.
Financial institutions outside of tribal lands require assets, including
land, to be used as collateral when potential borrowers seek capital.
Since individuals do not own the land outright, financial institutions
have little recourse if borrowers' default on their loans. Additionally,
the wide-ranging bureaucracy involving elements of the U.S. Department
of Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the tribal government has
created a complex network that is cumbersome and time-consuming for
investors and businesses to navigate.
Self-employed Navajo workers and Navajo entrepreneurs are often involved in the grey economy.
For instance, artisans staff roadside shops and cater to American and
international tourists, travelers passing through Navajo Nation, and to
the Navajo people themselves. Other Navajo workers find employment in
the nearby cities and towns of Page, Arizona; Flagstaff, Arizona;
Farmington, New Mexico; Gallup, New Mexico; Cortez, Colorado; and other
towns along the I-40 corridor. Commute times vary for these workers.
Because of the remoteness of some Navajo communities, they can last up
to several hours. Economic push-pull factors have led a sizeable portion
of the workforce to temporarily or permanently relocate to these border
towns or to large metropolitan areas further away, such as Phoenix, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; and Salt Lake City,
Utah. With nearly half of all Navajo tribal members living off the
reservation, it is more difficult for the tribe to build social capital
there and to draw from those people's talents.
Navajo college students and graduates studying at universities in
cities and towns outside the reservation may elect to stay there rather
than relocate to the Navajo Nation because of the relative abundance of
employment opportunities, connections with other classmates, and higher
quality of life. This phenomenon contributes to human capital flight
or "the brain drain", where highly skilled or highly educated
individuals are attracted or pushed to a location with different or more
economic opportunities. They are not incorporated into the community
and local economy of origin.
The tribe has grown peaches (Prunus persica) since the 1700s. In the late 1800s the Bureau of Indian Affairs began to discourage traditional methods of peach growing. Wytsalucy (2019) genotyped some of the trees and distinguished them from those grown elsewhere. Wytsalucy's analysis illuminates the different course that Navajo breeding of peach has taken from peach breeding elsewhere.
Natural resources
Mining – especially of coal and uranium – provided significant income to both the Navajo Nation and individual Navajos in the second half of the 20th century.
Many of these mines have closed. But in the early 21st century, mining
still provides significant revenues to the tribe in terms of leases (51%
of all tribal income in 2003). Navajos are among the 1,000 people employed in mining.
Coal
The volume of coal mined on the Navajo Nation land has declined in the early 21st century.
The Chevron Corporation's P&M McKinley Mine was the first large-scale, surface coal mine in New Mexico when it opened in 1961. It closed in January 2010.
The Navajo Mine opened in 1963 near Fruitland, New Mexico, and employs about 350 people. It supplies sub-bituminous coal to the 2 GW Four Corners Power Plant via the isolated 13-mile Navajo Mine Railroad.
Parts of the Navajo Nation, through the Navajo Transitional Energy
Company, acquired the mine and three mines in Montana and Wyoming.
Uranium
The uranium market, which was active during and after the Second World War,
slowed near the end of that period. The Navajo Nation has suffered
considerable environmental contamination and health effects as a result
of poor regulation of uranium mining in that period. As of 2005, the
Navajo Nation has prohibited uranium mining altogether within its
borders.
Oil and natural gas
There are developed and potential oil and gas fields on the Navajo Nation. The oldest and largest group of fields is in the Paradox Basin in the Four Corners
area. Most of these fields are located in the Aneth Extension in Utah,
but there are a few wells in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The first
well was drilled in the Aneth Extension in 1956. In 2006 the Paradox
Basin fields were injected with water and carbon dioxide to increase
declining production. There are also wells in the Checkerboard area in New Mexico that are on leased land owned by individual Navajo.
The selling of leases and oil royalties have changed over the
years. The Aneth Extension was created from Public Domain lands as part
of a 1933 exchange with the federal government for lands flooded by Lake Powell. Congress appointed Utah as trustee on behalf of Navajos living in San Juan County, Utah
for any potential revenues that came from natural resources in the
area. Utah initially created a 3-person committee to make leases,
receive royalties and improve the living conditions for Utah Navajo. As
the revenues and resulting expenditures increased, Utah created the
12-member Navajo Commission to do the operational work. The Navajo
Nation and Bureau of Indian Affairs are also involved.
Several Navajo organizations deal with oil and gas. The Utah Diné Corporation
is a nonprofit organization established to take over from the Navajo
Commission. The Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company owns and operates oil
and natural gas interests, primarily in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Federally incorporated, it is wholly owned by the Navajo Nation.
In December 2010, the President and Navajo Council approved a
proposal by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), an enterprise of
the Navajo Nation, and Edison Mission Energy
to develop an 85-megawatt wind project at Big Boquillas Ranch, which is
owned by the Navajo Nation and is located 80 miles west of Flagstaff.
The NTUA plans to develop this into a 200-megawatt capacity at peak.
This has been planned as the first majority-owned native project; NTUS
was to own 51%. An estimated 300–350 people will construct the facility;
it will have 10 permanent jobs.
In August 2011, the Salt River Project, an Arizona utility, was
announced as the first utility customer. Permitting and negotiations
involve tribal, federal, state and local stakeholders.
The project is intended not only as a shift to renewable energy but to
increase access for tribal members; an estimated 16,000 homes are
without access to electricity.
The wind project has foundered because of a "long feud between
Cameron [Chapter] and Window Rock [central government] over which
company to back".
Both companies pulled out. Negotiations with Clipper Windpower looked
promising, but that company was put up for sale after the recession.
Parks and attractions
Narbona Pass Chuska MountainsAerial view looking south across Arizona's Painted Desert with part of the Navajo Reservation in the foreground
Tourism is important to the Navajo Nation. Parks and attractions within traditional Navajo lands include:
Shiprock Pinnacle (large volcanic remnants, elevation 7,178 ft, located in New Mexico near Shiprock)
Navajo Mountain (mountain along Utah and Arizona border, elevation 10,318 ft)
Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation also operates Tseyi Heritage
Cottonwood Campground at Canyon de Chelly, Camp Asaayi at Bowl Canyon,
and the Navajo Veterans Memorial Park.
Art and crafts
Navajo Women by Andy Tsihnahjinnie. Oil on fiberboard, 1934
An important small business group on the Navajo Nation is handmade
arts and crafts industry. A survey conducted by the Arizona Hospitality
Research & Resource Center reported that the Navajo nation made
$20,428,039 from the art and crafts trade in 2011.
Since the introduction of sheep into the New World, Navajos have traditionally made use of either the vertical loom or the back strap loom (belt loom) to weave yarns. The early weaving practice was such that unprocessed wool was chiefly used to make blankets and which still retained its lanolin
and suint (sweat), and which could repel water, on the one hand, but
which left an unpleasant odor to the finished woolen product, on the
other.
Today, modern techniques have replaced the old, and wool is
preprocessed and treated with an alkali substance. By 1900, the weaving
of traditional Navajo blankets had been replaced by rug-making.
Diné Development Corp.
The
Diné Development Corporation was formed in 2004 to promote Navajo
business and seek viable business development to make use of casino
revenues.
Media
Navajo Times
The Navajo Nation is served by various print media operations. The Navajo Times used to be published as the Navajo Times Today.
Created by the Navajo Nation Council in 1959, it has been privatized.
It continues to be the newspaper of record for the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Times is the largest Native American-owned newspaper company in the United States.
KTNN
Established as a Navajo Nation Enterprise in 1985, KTNN is a commercial radio station that provides information and entertainment, and is located on AM 660.
Other newspapers
Other newsprint groups also serve the Navajo Nation. The media outlets include the Navajo/Hopi Observer, serving Navajo, Hopi and towns of Winslow and Flagstaff, and the Navajo Post, a web-based with print outlet that serves urban Navajos from its offices at Tempe. Non-Navajo papers such as the Gallup Independent also serve Navajo audiences.
