Indian Country Today National Southwest

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment and Santa Fe, a city of art and wonder, offered more than just business at the NIGA Mid-Year Membership meeting held at the Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino.

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation selected Frances Stout, a retired registered nurse and chairperson of the Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority in Sells, Ariz., to receive a Community Health Leaders Award.

BROOKS, Calif. – The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation won WateReuse’s 2009 Project of the Year Award for its Cache Creek Desalination Facility. Representatives accepted the award before an audience of hundreds of industry leaders Sept. 14 at the Annual WateReuse Symposium.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry EchoHawk received a standing ovation at the National Congress of American Indians’ annual conference after a speech marked by moments of intense emotion and repeated promises to stand up for Indian country.

TOHATCHI, N.M. – Fifth grader Darius Yazzie’s after-school chores include hauling water for horses and feeding chickens, while his classmate, Shanika Begay, rides a bus 15 miles each way through the rolling hills of this impoverished corner of the Navajo Nation.

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. – Accusing environmentalists of having an anti-Hopi agenda is a divisive “manufactured lie” by a pro-Peabody Western Coal Company tribal council, said a longstanding advocate for tribal control of Black Mesa, the site of massive strip mining operations.

This summer, the nonprofit Southern California Indian Center and its multimedia training and production initiative, InterTribal Entertainment, collaborated with the professional Acting Company Native Voices at the Autry to sponsor summer workshops for Native American youth in the Los Angeles area. The program was called “Sharing Our Stories: Young Native Voices Acting/Writing Workshops.”

The “pot-hunting” culture of the Southwest dates back to the 1800s, when a Colorado ranching family began exploring and excavating the ruined cliff dwellings of the Anasazi, an ancient civilization that flourished centuries ago.

LUBBOCK, Texas – After shining at the high school level, all indications say Ashley Brokeshoulder won’t have to wait long before she can start making a name for herself in the collegiate ranks.

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. – The battle waged against a major coal company by Hopi and Navajo activists and against large environmental groups by tribal officials has, at least temporarily, intensified the conflict playing out in northern Arizona over the control, preservation and use of cultural and natural resources.

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – An agreement that provides $1.75 million a year for construction of facilities and maintenance at Diné College has been renewed for 10 years.

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, formerly the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, gathered at the capitol building in Sacramento, Calif. Sept. 25.

LEUPP, Ariz. – When Ralph Drake was growing up on Navajo Mountain, Utah, he lived a life so remotely disconnected from the rest of the world he didn’t know anything existed beyond the deeply etched red canyon lands of the northern edge of Navajo.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – It started with the arrows. The iconic namesakes of Twin Arrows, once reduced to battered telephone poles leaning into the wind that sweeps across Interstate 40, now glisten red and gold, new heads and fletchings – tail feathers – in place after a recent volunteer restoration effort.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Soon academics from all scientific fields will engage in discourse on how exploring new and original research across different disciplines advances knowledge of the human condition while providing solutions to problems and limitations impacting human potential. Scientists and their research from emerging fields of study will be highlighted at this year’s SACNAS conference.

VALLEY CENTER, Calif. – Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort has diverted more than 400 tons of recyclables, reduced Styrofoam use by 25 percent and cleaned up more than eight miles of San Diego County beaches. These conservation efforts are the result of the employee driven Green Committee, which meets bi-weekly in support of the company’s CODEGreen Commitment.

BROOKS, Calif. – The Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians have legally changed its name to Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. Yocha Dehe – pronounced “YO-cha DEE-hee” – is the tribe’s ancestral name meaning “home by the spring water” in their native Patwin language, a reflection of the actual place their ancestors lived.

TUCSON, Ariz. – As a result of this year’s first round of cuts to its annual state budget allotment, Arizona State Museum has canceled its annual Southwest Indian Art Fair for 2010. This would have been the museum’s 17th annual.

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – On June 21, multiple Indian National Rodeo Champion Preston Williams (Piute/Shoshone), won the 2009 title of “The World’s Greatest Roper” and the $25,000 cash prize presented by Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nev.

SAN FRANCISCO – “Power Paths” follows the efforts of American Indian tribes as they explore ways to bring renewable energy projects into their communities. From the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains in the Midwest to the Navajo and Hopi of the Southwest, tribes are fighting to protect their land, air and water from the harmful impacts of mining and coal burning and lead the nation in transitioning to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.