Last week, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the Navajo Nation reached an agreement with a mining company to extend its pause on the transportation of uranium ore through the tribe’s land.
The Navajo Nation and the mining company, Energy Fuels, reportedly started negotiations on transportation on Thursday.
Energy Fuels has said it will stop transportation of uranium ore while talks continue. There was no date listed for when transportation might resume.
In late July, Navajo President Buu Nygren issued an executive order requiring an agreement be in place before companies could transport radioactive material through the Navajo Nation.
Coconino County and neighboring tribes say Energy Fuels had promised to notify them if it would be transporting uranium through their land, however Energy Fuels disputed that claim.
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More than a century ago, the Gila River was lush and full of life. And the people who farmed around it, the Akimel O’odham people, were thriving. But settlers moved in, laws changed and they lost the water on the river — and their livelihoods with it.
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Lighting the Arizona Capitol Christmas tree has been a longstanding tradition. Last year, for the first time ever, an Arizona tribe gifted the state a tree for the occasion. With each passing holiday season, it’s becoming more commonplace.
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The former Navajo Nation vice president is being eyed as a possible nominee for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team.
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Although former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez didn’t win his U.S. House bid to become Arizona’s first Indigenous congressman, Native candidates up and down the ballot made historic gains in the Grand Canyon State and beyond.