New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill last month that will develop a Turquoise Alert – aiming to help locate Indigenous peoples who’ve gone missing. This new measure marks the fourth state in the nation to do so – but now it’s also helping shape a law the Arizona Legislature has been trying to pass this session.
New Mexico State Sen. Angel Charley is Zuni, Laguna and Diné, and her advice to Arizona: “Let’s get this done. We will adjust it as we go, if we need to.”
She co-sponsored her home state’s Turquoise Alert and has been closely following the tragic story of 14-year-old San Carlos Apache Emily Pike – whose remains were found in February, dismembered in garbage bags along an Arizona highway. She first went missing in January after running away from a Mesa group home.
“These are real families, who share their stories time and time again,” said Charley, a former executive director of the Albuquerque-based Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. “Especially when you have a case like Emily’s, where so much attention is being brought to the issue at this moment, it’s just important to make sure we use that momentum to do something for good.”
Arizona legislators recently amended the proposed bill by adopting the Turquoise Alert language and even referring to the measure as “Emily’s Law.” They also removed an age requirement that would’ve excluded any missing person under 18 years old.
The bipartisan legislation to create an MMIP alert system in Arizona has been sponsored by Republican House Majority Whip Teresa Martinez and Democrat Reps. Brian Garcia, Myron Tsosie and Mae Peshlakai.
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The Interior Department released hundreds of documents Monday from a two-week review in February. The records contain action plans for national monuments and mineral withdrawals across the U.S. to accelerate President Trump’s American energy agenda. -
Two days after a Phoenix hearing to consider the request, an Arizona federal judge granted a temporary injunction Friday to delay the land transfer of Oak Flat between the U.S. Forest Service and multinational mining company Resolution Copper. -
After California, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico, Arizona would become the fifth in the nation to implement an Indigenous alert system at the state level, if signed into law. -
Resolution Copper could get Oak Flat as early as June 16, but the Becket Fund remains hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on Apache Stronghold’s petition in July before its session ends. Until then, the Arizona district judge is supposed to make an injunction decision by no later than Wednesday, May 14. -
Members of the nonprofit Apache Stronghold began running over the weekend from Oak Flat to the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse in Phoenix ahead of a Wednesday hearing — where a judge will consider delaying a land swap — and a surprise guest met with the group at a stop in the Valley.
