Gabriel Pietrorazio

Tribal Natural Resources Reporter | [email protected]

Gabriel Pietrorazio is a correspondent who reports on tribal natural resources for KJZZ. He began covering Haudenosaunee communities throughout New York and Canada while attending Hobart College in the Finger Lakes.

After earning bachelor’s degrees in media and society and political science in 2020, Pietrorazio graduated the following year with a master’s degree from Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Since then, he has prioritized uplifting Indigenous voices by bringing greater visibility and attention to their stories as a multimedia journalist. He frequently contributes to Civil Eats, a national newsroom focused on food systems, and the Syracuse-based Central Current, among other digital nonprofit platforms.

His in-depth Indigenous affairs reporting, primarily centered around agricultural issues, has received numerous local and national recognitions, including awards from the North American Agricultural Journalists, Native American Journalists Association and Syracuse Press Club.

Indigenous Affairs

Did Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren lose his primary because of anonymous AI parody account?

Gabriel Pietrorazio

With each passing day, it gets harder to figure out what’s real or a fake in our ever-evolving digital world. Take a video posted online that purports to show President Nygren sobbing outside of a Bashas grocery store.
Tribal Natural Resources

Hobbs, northern Arizona tribes enter 5-year 'economic resilience' pact as coal decline continues

Gabriel Pietrorazio

The six-page MOU is being touted as a blueprint for cooperation between the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and the state of Arizona — all of which are “vulnerable to future coal mine and generating station closures.”
Tribal Natural Resources

Tohono O’odham Nation warns federal border wall contractors would be trespassing

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Leadership clarified that non-members — including employees or residents, guests of tribal members, travelers on public roadways and vendors tied to the Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise — may still travel freely “without any restrictions.”
Indigenous Affairs

Gila River police pick outgoing Gilbert assistant chief as department’s next leader

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Lately, the Gila River Indian Community — south of Phoenix — has been grappling with teen gang violence. And that’s something Michael Angstead has dealt with during his six-year stint as Gilbert’s assistant chief of police, where he oversaw the department’s investigations bureau.
Tribal Natural Resources

Navajo families’ homes in peril as tribe works with Trump on massive coal mine expansion

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Coal has long been the economic bedrock of the Navajo Nation, which owns deposits in Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico. Now, the tribe is asking the Trump administration to dramatically expand the life — and size — of an operational coal mine that could uproot the lives of some Navajo families. And their longtime homes — literally.
Tribal Natural Resources

Deliveries bring coal to Navajo, Hopi residents who have long gone to great lengths to heat homes

Gabriel Pietrorazio

So instead of Santa hand-delivering stockings of coal along with his team of reindeer, it’s NTEC — or the Navajo Transitional Energy Company — with its diesel-powered trucks trekking across the sprawling 27,000-square-mile reservation.
Tribal Natural Resources

Northern Arizona’s once-booming coal industry has left a tarnished legacy on Navajo, Hopi lands

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Coal is perhaps most closely associated with Appalachian states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky — or Wyoming, the nation’s leading producer of the fossil fuel. But the coal-mining business was once thriving in northern Arizona as well, atop the Colorado Plateau.
Indigenous Affairs

Scottsdale PD is closing case of Salt River mother found in canal, still searching for answers

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Documents obtained by KJZZ News — including an autopsy and a toxicology report from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner — found that Passion Schurz had overdosed on fentanyl.
Indigenous Affairs

Navajo presidential candidates name running mates in lead-up to November showdown

Gabriel Pietrorazio

Following the Navajo Nation presidential primary last Tuesday, the top vote-getters have named their VP picks before the Monday deadline — just less than 100 days before they face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
Tribal Natural Resources

In search of oil and gas, Trump could axe Biden-era buffer around Chaco Canyon

Gabriel Pietrorazio

This new 140-page, draft environment assessment is published just three months after the Bureau of Land Management gathered roughly 70,000 comments during a week-long “scoping” window in April.