Encyclopedia Article
Although the Navajo Nation can in some senses refer to the Navajo Reservation as a territory, and in other senses to the Navajo as a people, the Navajo Nation is a specific reference to the governmental entity that engages with other nation-states in the management and negotiation of Navajo tribal sovereignty. In this sense, the Navajo Nation can incorporate elements of territorial sovereignty as well as the cultural bedrock comprised of Navajo traditional lifeways and language, but it is a distinct governing body that participates in the political, economic, educational, and social realms at a transnational, and sometimes international, level on behalf of the Navajo people.
On April 15, 1969, the Navajo tribal government officially rejected the U.S-designated assignation of "tribe" and self-identified as "nation." From that point forward, governing bodies such as the Navajo Tribal Police became the Navajo Nation Police
"Sign at Resistance Camp, Big Mountain, AZ, circa 1989," photograph, (mss857-0004). Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico.
Published Works:
Listening Woman (1978)
People of Darkness (1980)
Term Type:
Cultural Reference
Manuscript Occurrences:
A05 Listening Woman (02-13) p. 230
A06 People of Darkness (03-06) p. 38
Kamper, David
2010 The Work of Sovereignty: Tribal Labor Relations and Self-Determination at the
Navajo Nation. Santa Fe: School for Advance Research Press.
Zah, Peterson and Peter Iverson
2012 We Will See Our Future: Empowering the Navajo Nation. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press.