Casinos, culture drive Navajo presidential race

[Editor's note: Incumbent Joe Shirley Jr. ultimately won this race.]

TEMPE — The issues facing Arizona’s largest Indian tribe today range from inadequate social services to drug and alcohol addiction to a lack of good jobs. Sadly, they remain the same each election cycle.

But this time, a woman is running for the Navajo Nation’s highest seat. And this time, the debate lines are clearly drawn.

Incumbent President Joe Shirley Jr. says building casinos will raise loads of cash to solve these problems. His challenger, Lynda Lovejoy, says casinos will only make them worse.

The two squared off in a 90-minute debate tonight at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The debate was held in Armstrong Hall, where about 180 people — most of them young Native Americans — filled the auditorium. [Video is available here.]

They listened and cheered as Shirley Jr., of Chinle, and Lovejoy, of Crownpoint, N.M., traded barbs about the state of the Navajo Nation — a tribe of more than 250,000 people scattered across Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

The divide in the audience was obvious. Young Navajo women hollered and clapped for most of Lovejoy’s comments while older members — male and female — cheered for Shirley Jr., whose applause peaked while he gave his closing statements in his native tongue. Moderators repeatedly reminded the audience to hold all outbursts until the end.

The divide between the candidates was obvious, too. Shirley Jr. sees the construction of six casinos on Navajo lands as a way to create 4,000 jobs and bolster scholarships, social services, public infrastructure like water and electricity and drug interdiction on the reservation.

It’s the only major source of cash the Navajo have left to explore, Shirley Jr. said, because funding from the state and federal government — which he called “Washingdumb” — has flagged.

Shirley Jr. also said officials are in talks with two countries outside the U.S. to loan the Navajo $500 million to deliver water and electrical lines to rural areas of the reservation. He did not name the countries.

“You need the capital,” he told the crowd. “You need the capital big time, and it’s not there.”

Lovejoy, however, said the Navajo people should not wait for casinos to come online to solve social ills. She said government services in some areas could be trimmed and spread around to support medical services, public infrastructure projects and college scholarships.

Lovejoy also stressed the need to bring the reservation into the 21st Century. She supports setting up email networks for Navajo living off the reservation to get involved in policy-making, more promotion of Navajo small businesses, and outsourcing the nation’s consultant contracts to PhD-wielding tribal members instead of “non-Indians.”

Shirley Jr. is pushing his reputation as someone who has stayed in Arizona since birth, and needs four more years in office so that tribal members can see lucrative, job-producing ventures come true.

Lovejoy is stressing her background as a former New Mexico state legislator. She says she represents government transparency and stronger leadership at a time when the Navajo Nation is “stagnant.”

Both are from the east side of the reservation, which concerns members like Pauline Martin Sanchez, 53. She said the west side’s needs are often overlooked.

She came to see which candidate would be more connected “to the outside world,” more supportive of the reservation’s rural schools and households and more willing to modernize the tribe.

She waves her hand above her head and talks about cellphone calls and digital messages traveling through the air to illustrate her point.

“Our people have no idea,” Martin Sanchez said. “It’s a technology world, and we’re still trying to put electricity into the homes.”

Her daughter, April Sunshine Sanchez, 25, said luring young, college-educated Navajo back to the reservation is another top issue.

“They don’t feel like they have a place there because the reservation is so far behind,” she said.

Ten candidates competed in the September primary. Shirley Jr. finished first, and Lovejoy finished about 2,500 votes behind him for second place. The general election is Nov. 7.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.