{"id":24373,"date":"2024-12-17T16:33:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T23:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/harassment-probe-appears-to-clear-navajo-president-stokes-new-wave-of-political-upheaval\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:53:11","slug":"harassment-probe-appears-to-clear-navajo-president-stokes-new-wave-of-political-upheaval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/harassment-probe-appears-to-clear-navajo-president-stokes-new-wave-of-political-upheaval\/","title":{"rendered":"Harassment probe appears to clear Navajo president, stokes new wave of political upheaval"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"President
President of the Navajo Nation Buu Nygren speaks about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act during a news conference Sept. 24 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana\/Associated Press file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 Political turmoil erupted at one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S. on Monday as the attorney general for the Navajo Nation announced that an investigation had cleared the Navajo president of sexual harassment allegations by the vice president.<\/p>\n

On the same day, Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch was removed from office by legislators by the Navajo Nation Council, in a 13-6 vote without public discussion.<\/p>\n

\"Navajo
Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch speaks during a news conference, Dec. 4, 2017, in Salt Lake City. Rick Bowmer\/AP File Photo<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The tribe has been mired in political upheaval since April, when Navajo Vice President Richelle Montoya publicly outlined allegations of intimidation and sexual harassment against President Buu Nygren, stemming from interactions at an August 2023 meeting in Nygren\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Results of an investigation by outside counsel into the harassment allegations were announced Monday morning in a news release by Branch.<\/p>\n

The probe found that the \u201cincident does not constitute sexual harassment under policies applicable to either Navajo Nation elected officials or employees,\u201d and that further investigation was not warranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts reported would not constitute a violation of any criminal law of the Navajo Nation,\u201d an excerpt from the findings said.<\/p>\n

Nygren expressed vindication and described a \u201cneed to heal from this and focus on moving forward.\u201d But he also warned that the removal of the attorney general without a clear explanation sends a message of political instability, with implications for major government ventures.<\/p>\n

Branch, a Harvard-educated attorney who served a previous stint as attorney general under Navajo President Russell Begaye, recently worked on a proposed settlement that would ensure water rights for the Navajo Nation and two others tribes in the drought-stricken Southwest and regulations aimed at safe transportation of radioactive materials across the reservation.<\/p>\n

Navajo Vice President Michelle Montoya said she is eager to read the full investigative report once it\u2019s released publicly, and that she\u2019s heard from an \u201cavalanche\u201d of people who have endured harassing behavior in tribal government workplace settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I\u2019ll know what definition they utilized to say that I wasn\u2019t sexually harassed,\u201d Montoya said. \u201cI do know that the Council and the people of the Navajo Nation have been frustrated with this investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branch said she was \u201csatisfied that no rock was left unturned in the search for evidence of any potential wrongdoing\u201d in the harassment investigation by outside counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe it is in the best interest of the (Navajo) Nation to continue spending the Nation\u2019s money on allegations that, even if taken as true, would not amount to any violation of Navajo law,\u201d Branch said. \u201cI encourage any Navajo employee who feels they have been subjected to sexual harassment to report it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Branch also announced the termination of contracts with the law firm for outside counsel in the harassment probe, expressing frustration at an \u201cinordinate delay\u201d in completion of the investigation that \u201cexacerbated the instability in Navajo government that the allegations induced.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

attorney general removed without a clear explanation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,561,1655,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-native-american","tag-navajo-nation","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78509,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373\/revisions\/78509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24373"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}