Arizona tribes’ long fight for share of Colorado River water nears resolution in Congress

WASHINGTON – Arizona tribal leaders welcome progress in Congress toward the settlement of long-standing fights for Colorado River water. Yavapai-Apache, Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute leaders met with senators to discuss the pending deals.


Navajo and other radiation, uranium mine survivors demand action on stalled RECA compensation program

WASHINGTON – Survivors of radiation exposure from Arizona and New Mexico protested in Washington and demanded a U.S. House vote on a compensation program that expired in June. The Navajo and Laguna Pueblo nations largely made up the group pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson.

Group of people holding signs during a protest about the effects of nuclear testing, with a prominent banner reading "Welcome Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee."

‘Bridge between the generations’: Miss Navajo Nation merges traditional and modern Diné customs

PHOENIX – Six contestants vied for the crown of Miss Navajo Nation, a pageant that celebrates Navajo culture and tradition, and imbues the winner as a role model in the country’s largest Native American tribal nation.

People processing meat under a canopy tent, watched by a crowd. The women wear colorful traditional clothing and use various tools on a table in front of them.

Certamen muestra tradiciones de la Nación Navajo

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Seis mujeres navajo compiten en el certamen de Miss Nación Navajo. La Nación Navajo es tradicionalmente una sociedad matriarcal; una tradición que se transmite a las mujeres de generación a generación.


Havasupai Tribe continues to oppose controversial uranium mine as Energy Fuels assures safety

PHOENIX – The Pinyon Plain uranium mine near the Grand Canyon has been under scrutiny, but Energy Fuels continues to say its operations are safe. Despite this, the Havasupai are continuing their decades-long fight against the mine.

Protesters voice their opposition to uranium hauling from the Pinyon Plain Mine on Aug. 4, 2024. (Photo by Blake McCord via Grand Canyon Trust)

Navajos will press U.S. House to revive aid for victims of bomb fallout and uranium mines

WASHINGTON – The Navajo Nation is planning a protest at the U.S. Capitol to pressure House Republicans to revive a program for victims of radiation exposure. The program has compensated tens of thousands of bomb test downwinders and uranium miners.


Navajo Nation strengthens rules on uranium transportation as negotiations continue with Energy Fuels Inc.

WASHINGTON – Navajo Nation adopts new regulations on transportation of uranium ore through tribal land as it continues negotiations with Energy Fuels Inc.


Apache trout, Arizona’s state fish, dropped from endangered species list after 50-year comeback

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Deb Haaland declared the state fish of Arizona no longer endangered on Wednesday. The comeback of the Apache trout is a conservation success story 50 years in the making, though advocates say the move is premature.

A person holds a large, speckled yellow and brown trout over rippling water, gently supporting it with spread fingers.

Proposed federal commission would investigate abuses at Native American boarding schools that operated until the 1970s

WASHINGTON – A move is underway in Congress to create a commission to expose abuses at Native American boarding schools.

Navajo Girls brought to a boarding school from Keams Canyon. Photo dated June 19, 1923. (Photo courtesy of Fort Apache Central Classified Files, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Archives)

Skateboarding gives Navajo and other Indigenous people an outlet for artistry and heritage

WASHINGTON – Skateboarders from the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous groups “shredded it” at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The sport has proven to be an outlet for artistry and heritage.

Di’Orr Greenwood with one of her handcrafted skateboards at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2024. (Photo by Brianna Chappie/Cronkite News)

Navajo uranium miners, people downwind of atom bomb tests demand justice as Congress lets aid program lapse

WASHINGTON – Congress let the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expire June 10, leaving Navajo uranium workers and people downwind of nuclear weapons tests furious.

The BADGER explosion on April 18, 1953, at the Nevada Test site (Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

Where the buffalo roamed: Bill would return herds to ancestral Native American lands

WASHINGTON – A bill pending in the Senate would help tribal governments in Arizona and around the U.S. reintroduce buffalo onto reservations where millions of their ancestors once roamed.

Buffalo in Custer State Park, SD, Sept. 2020. (Photo by Brianna Chappie)