Back to RJ Archive

The Navajo Nation’s Peacemaker Division: An Integrated, Community-based Dispute Resolution Forum

Brown, Howard L
June 4, 2015

Source: (1999) American Indian Law Review. 24(2): 297-308.

As Howard Brown writes, for hundreds of years the Navajo people have used a community-based dispute resolution ceremony to deal with conflicts. This ceremony brings together a variety of participants, with their respective wisdom, skills, and perspectives, to reach non-coercive settlements. The aim is to restore the disputants and the larger community to a state of harmony. Today the Navajo Peacemaker Division relies on this kind of customary method of dispute resolution. To explain the Peacemaker Division and its role in resolving disputes, Brown discusses two principal subjects: Navajo common or traditional law; and the Peacemaker Division and the traditional peacemaking ceremony known in Navajo as xe2x80x9chozhooji naatxe2x80x99aanii.xe2x80x9d

Tags:

AbstractAsiaCourtsIndigenous JusticePolicePrisonsRestorative PracticesRJ and the WorkplaceRJ in SchoolsRJ OfficeTeachers and StudentsVictim Support
Support the cause

We've Been Restoring Justice for More Than 40 Years

Your donation helps Prison Fellowship International repair the harm caused by crime by emphasizing accountability, forgiveness, and making amends for prisoners and those affected by their actions. When victims, offenders, and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results are transformational.

Donate Now