Tuesday, November 25, 2025

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Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation and Pueblo leaders held a press conference in Albuquerque last week to urge Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the state, and to continue protections from oil and gas drilling.

KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more.

In October, the Bureau of Land Management began a process to revoke protections for 10 miles around Chaco Canyon to allow for possible oil and gas exploration.

This comes after the New Mexico congressional delegation and Pueblo governors held a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol in September to demand that the Trump administration protect Chaco, a significant National Historic Park with massive buildings constructed over a thousand years ago by ancestral Pueblo people, with roads leading to other far flung settlements.

Craig Quanchello, Governor of the Picuris Pueblo, spoke on the cultural significance of Chaco at the press conference last week.

“Our ancestors lived there, prayed there, studied the stars there, and carried teachings outward into our modern Pueblo communities. Our ties to Chaco live in, our songs, our ceremonies, our pilgrimages and our ancient roads and shrines that stretch far beyond the park itself.”

U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) were in attendance alongside U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).

Rep. Stansbury said during the federal shutdown, tribal leaders were unable to reach the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but did receive a letter from the Trump administration informing them that they had two weeks to respond to Chaco being taken out of federal protection.

“Can you imagine the cruelty, the insensitivity, the stupidity of an administration contacting tribal leaders as they are trying to figure out how they are going to feed their people and balance their budgets and keep their public safety in order to tell them that they are going to take away their most sacred lands and open it up for private oil and gas drilling?”

Quanchello said that this issue affects everyone.

“This is not only a Pueblo issue, it’s an American issue about history, heritage and a landscape recognized around the world.”

Congressional and Pueblo leaders invited Burgum to visit Chaco and to have a meaningful talk with them.

A Kodiak-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting families with newborns is expanding into the Northwest Arctic Borough.

KMXT’s Davis Hovey has more on how Kodiak Kindness is helping families across Alaska raise babies.

For years “Nauyaq” Wanda Baltazar has been teaching infants in Kotzebue through a local program that serves children with disabilities or delayed development. It’s the only such Infant Learning Program based out of a school district in the state.

Baltazar says it’s about helping kids from birth to three years old and their families around the Maniilaq service area, which covers 12 communities in Northwest Alaska from Kotzebue to Kobuk.

“Working with birth to three, it’s always good about helping families, ensuring that they’re strong, supported …. and any way we can support families and nursing moms to help their babies grow, I think is great.”

Baltazar and Frances Williams from Ambler are bringing their experience working with children to Kodiak Kindness as they continue doing what they already do, but under the new title of peer counselors.

Williams, who is known in her hometown as the “village mother,” says being part of the organization will give her more support and tools to do things she already does on a regular basis in the Northwest Arctic community.

“Kodiak Kindness would be able to help because there’s a lot of things that I learned when we went to the trainings, yeah, things that we didn’t know. So all the training will be able to help, like I’ll be able to do my own mix with Kodiak Kindness and my Inupiaq traditions.”

Williams says she uses native plants like stinkweed or spruce trees to make salves or other traditional medicines to help her friends, family and neighbors heal from the land.

Aside from the traditional knowledge Williams has from her mom and aunties, she’ll also be able to help her community with assistance from a certified lactation consultant if she wants support virtually from the Kodiak Kindness team via telehealth.

Kodiak Kindness’ two new peer counselors in the Northwest Arctic Borough come online this winter and hope to start enrolling families in the region early next year.

 

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