The Role of K’é in the Navajo Justice System: How Navajo Judges Employ K’é as a Metric of “Success” and A Tool For Accountability

Since the beginning of the Navajo court system in 1883, Navajo judges have been integrating aspects of Navajo Common Law into the court’s adversarial system. The Navajo court system uses both European Common Law (adversarial) and Navajo Common Law (restorative) to handle both criminal and civil cases. However, Navajo judges sought a program that used only their traditional justice methods to settle disputes. In 1982, the Navajo Peacemaking Program, which uses the process of “talking things out” to settle conflict, was implemented alongside the Navajo Nation court system. This is a stark contrast to the American legal system, which relies on punishment to control crime and hold perpetrators accountable, whereas Navajo Peacemaking centers community healing and restoring relationships. This has raised questions and concerns from non-Native lawyers and scholars as to the reliability of Indigenous Peacemaking structures, like the Navajo Peacemaking program, to hold perpetrators accountable. These findings reveal that Navajo judges understand the Navajo justice system, and their own position as judges, in terms k’é (relationships). K’é operates on at least two levels in the Navajo justice system, (1) there is k’é between the Navajo court system and the Navajo Peacemaking Program, and there is (2) k’é between the actors within both systems. Navajo judges employed k’é as a tool to both define a “successful” court case, and used it to keep themselves accountable to their station as judges’. Navajos are traditionally community-based people, employing k’é as a metric tool for accountability, and using it to define justice; and I end this study with a discussion on the possibility of using traditional methods of conflict resolution to handle more serious crimes.