The Administration's Priorities
When President Nyren came into office, he had a vision for a prospering Navajo Nation. In order to make positive change for the Navajo people, he set out to focus on the following strategic priorities.
Economy
Our top priority will be investing in business development, creating sustainable jobs, and strengthening the workforce. With my experience in developing infrastructure, improving roads, and extending electricity and water lines throughout the Navajo Nation, we can improve business development and growth.
TOURISM
Develop the tourism industry to create jobs and bring in new revenue. Tourism offers opportunities for the development of dining, entertainment, outdoor recreation, and hotel facilities.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Develop business and entrepreneur incubators to empower risk-takers, and support Navajo business through technology, innovation, and mentorship.
ANCILLARY DEVELOPMENT
Develop more gravel pits to make it easier to pave and repair dirt roads. Create and maintain a workforce of heavy equipment personnel.
LEASING REFORM
Cut the red tape and make land easily accessible by working to resolve federal and tribal laws that hinder land development.
BROADBAND EQUITY
Improve broadband technology, internet service and cell phone signal for our people in their homes, businesses, health care centers, public safety, education facilities, and all 110 chapters.
REGIONAL & STATE PARTNERSHIP
Work to secure more funding through our local states.
AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION
Establish a program to increase the number of local farmers and ranchers.
SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATIONS
Develop an energy plan that includes clean energy sources, such as solar and wind farms, to provide sustainable energy for homes and revenues back to the Navajo Nation.
MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES
Work on the manufacturing and training of our people to build and assemble solar panels and windmill parts to create jobs.
Education
The Nygren Administration will work to resolve the challenges that COVID-19 brought to our schools, including mental wellness, school absences, distrust of in-person classes, and increased learning disparities. We must assess what it means to educate Navajo students in the 21st Century, especially in light of national events.
SHORT-TERM IMPROVEMENTS
- Increase support technology for teaching and learning for our students.
- Improve our relatives’ educational and special education experience.
- Improve early childhood development, head start, and after school programs.
MID-TERM IMPROVEMENTS
- Carry out the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act of 2005 by making the Department of Diné Education (DODE) a high-performance organization staffed with licensed educational professionals.
- Elevate and preserve the Navajo language by developing a comprehensive Navajo language learning program.
- Provide students access to health and behavioral health care at schools.
LONG-TERM IMPROVEMENTS
- Work to save our culture so our people can learn about our Navajo way-of-life and our ceremonies and life healing sciences.
- Address the chronic workforce shortage in our schools including teachers, school bus drivers, and school administrators.
- Promote accountability for a safe and healthy environment for every student to succeed.
- Work with Tribally Controlled Grant Schools who have the right and responsibility to educate our children in a manner that supports our language and cultural beliefs.
HIGHER EDUCATION
- Construct affordable student housing in urban areas like Flagstaff, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque for our Navajo students receiving higher education.
- Offer more scholarships and internship opportunities and investigate different ways the Navajo Nation can best support students in need of financial aid.
- Create a Navajo Nation Student Loan Forgiveness Program to ease the burden many Navajo students are challenged with today.
- Invest in new and improved trade school programs across the Navajo Nation.
- Incentivize Navajo students to become veterinarians by creating partnerships with universities.
Public Safety
We must continue to improve our public safety programs to make sure our women, children, veterans, and elders are protected. This means bringing more money to increase the size of our Navajo Police force and equipment across the Nation.
PROSECUTION
The Nygren Administration will propose harsher penalties for gang-related violence offenders, illicit drug dealers, and criminal bootlegging.
Elderly abuse will be addressed and offenders will be prosecuted to ensure our families are safe and protected from harm.
Prioritize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and allow Navajo to prosecute non-Navajo offenders who harm our Navajo women and children.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Invest in proper training programs for our Corrections, Fire and Rescue, and Emergency Medical Services personnel.
Work to address any human rights violations in the local border towns and hold perpetrators accountable to the full extent of the law.
Commit to working with lawmakers to understand the gaps in ineffective and outdated public safety laws.
Veterans
We have an opportunity to streamline the process for applying for veteran benefits, including housing, medical, and healing services. The Nygren Administration will collaborate with our veteran warriors who believe their interests are not currently being addressed and heard, and we will do better. We will focus on challenges facing veterans:
- Housing
- Medical needs
- Benefits
- Jobs
- Training
- Transportation
We can accomplish this by creating a model Veterans division at the Window Rock level that will lead the way for efficiency in delivering government services. It will be led by a division director who will listen and work with veterans.
We acknowledge both veterans and those currently serving abroad and understand that our Navajo men and women serve in the military at a much higher rate per capita than any other racial group.
Government
LOCAL GOVERNANCE
We will actively communicate with and empower local communities to innovate at the chapter level to take care of their local needs and create opportunities for our people to build homes, start businesses, and attend quality schools.
The Nygren Administration will commit to giving more authority and autonomy to the 110 Navajo Nation Chapters to get the hard work done while holding them to high accountability standards for the People’s money. We can approach this in three ways:
- Offer much-needed support to empower our 110 chapters.
- Commit to improving government efficiency and participation through technology.
- Work to improve wages across Navajo to reflect local and regional markets and offer resources to increase the effectiveness of the services they provide.
We will commit to standing with Native America to fight for our sovereignty, culture, way of life, and language. We will commit to protecting Navajo voting rights and accessibility at local polling locations. When it comes to the unique needs of the Eastern Navajo Agency, we will commit to supporting our Navajo people regarding land issues.
Environment
Mitigating the effects of climate change on Navajo land is our responsibility, and the Nygren Administration will ensure Navajo community voices are empowered in protecting our water, air, and land.
Water is life. We must protect and work hard on using all 56% of the San Juan River water that the Navajo Nation is entitled to by working with the farmers, ranchers, and livestock owners who use the river for their livelihood. We will work with chapters and enterprises so they can use this water for their sustainability.
Our lands are sacred. I will fight for our natural resources and commit to being culturally sensitive and respecting our Navajo way-of-life and land users, whose concerns must be taken into account when discussing and implementing modern land-use practices.
End illegal dumping. The Nygren Administration will establish a permanent solid waste management program with a Navajo Nation-wide landfill program to end illegal dumping.
Elderly
We must ensure prompt services are delivered for our precious grandmas and grandpas. It is important for both our elders and our society as a whole to keep our grandmas and grandpas close through local assisted living facilities, elderly care homes, and nursing homes.
PROBATE
For our elders, livestock sustains and supports their homes and livelihoods. The Nygren Administration will work to address concerns about our grazing permit holders and homesite lease processes so that permittees and leaseholders are heard.
We must do better to ensure issues with probate are resolved equitably, before they require lawful action that disrupts, rather than harmonizes.
Urban Relatives
For the first time in recent decades, we will provide Navajo Nation resources to our relatives who live and work off the Navajo Nation. We can build positive support for Navajos abroad that extend beyond the borders of our nation.
OFF-RESERVATION SUPPORT
- Utilize our Navajo professionals in their respective fields and experience to assist the Navajo Nation.
- Establish a housing program to build homes for all Navajo people and all income levels with federal funding and lending programs that will motivate our people to build their own homes on and off the Navajo Nation.
Health & Social
Our Nation Nation’s social services programs will focus on alleviating social ills that some of our Navajo people experience on a daily basis, including:
- Alcohol abuse
- Drug abuse
- Gambling addiction
- Suicide
- Adverse childhood experiences
- Childhood sexual abuse
- Domestic violence
- Post-traumatic stress
- Poor mental health
- Obesity
- Diabetes
We have talked about establishing treatment, rehabilitation facilities, and re-entry programs, and the Nygren Administration will get it done through partnership and collaboration with agencies across all levels of government.
The Nygren Administration will collaborate with medicine people, the Native American Church (NAC), and churches to address mental and social well-being. We will work with our Diné women to take on the significant challenges they face, like workplace harassment, gender inequality, childcare services, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) support services.
We will prioritize support programs for our homeless youth and work to increase funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS) and Navajo Nation PL-638 health care facilities. The Nygren Administration will work on increasing the number of daycares and apartment complexes across the Navajo Nation.