FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 1, 2014 file photo, Chris Deschene addresses the audience at the Navajo Nation presidential candidate debate in Tempe, Ariz. Navajo Nation presidential candidate faces a court decision on whether he's fluent enough in the tribe's language to be qualified to seek the top elected post on the largest American Indian reservation in the U.S. The tribe's Office of Hearings and Appeals will take up the case against Chris Deschene on Friday Oct. 3, 2014 in the tribal capital of Window Rock. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Associated Press
By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - A Navajo Nation presidential candidate faces a court decision on whether he's fluent enough in the tribe's language to be qualified to seek the top elected post on the largest American Indian reservation in the U.S.
The tribe's Office of Hearings and Appeals will take up the case against Chris Deschene on Friday in the tribal capital of Window Rock.
The appeals office previously dismissed grievances filed by Deschene's challengers in the primary election as untimely. But the Navajo Nation Supreme Court ruled last week that the office must consider the merits of the grievances, saying that speaking fluent Navajo is a reasonable requirement for the presidency.
Deschene has said fluency is hard to define, but that he's communicated well with Navajo voters in their language on the campaign trail. He also has said he's working to improve his language skills. His critics say he lied in his candidate application and shouldn't appear on the November general election ballot.
For most Navajos, the language issue goes beyond the election. It centers on how to preserve what the federal government once tried to eradicate and what parents were ashamed to teach their children. Belief systems on the reservation also are expanding beyond the Navajo way of life.
The Navajo language is a defining part of the tribe's culture, said to have been handed down by deities. It's woven into creation stories and ceremonies, and spoken during legislative sessions, in dinner conversations and during Miss Navajo pageants. More people speak Navajo than any other single American Indian language, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
'Yes, it's part of the election, but it's an overall big picture of us as a nation, whether we honor our clans, our language, how to incorporate that,' said tribal member Jaynie Parrish, 35. 'This is a very big turning point for our community.'
Tribal lawmaker Lorenzo Curley introduced legislation this week to strike the Navajo language requirement for those seeking elected office and have it apply retroactively to this year's general election in which Deschene faces former Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. He said elder and younger Navajos alike shouldn't have to face that hurdle in becoming tribal leaders. But Curley withdrew the legislation Thursday after his colleagues didn't agree to consider it as emergency legislation ahead of Friday's hearing.
The tribe's election office and the Office of Hearings and Appeals do not have a test to determine fluency. The grievances were the first to challenge the language requirement since it became tribal law in the 1990s.
The Supreme Court in its order remanding the case to the office set a standard for fluency that says candidates must smoothly and skillfully speak the language and be able to understand Navajo speakers and engage in a conversation.
Deschene declined to take a fluency test Thursday.
'No one in the history of the Navajo Nation has had to take a proficiency test to be elected,' said his campaign manager, Lambert Benally. 'And we feel that is discriminatory. It's unfair.'
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Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 3, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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