The Navajo Nation Council has unanimously passed a resolution that calls on the federal government to formally recognize tribal identification and the political status of its members.
It comes as many tribal members are increasingly anxious about being impacted by immigration operations after Navajo citizen Peter Yazzie was detained by federal agents for four hours near Peoria last month.
The council’s measure urges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train agents to recognize Navajo-issued IDs, and calls for more federal awareness of the citizenship status of Navajo people.
“We are the first people of this country, long before established governments, long before established borders or walls,” Navajo Speaker Crystalyne Curley told KNAU last month. “You know, our identity and citizenship should not be questioned or challenged.”
Yazzie says he was ignored when he told ICE officers that he had his Certificate of Indian Blood, birth certificate and other documentation that proved his citizenship. He was eventually released.
“Many federal ICE agents do not fully understand sovereignty or the government-to-government relationship that exists between Native American tribes and the federal government,” said Navajo Nation Human Rights Office Interim Executive Director Darlene Womochil. “Our people should not have to live in fear when going to the supermarket. Our students travel for school trips and athletic competitions in urban areas.”
The resolution also orders the Navajo Office of Vital Records and Identification to expand direct access to vital records services for citizens living on and off the reservation. The office was briefly unable to issue new tribal IDs amid a funding disruption last month, but is again accepting appointments.
Curley points out that last year the council approved a contract providing more than $1 million in federal funding to support the Office of Vital Records.
Navajo officials say agents have questioned and racially profiled many tribal members since ICE operations intensified in Arizona last month.
ICE did not respond to KNAU when asked for comment about Yazzie’s detainment.
