A 7 p.m. curfew for juveniles in the Gila River Indian Community will continue, despite being scheduled to end on Monday. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis issued the emergency declaration, citing public safety reasons in late February.
It has now been extended a second time. His latest executive order, signed on March 28, lengthened that curfew across the nearly 600-square-mile reservation just south of Phoenix.
U.S. Census data shows a fifth – or nearly 3,000 residents – among the reservation’s total population are younger than 14 years old.
While officials say conditions have improved, “threats to public safety still remain and calls of shots fired in tribal neighborhoods continue,” adding that “much of the violence has taken place at night.”
The Valley-based tribe’s marquee Mul-Chu-Tha Fair and Rodeo – one of the largest in Indian Country – was cancelled earlier this month. Now the curfew is expected to end on May 1.
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Indigenous leaders say that federal contractors are desecrating sacred Native American places and cultural sites at an unprecedented pace in the rush to build more walls on the U.S.-Mexico border. -
The House Natural Resources Committee met to review President Donald Trump’s funding proposal for the Interior Department, but Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva took that opportunity to talk about Las Playas Intaglio. -
Lithium is a key metal for electric vehicle batteries and there is a global push to find new sources of it. There is currently only one lithium mine in operation in the United States, but that is about to change — and drastically. -
A mining company is considering digging for copper on grazing land near the chapter house of the Coppermine community on the western Navajo Nation. -
The accident occurred about a half mile east of Highway 160 and state Route 98 near Shonto in Navajo County. This is the first reported incident since hauling along the 300-mile interstate route began nearly two years ago.
