SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told 200 Navajo residents that his team is looking for properties to increase the Navajo impact and influence in their adopted urban communities.
Speaking at the sixth Navajo Nation Resource Fair at the Utah Division of Indian Affairs here Thursday, he said he wants to focus on having a bigger affect in Salt Lake and other urban areas.
“We have a strong presence in Phoenix and Albuquerque but we don’t have as strong a presence in the Salt Lake City area,” he said. “So that’s going to be one of my tasks, to have a bigger footprint so we have a bigger say in these communities.”
He said he would like to see Navajo Urban Service Centers in places like Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver and Salt Lake City where Navajos can access services and program resources found on the Navajo Nation, and that can also serve as gathering places.
“By coming together, by really being together, we really strengthen ourselves,” he said. “I walk in a room and warriors come in with me who try to tackle social ills, alcoholism, poverty, the lack of jobs, the economy, the health care, all those challenges because most of our warriors are in the urban communities.”
He said he brought two warriors back from urban areas to Navajoland. One is Thomas Cody, director of the Division of Social Services and a 20-year-resident of Denver. The other is Debbie Nez-Manuel, director of the Division of Human Resources, a 30-year resident of Phoenix.
“I brought two urban Navajos to work with me,” he said. “They’ve always had ideas like, how do we continue to help our people that are out in the urban communities?”
Together, they have been instrumental to create and run the Navajo Resource Fairs that bring staff from tribal programs like Vital Records, Elections Office, Division of Natural Resources and the Navajo Nation Indian Child Welfare Act Office, among a few, for people to apply for a homesite lease, CIB for children or to register to vote in tribal elections.
“Some of you are probably trying to plan how to get home,” President Nygren said. “How do I get a homesite lease? How can I start my application for a water line, electrical line? How can I get a loan or how can I do these moves? When I’m older, I want to be back on the reservation.”
He said there are nearly 2,500 Native Americans living in the Salt Lake City area and most are Navajo. Resource fairs bring staff from Window Rock to listen, take questions and help people apply for tribal resources.
The President began his 20-minute talk in Navajo, saying it was out of respect and because people want to hear their native language.
“People my age continue to miss our language,” he said. “It’s for you who want to hear our beautiful language and for our elders who are way out there. They want to know what’s going on with their government.”
President Nygren said the Resource Fairs began as a way to spread the word about the Housing Assistance Fund, a federal program that will allow 901 eligible urban Navajo homeowner families to receive $100,000 or more for mortgage assistance, mortgage reinstatement assistance, mortgage principal reduction assistance, home repair assistance, and clear title assistance as a result of COVID-19 financial setbacks.
The program is run by the non-profit Native Community Capital group of Phoenix that has so far helped 100 Navajo families from losing their homes, he said.
It’s important to him to continue to reach out to urban Navajos, he said, because he understands how hard it is for families to have members far away because of economic necessity.
“On a day-to-day basis, when I do a random stop and talk to our elders, they say, ‘I really miss my family, my relatives that are very far off because they’ve got to pay their bills,” President Nygren said. “They’ve got to do what’s necessary.”
“Our goal in my administration is to try to blend the two so not only is there an opportunity for you to go home but there’s an opportunity for you to work from here to continue to help our Nation,” he said.
Among those joining President Nygren at the two-day event was Samantha Eldridge, director of the American Indian Resource Center at the University of Utah, Alan Barlow, executive director of the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake, the Little Feathers Youth Group of the Granite School District.
Support for the Resource Fair came from from Utah Foster Care, Utah Department of Health and Human Services and Utah Division of Indian Affairs.
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