Tribal Natural Resources News
Native American tribes around the West are making critical decisions regarding the management of their resources — land, water, fossil fuels and renewable resources. The Tribal Natural Resources Desk aims to produce objective reporting to tell stories of tribes empowering themselves through stewardship and decision-making around their resources.
Gary Tso reflects on three decades of Hopi dry farming his mother's corn and the spiritual lessons that come with living his faith on a single-acre field at the bottom of Second Mesa.
→ Hand-roasting Pima 60-Day Corn is hard and expensive, but essential to preserve heirloom products
→ Hand-roasting Pima 60-Day Corn is hard and expensive, but essential to preserve heirloom products
A federal appeals court has ruled against environmental groups and an Arizona tribe in their bid to keep a uranium mine south of the Grand Canyon from operating.
The federal infrastructure law funds mine reclamation projects in 22 states, but the Navajo Nation is the only tribe set to receive direct funding.
Amber Ortega was facing charges for entering and refusing to leave a closed area where workers were building former President Trump’s border wall. Sixteen months and two hearings after, she was found not guilty. It was hailed as an unexpected win for Native American religious freedoms.
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
→ More news from the Fronteras Desk
The Colorado River is in dire straits. It provides water to millions of us here in the arid Southwest, and ongoing drought driven by climate change is threatening its future. But one Arizona tribe is in a unique position: It has water to spare.
An Indigenous woman facing federal charges for blocking construction of former President Trump’s border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was found not guilty on religious freedom grounds.
→ Get more Fronteras Desk news
→ Get more Fronteras Desk news
Emergency management officials on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota have a new building, but they have been operating out of an old jail that's set to be torn down.
Officials with the Tonto National Forest are launching an improvement project to reduce the risk of wildfires. It will begin in February.
Tribal nations were once excluded from talks about how to divvy up the state’s water supply, but that has changed over the years.
The Bureau of Land Management will evaluate its policies on oil- and gas-rich lands near the Navajo Nation, surrounding Chaco Canyon National Historical Park.
The Navajo Nation’s tribal council has voted to send $2,000 checks to each qualified adult and $600 for each child using $557 million in federal coronavirus relief funds.
The massive infrastructure bill signed earlier this year promises to bring change to Native American tribes that lack clean water or indoor plumbing through the largest single infusion of money into Indian Country. It includes $3.5 billion for the federal Indian Health Service, which provides health care to more than 2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Arizona residents are facing water shortages as Colorado River water declines, but Navajo Nation members have been living without easy access to water for years. That’s why the federal government started building a drinking water system on the reservation.
Nearly half of tribal homes across the country don’t have steady access to clean water. Many in the Southwest rely on aging wells with polluted water, or truck in bottles from far away. In To'hajiilee, New Mexico, a Navajo community hopes a new pipeline from Albuquerque will remedy decades of struggle to get clean water.
The Colorado River Water Users’ Association ended last week with an agreement to find more ways to conserve water, and this year’s conference included tribal perspectives.
The Cocopah Indian Tribe has lived along the Colorado River delta for centuries. But drought, climate change and damming has transformed the once verdant stretch.
→ More Fronteras Desk news
→ More Fronteras Desk news
About 7,500 hardship assistance checks are unclaimed in the Navajo Nation. The deadline to use all funding that comes from the CARES Act is Dec. 31.
Work crews from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power are partnering with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to extend power lines to homes in several tribal communities.
→ More tribal natural resources stories
→ More tribal natural resources stories
Lake Mead is at historically low levels, and Arizona will take mandatory cuts to its Colorado River water supply starting in January. But one tribe that lives along the river’s banks along the Arizona-California border says it has enough supply to lease to other cities.
What do a poetry library director from Tucson, a Lipan Apache Earth scientist/YA novelist and a Tempe poet have in common? They are returning friends on this episode of "Word."
The bill comes amid historic low levels in Lake Mead and as Arizona faces a harsh water future. The state is set to take mandatory cuts to its share of Colorado River water starting in January.
