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Three generations of Anita Yellowhair’s family, including her daughter, Noel Alvarez, left, and her granddaughter, Sierra Alvarez. Each generation has been impacted in some way by intergenerational trauma.

Over 60 years later, boarding school survivor Anita Yellowhair shares her story of 10 years at the Intermountain Indian School, one of thousands of children taken from their home to one of more than 400 boarding schools, where they would learn how to live the white man’s way. Read more»

The Navajo Nation was hit by severe winter storms in January that caused heavy snow, flooding and mud.

The Navajo Nation will receive federal emergency aid to help the tribe recover from severe winter storms in January tat resulted in heavy snow, flooding and mud that blocked and destroyed roads and isolated families from resources. Read more»

Dozens of states that have recently adopted or introduced laws or policies that take aim at critical race theory, and anti-CRT efforts to restrict how race is taught have clashed with initiatives to teach Native American history more accurately and fully. Read more»

Peter Yucupicio, the chairman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, signs an agreement on Tuesday that the tribe will work with Arizona Department of Child Safety when the tribe's children are in state custody. DCS Director Mike Faust is to his right and Herminia Frias, a tribal councilwoman, stands behind him.

Worried about a pending U.S. Supreme Court case, Arizona and other states aim to pass new laws ensuring American Indian children can stay in their tribal communities even if they’re placed in the child welfare system. Read more»

Former Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly.

Former Navajo Nation President and Council Delegate Ben Shelly died on March 22 from a long-term illness at 75. Read more»

Navajo President Buu Nygren stands behind Navajo Code Talker Peter MacDonald, in wheelchair, outside the Supreme Court, where justices heard the tribe’s challenge to the federal government’s handling of tribal water rights.

Supreme Court justices pressed government attorneys Monday on their argument that the treaties that put the Navajo on reservation lands implied an intent – but not a duty – for the government to provide water to the tribe. Read more»

Legal fights over Colorado River water have been going on for more than a century but the latest challenge, from the Navajo Nation, comes in the midst of a historic drought that has sent reservoir levels in the river basin plunging to historic lows, as seen in this July 2022 photo of Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam.

When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, it will be considering fairly technical legal questions, but the answers could have a large impact on water allocation in the Colorado River basin. Read more»

A screenshot from the briefing in the case shows the Navajo reservation situated between Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

The fight for water in the West heads to the Supreme Court next week where the justices will decide if Arizona has a duty to give the Navajo Nation a share of the region's most precious resource - recognition of their water rights to the Colorado River. Read more»

Peterson Zah gives a speech at Diné College on April 7, 2017.

Former Navajo President, 85, Peterson Zah, died Tuesday at his home in Window Rock, Arizona, after a lengthy illness. Read more»

Phoenix police officers during a traffic stop on Nov. 13, 2017 in South Phoenix.

Arizona police departments have been struggling for years to hire enough officers, but one Republican legislator says that’s no reason the state shouldn’t require that they respond to calls sooner — and punish them if they don’t hit the state mandate. Read more»

The mask mandate was first implemented in April 2020 by then-Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who shared his concern about the lifted mandate on social media shortly after it was announced.

Almost three years after it was instituted to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Navajo Nation has lifted its mask mandate, making mask use optional in public spaces and businesses for the general public, and is now considered fully reopened to the general public. Read more»

Navajo Nation President-elect Buu Nygren celebrates his victory by shouting to his supporters on election night. Joining him, from left to right, were his wife, State Rep. Jasmine Blackwater Nygren, Navajo Nation Vice President-elect Richelle Montoya Chee, and her husband, Olsen Chee.

New Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Vice President Richelle Montoya were sworn into office Tuesday, along with the Council delegates who were elected in November. Read more»

'It was a big scare at that time,' Valentina Nez of Tonalea says, referring to the early days of the pandemic. She received a booster shot at the Tuba City Regional Health Care mobile medical unit.

Newly compiled data reveals how severely the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Indigenous communities in Arizona at the onset of the pandemic, and it shows how the community’s response helped reverse the trends in 2021.  Read more»

Victoria Gonzales holds a photo of her late son Adrian Shan Gonzales (right) standing next to her youngest son. Gonzales shared her story about her son’s slaying with the House Ad Hoc Committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples on Dec. 19, 2022.

After hearing from Indigenous community members about how the missing and murdered Indigenous peoples crisis has impacted them, the Arizona House Ad Hoc Committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples outlined new recommendations for addressing the issue. Read more»

President Jonathan Nez (center), his Chief of Staff Paulson Chaco (left) and First Lady Perphelia Nez (right) take notes during discussions following the State of the Nation address at the Navajo Nation Council on Oct. 21, 2019.

Arizona has never elected an Indigenous person to Congress, but the demographics of Congressional District 2 lends itself to the possibility of electing the first Indigenous person to represent Arizona in Congress in 2024. Read more»

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