Yahoo: “The president of the Navajo Nation was sworn in Tuesday to continue as the tribe’s top leader — even though he badly lost his re-election bid.

…

Tribal lawmakers were sworn in during a public ceremony nearby in Fort Defiance that was broadcast live online. Speakers at the event hardly mentioned the presidential election that was thrown into turmoil after Chris Deschene, one of the winners in last August’s primary, was disqualified in a language-fluency case.”

Language fluency?

It turns out that the Navajo Nation has a literacy test of sorts for candidates.  If you want to run for office, you must be able to read and write and speak in Navajo.  Under Section 201 of the Voting Rights Act, it is illegal nationwide to require a voter to “(1) demonstrate the abilityto read, write, understand, or interpret any matter, (2) demonstrate any educational achievement or his knowledge of any particular subject.”  Section 4 also bans literacy tests for voters.

It seems the Navajo nation has candidate requirements that I suspect if a state imposed, would face all sorts of criticism.  The Navajos are probably seeking to preserve their language heritage and have imposed this requirement on candidates.  If a state passed a law requiring English literacy for candidates to preserve the English language heritage, it would certainly be attacked in newspapers and in the courts.  The Navajos have power to run tribal elections, of course. and are treated as a separate sovereign nation.