Arizona: Navajo Nation announces plans to build gaming facility on newly acquired trust land

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren announced the Nation plans to develop a gaming facility on newly acquired trust land along US Highway 89 near Flagstaff, Arizona. The project will be carried out in partnership with the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise (NNGE), which already operates four casinos in the Southwest.

The 13.8 acres of land were officially placed into trust at a recent signing of a General Warranty Deed. The casino project at the site is expected to provide significant economic benefits and create approximately 100 new jobs.

“The Navajo Nation appreciates the BIA’s efforts to work with us to get this application approved,” said President Nygren at the signing ceremony. “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.”

“NNGE’s employees are 85% Navajo and 5% other tribal members,” added President Nygren. “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.”

According to a press release by the Navajo Nation, the deed was signed for the first time since 2016. The last and only time land was taken into trust for the Navajo Nation was in September 2016, for 85.68 acres in Tse Bonito, N.M. 

President Nygren was joined for the LH-89 warranty deed signing by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, 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.

Also attending was BIA Deputy Director Bart Stevens, BIA Director Bryan Mercier, and BIA Staff Assistant Dan Galvan. Assistant Secretary Newland and other federal representatives reaffirmed their commitment to support the Navajo Nation’s efforts to improve economic opportunities and uphold federal trust responsibility.