Native American Affairs

Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores (left), Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (right) sign an historic water rights agreement on Friday, April 26, 2024.
The Interior Department, Arizona and Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) signed a trilateral agreement along the banks of the Colorado River on Friday.
More from the Tribal Natural Resources desk
Apr. 26, 2024
Oak Flat
An Arizona tribe has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reopen the Apache Stronghold case. The court upheld a ruling last month that the site of the planned Resolution Copper mine is not subject to laws protecting religious freedom.
Apr. 26, 2024
Man with glasses and turquoise jewelry gestures
The suicide mortality rate for American Indian/Alaska Native individuals (39.7 suicides per 100,000 population) was the highest of any racial and ethnic group in Arizona in 2021, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Apr. 26, 2024
Beverly Maxwell and her youngest son, Jake, are setting up metal gates to pen their beef cattle and horses in atop her hilly homestead in Shiprock.
Navajo farmers and ranchers, like the Maxwell family, have raised concerns over the long-lasting environmental and ecological impacts on vegetation and groundwater around that contaminated site near the San Juan River months after over 1,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled in Shiprock, New Mexico.
More tribal natural resoures stories
Apr. 25, 2024
Running Horse Pipeline got punctured while an operator was grading Indian Route 5071 in December 2023.
Back in December, a severe spill of crude oil on the Navajo Nation contaminated the land. Remediation efforts are still underway, but this accident has a silver lining, one that may facilitate faster emergency responses on the largest reservation in the U.S.
Apr. 25, 2024
Grand Canyon National Park
Native American tribes have filed motions to weigh in on the federal court battles over the new national monument near Grand Canyon National Park.
Apr. 25, 2024
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks to a group of reporters from the North American Agricultural Journalists in Washington, D.C.
These formal consultations with leaders from among the 574 federally-recognized tribes will focus on a lot of topics, including, economic development, trade, food safety, farming, ranching, conservation as well as forests and public land management.
Apr. 23, 2024
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Screenings of the new film focused on Grand Canyon National Park’s tribal communities are scheduled for Wednesday at the Grand Canyon National Park Visitor Center.
Apr. 23, 2024
Navajo Nation president's office
The Navajo Nation and Gila River Indian Community were named alongside more than 100 inaugural members participating in “The America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge,” an initiative that is intended to restore the country’s waterways.
Apr. 23, 2024
Pinyon Plain Mine
Conservation groups have asked the U.S. Forest Service to lay out how it will manage mined uranium as it’s transported across northern Arizona. KJZZ posed those concerns to Energy Fuels, the company that owns the Pinyon Plain Mine just south of the Grand Canyon.
Apr. 22, 2024
A herd of free-range sheep are crossing a 'Light Up Navajo' construction site at Cornfields in April 2024.
More than 250 volunteers from 41 utilities across 16 states are expected to travel between now and July to the largest reservation in the U.S. to donate their time and talents during the fourth annual Light Up Navajo mutual aid project.
More tribal natural resoures stories
Apr. 19, 2024
A room in the emergency department of Banner University Medical Center
A new, national report that looks at health outcomes of Americans found considerable disparities between white and nonwhite individuals — even in high-performing states like Massachusetts. In Arizona, those disparities are even more dramatic.
Apr. 19, 2024
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren
The president of the Navajo Nation said he wants the tribal government to pass uranium transportation regulations to restrict uranium from being transported across tribal lands.
Apr. 17, 2024
gavel in front of a statue of the scales of justice
A federal judge has rejected a request by Native American tribes and environmentalists to stop work on a $10 billion electricity transmission line slated to run through a remote valley in southern Arizona.
Apr. 17, 2024
Chelsea Curtis
In the last few years, we’ve seen more attention paid to a devastating — and evasive — issue for Indigenous communities: missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and transgender people. Reporter Chelsea Curtis is working to change it.
Apr. 17, 2024
Mural of kids
Diné College is one of 14 tribal grant recipients from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund projects that recognize the traumatic legacies of federally run boarding schools.
Apr. 12, 2024
Man in cowboy hat and glasses talks
Indigenous leaders including Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose said they left the hearing, chaired by U.S Rep. Paul Gosar, afraid it was just another “check-a-box-off” exercise.
Apr. 11, 2024
Cardiac Canyon stretches for 2.5 miles and is part of Antelope Canyon near Page.
“Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon” premiered at the Phoenix Film Festival and tells the story of Hastiin Tadidinii — whose name translates to "Corn Pollen Man" and who avoided the Long Walk forced on the Navajos starting in 1863.
Apr. 10, 2024
Bad Indian poster and headshot of Joe Raffa
A new documentary premiering at the Phoenix Film Festival focuses on a Diné family in habiting Antelope Canyon. KJZZ host Tom Maxedon sat down with Joe Raffa, the the director of "Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon," to learn more.
Apr. 9, 2024
Alex Soto, director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center, emcees the grand opening of a new space at Hayden Hall on the Tempe campus.
Last Wednesday, Arizona State University held an open house at Hayden Hall on the Tempe campus to honor a new space for the Labriola National Indian Data Center.
Apr. 8, 2024

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