The Navajo Nation is a Native American indigenous tribe covering just over 27.4 thousand square miles, occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico in the United States. The Navajo people's tradition of governance is rooted in their clans and oral history. The clan system of the Diné is integral to their society, as the rules of behavior found within the system extend to the manner of refined culture that the Navajo people call "to walk in Beauty". The philosophy and clan system extend from before the Spanish colonial occupation of Dinetah, through to the July 25, 1868, Congressional ratification of the Navajo Treaty with President Andrew Johnson, signed by Barboncito, Armijo, and other chiefs and headmen present at Bosque Redondo.

The Navajo people have continued to transform their conceptual understandings of government since it joined the United States by the Treaty of 1868. Social, cultural and political academics continue to debate the nature of the modern Navajo governance and how it has evolved to include the systems and economies of the "western world".