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.
Ganado is home to Sage Memorial Hospital, a Native-managed comprehensive health care system serving thousands of people in surrounding Navajo communities. It had been operating out of the same facilities since 1930 — until now.
May. 14, 2024
Many in the U.S. may celebrate Mother’s Day with brunch, flowers or a card. But every Mother’s Day weekend, one Navajo family has a more hands-on observance, filled with hard hard work to help preserve a centuries-old Diné custom that’s in decline today.
May 13, 2024
Members from the Navajo Nation and Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico are calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring a floor vote on an already-passed bipartisan Senate bill to renew aid for downwinders through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, which is set to expire next month.
May 13, 2024
The fourth jaguar spotted in Arizona since 2015 had been trekking across tribal lands south of Tucson. Now, nearly 1,000 Tohono O’odham tribal members, from students to elders, voted online and in-person to give that iconic animal a unique name.
May 12, 2024
There are plenty of dogs, cats and other stray animals on tribal reservations. These volunteers have made it their mission to take care of them, and one is getting national recognition.
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→ More tribal natural resources stories
May 6, 2024
More than 800 Mohave Community College students are set to graduate on Friday, and a special tribal guest has been invited to speak at their commencement.
May 6, 2024
Today is May 4, which sounds like ‘May the Fourth Be With You’ to Star Wars fans, and one effort to help keep the Navajo language alive can be observed on this unofficial holiday, celebrated among fans of the iconic sci-fi franchise.
May 4, 2024
A new agreement between six tribes and the Upper Basin states might give their Colorado River proposal more weight as the federal government considers it alongside a proposal from the Lower Basin states, which includes Arizona.
April 30, 2024
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.
April 29, 2024
The Interior Department, Arizona and Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) signed a trilateral agreement along the banks of the Colorado River on Friday.
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→ More from the Tribal Natural Resources desk
April 27, 2024
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.
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→ More tribal natural resources stories
April 26, 2024
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.
April 25, 2024
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.
April 24, 2024
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.
April 23, 2024
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.
April 23, 2024
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.
April 23, 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.
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→ More tribal natural resoures stories
April 22, 2024
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.
April 15, 2024
“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.
April 12, 2024
This historic gathering has attracted hundreds of experts, scholars, researchers and activists to southern Arizona to establish a national standard for Indigenous data governance and help tribal communities protect their traditional knowledge.
April 11, 2024
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.
April 10, 2024
