For the first time since 2016, Buu Nygren, President of the Navajo Nation, today signed a deed of guarantee to put land into trust along US 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 placed in trust for the Navajo Nation are part of the federal government’s obligations to provide assistance to Navajos in Arizona who were forcibly relocated by the federal government through the Settlement Act of 1974.”
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The last time the Navajo Nation acquired land through the fee-to-trust process was in September 2016, when 85.68 acres in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, were placed in trust.
President Nygren also announced plans to partner with the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise (NNGE) to develop a gaming facility on the newly acquired land. The project is expected to deliver significant economic benefits and create approximately 100 new jobs.
“NNGE employees are 85% Navajo members and 5% other tribal members,” said President Nygren. “The rent collected by the Navajo Nation through leasing to NNGE will go directly to the Diné Relocatee Fund to support displaced Navajos under the Settlement Act.”
President Nygren was joined at the signing ceremony by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community), BIA Director Bryan Mercier, BIA Navajo Regional Director Deborah Shirley, Navajo Nation Council President Crystalyne Curley, Representatives Nathan Notah and Eugenia Charles -Newton and Justin Ahasteen, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation Washington Office.
Other attendees included BIA Deputy Director Bart Stevens, BIA Director Bryan Mercier and BIA Staff Assistant Dan Galvan.
Assistant Secretary Newland and other federal officials reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the Navajo Nation in advancing economic opportunity and upholding federal trust responsibility.
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