Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Former Navajo leader Zah dies
He was first president after tribal government restructured
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Peterson Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against American Indians, has died.
Zah died late Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Defiance, Ariz., after a lengthy illness, Navajo President Buu Nygren’s office said. He was 85.
Zah was the first president elected on the Navajo Nation — the largest tribal reservation in the U.S. — in 1990 after the government was restructured into three branches to prevent power from being concentrated in the chairman’s office. At the time, the tribe was reeling from a deadly riot incited by Zah’s political rival, former Chairman Peter MacDonald, a year earlier.
Zah vowed to rebuild the tribe, and to support family and education, speaking with people in ways that imparted mutual respect, said his longtime friend Eric Eberhard. Zah was as comfortable putting on dress clothes to represent Navajos in D.C. as he was driving his old pickup around the reservation and sitting on the ground, listening to people who were struggling, he said.
“People trusted him, they knew he was honest,” Eberhard said.
Aspiring politicians on and off the Navajo Nation sought Zah’s advice and endorsement. He rode with Hillary Clinton in the Navajo Nation parade a month before Bill Clinton was elected president. Zah later campaigned for Hillary Clinton in her bid for the presidency.
Over the years he recorded numerous campaign advertisements in the Navajo language that aired on the radio, mostly siding with Democrats. But he made friends with Republicans too, including the late Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom he endorsed in the 2000 presidential election as someone who could work across the aisle.
Under Zah’s leadership, the tribe established a now multibillion-dollar Permanent Fund in 1985 after winning a court battle with Kerr McGee that found the tribe had authority to tax companies that extract minerals from the 27,000-square-mile reservation. All coal, pipeline, oil and gas leases were renegotiated, which increased payments to the tribe.
Zah sometimes was referred to as the American Indian Robert Kennedy because of his charisma, ideas and ability to get things done, including lobbying federal officials to ensure Indians could use peyote as a religious sacrament, his longtime friend Charles Wilkinson said.
Zah also worked to ensure American Indians were reflected in federal environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
Zah said last year that respecting people’s differences was key to maintaining a sense of beauty in life and improving the world for future generations. He struggled to name the thing he was most proud of after receiving a lifetime achievement award from a Flagstaff-based environmental group.
“It’s hard for me to prioritize in that order,” he said. “It’s something I enjoyed doing all my life. People have passion, we’re born with that, plus a purpose in life.”
Zah said he could not have done the work alone and credited team efforts that always included his wife, Rosalind. Throughout his life, he never claimed to be an extraordinary Navajo, just a Navajo with extraordinary experiences.
“He was a good and honest man, a man with heart,” former Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said. “And his heart was with his family, with the people, with the youth and, certainly, with our nation, our culture and our way of life.”