SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren joined tribal leaders and federal health officials for discussions focused on strengthening tribal health systems, expanding self-governance, improving access to federal resources and ensuring tribal priorities are represented in public health policy.
President Nygren, who serves as the Navajo Area primary delegate on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee, attended alongside Navajo Department of Health Executive Director Sherylene Yazzie, the Navajo Area alternate delegate.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. highlighted federal efforts involving Indian Health Service workforce recruitment, healthcare infrastructure, traditional healing, rural physician training and tribal self-governance.
“We’re completely reliant on you to give us the ideas because we don’t want to be dictating things,” Secretary Kennedy told tribal leaders. “We need you to tell us what we can do for you.”
President Nygren thanked federal leadership for its engagement with Indian Country and specifically raised Navajo priorities, including moving the Gallup Indian Medical Center replacement project forward, addressing staff quarters and supporting the Navajo Nation’s 99-bed treatment facility in Phoenix.
“Thank you for living up to that commitment,” President Nygren told Secretary Kennedy. “I really want to say, on behalf of the Navajo Nation, the Navajo people, thank you.”
The meeting also included extensive discussion about direct federal funding for tribes, emergency preparedness, public health workforce shortages, tribal data sovereignty, the 340B Drug Pricing Program and expanding tribal self-governance beyond IHS.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Erica Schwartz emphasized strengthening government-to-government relationships with tribal nations, improving emergency readiness and giving tribal priorities greater visibility within CDC leadership.
Throughout the meeting, tribal leaders called for meaningful consultation, more flexible funding, timely access to health data and greater tribal authority to develop culturally grounded solutions that meet the needs of their communities.
