Indigenous Affairs

Over the next year, History Colorado, a nonprofit and an agency under the state’s department of higher education, will investigate the experiences, abuse and deaths of students at the former Fort Lewis Indian School near Durango.

Netflix and IllumiNative have launched a training program for Indigenous film producers that aims to increase Native representation in Hollywood. Its first cohort of fellows includes Ashley Browning, who is from the pueblos of Pojoaque and Santa Clara in New Mexico.

The FBI in New Mexico recently released a public list of almost 180 missing Indigenous people throughout the state and Navajo Nation. They’re hoping that groundwork could be a model around the Mountain West and the nation to create similar lists.

Officials in New Mexico recently celebrated the purchase of about 54,000 acres to create its largest state-owned recreation area, and it’s one of the biggest public land acquisitions in the U.S. this year.

Delegates from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. came together in Washington, D.C., to discuss the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

The ban has been in place for almost 20 years. This new legislation would recognize all marriages, and impacts spousal property rights and employee benefits.

The addition has more than quadrupled the size of the Marquez Wildlife Area and re-established tribal access to religious sites in the area.

The goal of the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee is to get input from tribal leaders on Department of the Interior issues impacting Indigenous communities before policy is made.

Introduced by Rep. Melanie Stansbury, the bills aim to improve water data nationally and facilitate better water management across the Rio Grande Basin.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau said the New Belen Wasteway, a Bureau of Reclamation project that routes agricultural runoff back to the Rio Grande, is an example of an investment in water infrastructure that has huge impacts on surrounding communities.