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- By Native News Online Staff
For the first time since 2016, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed a warranty deed today to place land into trust along U.S. Highway 89 near Flagstaff.
“The Navajo Nation appreciates the BIA's efforts to work with us to get this application approved,” the President said at a signing ceremony here. “These lands that are taken into trust for the Navajo Nation are part of the federal government's obligations to provide support for Navajos in Arizona who were forcibly relocated by the federal government through the 1974 Settlement Act.”
The last time the Navajo Nation acquired land through the fee-to-trust process was in September 2016, when 85.68 acres in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, were placed into trust.
President Nygren also announced plans to collaborate with the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise (NNGE) to develop a gaming facility on the newly acquired land. The project is expected to generate significant economic benefits and create around 100 new jobs.
“NNGE's employees are 85% Navajo and 5% other tribal members,” President Nygren said. “Rents collected by the Navajo Nation through leasing to NNGE will go directly to the Diné Relocatee Fund to support relocated Navajos under the Settlement Act.”
President Nygren was joined at the signing ceremony by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community), BIA Director Bryan Mercier, BIA Navajo Regional Director Deborah Shirley, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley, Delegates Nathan Notah and Eugenia Charles-Newton, and Navajo Nation Washington Office Executive Director Justin Ahasteen.
Other attendees included BIA Deputy Director Bart Stevens, BIA Director Bryan Mercier, and BIA Staff Assistant Dan Galvan.
Assistant Secretary Newland and other federal officials reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the Navajo Nation in improving economic opportunities and honoring the federal trust responsibility.
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