Diné

Across the United States, there are over 575 federally recognized American Indian tribes. According to the U.S. Census, Native North American language use fell by 6% from 2013 to 2021, but among those who spoke a Native language nearly half spoke Navajo.

The Santa Fe International Literary Festival begins this Friday and among the authors on the schedule is Navajo Nation Poet Laureate Jake Skeets. KUNM spoke with Jake Skeets, who just released his sophomore collection of poems titled “Horses.” It explores the meaning of the end of the world through a Navajo lens, and Skeets said he started writing it during the pandemic while teaching at Dine College in Arizona.

The Santa Fe International Literary Festival begins next weekend from May 15-17 and among the array of authors speaking; screenwriters will also be in attendance discussing how books get adapted from print to the big screen. KUNM spoke with Diné screenwriter, filmmaker and actor Dezbaa’ who plays Helen Atcitty on AMC’s Dark Winds. Dezbaa’ said she started out working as a geologist and earning her degree as a screenwriter before she got her big break.

Native communities face higher rates of diabetes compared to other groups. To combat this, some Native Americans are moving towards plant-based diets and lifestyles. KUNM spoke with Jenson Yazzie, a Diné college student who is a part of the Native Food for Life program.

The Gathering of Nations is on April 24-25 and among all the dancers, and drummers, tribal members from the Diné Nation will be sharing their health journey and how changing from a European diet to a Native plant-based one helped improve their health and lifestyle.

A new exhibit called “A Question of Power” will be at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe tells the story of three Diné women who helped defeat a controversial power plant on the Navajo Nation.

The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has announced over $900 million in investments towards broadband infrastructure, with the help of both federal and state support.

The Institute of American Indian Arts is facing the loss of all its federal funding – about $13 million – as outlined in President Trump’s budget proposal. A student and an alumn talked with KUNM about what that could mean.

In this encore episode, we hear from the curators of the exhibit “Nothing Left For Me: Federal Policy and the Photography of Milton Snow in Diné Bikéyah,” which looks at the brutal impact of the Navajo Livestock Reduction imposed upon Diné communities and homelands by U.S. Indian Commissioner John Collier starting in the 1930s.

Founded in 2015, Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action and Perseverance (DEAP) is located in Navajo, New Mexico, nestled in the Chuska Mountains. One of the school’s administrators says it was created out of a desire to Indigenize education for students by including traditional Navajo practices and spaces in the curriculum – especially after decades of cultural erasure due to the U.S. Indian boarding school system.