“Discrimination, while denied by many, difficult to document and poorly protected against by the legal system, has been with mankind since oldest of times. It is an ancient monster that will thrive among mankind as long as it is not collectively acknowledged and eliminated. Two incidents involving the deaths of two Navajo males triggered the Navajo Nation Council to act decisively to address the public outraged that resulted from these senseless and horrible deaths. For that reason in 2006, the Navajo Nation Council (Council), pursuant to 2 N.N.C 920-924 established the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (Commission) and directed the Commission to immediately assess border town race relations, educate Navajo citizens on civil and human rights, assist Navajo citizens with discrimination complaints and work with other tribal, federal, state, local and international civil and human rights organizations."

The Commission authorized 25 public hearings that began on December 2, 2011 and ended near the close of the fiscal year on September 3, 2009.”

Source: NNHRCs Assessing Race Relations Public Hearing Report

Following the 25 pubic hearings and gathering testimonies, the Commission released their 2008-2009 Assessing Race Relations Between Navajos and Non-Navajos: A Review of Border Town Race Relations on July 18, 2010. In the report, recommendations were provided about improving race relations in border towns.

Border Towns Recommendations  (85kb)

Assessing Race Relations Between Navajos and Non-Navajos   (9.10mb)