Top Secret?
Delegate: Candidates act like plight of Navajo is classified

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Judiciary Committee Chairman Kee Allen Begay would like to see the current batch of presidential candidates talk more about Native American issues.

“With the current Bush administration, not much about Native American Indians is being addressed,” Begay said.

“More funding cuts are in the horizon to BIA budgets and as citizens of this USA , we are being administered through a department where natural resources are more of a priority than us.”

He knows the candidates are saying what they hope will win them the election, but while they want to argue over illegal immigration, none of them are talking about issues of importance to natives, Begay said.

“Take, for example, Mr. McCain,” said Begay, in reference to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “Me, as a registered Republican, I would not support him. People talk about issues; Mr. McCain has 22 Native American tribes in the state he represents in Congress, but how much help has he ‘really’ made on behalf of the 22 Indian tribes from his state; the shut down of jail facilities, limited judicial funding, unsafe BIA schools, limited funding for IHS, unpaved BIA roads ... and should I go on?”

Top-level politicians almost never bother to visit Navajo at the hogan level, to see first-hand the conditions in which the Navajo live, Begay said.

“Mr. McCain supports sending billions of billions of dollars overseas, just so that we are ‘friendly’ with these countries. I think the Navajo Nation is only asking for a fraction of such funding for the betterment of the Navajo people,” Begay said. “Of course, the Native American issues are just tucked on the back burner and with Indian voting outcome not a major factor, we will only continue to struggle with the next administration.”

It’s not like the Navajos haven’t served their country, Begay said. He noted the important role the Code Talkers played in World War II.

“Since I was elected to the Navajo Nation Council, I have made numerous visits to the United States Congress, to both the House of Representatives and the Senate, addressing Navajo Issues,” Begay said. “After five years I see no progress from U.S. government in the form of funding or anything.”

In addition to chairing the Navajo Nation’s Judiciary Committee, Begay also represents the Many Farms and Round Rock chapters. But he has seen so little progress for Native tribes that he wonders what will it take to get some attention from Washington .

“What will it take to have the United States Congress realize our situation? I take you back to a visit by the United States Attorney General about two weeks ago in Window Rock — and that I could not even visit with him because I don't have a security clearance!” Begay said. “I started wondering if this is a case of Navajo issue being top secret in Washington, D.C.!

“How can I, as an elected official, a U.S. veteran and hoping that I am a U.S. citizen; that I cannot visit with a Washington, D.C., official who visits the Navajo Nation, my own home land?”