Friday, September 11, 2026

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Photo: A steel beam recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center visited the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in June. (Courtesy missindianarizona / Instagram)

A piece of the World Trade Center made a historic stop on Tribal land in Arizona.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” tour visited the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale, Arizona this summer.

A nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower was displayed at the USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River.

Organizers say it was the tour’s first and only stop on sovereign Tribal land as the beam traveled more than 10,000 miles across the country ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The foundation says the stop recognized the longstanding tradition of military service among Native people.

The memorial gardens are home to a piece of the USS Arizona, which was destroyed during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

For the first time, steel connected to the 9/11 attacks was displayed there alongside steel from the USS Arizona.

A professor at Northern Arizona University has added new data to a map of safe drinking water on the Navajo Nation.

KNAU’s Chris Clements reports the map is intended to help tribal communities still struggling with the effects of past uranium mining.

Professor Jani Ingram, Navajo Nation, had been driving across the reservation for a while with her student.

Their goal? Find and test a remote well that one family was using.

“It’s something that needed to be tested because it it really wasn’t great. It had pretty high uranium.”

It can be hard for Navajo families to know if the wells near their homes have been contaminated by high uranium levels, which have been linked to health issues like kidney disease and lung cancer.

Ingram mapped safe wells using water quality data she and her students collected from years in the field.

The map can be found online at the website Navajo Safe Water.

And her work is not over: there are tons of tribal wells that have not been tested, something she says she is willing to do at no cost.

Last year, Indigenous students filmed a brief land acknowledgment for the Chandler Unified School District in Arizona.

Following a fierce public debate Wednesday, the governing board voted to play this video at the beginning of all its meetings and future graduation ceremonies.

KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more.

“We recognize the past, present, and future inhabitants on this land.”

“We will cherish, respect and protect this land for generations to come.”

This message is only a minute and 43 seconds long, but it means a lot to Indigenous Parent Committee co-president Monique John.

“We went into creating this video with positive intentions for our students and communities – all students Native and non-Native.”

Chandler governing board member Kurt Rohrs disagrees.

“It has no real purpose in addressing our primary mission of improving academic performance for our students. This statement is an empty performance gesture of wokeness, which really doesn’t accomplish anything.”

Basha High senior Syndel Preston, who is president of the school’s Indigenous student club, suggests otherwise.

“I want my Indigenous peers to know that they are seen, that the lands CUSD stands on is theirs as well. I don’t believe it is divisive to want that for my community and those like me.”

The measure passed in a 3-2 vote.

 

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Friday, September 11, 2026 — How 9/11 reverberates a quarter century later