ran for the 22nd Navajo Nation Council in 2010.
Dwight
has been working in Navajo and Native American education for the last
aprroximately 20 years. He has been a teacher, counselor and
coach at Rocky Ridge School, Pinon High School, Monument Valley High
School, and at Northern Arizona Unioversity. He has recently been
Dean of Students at Greyhills High School and was acting superintendent
at Greyhills for part of a year. He has also served on the school
board of Rocky Ridge School. During the campaign Dwight was and
continues to be a substitute teacher at the Pinon Middle School.
He
is also an Arizona prep wrestling official. In high school Dwight
was a New Mexico state champion wrestler and was a part of Arizona
State University's NCAA championship team in 1988.
Early in 2010, the Navajo Nation voted to reduce the Navajo Nation Council from 88 members mostly representing one chapter or community to a 24 member council where each council delegate would roughly represent the same amount of constituents from multiple chapters. An exception to this is the very large chapter at Shiprock where the council delegate will represent only Shiprock. Percy Deal, chapter president at Hard Rock, encouraged Dwight to run and guided his campaign along with Dwight's wife, Angela, who is also chapter vice-president at Hard Rock.
The chapters of Hard Rock, Pinon, Forest Lake, Black Mesa and Whippoorwill previously were represented by 5 delegates. On the new 22nd Navajo Nation Council to be sworn in January, 2011, Dwight will represent these five chapters. He won the primary election in this district on August 3, 2010, defeating two incumbents and two other candidates. The primary results are below:
Early in 2010, the Navajo Nation voted to reduce the Navajo Nation Council from 88 members mostly representing one chapter or community to a 24 member council where each council delegate would roughly represent the same amount of constituents from multiple chapters. An exception to this is the very large chapter at Shiprock where the council delegate will represent only Shiprock. Percy Deal, chapter president at Hard Rock, encouraged Dwight to run and guided his campaign along with Dwight's wife, Angela, who is also chapter vice-president at Hard Rock.
The chapters of Hard Rock, Pinon, Forest Lake, Black Mesa and Whippoorwill previously were represented by 5 delegates. On the new 22nd Navajo Nation Council to be sworn in January, 2011, Dwight will represent these five chapters. He won the primary election in this district on August 3, 2010, defeating two incumbents and two other candidates. The primary results are below:
The top
two in the primary run against each other in the general election three
months later. In the general elction, Dwight ran against Lorenzo
Bedonie, incumbent council delegate from Pinon and Hard Rock.
Another incumbent, Amos Johnson of Forest Lake and Black Mesa, also
ran in the general election as a write-in candidate. The general
election was held on Novemeber 2, 2010, along with the Arizona state
and the US national elections.
During the week before the general election, Pinon High School had their homecoming football game. In the morning before the game, they had a homecoming parade. Dwight and most of his family had a float in the parade promoting his candidacy. Below is an image from the parade. Click here to see a 3 minute video of Dwight's family in Pinon's homecoming parade.
The results of the general
election for this council delgate seat are shown below:
During the week before the general election, Pinon High School had their homecoming football game. In the morning before the game, they had a homecoming parade. Dwight and most of his family had a float in the parade promoting his candidacy. Below is an image from the parade. Click here to see a 3 minute video of Dwight's family in Pinon's homecoming parade.
Outside each
of the five voting locations on election day, Dwight and his supporters
had booths to provide information and food for voters and his
supporters. The photo below is outside of Dwight's booth at the
Pinon
Chapter House. From left to right are aunts Elsie and
Eleanor Nabahe, mother Nellie Nabahe Witherspoon, Dwight, and supporter
Percy Deal.
During the last two weeks of Dwight's campaign, Nellie and I went to
the reservation and participated in three of Dwight's campaign
rallies. He asked us to prepare a video introducing ourselves and
telling some about his youth and background. We did this and
showed the video at three rallies. Below is the video. It
is mostly in Navajo.
Click here to see the Introduction Video (265 mb).
Dwight's campaign website can be reached here forthepeoplesbythepeoples.com. Another image from the parade is below:
Click here to see the Introduction Video (265 mb).
Dwight's campaign website can be reached here forthepeoplesbythepeoples.com. Another image from the parade is below:
Click here
to
see a 3
minute video of Dwight's family in Pinon's homecoming parade.