Candidates for Navajo Nation president and vice president faced off on Tuesday in the final debate before the November general election.
Topics of the debate at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law ranged from opposition to AI data centers and uranium mining, allegations of corruption within the Navajo Nation government and the need to resolve the tribe’s water rights claims.
Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said, if elected president, she’d continue her work to bring water to the Navajo Nation.
“I will continue to challenge Congress, and I will continue to work with the [Navajo Nation] Water Rights Commission and also our communities, because it is long overdue,” said Curley, whose running mate is Chris Deschene.
Deschene served as the head of the Obama-era Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs under the U.S. Department of Energy.
As speaker, Curley has advocated for congressional approval of a settlement to resolve tribes’ water rights claims. The federal deal would bring Colorado River water to the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes, but it’s being stalled in Congress by Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.
Curley said she would continue advocating for approval of the deal, known as the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act. Over 30% of Navajo families lack access to running water, according to the tribe’s Office of the President.
“That effort has to keep moving, because for decades we want to make sure that we have water security for the next 100 years,” she said.
Curley’s opponent, New Mexico-based attorney Justin Jones, pointed out that Congress’s window to approve the deal is rapidly closing. If the act is not passed by both chambers of Congress by January 1, 2027, it would need to be reintroduced to the next session.
“Then, when the new Congress comes in, a whole new legislation has to be crafted and introduced into Congress,” said Jones. “So, from the time it was dropped into Congress, what did we do? We have to have lobbied.”
He continued: “We need to do some serious lobbying, not only in Washington but also in the Upper and Lower Colorado [Basin] compacts and commissions.”
Jones, who has never held public office, emphasized the need to work with Republican state leaders to get the deal through, but Curley argued it would take more than working with one party. Jones previously ran for Navajo Nation president in 2022.
“The water rights — it has to be bipartisan support,” she said. “If you disfavor one party, you have to work with both. You have to work with both houses because, as Navajo people, we cannot say we're going to follow the Republicans, we're going to follow the Democrats. We should always think Navajo first. It's the supreme law, treaty rights.”
Both candidates told the audience they opposed the construction of AI data centers on the Navajo Nation.
An ASU student asked both Curley and Jones about their thoughts on mining on Navajo land.
Curley said she opposed uranium mining, calling President Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order a “threat” to the tribal nation. The January 2025 order said federal agencies needed to consider revising or removing policies that hinder domestic energy and mineral production.
Jones took a similar stance. He told the crowd that he and his running mate, Emily Ellison, “oppose any type of mine, any way, shape or form, period.” He referenced a controversial proposal to dig for copper in the western Navajo Nation community of Coppermine. After some in the community pushed back against the proposed copper mine, a developer associated with the project told KNAU it was stalled indefinitely.
The Navajo Nation will hold its general election on Nov. 3.
