The 500 members of the Navajo Mountain Chapter of the Navajo Nation live 45 miles southwest of Blanding, Utah – a town where they can access things like medical care, grocery stores or laundromats.
But there’s no direct road to get there.
Instead, residents living in Navajo Mountain drive three hours out of their way into Arizona and then back into Utah to get to Blanding. First responders have to take the same route in an emergency.
For the last 15 years, the Navajo Nation has advocated for the construction of a road that would shorten the trip to Blanding to just 30 minutes. Funding for the early stages of the project has made it into the state budget for the last three years, only to be removed at the last minute. This year was no exception.
Crystalyne Curley, the speaker of the Navajo Nation, said on the second to last day of the legislative session the Executive Appropriations Committee said that “we cannot find any money. We looked underneath every cushion, underneath every couch, and we can't find $2 million.”
As this year’s legislative session ended, lawmakers said the state’s wallet was tapped out.
The money was initially set aside toward the $4 million needed for an environmental impact study. The Navajo Nation agreed to pay the remaining $2 million themselves.
The study would be a crucial first step for the project. It would also indicate enough support from the state to qualify for federal funding later on. The project is estimated to cost $140 million.
Shaandiin Parrish, chair of the budget and finance committee for the Navajo Nation Council, grew up in Kayenta. Her grandparents, however, live in Navajo Mountain without running water or electricity.
“In order for me to haul wood for my grandparents it takes about two hours for me to go from Kayenta to Navajo Mountain. If this road is built, it would only be a 30-minute commute for me to go to my grandparents' house.”
But Parrish said the road’s impact would extend far beyond her grandparent’s community.
“I really believe that building this road will attract tourism to southern Utah. Right in that area, there's the world famous Monument Valley. That's a huge gem of the state of Utah. And also Glen Canyon is just right around the corner in the Navajo Mountain area. So I don't see why the state of Utah wouldn't benefit from this.”
Both Parrish and Curley expressed frustration in a news conference at the state capitol after the funding had been pulled, again.
“Even though it was on the priority list for the governor, the state Legislature still chose to pull it from the priorities,” Curley said.
Sen. Nate Blouin supports the project.
“It's $2 million of a $28 billion budget. It's a fraction of a percent. To shove it off as a low-budget year, especially when this has been brought forward for a number of years, is, I think, a bit disingenuous.”
But the Navajo delegates — who traveled more than eight hours from Window Rock, Arizona to advocate for Navajo infrastructure — remain persistent and optimistic.
“Our nation's leadership has always been prioritizing infrastructure,” Parrish said. “And even if it has to take another year, which next session will be 16 years of trying to push for this EIS funding, that won't stop us.”
