InstitutionClaim Cited
Federal officials translated Diné land, animals, and households into sheep-unit carrying-capacity targets, then used purchases, slaughter, districts, permits, and enforcement to reduce herds. Range deterioration was real and multicausal, but the program displaced Diné authority and knowledge, especially women's ownership, while leaving a permit system that Navajo institutions and land users still have to govern.
What happens when an outside conservation bureaucracy can count a people's animals but cannot be governed by the relationships those animals sustain?
InstitutionClaim Cited
Hózh̨óji naat’ááh is a Diné justice practice supported by the Navajo Nation Judicial Branch in which peacemakers teach and guide while the people in conflict remain responsible for a mutual decision. The formal program, created in 1982 and reworked after court-style rules changed the practice, divides authority among participants, community-recognized knowledge, program administration, and Navajo law; it is not a portable synonym for mediation or restorative justice.
How can a sovereign justice system support people in restoring right relationship without reducing Diné law to an optional technique inside adversarial courts?