Dinétah, our ancestral homeland, has the literal translation: Among the People.
About Us
The Diné Nihi Kéyah Project is a community-based educational effort which is led by retired Navajo Nation justices, judges, lawyers, land use planners and advocates. We are further assisted by legal scholars and law interns. We are a project of Indian Country Grassroots Support.
Going live online on August 9, 2021, the project aims to provide legal, historical and customary knowledge on Navajo Nation reservation land. The goal is for our communities to be informed and empowered to reach a unified and integrated land use vision. Such a vision needs to be in place in order to seek the waiver or revision of existing legacy federal land use regulations. A unified vision is also critical to serve as the foundation for our future tribal land use laws that will fulfill Diné customary practice. In essence, the project hopes to provide communities with a “decolonization toolkit.”
We are assisted by community-based attorneys, and by legal scholars and law interns from American University Washington School of Law, the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, and DNA People’s Legal Services; by Diné Centered Research and Evaluation; by Diné land users; and by traditional thinkers, activists and scientists. The project continues to grow, with interest from institutions across the United States and Canada.
We rely on a core team of community-based staff, directors, consultants and volunteers, with funding provided by Justice Outside, Con Alma Health Foundation, the Max & Anna Levinson Foundation, Honor the Earth, and other private foundations. Root funding was provided for initial legal research by the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.
Thank you Funders, and especially thank you all volunteers.
Law & Public Policy Interns and Externs
Since summer 2020, the Diné Nihi Keyah Project has had the research support of interns, externs, and project leaders from the Diné College Land Grant Office; Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University; the Land Use Law Center at Pace University; Yale University; American University Washington School of Law; University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law; and the Capstone Project of the M. Sc SEDV program, University of Calgary, Haskayne School of Business. Our interns and externs have jump started and continue to work on Diné Nihi Kéyah Project sustainable development law seminar subjects, resource development, and other public policy and extern law school projects. It is an honor to host you all.
Our law interns, externs, and youth project leaders research and map federal and tribal law information and services that are cross-jurisdictional and difficult to find.
Here are some of the mini bios of our law interns, externs and youth project leaders.