Ex-Navajo President Zah guided by love for people, family

By FELICIA FONSECA
Associated Press

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Peterson Zah, who guided one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S. through a politically tumultuous time, has died. Navajo Nation officials say Zah died late Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, following a lengthy illness. He was 85. Zah served as the tribal chairman in the 1980s and later was elected as its first president in 1990 after the government was restructured into three branches to prevent power from being concentrated in the chairman’s office. Under his tenure, the tribe established a now multi-billion-dollar fund after a federal court ruled the Navajo Nation had the right to tax companies that extracted minerals from the vast reservation.