Thursday, January 2, 2025

National Native News

Photo: The Tomasiyo family – Riley, left, Tristen, Hunter, Lasean, Sevilla, Maria, Paulette, Leeland, and Lyla – stands in front of their home, which they’ve lived in for 14 years without electricity on the Navajo Nation. (Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau)

There are homes on tribal lands that still need electricity hook-ups, including on the Navajo Nation, where climate change makes it harder for families to keep cool.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel highlights one program that’s changing lives.

It’s a scorching hot morning in the Navajo Nation.

In the foothills of Navajo Mountain, Leeland Tomasiyo is standing outside his home – trying to catch a breeze.

“We have a metal roof on top, you know? So all that heat just kind of builds up inside and it just cooks the place up inside.”

That wasn’t always the case. But Tomasiyo says the reservation feels hotter each year.

The Tomasiyos are one of 13,000 families living without electricity here. That’s nearly a third of the homes on the reservation — which stretches across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

A Navajo utility nonprofit started in the late 50s to help change that. But progress has been slow since then.

A land dispute with the Hopi Tribe led to a development ban across 1.5 million acres for several decades. And getting a homesite lease approved and accepted for electricity development can take years.

Back at the Navajo Nation, the Tomasiyos are standing in their kitchen. A coffeemaker and microwave are on the counter.

Paulette Tomasiyo says they’ve never been used.

“You wish you had all this stuff and you’re like, oh, these are gonna be on soon.”

She then points at the stainless steel fridge tucked against the far wall.

“Even this ‘frigerator. This is a fake ‘frigerator.”

But days without a refrigerator and air conditioning are now over for the Tomasiyos. Their home was one of 170 on the reservation that got connected to the electric grid this year.

That’s thanks to a mutual aid program called “Light Up Navajo” that relies on private and federal funding – and volunteer workers.

“It just brings tears to my eyes. Every morning we get up and I just always think to myself, I’m just waiting, waiting – one day this will come.”

And now she says heat-related stresses no longer consume her.

This story is a production of the new radio program, Our Living Lands, a collaboration of the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, and Native Public Media.

Animals’ Bridge on Route 93 near Evaro, Mont., on the Flathead Indian Reservation. (Photo: Djembayz / Public Domain)

The Pueblo of Santa Ana in New Mexico has received a nearly $6.4 million federal grant to improve safety between wildlife and vehicles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration award is to help the tribe design wildlife overpasses, underpasses, or other features along nearly eight miles of US-550 and 19 miles along Interstate 25.

The Pueblo, located near Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is one of 16 recipients to receive funding for wildlife crossing projects nationwide.

The funding is through a new grant program in its second round of awards to improve safety for motorists and wildlife by reducing vehicle collisions.

According to the Transportation Department, each year, more than one million wildlife-vehicle collisions are estimated to impact motorists and wildlife in in the U.S. Wildlife-vehicle collisions in the Pueblo’s area are said to included deer, elk, antelope, bears and mountain lions.

16 bills investing in Native communities were passed by the U.S. Senate in 2024, led by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

The committee is highlighting billions of dollars in investments in housing and health care, and support for Native lands, tourism, water rights, and bison restoration.

Four bills were enacted into law.

In a statement, Sen. Schatz, who’s chair of the committee, said he’s proud of the progress made during the year, but also said the committee has a lot more work to do for Native communities.

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