From
Staff Reports
Navajo-Hopi Observer - nhonews.com
28 July 2009
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Last Thursday, the 21st
Navajo Nation Council tabled a measure that would have repealed
the Diné Fundamental Laws - a codified set of laws based on
centuries-old Navajo traditional values and customs. The measure
was tabled until the fall session with a vote of 48-21.
Council Delegate Raymond Joe (Tachee/Blue
Gap/Whippoorwill) introduced the measure during the final day of
the council's summer session. He and others cited that these laws,
which are primarily meant to govern the upbringing of Navajo youth
and promote balance and harmony among Navajo people, are being
abused and misinterpreted by Navajo lawmakers in order to promote
their own political agendas.
The laws, codified in 2002, provide no guidance
on how they should be used or applied.
Moreover, ambiguity of the Diné Fundamental
Laws complicates application of written statues adopted from
Western law.
Generally, if the Western statutes are unclear,
then Navajo judges are free to apply the Diné Fundamental Laws to
decide cases.
However, Council Delegate Katherine Benally (Dennehotso)
explained, "Many judges do not have knowledge or limit knowledge
of our language and culture therefore they call on others to
interpret and the outcome of those decisions are inconsistent from
district to district."
This comes just weeks after the laws were
applied in a tribal court decision to allow voters to decide
whether to reduce the Navajo Nation Council from 88 to 24 members,
and whether to give the Navajo Nation president line-item veto
authority.
The Diné Fundamental Laws lie behind
traditional knowledge held by Navajo elders and medicine men, who
are sometimes called in to testify in a case where the judge is
required to have a working knowledge of the laws, or at least be
fluent in Navajo in order to interpret the practicality of the
laws, which are meant to create peaceful solutions.
The measure introduced by Joe was unclear as to
whether or not the Navajo judicial system would be affected if the
Diné Fundamental Laws were repealed.
In his presentation to the council, Joe stated,
"In the beginning the law was clear and thought out. [It] was
clear and it had propose in that our tradition and way of life
would be understood. This law is still good but people are
misusing it, misinterpreting it and abusing it today."
Benally added, "Our elders ... never intended
for our language to be put into writing and used against us. My
biggest concern is that this law the way it is being implemented
hurts [us]. [It] creates more division among family and even within
our Nation."
The case is scheduled to go before Navajo
Supreme Court Justice Herb Yazzie, one of the primary authors of
the Diné Fundamental Laws.
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