Navajo Nation

Tribal attorneys nationwide are concerned about a recent Supreme Court ruling on Navajo Nation water rights. An attorney for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe says the ruling calls into question the trustee relationship between tribes and the federal government.

In June, the Biden Administration placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands within a ten-mile radius of Chaco Canyon National Park. The drilling ban is part of an effort to preserve historical sites in and around Chaco Canyon, and it was prompted by advocacy from tribal people. But Navajo landowners in the region are split over the decision.

Last month, the Cove Chapter of the Navajo Nation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency held a community meeting on the EPA’s proposal to add nearby uranium mines to its Superfund National Priorities List. If the proposal goes through, it would be the first site on the Navajo Nation to be added to the list. The mines are located in the Lukachukai Mountain Mining District in northeastern Arizona. Cove Chapter President James Benally says that waste from the mines has led to the contamination of waterways and livestock in the area.

On June 2, the Biden administration placed a 20-year moratorium on new oil, gas, and mineral development in a 10-mile radius around Chaco Canyon national park. While several tribes supported the decision, the decision upset leaders of the Navajo Nation.

Last month, Navajo Nation officials launched Operation Rainbow Bridge, a program designed to help Navajo citizens caught up in fraudulent rehab centers that cheated Arizona’s Medicaid program millions of dollars by preying on and scamming Indigenous people. Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch says that in Navajo culture, a rainbow is used to indicate movement from place to place, hence the operation’s name. Governor Katie Hobbs announced in May that the state would take action against over 100 of these predatory sober living homes, which have sent recruiters to tribal communities across the western United States, targeting the unhoused and those struggling with substance abuse, and taking them to facilities in the Phoenix area. And the Colorado Board of Education informally chose the state’s new education commissioner last week.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Cove Chapter of the Navajo Nation and the Environmental Protection Agency held a community meeting on the EPA’s proposal to add nearby uranium mines to its Superfund National Priorities List. The mines are located in the Lukachukai Mountain Mining District in northeastern Arizona. According to Kenyon Larsen, a remedial project manager for the EPA, for years, they’ve been working to address the dozens of uranium waste piles in the district, which have contaminated groundwater and killed livestock in Cove and surrounding areas. And Governor Polis signed two measures into law Wednesday that will impact property taxes in the state.

On Friday, victims advocates held a walk in downtown Phoenix to raise awareness about predatory sober living homes targeting Indigenous communities like the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado. Advocate Reva Stewart, whose cousin was taken by a group home recruiter from New Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona, says that recruiters often look for unhoused people in tribal communities, or those struggling with substance abuse. But Stewart says that a change made last week to Arizona’s Medicaid program closed a loophole that the group homes were exploiting. And today is the last day of Colorado’s legislative session.

In Four Corners tribal communities like the Navajo Nation, scammers working for predatory treatment homes are targeting Indigenous people, taking them to pop-up rehabs in Arizona. Victims advocates like Reva Stewart are trying to raise awareness about this issue by holding a walk in downtown Phoenix on Friday, May 5.The rehabs, which are supposed to be regulated by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or “Access,” (AHCCCS) target vulnerable individuals in tribal communities, like those who are struggling with substance and alcohol abuse, or who are unsheltered.

A pulmonologist at Miners’ Colfax Medical Center in New Mexico says there’s a statewide shortage of health professionals who are involved in the care of coal miners, especially those who have black lung disease. According to Dr. Akshay Sood, the Miners’ Colfax Medical Center Endowed Chair at the University of New Mexico, he is the state’s only Department of Labor 413(b) physician. That means he’s the only one authorized to evaluate whether or not coal miners in New Mexico are disabled enough by black lung disease to pass those findings on to a claims examiner, so they have a chance to get compensation.

In Upper Fruitland, New Mexico, an informational meeting was held on federal benefits available to some miners who have black lung disease. They say coal companies have mistreated them for decades.