indigenous education

This past summer, we brought you a story on U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury’s effort to obtain funding for schools under the Bureau of Indian Education which serves over 40,000 Native students across the country.Stansbury announced that she helped secure $90 million to build a new facility for the To’Hajiilee community school here in New Mexico.

Five tribal organizations in New Mexico will share over $146 million from the federal infrastructure act to improve broadband infrastructure. The largest award is going to the Santa Fe Indian School, which plans to use its $57 million to bridge the gap of internet access across several tribal communities around the state. KUNM talks with Kimball Sekaquaptewa, chief technology director, for the school about how helping a network of communities serves its mission to provide education to Native children.

Earlier this month, KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios reported on the lack of broadband access to tribal communities. Now Diné College is among four other minority driven colleges receiving millions in federal grants to expand their internet-service programs.

Schools run by the Bureau of Indian Education serve over 40,000 Native students across the country. But a recent congressional hearing heard that some, including in New Mexico, are dilapidated and unsafe.

Rural tribal areas like the Navajo Nation are finding it challenging with the lack of broadband access in their communities. Those most affected are the children, who find it difficult to find hotspots, often having to drive miles to reach one. Lawmakers hope to change this by providing internet access to the region.

The former chief financial officer for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that he was forced to resign after raising concerns about financial malfeasance that he said cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

As voters head to the polls, the disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are top of mind for many, as are the racial inequities baked into every aspect…

Across New Mexico, public schools fail to provide bilingual instruction that’s appropriate for Native American students. Educators at a tribal education…

Eight northern New Mexico schools are getting extra state funding to better serve Native American students. The New Mexico Public Education Department…

Parents, educators and tribal leaders from several Pueblos in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation gathered this week in Albuquerque to advocate for better…