WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – After a 30-year wait, the paperwork to build a new Cameron Chapter chapterhouse took just three months to move through the Navajo Nation Council.
On May 2, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed legislation to allocate $4.8 million for the construction of the new 4,500-square-foot chapterhouse.
Flanked by Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley and legislation sponsor Council Delegate Casey Allen Johnson, the President described Cameron as a “Mecca” that millions pass through on their way to destinations like Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon.
“Good ideas are always good ideas,” he said. “And building a new chapterhouse is great idea.”
Speaker Curley said it is usually hard for the council to pass a two-thirds vote but this resolution to approve the new chapterhouse received a unanimous 20-0 vote.
“This resolution received the full support of the council,” she said. “We had no opposing votes.”
The new chapterhouse will replace the two modular buildings the chapter has been using for years. Speaker Curley said she was a legislative assistant for the 23rd council at the time modular buildings went in so she was happy to see the 25th council approve this needed improvement.
Delegate Johnson said his grandfather Frank Johnson was a longtime chapter official. As he was looking through papers, he said, he found his signature on a chapter document.
“Just to see my grandfather’s signature, Frank Johnson, and my grandmother’s, as a witness, was there, too,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming, over 30 years, to get this new building.”
Cameron Chapter President Charlie Smith said he remembered seeing his mother attend meetings in the aging chapterhouse.
“A lot of those people would sit there for hours and hours,” he said. “I wondered, when are we going to tear that old chapterhouse down and build a new one?”
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