The Navajo Nation Council and Tribal Utility Authority have announced the conclusion of the Light Up Navajo III initiative to provide electricity to more than 137 homes across the Navajo Nation.
Crews from 10 states traveled to the reservation and worked with tribal crews to connect rural homes to the electric grid for the first time. Many Navajo people have been living without electricity and running water for generations.
Council Delegate Kee Allen Begay Jr. says the Tribe is working to hold the U.S. government accountable for “its obligation to provide broadband internet service, water lines, electricity lines, and more to the Navajo Nation during the pandemic.”
The Light Up Navajo team most recently worked in the Shonto and Navajo Mountain areas with the last project connecting electricity to the home of a 97-year-old elder.
The collaborative originally launched in 2019 and was an unprecedented partnership between a tribal utility company and the American Public Power Association, which has more than 2,000 community-owned electric utility companies in the U.S.