Grievance over Navajo Council reduction dismissed

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – A grievance seeking to invalidate an election that drastically reduced the size of the Navajo Nation Council has been dismissed, which vacates a Thursday hearing on the matter.

Navajos voted in mid-December to cut the council from 88 members to 24 and give the president a line-item veto in the first ballot initiatives ever to before Navajos on the vast reservation.

Tim Nelson of Leupp had claimed the election violated the law in that the initiatives passed without a majority vote in each of the tribe’s 110 precincts.

But a hearing officer says Nelson filed the grievance against the wrong parties, and dismissed it with prejudice.

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., who led the initiatives, had filed a motion for dismissal.

Nelson said Tuesday he would appeal the decision to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court.