Nathan Lefthand: Make the Navajo Nation into the 51st state

Wednesday, February 13, 2013  

"This is probably not a new idea; most ideas are not. So let’s say it’s an idea that’s time has come about again. The idea is to make the Navajo Nation the 51st state within the United States of America. The State of Navajo. It’s almost Zen, how it rolls off the tongue. This idea has been deep in the reptilian core of my brain for some time, lying dormant till news of the Navajo government was finalizing its Medicaid feasibility study to go before Congress for approval this spring, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Then boom, all those thoughts and ideas to somehow fix or feed the many problems we have.

It is constitutional to create a new state out of an existing state(s), in this case, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, with the approval of those state legislatures and of Congress. The process for carving out a new state is outlined in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.” This process has been used successfully to create five states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine and West Virginia. Maybe Congress can make us a state without the consent of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, since the territory, a.k.a Navajo Nation, legally belongs to the United States."

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Nathan Lefthand: Let's Make Navajo Nation the 51st State (Indian Country Today 2/13)