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Navajo Nation is the name of a sovereign Native American nation established by the Diné. The Navajo Nation Reservation, which includes about 27,000 acres (110 km˛) of land also considered to be part of three states, is the largest land area assigned primarily to a Native American jurisdiction within the United States of America. The 2000 census reported 253,000 Navajo members, of whom 131,166 resided in Arizona. 17,512 of these lived in Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix.1 Geography
The Nation's boundaries abut the Ute Nation at the Four Corners Monument landmark and stretch across the Colorado Plateau into Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Canyon De Chelly National Monument , Monument Valley, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, the Hopi Indian Reservation and the Shiprock landmark are located within the Navajo Nation. The reservation land area is about the size of Rhode IslandAlternate uses: see RI (disambiguation The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known as Rhode Island is geographically the smallest state in the United States. Rhode Island (pronounced "Road Island") is part of the New England regio. The seat of government is located at the town of Window Rock, ArizonaWindow Rock Navajo Tseghahoodzan is a census-designated place located in Apache County, Arizona. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 3,059. The town is the seat of government for the Navajo Nation, the tribal government of the largest.
Members of the nation are often known as NavajoNavajo or Dine refers to the Navajo Nation and its people, and to the Navajo language. See also code talkers Mohave Navajo can also indicate Navajo County, Arizona Navajo, Montana Navajo, New Mexico Navajo, Oklahoma Navajo Dam, New Mexico Camp Navajo, an, also spelled Navaho. Navajo call themselves Diné, a term from the Navajo languageNavajo is an Apachean language of the Athapaskan language family, belonging to the Na-Dene phylum. It is like the other Apachean languages in that although the majority of the languages in the Na-Dene family are spoken much farther north ( Alaska, Yukon, that means people. The Navajo are closely related to the Apache, and the Navajo language along with other Apache languages make up the ApacheanApachean also known as Southern Athabaskan, refers to members of the Apachean language family (including Navajo) which is in turn a member of the larger Athabaskan family. These languages are spoken by various bands of Apache and Navajo peoples. They are language family. Both groups are of Athabaskan origin and are believed to have migrated from northwestern Canada to their current locations sometime between 700 and 1000 years ago. Navajo oral traditions retain mention of this migration.
CongressThe United States Congress is the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The structure and responsibilities of Congress are defined in Article One of the United States Constitution. The United States Congress is bicameral, meaning tha established a Hopi reservation within the Navajo Nation's reservation at a historic homeland where Hopi history predates that of Diné in the area.
A conflict over shared lands emerged in the 1980s when the Department of the Interior attempted to relocate Diné living in the Navajo/Hopi Joint Use Area . The conflict was resolved, or at least forestalled, by the award of a 75-year lease to Diné who refused to leave the former shared lands. Another Diné and Hopi group lives on the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation along the Colorado River in western Arizona.
