Another Arizona tribe has been named to keep a newer holiday tradition going by supplying this year’s Capitol Christmas tree. For three years running under Gov. Katie Hobbs, the Grand Canyon State has taken bids from among its 22 federally recognized tribes.
That all began with the White Mountain Apache in 2023, followed by the San Carlos Apache last year. Now the state Capitol tree will come from northwest Arizona and the “People of the Tall Pines” — or Hualapai.
“And I hope, no matter who is in the Office of the Governor,” Hualapai Chairman Duane Clarke told KJZZ, “that this holiday spirit of bringing all our communities together continues.”
In recent weeks, the state had approached the 2,300-member tribe, north of Kingman, with the news and sent foresters to survey their vast landscape dotted with pine trees alongside Hualapai leadership.
“Oddly enough, the one tree that has been selected, it’s close to, I want to say about 30 feet, was not one of the three options — to be honest,” Clarke recalled. “Councilman [Pete] Imus did a quick prayer. He turned to the right and said, ‘That’s the tree.’ We all looked and it was a moment of awe.”
Before being harvested, the tribe will bless that tree and then truck it more than 200 miles to the state Capitol in Phoenix from their million-acre-reservation hugging the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.
It will be on display by the beginning of next month.
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![The Long family [clockwise from top left] Joni Lapahie, Dáilan Long, Jona Lapahie, Emma Long and Emery Long.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac75967/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+389/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8c%2F3e%2Fcb7758794c59b588da1f9a3323b8%2Flong-family-household-burnham-nm-gp-202602.jpg)
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. -
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. -
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. -
CRIT leaders say a new plan to share the Colorado River is being rushed by the Bureau of Reclamation. -
Bertram Tsavadawa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and offers tours of the reservation through his company, Ancient Pathways Tours; he’s been doing that for nearly 25 years.
![The Long family [clockwise from top left] Joni Lapahie, Dáilan Long, Jona Lapahie, Emma Long and Emery Long.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8f96e94/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+389/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8c%2F3e%2Fcb7758794c59b588da1f9a3323b8%2Flong-family-household-burnham-nm-gp-202602.jpg)
