Navajo, Navajo Tribal Lands, Navajo Nation, Largest Tribe in the United States
Navajo, Navajo Tribal Lands, Navajo Nation, Largest Tribe in the United States
The Navajo Nation is recognized as the largest tribe in the United States. Its resident population was 180,462 as of the 2000 census.
Other Native tribes are situated in this area, including several Pueblo nations: Congress established a Hopi (Navajo, Oozéí, or Ayahkinii “underground-house-people”) reservation within the Navajo Nation’s reservation as a historic homeland where Hopi history predates that of Diné in the area.
In an historic, first-ever meeting Wednesday between Navajo Nation officials, including Vice President Ben Shelly, and Grants Police, both sides expressed a sincere desire to find those responsible for the beatings of several Navajo men in Grants, and to begin some sort of public education effort about race relations.
In his remarks to Grants Police Chief Steve Sena, Lt. Maxine Spidle, Detective Sgt. John Castaneda and Detective Kevin Dobbs, Shelly said the beatings are reminders of the historical racial intolerance his Navajo forefathers faced during the early parts of what he termed “New Mexico’s dark history.”
“I want to think that times are different now but these beatings are stark reminders of the past,” he said. “From the Navajo Nation, we do not take these matters lightly.”
Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission Executive Director Leonard Gorman; the commission’s attorney, Donovan Brown; and Lt. Tulley Jim, assistant chief of police for the Navajo Nation, were also in attendance.
