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Photo: Flooding in Chinle on the Navajo Nation prompted evacuations this week. (Courtesy Shawna Ann Claw / Facebook)
Three people are dead after they were washed away in a flood on the Navajo Nation just after midnight on Wednesday.
As KNAU’s Chris Clements reports, several communities are dealing with damage from the recent rainfall.
Navajo police responded to reports that two adults and a juvenile were swept away by floodwaters near the Newcomb, New Mexico area shortly after midnight.
Search and rescue crews found the three dead after searching the area into the early morning hours. Investigators say they drowned.
Several Navajo communities are dealing with flooding, including Chinle and Many Farms.
Officials have not released details about any damage or injuries.
They urge residents along Highway 191 between mileposts 451 to 454 and other low terrain flood zones to evacuate.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed an emergency declaration in response to the flooding.
He said tribal members should use extreme caution around flooded roads and washes, adding that conditions can change quickly.
NANA Regional Corporation headquarters in Anchroage, Alaska, where a AFN listening session on subsistence management took place. (Photo: Wonderlane / Flickr)
The Alaska Federation of Natives is holding a series of listening sessions focused on the priorities, concerns, and values Alaska Native people want reflected in subsistence management.
A session was held Wednesday at the NANA Regional Corporation office building in Anchorage, following earlier meetings in Bethel, Fairbanks, and Nome.
Additional sessions are scheduled September 21 in Juneau, September 28 in Ketchikan, and October 1 in Copper Center.
AFN says the sessions are intended to hear directly from communities about the challenges facing subsistence users and the principles and values that should guide future changes.
People can also submit feedback to AFN online.
(Courtesy American Indian College Fund)
A new Brookings report says federal cuts and meager philanthropic support are widening long-standing funding gaps across Nebraska and Indian Country, threatening education, health care, infrastructure, and economic development, as Mark Richardson reports.
The analysis calls for stable federal funding and sustained investment in Native-led institutions, including Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Comments came from Little Priest Tribal College president Manoj Patil from Winnebago, Nebraska, American Indian College Fund president and CEO Cheryl Crazy Bull, and Rob Maxim, the report’s author and a fellow at The Brookings Institution.
The pressure is especially sharp in higher education.
The Brookings Institution and the American Indian College Fund released the analysis.
Patil says pandemic-era investments brought temporary gains to Native colleges, but recent federal actions have reversed much of that momentum.
“This constant threat of funding cuts impedes our growth because we are not sure whether to be aggressive in offering new programs or to be careful. That’s the biggest issue we face.”
Patil adds there are only 34 TCUs in the U-S and Little Priest is one of only two such institutions in Nebraska. He says every $1.00 invested in TCUs returns $1.60 in tax revenue, benefiting both Native and non-Native communities.
American Indian College Fund President Cheryl Crazy Bull says the report provides significant evidence of chronic underfunding by the federal government, despite trust and treaty obligations to Native Americans.
“You can’t really have this self-determination in the Native community without being a culturally grounded, well-educated person.”
Maxim osays high-profile figures like Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott will occasionally step up with notable contributions to Indian Country, but he says it is rare.
“It is really hard for Tribal leaders themselves, for Native-serving institutions to make decisions based on the lack of data that’s out there.”
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