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The left has romanticized and claimed guardianship over Native American peoples for years. Anecdotally, most of us who know Native Americans know they can't stand it. But now we are seeing a lot of instances of Native Americans pushing back at their cloying 'guardians' on the left who are starting to get overbearing. Here's their latest outrage, according to Ethan Brown, writing at RealClearEnergy:On June 2, the U.S. Department of the Interior blocked oil and gas leasing for the next twenty years within a ten-mile radius of Chaco Canyon — the site of a Puebloan civilization in now-northern New Mexico...

Native American activists verbally clashed outside Chaco Culture National Historical Park on Sunday, derailing a visit by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who was there to celebrate a 20-year buffer around a World Heritage Site in northwest New Mexico. Haaland’s trip to Chaco on Sunday was canceled when a group of Navajo land allotment owners blocked the road, upset with the Biden administration’s recent decision to enshrine for the next 20 years what previously had been an informal 10-mile buffer around the World Heritage site. The buffer protects the area from future federal mineral development, including oil and gas drilling....

The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize a rule banning oil and gas leasing near a Native American historical site despite heavy opposition from local Indigenous leaders, who say the administration's rule would prevent them from collecting royalties on their land. The rule, which the Department of Interior (DOI) announced in November 2021, would implement a 20-year moratorium on federal oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park located in northwest New Mexico. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the rule, which would amount to a withdrawal of 336,000 acres of public lands...

Yes, oil prices are slightly down, but that is only because Joe Biden continues to dip into the dwindling supply in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. So you can expect the average price at the pump, which even as it now stands is still much higher than you paid before Biden’s ascent, to spike again. While it would run counter to the environmental partners of the administration, the solution would be to extract more energy from the land under our feet. That means drilling for natural gas and oil. And if one believes the mainstream media, one would think that the...

Tuesday, October 27, a senior Trump Administration delegation met with executive and legislative leaders of the Navajo Nation.  As a sign of respect for the largest Native American Tribe in the United States, the delegation visited Window Rock, the seat of government for the Navajo Nation in Northeast Arizona.Last week, President Trump released his policy agenda for Indian Country entitled, “Putting America’s First Peoples First: Forgotten No More.”  The agenda outlines President Trump’s core principles to fight for Native American communities: respecting tribal sovereignty and self-determination, promoting safe communities, building a thriving economy with improved infrastructure, honoring Native American heritage...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Navajo Nation health care facilities may have reached their peak of COVID-19 hospitalizations in late April, several weeks ahead of earlier projections, according to an updated surge plan from the Indian Health Service. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez credited cooperation with lockdowns and public health orders as factors in the decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations. “The Navajo public listening to those warnings flattened the curve early, and as you can see the curve is flattening now,” Nez said during a town hall update Tuesday. “… If you were wearing a mask, you’re a warrior.” The Navajo Area Indian...

Jimmy Walters was an old-school “hellfire and brimstone” pastor at a Baptist church on the Navajo Nation. His wife, Rachel Walters, was equally devout and spent her time caring for their children and home, and weaving Navajo rugs to sell. Their son, 48-year-old Davis Begaye, lived with them in a four-bedroom house overlooking the mesas, plains and Ute Mountain in the small community of Cudei, outside Shiprock. He worked at the Home Depot in Farmington for several years. That’s where the family suspects Begaye got infected with COVID-19 – the illness caused by the coronavirus – in early April. Over...

PHOENIX — Hopis and Navajos who work at a coal mine near the Arizona-Utah border said Tuesday their family lives and earning power will suffer greatly if the power plant fed by the mine is shuttered as planned. The Navajo Generating Station in Page is set to close at the end of 2019 unless a new owner can be found. That’s considered a long-shot, but the company that owns the supply mine says it has identified investors interested in one of the largest coal plants in the West. More than 200 workers, their family members and supporters in blue T-shirts,...

Daniel Begay, who is Navajo, had always been told growing up that traditional American Indian foods were good for him. But because most American Indians are lactose intolerant, "they aren't getting that same source of calcium from dairy products," Begay says. Turns out that it's a traditional cooking method that is key to his bone health. The Navajo burn juniper branches, collect the ash and stir it into traditional dishes. The most popular: blue corn mush. Begay, a graduate student at Northern Arizona University, analyzed the amount of calcium in 27 samples of juniper from all over the reservation. But...

Clara and Chee Begaye built their Shiprock home in 1969 from timber they harvested in nearby mountains. They raised their children in that home and are now living out their senior years in the dwelling. Through the years, rain has eroded the timber. Rainwater also flows under the home’s foundation during storms, which has caused the floors to buckle and the tiles to break off. The home lacks basic heating and cooling systems. The couple’s bed is placed next to the home’s wooden stove so that the couple can sleep with some warmth. As members of the Navajo Nation, the...

Navajo Nation locals joined Utah lawmakers Sept. 21 to express opposition to any attempt to designate land around the Bears Ears site in southeastern Utah as a national monument. The Navajo residents of San Juan County, Utah, joined their elected officials who said the decision on the 1.9-million acre site, which is sacred to the Navajo people, should be left in local hands. “We have managed to protect this enchanted place, and we will continue to do so,” Susie Philemon said. ... Lewis Singer, a Navajo from San Juan County, said monument status would restrict access of Native people to...

In 1990, the Navajo students of Window Rock High School in Fort Defiance, Arizona, asked the author of their calculus book, John Saxon, to be their graduation speaker. The class sponsor had suggested the governor as their speaker, but the students wanted Saxon. A story in The Arizona Republic explained, “At this high school, as at thousands of other schools around the country, Saxon’s name is spoken with reverence by pupils who credit him with changing completely their views about math.” Arnell Yazzie, president of the senior class, said he and others taking calculus had lobbied for Saxon’s selection. “He...

Erin Brockovich is joining Navajo Nation's political battle against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The famed environmental activist will visit Navajo Nation on Sept. 8 to view the affects of a devastating EPA mining leak and could potentially testify on Capitol Hill later this month.

TONALEA, Ariz. (AP) -- Talk at the community center in this small Navajo town isn't as focused on the economy as it is in many places off the reservation. That's because the people living on the largest American Indian reservation have been largely unscathed by the recession.

Sometimes when you're sifting thru general news, you run across a couple of items with 6 degrees of separation that truly make you go "huh??". Such is the case in the legal battles of the proposed hybrid dry cooled coal-fired Desert Rock plant in New Mexico.Early this year, the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global Power filed a lawsuit against the EPA for delays in issuing an air quality permit by the July 31st deadline for the proposed plant. New Mexico's AG said it couldn't be done because it would be in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Desert Rock spokesman...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been notified by one of the nation's largest American Indian tribes that it intends to sue over the agency's lack of action on an air permit application for a proposed coal-fired power plant. The Navajo Nation's Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global Power have partnered to build the $3 billion Desert Rock plant, which would be capable of producing electricity for more than 1 million homes across the Southwest. Navajo Deputy Attorney General Harrison Tsosie told The AP on Wednesday that the tribe and Sithe applied for an air permit in May 2004...

For the next six months, statues of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and other giants of U.S. history will share the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol with an American Indian medicine man who led a revolt in New Mexico in 1680 that slew 400 Spanish, including 21 priests. The statue of Po'Pay also will stand for now in front of four large paintings that express conquering sentiments he surely would not have shared - Columbus stepping foot in the "New World," the Pilgrims embarking from Holland, DeSoto's "discovery" of the Mississippi River and the Baptism of Pocahontas. Po'Pay is...

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. met Tuesday in Santa Fe with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to ask his help in keeping the ban on uranium mining and processing intact. According to Communications Director George Hardeen,Richardson and Shirley held a private meeting in the Governor's Cabinet Meeting Room, where President Shirley told the governor that a Canadian company has opened a uranium mine development office in Santa Fe in hopes of resuming uranium mining at Church Rock on the Navajo Nation. The New Mexico Business Weekly reported Aug. 9 that Strathmore Minerals Corp. of Canada had...

Forests, mountains, streams and valleys - 325 miles of them: this is the Polish-Ukrainian border. "It's easy to cross illegally without being watched. And if someone crosses it, the EU is open to them," says Jerzy Ostrowski, a group leader for the Polish border police. Help, however, in rooting out potential illegal immigrants - or, indeed, would-be terrorists - has arrived in the incongruous form of Indian scouts. Last week, three American-Indian trackers from the Navajo and Tohono O'odham tribes joined a 26-strong group of Polish customs officers around the small town of Huwniki, which lies about 250 miles southeast...

A hulking federal bureaucracy sues a Mom and Pop burger stand, and thecomplaint alleges discrimination and is steeped in political correctness.This sounds like something one would expect to during the Clinton years,but instead it's happening now. Richard Kidman and his wife Shauna, co-owners of R.D.'s Drive-In in Page,Arizona, say they are on the verge of bankruptcy. They can't afford todefends themselves against a lawsuit filed in federal court in Phoenix bythe Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit is thefirst-ever English-only discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of NativeAmericans by the federal government. Four former employees of R.D.'sclaimed that the...