Judy Martinez was promoted to publisher of the Williams-Grand Canyon News and the Navajo-Hopi Observer effective Jan. 1.
Many times, when you begin an individual journey, you don’t realize how connected you are to ideas and movements bigger than yourself. I was recently shocked to learn I’m the one-millionth to earn the most widely recognized credential in early childhood education, the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential.
In the summer of 2021, a month after the world was awakened by the discovery of 215 remains of innocent school children at the Kamloops Industrial Residential School in British Columbia, I attended a community event in my hometown, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
During a recent visit to the Hopi Tribe in Arizona, I announced a $6.6 million investment that will replace the water distribution system at Keams Canyon. For generations, Hopi people have been exposed to groundwater that contains unsafe levels of arsenic – a hazard we are finally addressing.
On June 8, Indian Country loudly applauded the 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brackeen v. Haaland that upheld the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Then last Thursday happened. The Supreme Court — the same one that seemed to exhibit a basic understanding of tribal sovereignty in the Brackeen ruling — showed how little the high court justices know (or care) about our rights as sovereign nations in their ruling in Arizona, et al. v. Navajo Nation.