25 Facts About Ben Shelly

Ben Shelly was the 7th president of the Navajo Nation.

Ben Shelly was the first president to have been elected both president and vice president of the Navajo Nation, as well as the first New Mexican Navajo to hold the Navajo presidency.

On November 2,2010, Shelly was voted in as the Navajo Nation's president-elect during the 2010 Navajo Nation Presidential Elections, defeating opponent New Mexico State Senator Lynda Lovejoy of the Navajo Nation.

Ben Shelly was born in Thoreau, New Mexico, on July 6,1947.

Ben Shelly lived in Chicago for 16 years, training in heavy equipment maintenance and working as a supervisor for a heavy equipment company.

Ben Shelly moved back to the Navajo Nation in 1976, and owned a fleet maintenance and mechanic shop.

In 1990, Ben Shelly was chairman of the Dineh Rights Association.

Ben Shelly became the Thoreau Navajo Nation councilman in 1991, and in 1993 he campaigned for legalized gambling in Navajo areas.

Ben Shelly became a member of the Transportation and Intergovernmental Relations Committees, and chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee as well as serving 12 years as a McKinley County Commissioner.

Ben Shelly was in the leadership of the National Associations of Counties Organization, where he helped form a Native American coalition of county officials from Apache, Coconino, San Juan of Utah, San Juan of New Mexico, Navajo, Sandoval, and McKinley counties.

Ben Shelly was raised with culture, as I was, on a sheepskin rug.

Ben Shelly was sworn in as vice president of the Navajo Nation on 9 January 2007.

Ben Shelly served on the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Tribal Technical Advisory Group, leading efforts to amend existing Medicaid laws to ensure that a Certificate of Indian Blood could be used to verify US citizenship.

Ben Shelly represented the Navajo Nation in budget discussions and formulations for federally-funded programs.

Ben Shelly worked with the New Mexico state legislature and the governor's office to fund capital improvement projects on the Navajo Nation.

Ben Shelly was an opponent of Senate Bill 1690 which would allow San Juan County, Utah Navajos to be their own trustee, managing their own resources by way of a nonprofit organization structure, without interference from the Navajo Nation.

Ben Shelly pleaded not guilty to those tribal charges of fraud, conspiracy and theft.

Ben Shelly had stated that he was confident that the conspiracy, fraud, and theft charges against him would be dismissed, and that he is not a crook.

Criminal complaints allege that Shelly unlawfully took $8,850 in tribal discretionary funds to benefit himself and his family while he served on the Tribal Council.

Court documents allege that Shelly conspired to benefit himself and his immediate family, including his wife, grandchildren and a sister, in 2005 and 2006.

On four occasions, Ben Shelly filed applications for discretionary funds on behalf of his family and personally approved the requests, a complaint alleged.

Ben Shelly was sworn in as president on January 11,2011.

Ben Shelly would serve as president during the 88-member Tribal Council reduction following the special election of December 2009 that was aimed at reforming the Navajo government.

Ben Shelly received 52 percent of the vote in the 2010 presidential race.

Ben Shelly died on March 22,2023, at a hospital in Gallup, New Mexico at the age of 75.