Window Rock, Ariz. • The pushback began almost immediately. Buu Nygren, the leader of the Navajo Nation, posted a selfie on Facebook, beaming as he stood shoulder to shoulder with President Donald Trump at the White House.

The U.S. president had just signed executive orders to promote coal production, and Nygren was thrilled: “The harmful policies of the past have unfairly targeted coal, but those tides are turning,” he wrote.

The angry Facebook comments rolled in: Nygren had betrayed his people, and his support of coal would lead to the degradation of the land and water, they said.

But other voices surfaced, too. Stop complaining, they said. Coal meant jobs.

For decades, coal has been a divisive subject in the Navajo Nation, which spans portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. As an

See Full Page