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SUN: Cancelled 'Roswell' show selling set items in Santa Fe, New mural pops up at Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque, + More

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CREATIVE COMMONS

Items from cancelled show 'Roswell' up for sale in Santa FeAssociated Press

Santa Fe, not Roswell, is the place this weekend to possibly spot some aliens—or at least their stuff.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that props from the now-cancelled CW TV drama, "Roswell, New Mexico," are being sold at an estate sale inside the site of an old Kmart in Santa Fe.

A reboot of a 2000s-era show on The WB network, "Roswell, New Mexico" is currently airing its fourth and final season.

Organizers of the estate sale say roughly 13,000 items including set dressings, costumes and furniture are up for grabs.

The sale is going on Saturday and Sunday with sales as much as 70% off on some items.

Guy Barnes, a production designer for the show, believes this is the first estate sale tied to a television series shot in New Mexico that has happened in Santa Fe.

He says all the proceeds will go back to Warner Brothers Television.

Dreams and blessings adorn Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque By Adrian Gomez, Albuquerque Journal

Michael Toya is following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

The Jemez Pueblo artist braved the elements for three months as he completed a large-scale mural on the outside of the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque.

"I've never done a mural or anything to this magnitude or scale," Toya told the Albuquerque Journal. "At the beginning, it was intimidating. The idea behind this work and this style stems from what my ancestors brought to us. They told stories by painting on pottery or on petroglyphs. I'm doing the same thing with a modern twist and telling my own story."

Toya's project is the latest from the Nativo Lodge, which has been hiring local artists to add another dimension to the property.

"We're proud to offer an experience unlike any other in New Mexico with our artist guest room program – there are few places where you can sleep in actual works of art," says Nate Wells, president of the Lodge Collection, managed by Heritage Hotels & Resorts. "It's humbling to work with talented artists like Michael, and his striking design will add a whole new dimension to the guest experience at Nativo Lodge."

Toya began the project in April and wrapped it up at the end of June.

Depending on which angle you look at the Nativo Lodge property, there is a different story.

The black-and-white line work on the south wall calls for the blessing of the rain.

"We rely on rain and snowfall to keep the cycle going for sustenance and growth," he says. "It's one of my new concepts."

Hummingbirds, dragonflies, butterflies and flowers adorn the same wall. Toya says each image has a meaning.

"The side wall is definitely peaceful and welcoming," he explains. "You have beautiful flowers and the wildlife. The hummingbirds and butterflies are said to be positive messengers and very spiritual."

At the very top corner is a Pueblo sun. "It welcomes today and reminds us life is in a circle," Toya says.

Wells says the goal for the Nativo Lodge is to have all 145 rooms painted by artists. Sixty rooms have already been painted by such artists as Toya, Mateo Romero, Kayla Shaggy, Rose Simpson, Geraldine Tso, Felix Vigil, Jaque Fragua, Lynette Haozous, Jodie Herrera, Marina Eskeets, Ishkoten Dougi, Ricardo Caté and DeAnna Suazo.

Toya's room – Room 412 – is called "If You Believe" and was completed in 2018.

He says the room depicts popular cultural icons intertwined with traditional Puebloan interpretations of design, which influence and teach the viewer about what Pueblo people believe. More often than not, he says, these beliefs are transformed into powerful designs and traditional markings that give the Pueblo people strength, courage and confidence to keep their culture alive, all of which you can witness throughout the installation.

"For instance, the bear paws represent courage, strength and wisdom, and are a sign of protection," Toya continues. "The Corn Maidens, and the stalks they were produced from, honor fertility and new life. 'Life goes on, plant our seeds and start a new beginning' is what our Corn Maidens wish of us. The steps of life design are the trials and tribulations of your journey. The stars watch over us and shine light into our hearts. The thunderstorm clouds and lightning bolts offer great power. Everything around you is sacred, whether it is the spirits of our ancestors or the forces of Nature. Honor them, give thanks and, in return, you will feel their blessings if you believe."

Leaning on the traditional side of Toya's art, his vision features a number of distinctive design components.

Toya's design for the front of the hotel is the Pueblo Kilt/Manta Embroidery, which is reminiscent of the embroidery of traditional kilts or mantas, worn by men and women, respectively, at ceremonial proceedings.

"The design is symbolic of welcoming guests, and wrapping them in comfort and traditional blessing," he says.

Toya has also incorporated the Corn Maiden, which brings the power of life to the people.

Also part of the design is the Avanyu, which is the powerful deity and guardian of water/harbinger of storms. It extends on both lower walls on either side of the hotel entrance, representing the essential life force of nourishment.

"I drew inspiration from my background growing up in a family of artists. All these designs stem from ancestral culture and what I want to share with visitors when they stay at this hotel and visit our state," Toya says. "It was an exciting opportunity to produce my work on a bigger scale with my artist room years ago and it's thrilling to return to Nativo Lodge with yet another chance to further my skills and ability as an artist with this grand design. I feel truly blessed not only to showcase art in a piece of this magnitude, but also to set an example for fledgling artists to keep chasing their dreams and not be afraid to share their passion with the world."

Tribal elders recall painful boarding school memoriesBy Sean Murphy, Associated Press

Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames.

They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities.

"I still feel that pain," said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, a former U.S. Marine and member of the Kiowa Tribe who once attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City. "I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me.

"It may be good now. But it wasn't back then."

As the elders spoke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history, listened quietly. The event at the Riverside Indian School, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission, was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools.

"Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every Indigenous person I know," Haaland said at the start of the event, which attracted Native Americans from throughout the region. "Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts.

"My ancestors endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This is the first time in history that a cabinet secretary comes to the table with this shared trauma."

Haaland's agency recently released a report that identified more than 400 of the schools, which sought to assimilate Native children into white society during a period that stretched from the late 18th century until the late 1960s.

Although most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities, some still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Among them is Riverside, which is one of oldest.

Riverside, which opened in 1871, serves students from grades four through 12 these days, offering them specialized academic programs as well as courses on cultural topics such as bead-working, shawl-making and an introduction to tribal art, foods and games. Currently operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, it has nearly 800 students from more than 75 tribes across the country, and the school's administration, staff and faculty are mostly Native American.

It is one of 183 elementary and secondary schools across the country funded by the Bureau of Indian Education that seek to provide education aligned with a tribe's needs for cultural and economic well-being, according to the bureau's website.

But Riverside also has a dark history of mistreating the thousands of Native American students who were forced from their homes to attend it.

Neconie, who still lives in Anadarko, recalled being beaten if he cried or spoke his native Kiowa language when he attended Riverside in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

"Every time I tried to talk Kiowa, they put lye in my mouth," he said. "It was 12 years of hell."

Brought Plenty, a Standing Rock Sioux who lives in Dallas, recalled the years she spent at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, where she was forced to cut her hair and told not to speak her Native language. She recalled being forced to whip other girls with wet towels and being punished when she didn't.

"What they did to us makes you feel so inferior," she said. "You never get past this. You never forget it."

Until recently, the federal government hadn't been open to examining its role in the troubled history of Native American boarding schools. But this has changed because people who know about the trauma that was inflicted hold prominent positions in government.

At least 500 children died at such schools, but that number is expected to reach into the thousands or tens of thousands as more research is done.

The Interior Department's report includes a list of the boarding schools in what were states or territories that operated between 1819 and 1969 that had a housing component and received support from the federal government.

Oklahoma had the most, 76, followed by Arizona, which had 47, and New Mexico, which had 43. All three states still have significant Native American populations.

Former students might be hesitant to recount the painful past and trust a government whose policies were to eradicate tribes and, later, assimilate them under the veil of education. But some welcome the opportunity to share their stories for the first time.

Not all the memories from those who attended the schools were painful ones.

Dorothy WhiteHorse, 89, a Kiowa who attended Riverside in the 1940s, said she recalled learning to dance the jitterbug in the school's gymnasium and learning to speak English for the first time. She also recalled older Kiowa women who served as house mothers in the dormitories who let her speak her Native language and treated her with kindness.

"I was helped," WhiteHorse said. "I'm one of the happy ones."

But WhiteHorse also had some troubling memories, including the time she said three young boys ran away from the home and got caught in a snowstorm. She said all three froze to death.

"I think we need a memorial for those boys," she said.

Ex-Las Cruces police officer's murder trial to start MondayAssociated Press

A fired Las Cruces police officer who put a suspect in a fatal chokehold is set to begin his murder trial next week.

KRQE-TV in Albuquerque reports opening statements are scheduled for Monday in the trial of Christopher Smelser.

The former officer is accused of causing the February 2020 death of Antonio Valenzuela.

Valenzuela, 40, was a passenger in a vehicle that officers stopped. When officers realized he had a warrant out for drug charges, Valenzuela fled.

Smelser was one of two officers who tried to detain him.

Body camera footage shows Smelser use a chokehold after a taser didn't work. Authorities say police realized five minutes later that Valenzuela was dead.

A coroner determined he died from "asphyxial injuries" and that he had methamphetamine in his system, which contributed to his death.

The Las Cruces Police Department fired Smelser, who was charged with manslaughter. Attorney General Hector Balderas's office later took over the case and upgraded the charge to second-degree murder.

Smelser's attorney, Amy L. Orlando, has previously said Smelser used the chokehold as part of his training and the murder charge was a headline-grabbing political move.

Valenzuela's death led to a $6.5 million settlement with his family as well as changes with Las Cruces police. These include banning all chokeholds and firing any officer who violates the new policy.

Convicted rapist in Albuquerque flees after GPS device cutAssociated Press

Prosecutors in Bernalillo County are questioning the use of GPS ankle monitors after a convicted rapist was able to cut his off and flee.

KOB-TV in Albuquerque reported Friday that Ralph Vasquez is the fifth person this year who was able to separate an ankle monitor device.

Lauren Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office, says Vasquez cut it off just hours before he was supposed to head to prison.

A judge this week sentenced him to nine years for the 2020 rape of his ex-girlfriend.

Rodriguez says prosecutors are having misgivings about the GPS monitoring system. She says the GPS ankle monitor is supposed to be one of the strictest conditions yet "it's just not doing its job."