Former Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, who pushed ambitious projects that included purchasing a coal mine, building an aerial tram into the Grand Canyon and reaching a water rights settlement with Arizona, has died.

Supreme Court justices pressed government attorneys Monday on their argument that the treaties that put the Navajo on reservation lands implied an intent – but not a duty – for the government to provide water to the tribe.

Peterson Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans, has died.

The Navajo Nation has rescinded a mask mandate that's been in effect since the early days of the Covid pandemic, officials announced Friday, fulfilling a pledge that new tribal President Buu Nygren made while campaigning for the office.

Buu Nygren was sworn in Tuesday as the next president of the vast Navajo Nation, a job that will test his ability to make good on promises to deliver water, electricity and broadband to tens of thousands of residents who don't have it.

Buu Nygren entered the Navajo presidential race with a platform echoed by generations of candidates: deliver basic needs on the vast reservation where most roads are unpaved and thousands of families don't have running water or electricity. 

Buu Nygren has ousted Jonathan Nez as president of the Navajo Nation, a position that wields influence nationally because of the size of the tribe's reservation in the U.S. Southwest and its huge population.