News

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Due to increased fire danger and for public safety, Kaibab and Coconino national forests will elevate to Stage 2 fire restrictions beginning 8 a.m. Thursday, May 26.

The Navajo Nation shared concerns over the lack of communication by the National Park Service for safety upgrades at the Antelope Point Mariana in Page, Arizona.

The Hopi Tribe and the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) have agreed to work together to better police the reservation.

On May 6, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland appointed Colonel Heston Silbert, Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS), to serve on the Not Invisible Act Joint Commission on Reducing Violent Crime Against American Indians and Alaska Natives.

On May 18, the U.S. Senate confirmed 51-45 Sunshine Suzanne Sykes, 48, who becomes the first Native judge in California’s history. Sykes who is Diné, is also only the seventh Indigenous federal judge named to the bench.

The Office of Miss Navajo Nation and Miss Navajo Nation 2021-2022 Niagara Rockbridge announced contestant recruitment for the 70th annual Miss Navajo Nation Pageant.

A Navajo Nation official told a Senate panel last week that the tribe’s police department lacks the resources to attract and retain officers, a problem that experts say is faced by tribal police departments across the country.

A first-of-its-kind federal study of Native American boarding schools that for over a century sought to assimilate Indigenous children into white society has identified more than 400 such schools that were supported by the U.S. government and more than 50 associated burial sites, a figure that could grow exponentially as research continues.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian will dedicate the National Native American Veterans Memorial Nov. 11 in Washington D.C.

The park has confirmed norovirus from at least one rafting trip. Reported symptoms include nausea, stomach cramping/pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

On May 12, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez provided testimony in support of Congressional bills that will deliver more clean water to Navajo communities.

The Village of Tewa Board of Directors, the governing body for the Village of Tewa, has filed a lawsuit in Hopi Tribal Court against the individuals responsible for an insurrection that took place at the Village of Tewa administration building on September 28, 2021.

The Navajo Police Department Proactive Crime Enforcement Unit (PACE) continues to work with Navajo Nation Police districts in response to community concerns regarding drug and alcohol (bootlegging) activities.

Mary Francis had no qualms about being a poster child for COVID-19 vaccinations on the Navajo Nation, once a virus hot spot. The Navajo woman's face and words grace a digital flyer asking people on the Native American reservation to get vaccinated "to protect the shidine'e (my people)."

Krystal Curley is a mother to three girls.

Since the closure of the Peabody Black Mesa coal mine near the four corners region in northeast Arizona, the Navajo Nation has established a transition from coal to renewable energy sources, like solar power.

Officials from Energy Fuels Resources said that environmentalists and some Arizona tribes claim that their work at a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon will contaminate underground aquifers, is unsubstantiated.

Environmentalists are upset that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) approved an aquifer protection permit April 28 for a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park.

The Navajo Nation election season has revved up with several candidates — including incumbent Jonathan Nez, Buu Van Nygren and Ethel Branch and others — announcing their bid to become president for one of the largest Indigenous nations in the country.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) announced April 27 it will provide a tuition-free college education for every Arizona resident with a household income of $65,000 or below.

The New Mexico State Police responded to an officer-involved shooting April 16 near Prewitt, that left one person deceased — a suspect in an out-of-state homicide.

Beginning May 5 at 8 a.m., Stage 1 fire and smoking restrictions will be in effect on the Williams and Tusayan Districts (aka “South Zone”) of the Kaibab National Forest and the entirety of the Coconino National Forest.

More than 3,000 firefighters were battling fires in Arizona and New Mexico on April 29 — about half of those in northeast New Mexico, where more than 187 square miles of mostly timber and brush has been charred.

Containment of the Tunnel Fire increased to 20 percent Monday evening as firefighters continued to secure the fire’s perimeter and remove any heat near the control lines.

According to the Navajo Nation Animal Control, there are more than 3,000 individuals treated each year by Indian Health Services and local clinics for animal attacks and bites on the Navajo Nation. Most of these individuals are children and the elderly.