WASHINGTON – For the first time since 2016, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren today signed a warranty deed to take land into trust along U.S. Highway 89 near Flagstaff.
“The Navajo Nation appreciates the BIA’s efforts to work with us to get this application approved,” the President said at a signing ceremony here. “These lands that are taken into trust for the Navajo Nation are part of the federal government’s obligations to provide support for Navajos in Arizona who were forcibly relocated by the federal government through the 1974 Settlement Act.”
The last and only time land was taken into trust for fee-to-trust for the Navajo Nation was in September 2016 for 85.68 acres in Tse Bonito, N.M.
President Nygren announced the Nation’s plans to partner with the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise to develop a gaming facility on the newly acquired land. The project will provide significant economic benefits and create approximately 100 new jobs.
“NNGE’s employees are 85% Navajo and 5% other tribal members,” President Nygren said. “Rents collected by the Navajo Nation through leasing to NNGE will go directly to the Diné Relocatee Fund to support relocated Navajos under the Settlement Act.”
President Nygren was joined for the LH-89 warranty deed signing by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, BIA Director Bryan Mercier, BIA Navajo Regional Director Deborah Shirley, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley, Delegates Nathan Notah and Eugenia Charles-Newton, and Navajo Nation Washington Office Executive Director Justin Ahasteen.
Also attending was BIA Deputy Director Bart Stevens, BIA Director Bryan Mercier, and BIA Staff Assistant Dan Galvan.
Assistant Secretary Newland and other federal representatives reaffirmed their commitment to support the Navajo Nation’s efforts to improve economic opportunities and uphold federal trust responsibility.
