Navajo president signs pandemic aid priorities, $1 billion spend

CROWNPOINT, Arizona (AP) — Navajo Nation leaders have finalized an agreement on spending priorities for more than $1 billion in federal pandemic relief to improve water, sanitation, housing and communications infrastructure.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez on Friday signed an agreement from the Navajo Nation Council to deliver funding to improve infrastructure for water, electricity, high-speed internet, housing, COVID-19 mitigation and specialized hardship assistance to projects and residents across the reservation spanning portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The coronavirus pandemic disproportionately hit Indian Country, underscored stark disparities in access to running water, sewage systems and internet communications amid interruptions in classroom teaching.

The spending at the Navajo Nation is linked to the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Joe Biden in early 2021. Additional aid is expected under a massive infrastructure bill, approved in November 2021, that set aside $20 billion for Indian Country.

“More water, electricity, broadband, housing, and hardship assistance will be provided to elders, youth, veterans, students, families, and others," Nez said in a statement. ``Elders will get water lines, electricity, housing, and other basic necessities - they are not left out.''

Under the signed resolution, the Navajo Nation will devote $215 million to water and waste-water projects, $97 million to extend electricity to homes, and $250 million on internet and housing projects. Another $210 million is set aside for local priorities determined by Navajo chapterhouse government units.

Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman slams Indian Health Services hiring decision

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe on Tuesday slammed the federal agency that delivers health care to approximately 130,000 Native Americans located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa for declining to hire tribal leaders' choice for an area director.

Chairman Harold Frazier released a letter to President Joe Biden criticizing the decision for Indian Health Services to re-advertise the Great Plains area director position after tribal leaders had interviewed and recommended a candidate. Frazier's criticism comes as tribal health advocates have pushed for stability in an agency that's chronically underfunded and struggles to meet the needs of Indian Country.

“Your decision to readvertise this position and not appoint our agreed upon choice has removed our hopes and voices from the nation-to-nation and returned us to the “boss farmer'' days of doing what we are told on reservations,'' Frazier wrote in a fiery letter.

The acting Great Plains area director, Elizabeth Fowler, had written to tribal leaders explaining she had not selected the preferred candidate because it is important “to ensure new leadership is well-positioned to help make sustainable improvements'' to the agency's programs.

Indian Health Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Frazier's letter.