Following passage of the Radiation and Exposure and Compensation Act expansion, which includes post-1971 miners for the first time, Searchlight spoke with three tribal members whose lives were changed forever by a toxic industry.
Tribal Affairs
Posted inTribal Affairs
Frequently asked questions about a complicated process: RECA expansion
To get a sense of how the next wave of compensation will really work, Searchlight spoke with Julian Duque, communications director for Representative Teresa Leger Fernández
Posted inCriminal Justice
Protect and serve: Did county officials enable Ryan Martinez’s violent actions at a 2023 protest in Española?
Two survivors have filed suit against Rio Arriba County office-holders, alleging that their civil rights were violated when they failed to control dangerous conflicts surrounding the proposed reinstallation of a statue depicting Juan de Oñate
Posted inPolitics
The Navajo lawmaker bridging past and future
Senator Shannon Pinto, the only Diné member of the New Mexico Senate, serves a constituency whose lives have been threatened over time by industry, exploitation, and violence
Posted inChaos and Cannabis
Fined and stripped of his marijuana license, Dineh Benally keeps on growing
Navajo cannabis farmer claims he’s providing ‘sacrament’ for a Native church
Posted inFeatured
A New Mexico childhood
“Whiskey Tender,” a new memoir, recalls growing up in Farmington in the 1970s
Posted inTribal Affairs
On the Navajo Nation, a life without water
Thousands of Navajos have no clean running water at home, a crisis magnified by drought and government neglect. This is how families cope.
Posted inTribal Affairs
Race and class in New Mexico
A personal essay unraveling the complexities of identity in light of recent violence at an Oñate rally
Posted inChaos and Cannabis
A green light for Dineh Benally
A sensational raid three years ago put an end to his illegal marijuana empire on the Navajo Nation, manned by trafficking victims. But when Benally wanted to grow weed again, New Mexico said yes.
Posted inTribal Affairs
An Apache ceremony for the ages
On the Mescalero Apache Reservation, four days of dancing mark the passage into womanhood, testing a girl’s endurance — and enveloping her in tradition.