'''Navajo Nation Council Chamber''' ({{lang-nv|Béésh bąąh dah si'ání}}) is the center of government for the [[Navajo Nation]]. The landmark building, in [[Window Rock, Arizona]], is significant for its association with the 1930s [[New Deal]], and its change in Federalfederal policy for relations with Native Americans, as established in the [[Indian Reorganization Act]]. With its red sandstone [[façade]] and overall [[National Park Service Rustic|rustic]] architectural style, the chamber was designed to harmonize with its spectacular natural surroundings. The building was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 2004.<ref name="nhlsum"/><ref name=nhl_nom/> It is "the only legislative headquarters in the United States owned by an American Indian tribe which has been continuously in use by that tribe and whose design incorporates [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] materials and architectural traditions tied to the Navajo heritage."<ref name="NPS2005"/>
==Description and history==
The Navajo National Council Chamber stands amid a campus of other Navajo Nation government facilities in Window Rock, on the south side of Tribal Hill Road, sited with a view of the stone arch formation that gives Window Rock its name. It is a two-level stone structure, built out of red sandstone designed to harmonize with the surrounding sandstone formations. It is octagonal in shape, its design intended to evoke a monumental [[hogan]], the traditional building form of the [[Navajo people]]. [[Ponderosa pine]] [[viga (architecture)|viga]]s radiate outward to stone buttresses, and heavy wooden timbers serve as lintels and trim. The main entrance faces east (a traditional Navajo orientation), with flanking seven-foot wooden panels carved by the Navajo artist Charles Shirley. At the center of the structure is an octagonal [[clerestory]] level. The interior is a single large chamber, with steel columns supporting smaller vigas tied to the larger ones which support the roof.<ref name=nhl_nom>{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|04001155}}|title=NHL nomination for Navajo National Council Chamber|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2020-02-04}}</ref> The Navajo artist [[Gerald Nailor, Sr.]] was commissioned in 1942 for a mural cycle depicting ''The History and Progress of the Navajo Nation,'' which is installed in the interior.<ref name="NPS2005">[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/indian/2005/navajo.htm Navajo Nation Council Chamber], at National Park Service. This article incorporates [[public domain]] text from this [[US government]] website.</ref>
The site for the building was chosen by John Collier, United States Commissionercommissioner for Indian Affairsaffairs, in 1933, and it was erected in 1934–35 with funding from the [[Public Works Administration]]. It was designed by [[Mayers Murray & Phillip]] of [[New York City]], a firm known for its [[Mission Revival architecture]].<ref name=nhl_nom/>
