Hundreds of tribal leaders and community members from across Arizona visited the state Capitol Wednesday for the annual Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day.
This gathering, organized by the Governor’s Office on Tribal Relations, among the state’s 22 federally recognized tribes has been a tradition since 1995. Since then, the Grand Canyon State and its tribal neighbors have worked to strengthen their ties.
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation President Andrea Pattea, Chairwoman Amelia Flores of the Colorado River Indian Tribes and Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community were invited by Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro to speak from the state Senate floor.
Lewis reflected on the three-decade milestone by looking ahead to the next generation.
“With all of our Native youth here, maybe someone in this hallowed chamber will be the first, the first tribal member to be governor,” said Lewis. “This is a future we can all strive for.”
Top legislative priorities voiced by tribes include addressing sober living home abuses, tackling the missing and murdered Indigenous peoples problem and conserving the Colorado River.
-
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren made his third annual state address in Shiprock on Tuesday, outlining his administration’s accomplishments amid ongoing efforts to remove him from office before his term expires this year. -
That pending land swap between the U.S. Forest Service and a multinational mining company would result in a six-decade underground copper project that is estimated to create a two-mile-wide crater, devouring an Apache holy site called Oak Flat. -
Tribes are still figuring out how to start and finish renewable energy projects amid the Trump administration freezing or eliminating federal dollars from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which directed more than $720 million to Indian Country. -
Scientists, writers, artists and others with an interest in the Colorado River got together recently in Moab, Utah, for an event called Rivers of Change. -
As currently written, the proposed EPA rule would narrow the 1972 landmark law’s enforcement with estimates suggesting that 80% of the nation’s wetlands could be at risk.
