TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Although her visit was brief and simple, Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, along with Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, wasted no time in discussing several potential solutions that could ignite an economic spark in the Navajo Nation.
President Nygren met with Secretary Su at the job fair to discuss worker safety, utilizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and improving statistics collection, all of which can contribute to economic development.
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According to the U.S. Department of Education, WIOA aims to help job seekers find the employment, education, training, and support services they need to succeed in the labor market, while connecting employers with the skilled workforce needed to compete in the global economy.
Nygren thanked the secretary for providing $13 million in funding to the Navajo Nation Department of Workforce Development. He said the funding would be used to help Navajo people living on and off the reservation find work, or continue their training and education.
“(The) $13 million is going to go a long way because we know that our community needs strong economic activity to stand up and grow,” President Nygren said. “We need jobs, we need small businesses, we need access to financing and we need leadership to support and move some of those initiatives forward.”
In the Navajo Nation community of Tuba City, Arizona, Tuba City Chapter Executive Manager Durann Begay said the town has four primary employers: Tuba City Regional Health Care, the schools, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and the Navajo Nation government. While the workforce appears strong, the lack of housing has forced workers to seek housing elsewhere.
“We have a lot of employees who are commuting because there’s no housing available,” Begay said. “Even at our local hospital, it’s very difficult for them to hire doctors and nurses. They have to house them in Flagstaff and they have to commute.”
Tribes have had no luck navigating a complex legal web that has made it nearly impossible to use their trust lands for the benefit of their people. Under a 1949 federal law that states that “all land within the boundaries of any of the 325 Indian reservations under tribal jurisdiction, allotted lands, and dependent Indian communities” is protected by law, which has prevented tribes from selling it, using it as collateral, or encumbering it with a mortgage.
In total, the tribes exercise their sovereignty over more than 60 million hectares of land.
Myra Begay, vice president of the Tuba City Chapter, agreed with Begay’s concerns, saying the lack of housing was a problem.
“I think housing is probably the biggest obstacle and I think across the reservation unemployment is quite high so we need more jobs,” said Myra Begay.
Secretary Su acknowledged that it was a struggle for people to create jobs because they had to travel too far.
“Basically, it’s about the need for good jobs, and investment will help create those jobs, right? We care not just about the number of jobs created, but also about the quality of those jobs,” Su said. “A job should lift people out of poverty, allow you to do one job and make a living, and spend time with your kids.”
Navajo Nation Council Representative Germaine Simonson addressed another challenge: running a business without ready access to resources, banks and accountants.
“The support systems that help you conduct your business, that help you stay focused on the business, we just don’t have them. So it’s incredibly difficult,” said Representative Simonson.
She proposes that new rules and regulations should be established that would allow a start-up company to grow slowly over a five-year period.
“It’s like an incubation period, where you focus on your business, rather than all the paperwork and other things that come with it. I hope we get there soon,” she said.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, before the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal governments directly supported 350,000 jobs, indirectly created another 600,000 jobs, and contributed $40 billion annually in wages and benefits, and another $9 billion to state and regional economies.
