Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Governance Within The Navajo Nation: Have Democratic Traditions Taken Hold?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This essay crafts a description and analysis of the political and institutional context, structures, and issues of the Navajo Nation's government. We begin with a demographic, institutional, and ideological assessment of the nation as its currently stands, move to a historical overview of the nation from precontact times to the 1989 riots and conclude with a short policy portfolio of three issues—land claims, gaming, and taxation—that will likely impact the shape and direction the nation will head into the twenty-first century.