Tribal Administration to Reform Welfare for Navajos

The Navajo reservation is a vast and remote place sprawling across the Four Corners region of the Southwest. Some people have phones; many don’t. The best way to send a message is by pickup truck.

In a few months, the tribe will begin managing its own welfare program over a territory the size of West Virginia. To do it, they’ll use satellite laptops that will help caseworkers in 12 different centers keep track of those in need.

“Each caseworker will have instant information about people who have come in before,” said Rick Gayoso, a project manager for MultiLogic, a Minnesota firm that developed the system for the tribe.

The move comes three years after the federal government gave Indian tribes a chance to design welfare programs suited to their own needs. Several tribes are already managing their own programs.

The Arizona program was not helping the Navajo, said Alex Yazza, who heads the Navajo welfare effort.

“A lot of our people are rug weavers or silversmiths,” he said. “But under state regulations, this wasn’t considered work.”

The inflexibility left many Navajo listed as unemployed, jeopardizing their welfare payments.

More than half of the reservation’s 130,000 residents are listed as unemployed. Thousands receive federal assistance, and their numbers are increasing, according to the state Department of Economic Security.

In designing their own program, Navajos could define cultural activities as work, Yazza said. People who regularly perform traditional ceremonies or teach the Navajo language could be considered employed. That will keep federal funds coming in, he said.

The satellite computers will allow caseworkers to update the welfare database each time a client returns. After answering a few questions, people will know exactly how much aid they’re eligible to receive.

“We wanted something interactive--something that would allow us to be creative and develop something culturally relevant,” Yazza said.

The change is drastic when compared with other states, where recipients must plow through stacks of paperwork and caseworkers often have no idea who they are serving, Gayoso said.

“It’s about being self-sufficient,” said Teddy Nez, a tribal systems analyst. “ . . . It’s going to work.”