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Editor’s Note: Coronavirus has devastated Native American communities and put a spotlight on some long-standing problems in Indian Country that have made this pandemic that much worse. But at the grassroots level, everyday heroes have stepped up to help. PHOENIX – When the sun is up, he’s up and ready to hit the road by.

PHOENIX — Arizona’s U.S. senators are pushing legislation to renew a federal program that fights diabetes in Indian Country – an initiative tribal leaders say is vital amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Special Diabetes Program for Indians is critical in our fight against diabetes and viruses such as COVID-19,” Navajo President Jonathan Nez said in.

PHOENIX – Washington’s NFL team on Monday officially dropped its name, a derogatory term for Native Americans that the team has held since 1933. Native leaders and supporters in Arizona hailed a change activists have been working toward for years. The reactions ranged from relief to reflection. Reflecting on a victory years in the making.

Here is a timeline of COVID-19 developments and the responses by Gov. Doug Ducey, Arizona health officials and Navajo leaders. As the pandemic continues to unfold, the timeline will be updated. Here are the latest numbers for COVID-19 related illnesses and deaths in Arizona: Cronkite News reporter Sarah Donahue contributed to this report.

PHOENIX — Even before the smoke, Neko Wilson’s anxiety was high. As a 38-year-old with hypertension and asthma, he had been pushing for weeks to get information about COVID-19. As people around Wilson began contracting the deadly disease, he sought masks and testing, fearing for his health and possibly his life. Then smoke from the.

PHOENIX – Arizona led the U.S. in the growth of confirmed coronavirus cases Wednesday, and if states were viewed as their own countries, the Grand Canyon State would lead the world, according to an alarming analysis by The New York Times. State officials pushed back against that characterization Wednesday, but Arizona doctors fear the situation.

PHOENIX – At a time when some Native American communities continue to struggle with the most basic needs, tribal leaders Wednesday called it “an outrage” that tribes had to wait months for coronavirus relief funds. Congress approved the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act in March and set aside $8 billion for.

Arizona on Wednesday broke its record for the number of COVID-19 deaths reported in a single day, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported. The 79 deaths did not occur on the same day, but they represent the most reported in a single day. The record comes as federal experts are warning about a surge.

TUCSON – President Donald Trump’s border wall now stretches along just more than 200 miles of U.S.-Mexico borderland. Progress hasn’t slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic; in some places it’s even accelerating. But there’s a tiny swath of tribal land along the lower Colorado River where that’s not the case. The Cocopah Reservation sits in the.

PHOENIX – As President Donald Trump was hailing the pace of border wall construction Tuesday, Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. was bemoaning it as a project that continues “to destroy … sacred sites.” “We have an obligation, we have a duty, we have a responsibility, to protect those sites of our ancestors, sacred.

PHOENIX – Two Arizona tribes and a Phoenix-based advocacy group joined a pair of lawsuits this week to reverse a Trump administration clean-water rule that critics said would open the “vast majority of Arizona’s waterways” to pollution and degradation. The suits were filed Monday, the same day a new Environmental Protection Agency rule took effect.

PHOENIX – With COVID-19 taking an especially heavy toll on Native Americans, tribal leaders and mental health experts have stepped up efforts to address the emotional suffering brought on by ongoing lockdowns and so much loss. “Please stay connected with relatives and neighbors by phone or video chat and remind them that they have support,”.

PHOENIX – Gila River Hotels & Casinos has shut down for two weeks to review safety standards and disinfect properties after the COVID-19 related death last week of a security employee. “The decision came after a careful evaluation of the growing enterprise’s current safety plan with the Gila River Indian Community Council and feedback from.

Experts can cite any number of historical and logistical reasons why Native Americans have relatively low response rates to the Census, but Arbin Mitchell points to a very new, and very specific challenge this year – COVID-19. “People need to understand we were just out in the field for three days, from March 15 to.

PHOENIX – Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Arizona rose by nearly 2,400 on Monday alone, breaking Friday’s record of 1,600 by almost 50%, according to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services. As of Tuesday, June 16, health officials reported 39,097 cases of COVID-19 and 1,219 deaths in the state. There have been 489,286 tests.

PHOENIX – Since the reopening of Arizona last month, several businesses have closed their doors once again, citing exposure to COVID-19 among employees. On Saturday, ABC 15 news reported that in the previous seven days, popular Phoenix area restaurants have announced closures, including Chelsea’s Kitchen, the Porch, Hash Kitchen, SanTan Brewing, Spirit House, Floridino’s Pizza.

Public spaces around the state may have been closed overnight by a statewide curfew this week – but the casinos have stayed open. After being closed for months by COVID-19, casinos around Arizona had just started to reopen when Gov. Doug Ducey on Sunday imposed a statewide dusk-to-dawn curfew in response to protests over George.

PHOENIX – Arizona tribal leaders told House lawmakers Tuesday that moves to reopen national parks are being made without needed health safety measures to protect tribal members or park visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The comments by Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Havasupai Council Member Carletta Tilousi come as the Interior Department is moving.

PHOENIX – After weeks of grim news as the pandemic tore through the Navajo Nation, the curve of positive COVID-19 cases has begun to flatten, President Jonathan Nez said Thursday. The rate of hospitalizations peaked April 25, Nez reported during a town hall on Facebook Live, nearly a month ahead of the mid-May date projected.

SAN CARLOS – As she looked at the Disney characters decorating the walls of the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Dental Clinic and at the smiling, laughing children watching dental health demonstrations, Suzanne Haney thought back to what a trip to the dentist used to be. “Back then, it was so different, it was in the.

Arizona tribes were among those who could get too much – or too little – COVID-19 relief funding under a Treasury Department funding formula that is based on “probably not the best numbers,” according to the author of a new report. The policy brief from the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the.

PHOENIX – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, some Native Americans have found a way to safely host traditional powwows by moving them online. In many Indigenous communities, powwows are celebrations of culture in which tribes gather to share art, stories, food, song, dance and the company of one another. But the ongoing pandemic has made.

Cronkite News is reporting on acts of humanity, sharing the big and small ways people are helping each other in the era of coronavirus. PHOENIX – As Miss Shoshone-Bannock, Stormie Perdash has represented her people all across the United States. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, she’s representing them in a different way. Growing up on.

WASHINGTON – An appeals court Thursday upheld the death sentence for Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row, and one of five inmates targeted last year for execution under a revived federal death penalty policy. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Mitchell’s argument that he had.

A White House official confirmed Wednesday that President Donald Trump will visit the Phoenix Honeywell facility for an industry event May 5, despite Gov. Doug Ducey extending his stay-at-home order to May 15. The visit marks the first time the president has traveled outside Washington, D.C., since the end of March. The visit is meant.

Gov. Doug Ducey has extended the state’s stay-at-home order until May 15, imploring Arizonans to continue physical distancing at a press conference Wednesday. “It’s 15 more days, I’m asking for some patience,” Ducey said. Ducey outlined reasons for the extension and limitations, such as continued travel restrictions to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. “We.

TEMPE – Native American tribes have been severely hit by the coronavirus but have received only a fraction of the help they need from the federal government, said lawmakers, who called the impact on businesses and health on reservations “particularly worrisome.” The National Congress of American Indians town hall on the congressional response to COVID-19.

PHOENIX – During an online roundtable discussion Tuesday, four Arizona mayors discussed economic challenges facing their cities as they await Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision on reopening the state. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego has requested that Ducey allow mayors to be a part of the decision process on whether to extend or keep the stay-at-home order,.

Despite health officials’ projections that Arizona won’t see its peak in cases until the middle of next month, Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order Wednesday lifting restrictions on health facilities conducting elective surgeries as of May 1. Ducey signed the order after saying that hospitals have reported an increased availability of personal protective equipment,.

PHOENIX – The life of a college athlete can be stressful. Balancing academic and sports or taking the game-winning shot against a Top 10 team involves pressure. Former Arizona State basketball player Michelle Tom did both, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to down No. 7 Washington in 1999. Now she deals with more serious stress: treating.

PHOENIX – The Navajo Nation has the country’s third-highest rate of COVID-19 infections, but it has had to watch as funds go to less hard-hit areas in a “very slow” federal aid process, Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Friday. Nez was one of several tribal leaders from around the country participating in a virtual House.

PHOENIX – On the heels of dire warnings that America is entering the worst week of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona health officials Monday reported a surge in COVID-19 cases over the weekend, with 687 new cases bringing the total to 2,456 known infections and 65 deaths. On Sunday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Fox News.

PHOENIX – More Arizona businesses face closure with a revised order from Gov. Doug Ducey, who is calling on salons, barbers, tattoo parlors, massage parlors, spas and other previously exempt businesses to cease operation by 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 4. Mayors in Arizona voiced criticism of the state’s list of essential services in recent.

PHOENIX – Tribal response to the 2020 Census badly trails state and national rates, according to Census Bureau data, with the already-challenging task of counting in tribal areas further complicated by the arrival of COVID-19. U.S. and Arizona response rates to the questionnaire that went out in mid-March were hovering around one-third of the expected.

Gov. Doug Ducey issued a stay-at-home order on Monday to prevent further spread of deadly COVID-19, which has claimed 20 lives in Arizona to date. The “Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected” initiative will go into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, and run through the end of April. “This decision was made with.

PHOENIX – Cases of COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation Reservation have risen to 49, up from the 29 reported Monday by the Navajo Department of Health. Forty-three cases are in the Arizona part of the reservation, according to the Navajo Epidemiology Center. Although Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has not yet ordered a shelter-in-place for the.

LOS ANGELES – In a city renowned for its green policies, Prius drivers and biodegradable straws, it was only a matter of time before officials would vote to move away from coal powered electricity. To transition to clean energy, the city sold its shares of a coal-powered generating station on the Navajo Nation in 2016,.

WASHINGTON – Dean Seneca didn’t mince words after the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s recent “damaging news” about the spread of the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide, including nine in Washington state. “I want to make sure that I stated that tribes are not prepared for the coronavirus,” he.

WASHINGTON – An emotional Tohono O’odham Nation chairman told lawmakers Wednesday that blasting on sacred sites in national monuments to build a border wall near his reservation has “forever damaged our people.” “I know in my heart and what our elders have told us and what we have learned that that area is home to.

WASHINGTON – Tribal officials this week raised issues ranging from polluted water to underfunded police but there was one message they all had for House lawmakers – the government needs to be a more reliable partner on critical projects. Those comments came during the second day of testimony by Native American representatives from across the.

WASHINGTON – Voting barriers for Native Americans have always existed, but polling cutbacks, discriminatory voter ID laws and lack of funding for elections are making things worse, advocates told a House panel Tuesday. “What was old is new again,” said Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, D-Ohio, who chaired the hearing. “It is not only appropriate, but.

WASHINGTON – Despite some “encouraging developments,” threats to tribal sovereignty still come “from every branch and every corner of federal and state governments,” the president of the National Congress of American Indians said Monday. NCAI President Fawn Sharp said in a wide-ranging State of Indian Nations address that the state of the nations is strong,.

WASHINGTON – Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris said the “controlled blasting” for a border wall that will ultimately cut through his reservation is just the latest example of the federal government ignoring its duty to consult with tribes. Federal agencies involved in border wall construction “are in violation of their own policies since meaningful.

KYKOTSMOVI – Vanissa Barnes-Saucedo was 21 when military recruiters stopped her in a shopping mall, waving enlistment papers in front of her. Although she says she wasn’t entirely sure what she was getting herself into, she signed the papers anyway. For the next six years, Barnes-Saucedo was stationed around the world: Virginia, Colorado, South Korea,.

PHOENIX – Some Arizona schools are working to preserve Native American culture by spending classroom time on disappearing languages and cultural traditions. At Salt River Schools, the O’odham language is being taught to seventh graders as a requirement, even though it’s not widely spoken in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Salt River elementary and.

PHOENIX – Alex Alejandre lost 75 pounds in a year. His wife, Mary, lost 40. They want to set a good example for their 17-year-old son, Nathan, and take a personal stand against obesity, which can lead to diabetes and other serious health problems, especially in Native Americans. “The health of my child is everything.

WASHINGTON – They may have turned out the lights, but the party’s not over at the Navajo Generating Station and its affiliated Kayenta coal mine. The owners of both facilities face several years of decommissioning and cleanup as well as the possibility of decades of environmental monitoring of the sites, which closed down for good.

PHOENIX – Time, distance and technology limitations are among the reasons Native Americans may be the most difficult demographic to count in the 2020 census, the Census Bureau says. But lack of trust is the biggest reason, said Patty Hibbeler, chief executive of the Phoenix Indian Center, which provides workforce and youth development, drug and.

LAS VEGAS – An opening prayer welcomes 75 Native American men and women from across the nation, gathered at a hotel to learn how to use tradition to heal from trauma – and to help others heal, too. “My grandmother was killed by her husband,” said Lisa Rose Sanderson, a youth prevention specialist for the.

PHOENIX – A Phoenix company wants to build two massive hydroelectric projects on the Little Colorado River, a main tributary of the Colorado River, which carves the Grand Canyon. Environmentalists and Native Americans say the projects threaten life within the Canyon and would defile sacred land. Pumped Hydro Storage LLC has applied for permits to.

WINDOW ROCK – As the sun begins to set on a blustery fall day, the rugged buttes of Navajoland glow red in the soft light and swift gusts spiral dust through the air. About 40 women, most draped in traditional dress, stand in a circle as Melissa Brown, an indigenous midwife, asks the group to.

PHOENIX – A federal appeals court panel grappled Friday with how – or why – convicted Navajo double-murderer Lezmond Mitchell could question jurors from his trial 16 years ago about possible racial bias in their deliberations. The hearing before three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came two days after Mitchell, the.

SAN FRANCISCO – With a paintbrush in one hand, a can of red paint in the other and a cowboy hat atop his graying head, Dennis Turner began up-and-down strokes along a white brick wall that faces the San Francisco Bay. He traced the same word he painted 50 years ago on a decommissioned prison.

PHOENIX – Diplomas in hand, 16 Navajo women became the latest graduating class of Project DreamCatcher, a free business training program that aims to create economic opportunities for female Native entrepreneurs. The program is the result of a partnership between the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, which is part of Arizona.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump authorized creation of an eight-member panel of federal officials Tuesday to coordinate the federal response to the problem of murdered and missing indigenous women. Trump told tribal leaders gathered at the White House for the signing that the “Operation Lady Justice” task force is long overdue, calling statistics related to.

DENNEHOTSO – The nearest water station for Darlene Yazzie is 9 miles away at the Dennehotso Chapter House – or community center – in the Four Corners region. On a recent day, she counted her nickels and dimes to buy water. It costs $1.10, plus gas money, to fill up two 50-gallon barrels, and she’s.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders went before Congress Tuesday to demand the government address longstanding problems in Indian Country – and not for the first time. They were among the witnesses at a House hearing on “Broken Promises,” a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report detailing decades of underfunding, poor data collection and lack of coordination.

WASHINGTON – The Navajo Nation said Tuesday it is canceling indemnity agreements for the Navajo Transitional Energy Co., fearing the tribe’s finances could be “placed in a state of uncertainty” by the company’s recent purchase of three coal mines. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement that the move was made because of.

WASHINGTON – A divided appeals court has stayed the scheduled December execution of Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo double-murderer, saying it needs time to consider his claim that he was not allowed to question jurors for potential racial bias. Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row, was one of five inmates identified by Attorney.

WASHINGTON – The Hopi and Navajo are among 26 tribes that will see the return of ancestral remains from Finland, where the items have been held in a museum after being taken from Colorado almost 130 years ago. The repatriation, announced Wednesday during Finnish President Sauli Niinistö’s visit to the White House, follows years of.

WASHINGTON – The number of people who showed up at at Indian Health Service facilities with health insurance rose from 64% of patients in 2013 to 78% in 2018, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report said growth in coverage was highest in states, like Arizona, that expanded their Medicaid.

PHOENIX – The voting rights of Native Americans in Arizona are routinely suppressed by a slew of requirements and practices, such as photo ID laws and a scarcity of polling places, Navajo and Gila River leaders said Tuesday at a congressional hearing in Phoenix. “If someone from the Navajo Nation submits a ballot on Election.

WASHINGTON – State officials agree on this much: “Not one red penny” of the $150,000 allocated for a task force on missing and murdered indigenous women that was created in May has been seen yet. But they disagree on who’s to blame. Arizona Sens. Jamescita Peshlakai and Sally Ann Gonzales, in Washington this week for.

WASHINGTON – Tribal representatives told a Senate committee Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission is not doing enough to ease the regulatory burdens that keep Indian Country from getting wireless broadband access. The hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee was in response to a November Government Accountability Office report that highlighted the barriers tribes.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers questioned administration officials Wednesday on what they are doing to deal with the problem of missing and murdered indigenous women – and they weren’t always satisfied with the answers. Officials with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services said they’re trying, but are.

WASHINGTON – The Navajo Nation Council voted unanimously Thursday to oppose a Trump administration draft plan that critics say could put income restrictions for the first time on applicants to the Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program. The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposal would limit participation in the program to those making 115% of.

WASHINGTON – Time is running out for Navajo landowners who want to take part in the second round of a $1.9 billion federal program to buy back scattered and isolated parcels of land on the Navajo Nation. Friday was the last day for some owners of Navajo land in New Mexico to apply for a.

WASHINGTON – Consumer advocates said Friday that Wells Fargo’s $6.5 million settlement of a Navajo Nation lawsuit that charged the bank with preying on tribal members is a “tremendous victory” for Native communities targeted by such practices. Wells Fargo & Co. said Thursday it will pay $6.5 million to the Navajo Nation to settle the.

WASHINGTON – The last 265 workers at Kayenta Coal Mine are being laid off this month, another step toward the looming closure of the Navajo Generating Station that will bring the loss of hundreds more jobs this winter. The mine was already down from about 350 workers last year and will likely retain only a.

WASHINGTON – Washington is full of popular tourist sites that are monuments to American history, from the White House to the Capitol, from Arlington National Cemetery to Congressional Cemetery. And, with a little more exploring, visitors can learn that all those sites are monuments to Native American history as well. The National Museum of the.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court said environmental groups cannot sue to block expansion of a coal mine owned by the Navajo Transitional Energy Co., because it is an arm of the Navajo government and thus immune from civil suits. The Monday ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William Barr ordered a resumption of federal executions Thursday and named a Navajo double-murderer as one of the first five death-row inmates who will be put to death. Lezmond Mitchell will be executed on Dec. 11 with a fatal injection of pentobarbital if all goes according to the plan unveiled by.

WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers beat back a series of Republican amendments Wednesday before advancing bills to restrict mining around the Grand Canyon and on tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico. In a sometimes emotional meeting, the House Natural Resources Committee gave preliminary approval to bills banning mining on 1 million acres around the Grand.

WASHINGTON – The Havasupai tribe is falling behind in education, health and emergency needs because, like many rural communities, it lacks affordable, reliable and high-speed broadband, a tribal councilwoman told a House committee Thursday. Ophelia Watahomigie-Corliss was one of several witnesses who said rural areas are “in jeopardy” of being left behind without the high-speed.

PHOENIX – The Heard Museum has wrapped up its second annual Teacher Institute program, which gives Arizona educators a better understanding of American Indian history, culture and art. The free three-day workshop in late June aimed to provide new classroom resources and tools to about 20 K-12 teachers through presentations, artist demonstrations, gallery tours and.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders urged House lawmakers Wednesday to support a handful of bills that would guarantee water to their tribes in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and fund the water treatment plants and pipelines to deliver it. The appeals from leaders of the Navajo and Hualapai tribes were well received by members of a.

SACATON – More than four in five Native American women will experience violence in their lifetime, according to one federal study. In another report, Arizona ranked third in missing indigenous women and girls. Those statistics are part of the reason federal officials met Tuesday with tribal leaders in Sacaton on the Gila River Indian Community..

HOUCK – Near the kitchen at St. John the Evangelist Church, Nellie Shirley greets parishioners after Mass as they gather for hot coffee, pastries and bowls of homemade menudo. Many in the room are her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Shirley, 86, has attended Roman Catholic services here all of her life, completed her sacraments here,.

LUPTON – Hours before the sun will conquer the dark, a light rain falls, burning wood crackles and soft voices drift from a hogan. An 11-year-old Navajo girl, dressed in a purple velvet blouse, multicolored camp skirt and moccasins, her long, black hair tied into a ponytail, struggles to keep her eyes open. On one.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump this week approved a disaster declaration for the Navajo Nation in the wake of a February storm that dumped snow on the reservation, isolating some communities and leading to flooding. The declaration, signed Wednesday, is the first step in a process that will let the tribal government seek Federal Emergency.

PHOENIX – Born and raised on the Hopi Reservation, Patty Talahongva has always been sure of her identity as an indigenous woman — but she wasn’t always certain how she viewed religion. Raised a Catholic within the traditional Hopi culture, she began to question the religious practices of Hopis and Catholics after she became more.

WASHINGTON – Classrooms at Keams Canyon Elementary School are noticeably emptier during the winter and monsoon months. That’s when Principal Gary Polacca says heavy rains turn the dirt roads stretching across the Hopi reservation into “muddy sinkholes,” making it hard for school buses to reach students’ homes for risk of getting stuck in the mud..

WASHINGTON – “Just Google it.” Carroll Onsae says it’s a joke among Hopi, who have broadband internet in only some pockets of the reservation. And even there it works slowly. “Our area is economically disadvantaged. It’s a hardship for families to not have service to broadband services,” said Onsae, the general manager of Hopi Telecommunications.

Updated: Wednesday, April 17, 2019 SACATON – Sprouting through the cracked floor of the Sonoran Desert, tepary beans thrive in the dry heat and carry with it centuries of resilience from the indigenous Pima people of southern Arizona. “We have our water. It’s our life. It’s our livelihood, and it’s our culture,” said Ramona Button,.

WASHINGTON – Tohono O’odham Chairman Edward D. Manuel testified Thursday that lack of water has been killing crops and livestock – and, essentially, the tribe’s economy – and things will only get worse if federal funding is allowed to lapse. That’s why Manuel joined officials from other tribes, utilities and advocacy groups to urge passage.

WASHINGTON – Two months after it let the Violence Against Women Act lapse, the House voted Thursday to renew the 25-year-old law that extends protections for victims of domestic violence. While no one in the House disagreed with the goals of the bill, Republicans accused the Democratic majority of dressing it up “like a Christmas.

WASHINGTON – To the list of issues affecting education, Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis would add a new problem: deteriorating roads. Of the web of tribal, county, state, and federally owned roads on the Gila River reservation, 306 are supposed to be maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But Lewis told.

WASHINGTON – The White House unveiled a task force Tuesday that would find ways to prevent sexual abuse of children in the Indian Health Service, after an IHS pediatrician’s conviction last year on four counts of abuse. The seven-member task force of prosecutors, social workers and health care specialists, including one from a Navajo Nation.

WASHINGTON – Navajo Nation Missing Persons founder Meskee Yatsayte wakes up every morning, scours social media for missing indigenous people and begins contacting families. And the first thing she tells them to do is to report their missing relative to police. “We want to encourage the families to make sure that these missing relatives are.

WASHINGTON – Hopi Vice Chairman Clark Tenakhongva said he already sees a difference in the year since the Trump administration shrank the size of Bears Ears National Monument, excluding some culturally revered land. “Today, there’s a lot of vandalism, there’s a lot of looting and that still continues,” Tenakhongva said. “So that is the fear.

PHOENIX – As visitors enter the Heard Museum exhibit “Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories,” they encounter an eye-level digital screen with a grid display of hundreds of school portraits of indigenous students who attended scores of such boarding schools across the United States. Some of the portraits were taken during the late.

MESA – With kicks, blocks and twists of the wrist, 16-year-old Kylie Hunts-in-Winter is teaching Native American boys and girls to stay safe. Her defense classes have a mission: to keep more indigenous women and girls from disappearing and dying. An estimated 500 have been lost to violence over the past decades, but experts said.

YUMA – The fastest land mammal in North America and a large-footed marsh bird in the Southwest have been listed as endangered for more than half a century. The Sonoran pronghorn and the Yuma Ridgway’s rail are featured in a vibrant new mural at the Arizona Western College theater that’s meant to show how climate.

SELLS – One day they were there and the next they weren’t. No one talked about the Native women and girls who simply disappeared. April Ignacio knew they existed. She did not forget. How many were there? Nearly three years ago, she started a quest to help others recount how many of her Native sisters.

WASHINGTON – The audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference had heard the message of low taxes and local control from speakers before. But they had never heard it from one group of speakers who showed up Thursday to the annual gathering: Native Americans who called for less government oversight on reservations and greater tribal.

GRAND CANYON – Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s bill enacting a permanent ban on uranium mining drew praise this week from Havasupai leaders and criticism from the mining industry, as well as from a Republican member of Arizona’s congressional delegation. “Havasupai means people of the blue green water, and we have been living here for over thousands.

WASHINGTON – Clayton Honyumptewa says the Powamuya ceremony will be observed this weekend as usual on parts of the Hopi reservation, but the planting that traditionally follows the ceremony might not come until May. The delay is just another example of the effects of climate change that have left dams dry, water scarce – and.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders Monday called on federal lawmakers to avoid another government shutdown, saying the shutdown that ended in January was felt across Indian Country, hitting everything from housing to tribes’ efforts at economic development. “The shutdown cut particularly deep across Indian Country, disrupting access to vital services like healthcare, housing, and food distribution,.

WASHINGTON – Nataanii Means spent part of his childhood on the Navajo Nation with little electricity or running water, while energy companies mined coal and uranium nearby. He said those operations left the water polluted and undrinkable. Means brought that experience to the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington Friday where he heard the same story.

WASHINGTON – Even though she saw six opioid overdoses in recent months, two of them fatal, Kerry Hawk Lessard closed the medical and behavioral health clinic she runs for Native Americans in Baltimore and Boston. She didn’t have a choice. When the government shut down, Native American LifeLines lost its funding. Lessard’s clinics were funded.

FORT DEFIANCE – The trip was about more than a 300-mile journey to play a nationally televised game against a ranked opponent. The Arizona State women’s basketball team also viewed its November excursion to the Navajo Reservation as a time to embrace Navajo culture. “Just hearing the stories that we’ve heard today and weeks before.

LOW MOUNTAIN – On a late-September morning deep within the Navajo Nation, Larron Badoni practiced his golf swing. Sun blanketed the plateaus and mesas surrounding the Lowerville Stingers Golf Club – nine holes scattered over a rocky, hilly, shrubby landscape dotted with blue shade structures, weathered carpets and pins flying red and white flags. It.

PHOENIX – Gilbert resident Mimi Condon calls the struggle to make her oldest son part of her family her “39-month labor.” That’s how long it took to adopt David because he’s a Native American and the Condons are not – which meant the 40-year-old Indian Child Welfare Act came into play during the adoption, adding.

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST – LeRoy Shingoitewa dug his hiking boots into loose gravel and sand, watching the early November morning sunlight slowly spread across shrubby hills and rocky valleys near the proposed site of an enormous copper mine. Resolution Copper plans to develop the mine east of Superior and predicts the mine will meet about.

CHINLE – Even with modern technology, it’s nearly impossible to find the homemade boxing gym identified by a tattered wooden sign that reads, “Damon-Bahe Boxing Gym.” In and around this small town on the Navajo Reservation, house numbers rarely exist. And Google Maps can’t quite explain that, off Indian Route 7, less than a quarter.

BAPCHULE — The sun rose into a violet-tinted sky as dozens of O’odham and Piipaash women prepared to leave for the last leg of a 53-mile journey spent in prayer for missing and murdered indigenous women. The two-day relay run, one of a number of events this year focused on bringing attention to the disproportionate.

WASHINGTON – On Nov. 14, 1992, a Native American woman was found murdered in Tucson, and 26 years later her name is still not known. That’s just one example of the lack of solid data that has led to the underreporting of hundreds of deaths and thousands of missing persons cases for Native American women.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court said Thursday that the Havasupai tribe and environmental advocates can challenge an existing uranium mine on land near the Grand Canyon where mining was recently banned. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a partial reversal of its own December decision.

PHOENIX – Amanda Blackhorse, grasping burning sage in one hand and a bullhorn in the other, prepared to protest at a costume company’s Phoenix headquarters. Blackhorse and her small group carried signs, shouting “People, not costumes!” and “You’re on stolen land!” as they walked around the parking lot, several of them wearing traditional skirts. They.

LECHEE CHAPTER HOUSE, Navajo Nation – Just south of Page, three smokestacks pierce the horizon like a pitchfork. They belong to the West’s largest coal-fired power plant, the Navajo Generating Station. Beyond it, red sandstone mesas tower over a glimmering Lake Powell. Jerry Williams has worked at NGS for 38 years. Two weeks ago, he.

WASHINGTON – Federal appeals court nominee Eric Miller tried to dispel concerns Wednesday about his record on tribal law, telling a Senate committee that his previous work on behalf of clients did not reflect how he would rule as a judge. Miller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that while he has argued against tribes as.

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to proceed this week on a judicial nominee for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, despite the objections of both tribal officials and committee Democrats. Native American groups oppose Seattle attorney Eric Miller’s nomination because they say he has made a name for himself by taking.

WASHINGTON – Gambling revenues dipped slightly at Arizona’s tribal casinos in 2016, but those losses were more than offset by a strong jump in non-gaming revenues that helped boost total income to $2.23 billion for the year, a new report says. Casino City’s Indian Gaming Industry Report said Arizona was one of eight states, among.

WASHINGTON – The investment firm that was interested in buying the Navajo Generating Station broke off its pursuit this week, making the closure of the plant next year and the loss of hundreds of jobs appear more likely. Avenue Capital subsidiary Middle River Project said in a letter to Navajo officials Thursday night that it.

WASHINGTON – Add Native Americans to the list of groups concerned about Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Tribal and legal officials could not point to a case involving tribal rights that Kavanaugh has handled as a judge, but they said his writings as a lawyer and his rulings in environmental and voting.

NEW YORK – A group of Navajo environmentalists on Monday took their fight against the Navajo Generating Station to Manhattan, where they protested outside the offices of an investment firm that might save the coal-fired plant. Bundled in boots, coats and layers, the group rallied outside Avenue Capital Group for several hours, standing without umbrellas.

WASHINGTON – Mention the late Sen. John McCain and images of a war hero or a presidential candidate come to mind – but for far longer than he spent in those roles, McCain was a friend, and sometimes irritant, to Indian Country. There were disagreements – one tribal leader called it a warm relationship with.

MISSOULA, Mont. – Native American women across the country are being murdered and sexually assaulted on reservations and nearby towns at far higher rates than other American women. Their assailants are often white and other non-Native American men outside the jurisdiction of tribal law enforcement. In some U.S. counties composed primarily of Native American lands,.

WASHINGTON – The government must help reverse generations of federally backed assimilation programs that left Native Americans “robbed of the ability to speak our own language,” advocates told a Senate panel Wednesday. “A Native language is not just a language, it is the foundation of a culture,” said Lauren Hummingbird, a graduate of a Cherokee.

PHOENIX – The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have to reimburse the Gila River Indian Community for health care it provided to tribal veterans, a federal court has ruled. The tribe and the Gila River Health Care Corp. claimed that the Affordable Care Act required the payments, but the VA argued that the tribe.

WASHINGTON – Deenise Becenti remembers watching this summer as a Navajo woman who had been waiting more than 20 years to get electricity in her home flipped the switch to turn on the lights for the first time. “She had a whole lot of happy tears,” said Becenti, spokeswoman for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority..

WASHINGTON – More than 10 years after it was first approved, a federal loan program for tribal energy development projects will accept its first applications next month. The Department of Energy in July said it was accepting applications for projects under the $2 billion Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program, which will provide “partial loan guarantees.

PHOENIX – Thirty miles south of Phoenix, green fields of alfalfa and pima cotton stretch toward a triple-digit sun. Hundreds of yellow butterflies dance above the purple flowers that dapple the tops of the young alfalfa stalks – to expert eyes, the flowers signal that the plants are heat-stressed and should be harvested soon. Gila.

PHOENIX – As Samantha Quigley tears down another rebound, she sees more than a basketball. In her hands is something beyond an object that she can dribble around defenders and put through a hoop with ease. It’s a ticket to a better life. “Basketball is, like, the only key to go a long way if.

PHOENIX – After 10 years, 30 nominees and decades of discovery, the first National Native American Hall of Fame will induct 12 honorees in October. Arizona’s Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat as a member of U.S. military, is among those who will be celebrated. Many of the inductees, such.

WASHINGTON – The House gave final approval Monday to a bill that would let the White Mountain Apache proceed on desperately needed improvements to their water system, ending two years of back-and-forth debate in Congress on the issue. The measure was ultimately approved on a voice vote with no opposition after just five minutes of.

PHOENIX – As visitors stroll through the aisles of Barbie dolls arrayed at a national collectors’ convention in Phoenix, one doll among hundreds stands apart. A tan-complexioned Barbie with long, braided black hair and traditional Native American dress is perched proudly on a pedestal hand-painted to resemble grass. Pabboo Redfeather, an artist and designer, reimagined.

WASHINGTON – Native Americans have been “systematically denied access to fair representation” as a result of persistent barriers to voting, advocates and tribal leaders told a Senate roundtable Tuesday. Witnesses told the informal meeting of senators from the Indian Affairs and Rules committees that tribal voters face a range of challenges, from language barriers, to.

NAVAJO RESERVATION – Glenda Seweingyawma plucked quarters from a giant pickle jar and dropped them into the water-station vending machine to fill up a large plastic barrel. It’s a common scene: About 40 percent of Navajos living on the reservation have to haul their drinking water. But this water wasn’t for humans. It was for.

WASHINGTON – Navajo officials and residents urged a Senate committee Wednesday to expand coverage of a fund that compensates uranium miners and “downwinders” – people who lived downwind from Cold War nuclear tests. “I had a good job supporting my family,” said Leslie Begay, a uranium miner who said he faces high medical costs from.

PHOENIX – Native American lawmakers in Arizona said Thursday that indigenous and native people are among immigrant families who are being separated at the border, and called on Arizona tribal members to join a battle to fight the Trump administration “zero tolerance” policy. Democrats said the immigration fight sprawls onto reservations, across the U.S. and.

FLAGSTAFF – JJ Nakai misses her days playing electrifying basketball on the reservation. But the jam-packed gymnasiums, the thunderous crowds – united by heritage, momentarily divided by team colors – the breakneck pace of play and the irresponsibly creative trick passes are more than just memories. They provide the framework for how she plays, the.

WASHINGTON – Federal agencies that oversee Indian affairs are making progress toward fixing management shortcomings that landed them on a list of “high-risk” agencies, but not enough progress to satisfy some senators. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education and Indian Health Services have for years been on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk.

WASHINGTON – Wendsler Nosie Sr. told a Capitol Hill rally Monday that Native Americans face a slew of challenges today, from voting rights to environmental justice, but that none are as important as resolving water and land management issues. “There are many issues that need to be addressed and that need attention, but Congress doesn’t.

WASHINGTON – Arusha Gordon remembers hearing the decades-old stories from her Native American clients about the challenges of voting back then. Polling places were often miles off reservation and located in mostly white towns whose residents were not always welcoming, said Gordon, voting rights counsel for the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law. James.

WASHINGTON – When President Lyndon Johnson laid out a set of sweeping plans for Native American education 50 years ago, from preschool to college, one of the most immediate goals was enrolling 10,000 tribal youth in Head Start programs. That goal was soon met, but little else envisioned by Johnson has progressed as successfully. Fifty.

WASHINGTON – Life expectancy for American Indians is decades longer than it was in the 1960s, nearly closing the gap with the rest of the U.S. population, according to government data. But that doesn’t mean every Native American has seen the same gains, according to experts, who say pockets of problems remain, particularly on traditional.

WASHINGTON – Malinda Andrews sees the problems caused by high rates of joblessness on the Hopi reservation. “Having a high unemployment rate I can see all the detrimental effects that it’s having,” said Andrews, executive adviser to the chairman of the Hopi Tribe. “Not only to children, but to families, to the grandparents, aunts, uncles..

WASHINGTON – In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson wrote Congress detailing the nation’s maltreatment of Native Americans, a people he described as an “alien in his own land.” A month later, Congress made it official. One part of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 – signed by Johnson on April 11, 1968, just over a.

GRAND CANYON – Cadet Amaris Tracy climbed into the cockpit of a small plane, her face calm but her hands shaking slightly. “I’m really excited to get to fly the plane for the first time,” Tracy said, adjusting her headset. “At the same time, it’s 5,000 feet up in the air and I don’t really.

PEACH SPRINGS – As downstream rapids roar, multicolored rafts line Diamondhead Beach at the base of the Grand Canyon. Patricia Cesspooch stands out in this scene, surrounded by men and machinery, hand-rigging her two inflatable yellow rafts before guests arrive. Cesspooch, a member of the Hualapai Tribe, has long loved her ancestral land and dreamed.

WASHINGTON – The National Labor Relations Board and Native American water rights aren’t usually associated with one another. But to the White Mountain Apache tribe they’re currently tightly entwined. A bill to give the tribe access to federal water-project funds has stalled in the Senate over language added in the House that would exempt businesses.

WASHINGTON – A five-year-old law that let Native American tribes prosecute non-Natives in domestic violence cases “has fundamentally changed the landscape of tribal criminal jurisdiction in the modern era,” according to a new report. The study released last week by the National Congress of American Indians said the 18 tribes that took part in a.

PHOENIX – Congress has passed legislation that brings the Amber Alert system for abducted or missing children to Native American reservations, a move to prevent deaths like those of 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike. Ashlynne’s parents and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, advocated for the Ashlynne Mike Amber Alert in Indian Country Act to close a loophole in.

SCOTTSDALE – Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke met Monday with Arizona tribal leaders to discuss possible solutions for the national opioid crisis, which affects Native Americans more than any other minority. Plans to end the crisis, Zinke told a news conference, include sending first-responder tool kits directly to tribes, which are sovereign nations, rather than.

WASHINGTON – The opioid crisis has hit rural Native Americans significantly harder than any group in the nation, and the problem may be even worse because of racial misclassification on death certificates, federal data show. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said rural areas as a whole saw a 325 percent.

PHOENIX – Ken Duncan Sr. sits at the corner of a basketball court, weaving red and yellow tape around a large hoop. While the 59-year old San Carlos Apache works, he watches his children and grandchildren practice intricate patterns and fast footwork. The family has spent months preparing for their biggest hoop dancing competition of.

SUPAI – The beat of a single drum rang out as Dianna White Dove Uqualla sang a prayer for a group of runners about to climb out of the deep crevasse of the Grand Canyon. “This is a blessing song for all of you,” said Uqualla, who hails from a long line of respected healers.

WASHINGTON – The House gave final approval Monday to a bill that will give tribes direct access to funds that will let them quickly post AMBER alerts over text messaging, radio and television to counties within reservation borders. The AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act was sparked by the May 2016 abduction of Ashlynne Mike,.

WASHINGTON – A Bureau of Indian Education official told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency is making “strong improvements” in the oversight of tribal schools, despite a long history of problems and proposed cuts to the bureau’s budget. But BIE Director Tony Dearman’s testimony to a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee was criticized as “pretty.

WASHINGTON – The federal tax overhaul passed in December is “completely unacceptable” to Native Americans, just another example of what can happen when tribes are not included in federal decision-making, a tribal leader said Monday. National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel said in the annual State of Indian Nations address that the government-to-government.

WASHINGTON – The charge from National Native American Veterans Memorial officials was daunting: Design a memorial that honors the contributions of every tribe to every war fought for the U.S. “There are 565 native tribes across the country, and to put that into one statue was a little difficult,” said Enoch Kelly Haney, one of.

PHOENIX – Two days after the Cleveland Indians announced that the Chief Wahoo logo would be retired in 2019, Arizona politicians said they hope to limit disparaging professional sports team logos from appearing in publicly funded sports venues. State Rep. Eric Descheenie announced in a press conference Wednesday that House Bill 2499, if passed, would.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of five tribes accused lawmakers Tuesday of “cherry-picking” tribal members to support an 85 percent reduction in the Bears Ears monuments, and said proposed tribal management of the new monument would be in name only. The testimony from Navajo, Hopi and other leaders contradicted lawmakers from Utah and some local tribal officials..

WASHINGTON – A bill to provide desperately needed water-project funding for the White Mountain Apache tribe had been expected to pass easily this week but instead became the focus of a partisan fight over labor regulations. Democrats accused Republicans of holding the bill hostage in order to pass unpalatable legislation that would exempt tribal-run businesses,.

WASHINGTON – Recovery from the Great Recession has been slow in much of Arizona, but in Indian Country the pace has been glacial. A decade after the start of the recession, Native Americans posted poverty and unemployment numbers that were more than twice the overall state average, and per capita incomes that were less than.

WASHINGTON – Tribal groups reacted swiftly Monday after President Donald Trump used an event honoring Native American Code Talkers to call a Democratic senator “Pocahontas,” what critics called a slur that marred an otherwise positive event. The comment came during an Oval Office event during which Trump largely heaped praise on the Code Talkers, Native.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission is moving to rein in a low-cost telephone service for low-income customers that critics say will hit Indian Country hard if fully implemented. But FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and other supporters say the reforms would close the digital divide between urban and rural Americans by ending “ongoing waste, fraud.

WASHINGTON – A White Mountain Apache leader told House members Thursday that the tribe desperately needs to “replace the failing and terminal groundwater well system,” but that current Interior Department regulations are preventing the tribe from moving forward on the project. Tribe Vice Chairman Kasey Velasquez told a House Natural Resources subcommittee that Interior officials.

WASHINGTON – A day before House Republicans were expected to unveil their plan to overhaul the tax code, tribal leaders and senators complained Wednesday that Indian Country once again does not have a seat at the table. Tribal leaders told members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that tribes struggle with economic growth because.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has refused to hear an Arizona case that pitted a non-Indian mother and Indian father against one another in a fight for custody of their children. The decision Monday lets stand lower court rulings that invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 federal law that aimed to keep the.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders backed a House bill Wednesday that would give tribes the ability to control more of their land, instead of having to get federal approval for virtually any use. The American Indian Empowerment Act would let tribes shift federally controlled trust land to “restricted fee land,” a move that could save millions.

WASHINGTON – Navajo leaders expressed hope Monday that the Navajo Generating Station will be able to continue operations past 2019, after Peabody Energy said it had come up with a list of potential investors in the plant. Peabody, which mines the coal to power the plant, did not identify the prospective buyers it presented to.

PHOENIX — Law students, professors and tribal members gathered recently at the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law in downtown Phoenix to watch the new documentary “Tribal Justice.” The documentary features two chief judges from tribes in Arizona and California, and highlights some of the issues found on reservations, including lack of federal funding and guardianship.

WASHINGTON – Sex-trafficking in Indian Country is a significant problem, with tribal women and children suffering at higher rates than the general population, a panel of experts and activists told a Senate committee Wednesday. Witnesses told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that tribes experience risk factors that can lead to victimization more often than other.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of federal agencies serving Indian Country told a Senate panel Wednesday they have made some progress on dozens of problems cited in Government Accountability Office audits, but lawmakers said much more needs to be done. The GAO put the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education and Indian Health Services.

WASHINGTON – Federal agencies that oversee tribal schools, lands and health care still suffer from weak leadership, a lack of oversight and mismanaged resources, despite nearly a decade of prodding from the Government Accountability Office. That lack of progress landed the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education and Indian Health Services on.

WASHINGTON – Families in more than half of Native American homes in Arizona now speak only English at home, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey data covering 2011-2015 showed that 53 percent of people who identified as American Indian in the state said they speak only English at home,.

SCOTTSDALE — To appreciate the spirit of the Lori Piestewa National Native American Games is to understand what occurs beyond the competition. Last year, when an accomplished club basketball team from Scottsdale prepared to face a group from Chinle, a community in northeastern Arizona that is the heart of the Navajo Nation, it noticed its.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Navajo Nation Labor Commission can decide a labor dispute between state school districts and their employees at schools on Navajo land. The ruling by a divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a district court that said the tribe’s jurisdiction.

WASHINGTON – The lights will stay on at the Navajo Generating Station until 2019 as the Navajo Nation Council voted 18-4, after hours of debate Monday, for a new agreement with the plant’s operators. The new lease agreement allows for decades of decommissioning work to begin in 2019 and includes amendments giving the tribe control.

WASHINGTON – Native American advocates vowed Monday to continue their fight against the “racist” name of the Washington Redskins, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that use of such names is protected by the First Amendment. The court’s ruling in an unrelated case struck down part of the trademark law that bars a trademark on.

WASHINGTON – The Interior Department has “not accomplished much” in its program to buy up marginal Indian lands and return them to tribes, despite spending two-thirds of a $1.9 billion fund for the program, a department official said recently. Acting Deputy Interior Secretary James Cason told a House Natural Resources subcommittee that at its current.

PHOENIX – Dena Wilson never doubted what she wanted to do with her life while growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her mother worked at the Indian Health Service as a social worker, and aside from a brief desire to be a bird in kindergarten, Wilson knew she wanted to.

WINDOW ROCK — “Béédaałniih: Diné bizaad bídahwiil’aah. Táadoo biligáana k’ehjí yádaalłti’í. Ahéhee’.” These are the first words that visitors see on a sign at the entrance of Tsé Hootsooí Diné Bi’ Olta’, an elementary immersion school that teaches the Navajo language to its 133 students on the capital of the Navajo Nation. In English, the.

WASHINGTON – State and tribal officials announced a settlement Wednesday of a long-running fight against the Tohono O’odham’s Desert Diamond Casino West Valley, which survived years of legal and legislative challenges before opening in 2015. Under the deal, the state will not block liquor or Class III “Las Vegas-style” gaming licenses for the tribe’s casino.

Kay Kisto remembers coming out in drag for the first time, wearing a dress in a parade on the Gila River Indian Reservation. “It was a liberating day, coming out in broad daylight in full drag,” said Kisto, who is transgender and lives as a woman. This was especially so, Kisto said, because she was.

Hopi Jr./Sr. High School, one of the few high schools serving students on the Hopi Reservation in Northern Arizona, has hired investigators to examine its special education program, according to Bertha Parker, a public relations consultant representing the school. In an email, Parker said the investigators are Joanne C. Phillips, the president of consulting company.

PHOENIX – Doctors diagnosed Greggory Ohannessian with autism, a disorder characterized by challenges with speech and social skills, when he was 6 years old. Throughout his teen years, aids assisted him in school. In college, his sister helped him with social cues in the classroom. Now, he’s a motivational speaker. He served as the keynote.

WASHINGTON – Alton Villegas offered an unusual call to action Wednesday for an 11-year-old boy: “Destroy the ice cream man.” Alton is a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community where nearly 10 percent of tribal members have Type 2 diabetes, including members of his family. “My mom and my grandma have diabetes, a.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders called on Congress Wednesday to exempt their governments and government-run businesses from oversight by the National Labor Relations Board, a right they said is enjoyed by every other government in the country. Navajo Nation Council Delegate Nathaniel Brown and others told a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee that the Tribal.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court rejected two cases related to the Navajo Generating Station, one that aimed to tighten environmental restrictions on the coal-fired power plant and another questioned the process that calls for the plant’s closure. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday turned away an argument.

SAN CARLOS – It’s a chilly Friday morning on highway AZ-170 on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Thick clouds fill the sky, with slivers of sunshine breaking through here and there. Outside of the tribal administration building, someone shouts a 15-minute warning before march time. People pack up their gear, stop by the restroom,.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s proposal for a southwestern border wall would do more than separate two nations – it would split another nation in half, say tribal advocates. The Tohono O’odham reservation straddles the border with Mexico, with members on both sides of the boundary who cross regularly for many reasons, including for traditional.

WASHINGTON – Despite pledges to look for alternatives, closing the Navajo Generating Station in Page could devastate the local economy, where hundreds of jobs rely on the plant and affiliated coal mine and where experts see few, if any, workable solutions. To replace the 800 jobs that would be lost at the plant and the.

WASHINGTON – The superintendent for Navajo schools said “alarming” calls for the Trump administration to eliminate Head Start funding could leave tribal children without preschool programs or the education resources they desperately need to succeed. Diné Superintendent Tommy Lewis made the comments Wednesday during a wide-ranging interview in Washington that touched on his fears for.

WASHINGTON – The owners of the Navajo Generating Station in Page voted today to keep the plant operating until its lease ends in December 2019, pending agreement with the Navajo Nation on reclamation of the site. The coal-fired plant has been under financial pressure from historically low natural gas prices, but closing it would mean.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders said they hope to see a continuation of the gains in tribal and federal relations under the Trump administration that they said began during the administration of President Barack Obama. National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby said Monday in the annual State of Indian Nations address that Obama fostered.

MESA – Shawn Jordan had traveled five hours to Church Rock, New Mexico, in the Navajo Nation. It was his first time on the Navajo reservation. Jordan, an assistant professor of engineering education at Arizona State University, was there to judge a science fair. One project stuck with him: a seventh-grade girl’s experiment on how.

WASHINGTON – Multiple federal agencies were unable to provide disaster relief to the Navajo Nation after the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster that spilled 3 million gallons of toxins into the Animas River, the tribe’s president told a Senate panel Wednesday. President Russell Begaye said in testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that when.

WASHINGTON – With record-low natural gas prices continuing to undercut coal, owners of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station in Page could decide this spring whether they can afford to keep operating the plant or have to shut it down. A shutdown would be at least two years off, but it would mean the loss of.

KAYENTA – Electrical power lines are nowhere in sight from Helen Salazar’s home. She lives on a dirt road in Monument Valley, part of the Navajo Nation. Throughout her life, Salazar has adapted to the challenges of living in a remote, off-grid home. She uses an ice chest to help perishable foods last longer, makes.

PHOENIX — A statue of a Yaqui, wearing traditional garb and performing a ceremonial dance, graces the entrance to the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Complex in Guadalupe, where Vice-Mayor Anita Cota and Councilman Ricardo Vital work. The statue is symbolic of the unique nature of Guadalupe, a small town bursting at the seams with a cultural.

TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION – On a cloudless morning in the southern Arizona town of Sells, Native Americans from across the state braced 40-degree temperatures to wrangle livestock and stay atop violently-gyrating bulls. As the participants of the All Indian Masters Rodeo displayed their skill, a banner advertising job openings with the U.S. Border Patrol hung.

WASHINGTON – Peter MacDonald Sr. is a Navajo code talker, a lifelong Republican – and an unabashed supporter of President Donald Trump. “The Navajo tribe, like most Indian tribes, is very conservative,” said MacDonald, who was in Washington last week to march in Trump’s inaugural parade. He said Thursday that the Navajo philosophy, “to do.

Nine students in the Havasupai Nation have filed a lawsuit against the federal government claiming that agencies including the Bureau of Indian Education “have knowingly failed to provide basic general education” to children in the remote area of Arizona. The suit revolves around Havasupai Elementary in the small village of Supai within the Grand Canyon,.

SUPERIOR – Oak Flat, a desert landscape and 90-minute drive outside Phoenix, lies in the midst of an environmental and economic controversy. Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe revere the federally owned land as sacred. Environmentalists consider it a sanctuary for wildlife and vegetation. Climbers, hikers and campers gravitate to Oak Flat for outdoor.

WASHINGTON – Classic French, Italian and Japanese food are all highly regarded in the culinary community, but traditional Native American dishes? “Where are the classic dishes that Native people have been making?” asks chef Freddie Bitsoie, executive chef at Mitsitam Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. “I want to.

Cronkite News reports on vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s final push in Arizona, unique problems Native Americans encounter when voting and a stylist who is using leftover hair to save the environment.

PHOENIX – Crispy corn dogs skewered on greasy sticks, Ferris wheels towering above the crowd, and toddler-sized teddy bears coveted as carnival-game prizes dominate Arizona State Fair culture. But one group is slipping in a glimpse of something more. Native Spirit members dance, chant and joke to debunk Native American stereotypes in several daily performances.

Cronkite News brings you the top Native American issues stories from this year, including land conservation, tribal rights, Navajo education and more.

PHOENIX – As a child, Renae Yellowhorse chased birds through the sagebrush on the Navajo reservation along the edge of the Grand Canyon. She remembers her great-grandmother talking reverently about the canyon. Yellowhorse considers the confluence of two rivers that run through the Grand Canyon as sacred space, where a storied past needs to be.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama told tribal leaders Monday that they and his administration had come far since he took office eight years ago, but that there is still work to be done to solve problems in Indian Country. “We haven’t solved every issue, we haven’t righted every wrong,” Obama told the hundreds gathered for.

PHOENIX – Native American tribal leaders, archaeologists and Congressman Raúl Grijalva are seeking to designate more than 84,000 acres curving along the Gila River as a national monument. Grijalva introduced federal legislation to create the monument in southwest Arizona, starting west of Buckeye and extending 80 miles along some of the most arid areas of.

Despite decades of progress since Native Americans gained the right to vote, some decisions by county officials continue to make it more difficult for people who live on reservations to cast ballots. Click here to read more. (Video by Mike Lakusiak/News21)

SAN JUAN COUNTY, Utah – Terry Whitehat remembers gathering at the community hall in Navajo Mountain each election day, where Navajo Nation members in this remote Utah community would cast their ballots. The tribal members would catch up with friends and family and eat food under the cottonwood trees in the parking lot. So when.

LAVEEN – A deal to trade Colorado River water for reclaimed water to irrigate fields on the Gila River Indian Community has been the source of a months-long battle between the Pii Paash people and the larger Gila River community. Concerned for potential health risks for themselves and the surrounding wildlife, the Pii Paash voted.

WASHINGTON – Cigarette use by Native Americans, already the highest in the nation, grew to 38.9 percent at a time when most other ethnic groups saw their rates dropping, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday. The report said smoking by Native American and Alaska Native adults grew from 37.1.

PHILADELPHIA – Edward Manuel ticks off the issues – water shortages, federal approval of mining projects, allocation of scarce resources – all decisions made with what he thinks is insufficient input from the nation’s tribes. That’s why Manuel, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, joined scores of tribal leaders who called on the next.

WASHINGTON – Billie Jo Rich never imagined she would be telling anyone her story of surviving domestic violence – much less a room with hundreds of people. But the Eastern Band Cherokee woman took to the stage again Tuesday night, as she has for the last three years, telling her story alongside other victims who.

As the battle over whether or not to rename the NFL football team rages on, Cronkite News wants input from Arizonans about the controversial mascot. A recent poll conducted by The Washington Post claims that 90 percent of Native Americans don’t find the Washington Redskins name offensive. Cronkite News recently reported opponents of the name.

WASHINGTON – Critics of the Washington Redskins said Friday they will continue fighting to change “the slur name” of the team, despite a Washington Post poll that claimed 90 percent of Native Americans are not offended by the name. “The poll is an attack on Native Americans. It shames those who have been damaged by.

WASHINGTON – Rape and domestic violence against Native women have reached “epidemic proportions,” but the hotlines that could help are often unprepared for the unique cultural needs of tribal women who may live in rural areas with little support and a bewildering legal system. But that could be changing. Sometime this year, the National Domestic.

WASHINGTON – They come across the Arizona border in search of a better life, hundreds of them every year, leaving behind a native country where they no longer feel safe. India. Arizona leads the nation in the number of deportation hearings for immigrants from India, according to an analysis of Department of Homeland Security data.

Four major professional sports teams. Four professional sports venues. Nine different names. Phoenix is one of 13 metropolitan areas across the U.S. that is home to a team from each of the four major professional sports leagues. But thanks to corporate consolidation, increasing scrutiny on the return on sports marketing and a narrow market for.

FLAGSTAFF — A cheer went up in Macy’s European Coffeehouse and Bakery in this small mountain city on Tuesday morning as Bernie Sanders walked in with an entourage of media outlets and Secret Service agents. The presidential hopeful has been upping his efforts in Arizona, which with its 75 delegates could take Sanders a step.

As thousands of people lined up around the Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday afternoon to hear presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speak, they could hear the constant beat of drums outside. Native American activists had converged to show their support of the Vermont senator. They held up banners. They danced. They chanted. “We’re here to support Bernie.

AVONDALE – There weren’t more than a dozen people in attendance when Michael McDowell took the stage for his appearance in front of fans Sunday morning at Phoenix International Raceway. The VIP tent was filling up before the Good Sam 500, but McDowell knew it wasn’t for him. NASCAR stars Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and.

TUCSON – Popular culture often depicts Native Americans as drunks and binge drinkers. But a recent study by University of Arizona researchers may help debunk some of those stereotypes. The researchers examined alcohol use among Native Americans and weighed those results against the use among white people. They found alcohol use “comparable” among the two.

TUCSON – Learning a new language can be hard, especially when the language is as scarce and complicated as the Navajo language. Aresta La Russo, a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona, has taught Navajo since 2010. Over the years, La Russo said she has seen technology improve the way she teaches students and.

FLAGSTAFF – Sunlight shoots through the window of a Flagstaff studio, casting a spotlight on Gregory Hill – specifically on his hands. They’re burned and worn from carving toy tops. Hill, who is part Hopi and Quechan, often works on his trade 19 hours a day to keep up with demand for his tops. “A.

WASHINGTON – Four of five adult Native Americans in Arizona were obese or overweight in 2013, the highest rate in the nation among states studied in a new report. “The State of Obesity 2015,” by the Trust for America’s Health, said 81 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives in Arizona were obese or overweight.

For the second straight year, downtown Phoenix will come alive with an invasion of football fans. Only this time, they will be fans of the collegiate – not the professional – game. With Arizona hosting the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 11, the city of Phoenix and the Ak-Chin Indian Community.

WINDOW ROCK — At 5:15 a.m., sunrise is only a thin pale highlight over red rock mesas in the east as Alicia Hale steps out of her house for her daily run. Even in June, the morning is so chilly at an altitude of almost 7,000 feet that she needs several layers to stay warm..

WASHINGTON – Brooke Overturf of Window Rock was momentarily flustered as she stood holding hands Thursday with Michelle Obama, while hundreds of other Native American youth crowded around, hoping for a handshake. But the Navajo 19-year-old quickly recovered and pulled a turquoise ring from her hand to give to the first lady. “I told my.

WASHINGTON – In the six months since Christmas, 11 young people have committed suicide and another 379 have tried to do so on the Pine Ridge reservation, said Oglala Sioux Council member Collins Clifford. “Whenever we lose one child, it hurts the spirit and the soul of every one of our people,” Clifford told the.

WASHINGTON – Manley Begay Jr. stood surrounded by boxes “stacked to the ceiling” that were filled with the remains of more than 1,000 Native Americans, when one label caught his eye. Canyon Del Muerte. It was where Begay’s family took their livestock to winter on the Navajo Nation. But here, at the Peabody Museum of.