When Louvannina Tsosie walked into The Door Christian Fellowship Church in Gallup, N.M., she expected the kind of church service she had growing up: worship, music, a sermon, prayer and some scripture reading.

What she didn’t expect was a stage performance aimed at Native people that included a condemnation of traditional Navajo beliefs — and those who embrace them.

“Unfortunately, it turned out to be a really disrespectful kind of play,” she said.

Among other scenes that trafficked in harmful stereotypes of Indigenous people, the play showcased a Diné Hataałii, or medicine man, being condemned to hell for practicing traditional Diné ways of life, including ceremony and traditional healing.

Hataałii protect and preserve all traditional ceremonies and customs of the Diné way of life, and they hold a special place of honor among the Diné people.

The Door showing the damnation of a Hataałii “wasn’t a misunderstanding,” Tsosie said, but rather a “direct attack on our beliefs and spirituality.”

The Door is an offshoot of the Potter’s House Christian Fellowship Church, which was founded in Prescott, and is part of Christian Fellowship Ministries located in Benton, Kentucky. Christian Fellowship Ministries has over 4,000 churches worldwide, with seven churches on the Navajo Nation.

“Our church here in Gallup was among the first few Southwestern works launched out of the Prescott congregation,” The Door’s website states. “From the earliest days, it has stood as a testimony to God’s power to transform lives and reach cities through evangelism, discipleship and church planting.”

The Arizona Mirror reached out to The Door and Potter’s House, but neither church responded.

The shock from the play prompted Tsosie to start recording a video of the over-the-top theatrical production on her phone. She then posted that video on her TikTok account with the caption: “The things you see in border towns.”

Her TikTok posts feature two parts of the play, which was set in a dark room with the stage illuminated by red lights, while ominous drum music plays in the background.

The music played throughout the show featured remixes of traditional songs, layered with sound effects to create a more menacing tone.

At the center of the stage, a Navajo man dressed in traditional clothing kneels by a fire, holding an eagle feather in his hand. Kneeling next to the Navajo medicine man is an actor dressed in a demon costume, encouraging his actions.

Suddenly, another Navajo person appears, shouting at the medicine man and demanding to know what he did to his niece.

“She’s in the hospital. What kind of ceremony did you do?” the man shouts. The interaction escalates into violence, as the angry man stabs and kills the medicine man.

In the next scene, the medicine man — the murder victim — is standing at what is supposed to be the gates of heaven, surrounded by white light, interacting with an angel. That angel swiftly bars the Hataałii from heaven and condemns him to hell.

The stage suddenly bathed in red lights, demons surround the medicine man, taunting him. “Come on, let’s do a ceremony,” and “We don’t like tradition, do we?” they say.

The medicine man is laid on the floor, and the lead demon gives orders to his minions: “Let’s do a purification. I’ll purify your soul in the fiery pits of hell. Demons, take this pedophile and make him suffer.”

Since she posted the video, Tsosie said she has received an overwhelming response. The video has garnered more than 230,000 views on TikTok, with nearly 1,600 comments.

Tsosie said some of the comments in her videos claim she is taking the play out of context, misrepresenting the situation and she needs to find her way with Christ.

“It kind of felt like a big slap in my face,” she said.

Tsosie, 24, grew up in a Christian household in Tohlakai, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. She said she is familiar with the religion, even though she is no longer religious. She attended The Door’s service because a friend invited her.

In response to the play, Tsosie helped organize a peaceful protest across the street from the church on June 8. She said they want accountability, including a public apology. They have not received a response from the church, much less an apology.

Navajo elders and youth have reached out to her. Tsosie said the elders appreciate her speaking up about the incident because they thought they’d never see it happen. Youth have shared their feelings about forced religion and the cultural shame they encounter.

“It’s been emotional and overwhelming, in the best and hardest ways,” she said. “This moment is bigger than me, and it’s about our people realizing that we don’t have to stay silent anymore.”

‘It was absolutely revolting’

As she sat through the service, Tsosie said she noticed how utterly unbothered the predominantly Native audience was as the actors portraying the demons mocked Diné ceremonies.

“I guess it felt normal to them,” she said. “I think the painful part of the play was that most of the actors were themselves Navajo.”

Diné historian Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale said she has heard stories about The Door Church and how many Navajo people involved with the church actively participated in demeaning and derogatory remarks about their people.

Her niece witnessed this firsthand and never returned, appalled by their actions. Denetdale said demonizing the Diné people’s way of life is a long-term strategy of The Door Church.

Denetdale said the Navajo Nation has never really acknowledged or accounted for the extent to which the Navajo people have been Christianized since colonization began on their homeland.

“What follows the soldiers are the missionaries,” she said. “What follows the establishment of the forts is the missionaries and the priests.”

Denetdale holds a doctoral degree in history and serves as the professor and chair of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Her research work focuses on settler colonialism, decolonization and Diné studies.

Denetdale is from Tohatchi, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. During her regular drives to Gallup, which is 25 miles away and the closest community with resources for many Navajo people in the area, she made it a habit to count the churches along the way.

“In that stretch, there are at least 16 Christian churches, and we’re talking about a remote area,” she said. “There’s an investment in continuing to Christianize Navajo people, and in that process, they must discount, vilify and demonize who we are and our foundation as Diné people.”

Due to how heavily Christianized the Navajo people are, Denetdale said their response to conflicts involving the church, such as what was depicted in Tsosie’s video, is often not to say anything — or to deflect by saying things like, “That’s not my church and that’s not us.”

“They don’t see it as problematic because they personalize it,” she added. “I think that’s part of the problem, and a question for all of us is to acknowledge just how Christianized we’ve become.”

Denetdale said she is not a Christian, and it is difficult for any Navajo person to say they are not a Christian because so many prominent leaders on the Navajo Nation are Christian. However, she said she is a historian and knows the history of Christianity, and “it is an ugly, ugly story.”

Denetdale said she doesn’t use the terms “culture” or “religion” to explain the Diné people’s way of life because they do not adequately describe who they are. She said that the Diné people’s knowledge and understanding of the world are rooted in a deep philosophy of Diné values.

When she saw the video, she said “it was absolutely revolting” and she shouldn’t be surprised that, in this day and age, one can showcase something that has “such incredibly grotesque depictions of Diné ways of being, and that medicine people, traditional practitioners, are demonized.”

“I’m shocked, but I shouldn’t be shocked — this is Gallup, New Mexico,” she said, a city with a long history of racism and discrimination against Indigenous people.

The City of Gallup was founded in 1881. It has been referred to as the “Indian Capitol of the World” due to its proximity to several tribal nations, including the Navajo Nation and the Zuni Pueblo Nation, whose tribal lands surround the city, as well as the significant contribution of Indigenous people to the local economy.

Indigenous people make up more than 52% of the city’s population, but like many border towns, Gallup has a history of racism and violence against Native people.

In response to public outcry, the City of Gallup released a statement indicating that, since its founding, it has been a place of diverse heritages, beliefs, and practices.

Due to the diversity of Gallup, the city stated that “conflict is inevitable,” and when it occurs, their priority is to ensure the public’s safety and that all rights are respected and protected.

The city stated it cannot intervene or take sides in matters of speech and expression. However, they can and will impose reasonable restrictions on time, place and manner in the public arena.

“Freedom of expression comes at a price,” the city wrote in its statement. “It requires an acceptance of and willingness to bear insult and offense, to hear and see what one may find hurtful or despicable.”

The Arizona Mirror reached out to the City of Gallup for comment, but it did not respond.

Navajo Nation Council issues letter to church

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said that since the video was released, council delegates have been asked by constituents to address it. Curley called the church’s play very disrespectful.

“It was very gruesome and visual,” she said, especially with the sound effects. “They went above and beyond to do that.”

On the best way to move forward, Curley said that she consulted with faith-based leaders from various denominations and traditional practitioners to hear their perspectives on the incident.

“Many of them reiterated that this type of disrespect or depiction of discrimination should not be tolerated toward any faith,” she said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror.

Many expressed their disapproval of the church’s performance, she said, noting that it crosses the boundaries of respect among faiths.

“Navajo traditional practices are considered sacred by many of our people,” Curley said in a statement. “They are integral to Navajo identity, history, and our way of life.”

On behalf of the Navajo Nation Council, Curley issued a formal letter to The Door on June 11, expressing disappointment and calling on the church’s leadership to take responsibility for the performance.

“As neighbors to the Navajo Nation, the City of Gallup and surrounding communities share not only a geographical proximity but also a cultural and social relationship with our people,” the letter stated. “It is within this shared space that mutual respect, understanding and coexistence must be nurtured.”

The Navajo Nation Council described the performance as a misrepresentation and mockery of sacred aspects of Navajo spirituality, stating that the portrayal is disrespectful and culturally insensitive.

“Navajo medicine men are spiritual leaders and should never be made a mockery in such a violent manner,” Curley said in a statement.

The letter calls on the church to take the concerns of the community seriously, Curley said, and she is more than willing to sit down with the church’s leaders to have a “respectful dialogue on what has happened.”

“Many of our people are still frustrated,” she said, adding that they have not received any type of response back from the church.

Curley said that it is essential to acknowledge the religious freedoms practiced on the Navajo Nation. However, she said that “freedom should never come at the expense of another person’s sacred beliefs or traditions.”

“My statement is not intended to play down or disrespect another religion, but there has to be some type of respect, even as neighbors,” Curley added. “This goes across all faiths. We have to stay respectful to one another.”

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren has not released a statement about the incident. The Arizona Mirror reached out to Nygren’s office, but it did not respond.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.

From securing funding for Indian Health Services and ongoing water settlements to increasing investments in infrastructure, education and law enforcement, many Indigenous leaders and organizations are raising the alarm about the devastation that federal funding cuts could bring for Native Americans.

More than 60 tribal leaders and organizations from across Indian Country testified over three days to a U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee on the federal funding needs of Indigenous people and their communities nationwide.

“I know there’s never enough funding to go around,” Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said, and he appreciates how the subcommittee has consistently set aside several days to hear Indian Country’s funding priorities.

“It is the process that starts the funding decisions for tribal programs, staffing and priorities for this administration,” he added. Tribal leaders and organizations gave five-minute testimonies to the subcommittee from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27.

Lewis used his five minutes to discuss the Trump administration’s actions and their impact on his community.

There is “real fear” within tribal communities about what is happening in Washington, D.C., he said, referencing the freezing of federal funding and the mass firing of federal employees across the government.

Lewis said that many may applaud the slashing of federal funding because they have been convinced it is fraught with waste and abuse, or even those who see federal employees as a new enemy.

“I doubt you will hear a tribal leader argue that the federal government can’t be made more efficient or that there aren’t places where cuts could be made,” he said. “After all, we have been dealing with the federal government longer than any other group in this country.”

However, Lewis said the “chainsaw approach” of indiscriminately cutting employees, taken by President Donald Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who has been directing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, will not create efficiencies or save billions of dollars.

He added that the cuts are being made without considering how they will impact services. Rather than making the government more efficient and effective, it is “creating a federal workforce that is paralyzed by fear.”

Lewis called the administration’s actions destabilizing and said they will have a disproportionate impact on Indian Country.

“The government-to-government relationship is only as strong as our federal partner,” he said. “And right now, there is a real concern that the federal side of this partnership has the real potential of being dismantled.”

Lewis said that reforms can be and should be made. But, he said, they should be made in a way that provides insight, dignity and consultation with tribal governments and among those with the experience and knowledge of tribal programs.

“It is up to this committee to make those decisions,” he said, ensuring certainty among Indigenous peoples that the essential programs they depend on won’t be cut.

“Certainty that our tribal sovereignty will be upheld and honored,” he added.

‘Treaty and trust obligations’

Multiple tribal leaders and organizations urged the subcommittee to help them hold the administration accountable for the federal funding allocated to Indigenous peoples and their communities.

“Tribal programs are not DEI initiatives,” Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community President Martin Harvier said, referring to the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government. “They are a fulfillment of treaty and trust obligations and must not be subject to arbitrary reductions or freezes.”

During the three-day subcommittee hearing, tribal leaders and organizations emphasized their communities’ various needs, highlighting issues ranging from insufficient law enforcement to the necessity of sustainable roads on tribal land to the importance of urban Native programs.

“Indian Country continues to struggle with generations of crumbling infrastructure, limited access to health care, underfunded law enforcement and an ongoing fight for clean water,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said. “These issues aren’t just numbers in a budget.”

Nygren said it is the everyday realities of Navajo and Native families throughout Indian Country. As an example, he told the subcommittee about the Navajo Nation’s dire need for emergency medical services support, highlighting how people needing an ambulance often wait 45 minutes or longer.

“If an ambulance is even available,” he added, noting that Navajo EMS answers roughly 20,000 calls a year and their funding has not been increased in decades.

“This is a matter of life and death,” he said. “We ask for dedicated funding for our tribal EMS, including a $4 million allocation specifically for the Navajo Nation.”

Funding needs for public safety were a big concern for many tribal leaders, including the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler shared that the San Carlos Apache Police Department has only 19 officers and would need at least 75 to adequately patrol their large tribal land area.

Rambler said San Carlos Apache police officers work 12-hour shifts, patrol over 360,000 miles per year and endure extreme situations made worse by the lack of an adequate facility.

“Our police department is severely underfunded and public safety is severely compromised,” he said. “Our police department cannot compete with other places that offer higher salaries and better benefits. Other jurisdictions actively recruit away our officers.”

During the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, acknowledged the importance of keeping police officers and firefighters in Indigenous communities rather than allowing the community to serve merely as a training ground for them to move on to areas with better pay and benefits.

“Those are important issues we’ve got to work on,” he said.

Tohono O’odham Vice Chairwoman Carla Johnson shared with the subcommittee that there are over 700 miles of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) roads on her reservation, and they are all in poor condition.

“The BIA road maintenance program has been underfunded for years and has a huge backlog,” she said. “Only 13% of BIA roads nationwide are in acceptable condition.”

Johnson said that more funding must be provided for the BIA roads program because the roads within their community are how tribal citizens access essential services, how federal and tribal law enforcement engage in border security, and how EMS responds.

“This funding is critical for the safety of tribal members, law enforcement, emergency responders and all others using our reservation road,” she added.

The needs of Indigenous peoples do not stop at the boundaries of their tribal lands, and Urban Indian Health Institute Director Abigail Echo-Hawk used her testimony to remind the subcommittee that Indigenous peoples in urban areas deserve the same type of support.

Echo-Hawk said that about 76% of Native American people live off their tribal homelands and reside in urban areas.

“We need to remember the urban Indian population,” she said. “The treaty and trust responsibility for our health and wellness did not end when we stepped off the reservation.”

Echo-Hawk called on the subcommittee to support funding for the Indian Health Services and Urban Native Health Programs, essential resources and services for many Indigenous people.

“What I am asking you is to fight back with us,” she said. “Fight back to ensure that we have the resources and services as an Urban program to get the treatment for those coming to us.”

Senators and representatives call on administration

Amid growing concerns about implementing the Trump administration’s executive order on government workforce efficiency, over 100 Democratic U.S. senators and representatives signed a letter to Trump, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reminding them to uphold the federal government’s commitments to tribal nations.

The congresspeople noted that the U.S. government has trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations, which are implemented through various agencies to provide tribes with vital health care, education and social services.

“Your administration’s recent executive actions undermine legally required commitments to sovereign tribal nations, existing federal law, and the federal-Tribal government-to-government relationship,” they wrote in the letter.

The letter was headed by Rep. Melanie Stansbury and Sen. Martin Heinrich, Democrats from New Mexico. In total, 113 elected officials signed the letter from the Senate and Congress, including all of the Democratic members of Arizona’s delegation.

A spokesperson for Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said he joined his colleagues in urging the Trump administration to protect resources in Indian Country and fulfill the federal government’s promises because he is committed to standing up for Native communities in Arizona.

“The recent funding freezes and mass firings within agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Services only jeopardize essential services and create chaos,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to the Arizona Mirror.

The letter focuses on the administration’s executive order “Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimiation Initiative” and its impact on Indian Country.

The congresspeople indicate that the administration has abruptly fired thousands of federal workers across various government agencies. They have received reports of more than 2,600 at the Department of the Interior, over 100 at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than 40 at the Bureau of Indian Education and approximately 950 Indian Health Service employees.

“Beyond the legal questions surrounding the ability to fire employees without specifying performance or conduct issues, any unilateral attempts to disrupt existing services administered or funded by the BIA, BIE, IHS, or Tribal-serving entities would directly violate the trust and treaty obligations of the United States to Tribal Nations,” the letter states.

The leaders urged the administration to take immediate action to “halt, exempt, and reverse” any federal offices, services, or funding that serve Indian Country from existing or future executive actions.

“Tribal Nations are sovereign governments with a unique legal and political relationship to the United States,” the letter states. “These trust and treaty obligations in some cases predate both the establishment of all of the agencies in question as well as the United States itself.”

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.

President Donald Trump’s executive order for “Unleashing American Energy” is sparking concern for the safety of federal lands within national monuments across the U.S., but especially in the Southwest, where Trump has targeted monuments before.

During his first term, Trump eliminated environmental protections for two national monuments in Utah by reducing the sizes of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The Biden administration restored both in 2021.

With Trump’s Unleashing American Energy order, the Bear Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are at risk again because they both hold large critical mineral reserves.

As part of his executive order, Trump requested an immediate review of all agency actions that could potentially hinder the development of domestic energy resources, focusing on oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical minerals and nuclear energy.

His order requested that agency heads review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders and any other agency actions.

Trump gave agencies 30 days to create and implement action plans to “suspend, revise, or rescind all agency actions identified as unduly burdensome.”

The Department of the Interior is fulfilling the president’s request after Secretary Doug Burgum directed agency staff to “promptly review all agency actions and submit an action plan” detailing the steps to review and revise all public lands withdrawn under current law. The department’s deadline is Feb. 18.

The secretarial order does not directly mention national monuments or outline what laws are to be reviewed, but it references 54 U.S.C. 320301 and 43 U.S.C. 1714, which are federal laws related to the Antiquities Act of 1906 and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.

“It’s almost as if they were trying to sneak this by us,” said Tim Peterson, the cultural landscapes director for the Grand Canyon Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization.

Peterson said these two laws are significant because the Federal Land Management Act section permits mineral withdrawals administratively, and the Antiquities Act enables presidents to establish national monuments.

Peterson said mineral withdrawals remove public lands from mineral entry, which means there can be no new mining claims, oil and gas leasing or geothermal leasing.

The secretarial order stated that the department should focus on advancing innovation to improve the United State’s energy and critical mineral capacity to provide a reliable, diverse and affordable energy supply for the nation.

The order also calls for updating the U.S. Geological Survey’s list of critical minerals, including uranium, and developing an action plan to prioritize mapping efforts to identify previously unknown critical mineral deposits.

“It seems to be targeting all presidentially designated national monuments under the Antiquities Act,” said Amber Reimondo, the energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust, noting that both Democratic and Republican presidents have designated national monuments.

Arizona has 19 national monuments, including the recently established Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, which added more protections against mining to the Grand Canyon region.

Tribes, conservation groups and state leaders are concerned about the recently established monument and are calling on the Department of the Interior to honor and support it.

The orders threaten the Grand Canyon Region in two significant ways: the Obama administration’s 2012 mining ban, which is in place for 20 years before it needs to be renewed, and the added protections from Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

“ The secretarial order threatens both those layers of protection for the Grand Canyon region that tribes and communities have fought for years to attain,” Reimondo said, and the order threatens them despite the massive support national monuments have.

Polling conducted by Grand Canyon Trust shows that over two-thirds of Arizona voters oppose reducing protections for national monuments, and 80% back Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni.

In Utah, polling indicates that 71% of voters favor maintaining Bears Ears as a national monument, while 74% support keeping Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument.

“Americans love their national monuments and want them to stay protected,” Reimondo said.

The newly designated monument was challenged in court when Arizona GOP leaders filed a lawsuit in 2024 to rescind Biden’s designation because he did not have the power to do so. A federal judge dismissed the case in January, but the GOP leaders are now looking to the Trump administration to move on their request.

Tribes in the region have worked closely with other conservation groups to advocate for the monument’s designation in 2023. The monument protects thousands of historical and scientific objects, sacred sites, vital water sources and the ancestral homelands of many Indigenous communities.

The lands of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni include cultural and sacred places of the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Pueblo of Zuni and the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

The monument’s name comes from the Indigenous names the Havasupai and Hopi gave to the area. In the Havasupai language, Baaj Nwaavjo means “where Indigenous peoples roam,” while I’tah Kukveni means “our ancestral footprints” in the Hopi language.

Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly sent a joint letter to Burgum sharing the importance of Baaj Nwaavjo and calling on his reassurances that there will not undo Arizona’s newest national monument.

“Tribes and Arizona communities deserve to move on with the management planning process for this National Monument rather than worry that there may be attempts to remove it,” the senators stated in their joint letter.

“Given the importance of the Monument to Tribal Nations and Communities, our economy, and immense public support, we ask that you reassure Arizonans that Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument will remain intact for generations to come,” they added.

Grand Canyon Trust Executive Director Ethan Aumack stated in a press release that they strongly oppose any efforts to reduce the boundaries of national monuments, as these areas are “world-class examples of natural and cultural landscapes worthy of protection.”

“Any attempts to roll back protections for national monuments will be challenged in the courts and strongly opposed by the public,” He added.

Earthjustice attorney Heidi McIntosh said that the decision to review national monuments highlights the Trump administration’s “narrow-minded insistence” to hand over one of the nation’s most valuable resources, public lands, to the mining and oil and gas industries.

“Rather than protecting the cultural treasures, world-renowned fossils, historic places, and one-of-a-kind ecosystems that monuments like Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni hold, this administration wants to sell these lands to the highest bidder,” McIntosh said in a statement. “We stand ready to defend our national monuments alongside the Tribes and local communities who advocated for their creation.”

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.

A top Arizona Republican is hoping the Trump administration will do what a federal court wouldn’t: overturn a national monument protecting lands around the Grand Canyon so that mining companies can extract uranium and other valuable minerals from the land.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior on Feb. 7 requesting a meeting with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to discuss ending the “government overreach” of the national monument and ban on uranium mining in the area.

At issue is the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, which President Joe Biden created in 2023. Petersen and Ben Toma, who was at the time the speaker of the state House of Representatives, sued to have the designation revoked.

The GOP’s lawsuit argued that Biden did not have the power to create the monument, which spans 917,618 acres the federal government already managed. They also claimed it harms both the state and local communities by permanently barring uranium mining — limiting the state’s potential future revenue — and complicating land development.

On Jan. 27, Judge Stephen McNamee ruled that the Arizona Legislature and the other plaintiffs did not have standing to sue and dismissed the case.

The Grand Canyon is the ancestral homeland of multiple tribal nations across the Southwest, and tribes still rely on the canyon for natural and cultural resources that are significant and sacred to their communities.

The monument protects thousands of historical and scientific objects, sacred sites, vital water sources and the ancestral homelands of many Indigenous communities.

The monument’s name comes from the Indigenous names the Havasupai and Hopi gave to the area. In the Havasupai language, Baaj Nwaavjo means “where Indigenous peoples roam,” while I’tah Kukveni means “our ancestral footprints” in the Hopi language.

The monument restricts new mining within the area, but any mining rights in place before the designation have not been impacted.

Petersen called the Biden administration’s designation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni a “land grab,” and said keeping it in place contributes to high energy costs and the United States’ reliance on foreign powers.

“Ending the federal government’s hold of this piece of land falls in line with the Trump Administration’s goals of energy independence, job creation, and lower costs for Americans,” he said in a written statement.

Petersen said that government scientists believe that there is more than 300 million pounds of uranium is buried near the Grand Canyon.

“The energy that could be produced from this mineral is astronomical,” he said.

“I look forward to working with Secretary Burgum on this matter of importance for Arizona and the entire nation,” he added.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.

Standing solemnly in front of a crowd full of Indigenous people on the grassy field of a tribal elementary school near Phoenix, President Joe Biden issued a formal apology to Indigenous communities across the country for the role the United States government had in the Native American Boarding School system, a system that harmed Indigenous people for generations.

“After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program, but the federal government has never formally apologized for what happened,” Biden said. “Until today — I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did.”

Biden’s apology was met with loud cheers from the crowd. He is the first sitting president in the last 10 years to visit a Tribal Nation.

He told the community that it was long overdue and that it was only fitting that it was given at a tribal school within an Indigenous community deeply connected to culture and tradition.

“I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to the Native peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans and federal Indian boarding schools,” he said. “It’s long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took (150) years to make.

Biden said the pain that the federal Indian boarding school policy has caused will always be a significant mark of shame for the United States.

“For those who went through this period, it was too painful to speak of,” he said. “For a nation, it was too shameful to acknowledge.”

“This formal apology is the culmination of decades of work by so many courageous people,” Biden said, acknowledging many who were sitting in the audience, including the boarding school survivors and descendants.

“I know no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy,” Biden said. “But, today, we’re finally moving forward into the light.”

Biden’s apology, delivered Friday at the Gila River Crossing School on the Gila River Indian Community, comes three years after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched the first ever federal investigation into Native American Boarding Schools.

Haaland spoke before Biden, and was welcomed to the stage by Miss Gila River Susanna Osife as “Auntie Deb.” Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, told the crowd that thinking about our ancestors today is important because they persevered, and their stories are everywhere.

“We tell those stories because Native American history is American history,” Haaland said.

The Department of Interior released the final boarding school report in July. It provided eight recommendations from the Department of Indian Affairs for the federal government that would support a path to healing for tribal communities.

At the top of that list was a call for the United States to acknowledge and apologize for its role in the federal Indian boarding school policies that have harmed — and continue to harm — Indigenous peoples across the country.

“Today is a day for remembering, but it’s also a day to celebrate our perseverance,” Haaland said. “In spite of everything that has happened, we are still here.”

While boarding schools are places where affluent families send their children for an exclusive education for most of the United States, Haaland noted how different the prospect was for Native Americans.

“For Indigenous peoples, they served as places of trauma and terror for more than 100 years,” she said. “Tens of thousands of Indigenous children as young as four years old were taken from their families and communities and forced into boarding schools run by U.S. government institutions.”

Haaland said that the federal Native American Boarding School system has impacted every Indigenous person she knows, and they all carry the trauma that those policies and schools inflicted.

“This is the first time in history that a United States cabinet secretary has shared the traumas of our past, and I acknowledge that this trauma was perpetrated by the agency that I now lead,” Haaland said. “For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books, but now our administration’s work will ensure that no one will ever forget.”

Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in 2021 to shed light on the “horrific era of our nation’s history.”

The initiative compiled two reports and visited dozens of Indigenous communities, hearing from survivors and descendants so that their experiences are all documented because the goal of Native American Boarding Schools was to assimilate and eradicate Indigenous people.

Haaland said the investigation into these boarding schools are shared in those reports and it shows the “loud and unequivocal truth” that the federal government took deliberate and strategic actions through boarding school policies to isolate Indigenous children from their families and steal from them the languages, cultures, and traditions that are fundamental to Indigenous people.

“As we stand here together, my friends and relatives, we know that the federal government failed,” She said. “It failed to annihilate our languages, our traditions, our life ways. It failed to destroy us because we persevered.”

The Federal Boarding School Initiative’s report called on Congress and federal agencies to take action, and Haaland said that some of those recommendations are already being put into effect.

For instance, Haaland said the department is working alongside the departments of Education and Health and Human Services to invest in the preservation of Native languages.

“We are developing a 10-year national plan guided by tribal leaders and Native language teachers,” Haaland said, and more details about their efforts will be released later.

“The painful loss of our Indigenous languages has been a consistent topic as we have met with survivors across our nation,” she said.

Another effort Haaland highlighted is the department’s collaboration with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to create an oral collection of first-person narratives from boarding school survivors.

Haaland said this collaboration is a way to ensure that future generations are told the stories of the boarding school era and understand the impacts and intergenerational trauma caused by boarding school policies.

As the crowd listened to Biden give his speech, protesters with O’odham Solidarity made their voice heard as one walked toward the stage holding a sign calling for justice for Palestinians.

Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks at Gila Crossing Community School on Oct. 25, 2024, on the Gila River Indian Community. Biden formally apologized for the trauma inflicted by the federal government’s forced Native American boarding school policy. Photo by Rebecca Noble | Getty Images

As Biden delivered his remarks, one protester yelled from the crowd: “No, what about the people in Gaza.”

The protest was met with shouts from the crowd as a man in the crowd yelled: “Get out of here.” But Biden said let her talk.

“Let her go,” Biden said as the protester was being removed. “There’s a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop.”

Even after the protestors voiced their concerns, the community’s attention went back to Biden as he continued his speech about the boarding school years as well as his investments to Indian Country.

‘It was long overdue’

Crystalyne Curley said she thought of her grandfathers as Biden delivered his apology, which brought back memories of the stories they would tell of their time at boarding schools and the trauma they experienced.

“It’s a bittersweet moment,” Curley said. “I think there is a lot of a mix of emotions, because each of our Navajo citizens has a tie to the trauma that has happened within our boarding schools.”

Curley serves as speaker of the Navajo Nation Council and has heard stories about the federal boarding school system from her community for generations.

“It was long overdue,” Curley said. “I really commend our president Biden for taking that step and being the first one to have that courage to say, ‘Yes, we done wrong.’”

Curley said that is something that many Indigenous people have been waiting to hear, including the Navajo people.

“Many of our children didn’t come home,” she said, and the policies’ lingering effects include the loss of language and culture.

The Department of the Interior investigated the federal Indian boarding school system across the United States, identifying more than 400 schools and over 70 burial sites.

Arizona was home to 47 of those schools, which were attended by Indigenous children who were taken away from their families and attempted to assimilate them through education — and, often, physical punishment.

The legacy of the federal Indian boarding school system is not new to Indigenous people. For centuries, Indigenous people across the country have experienced the loss of their culture, traditions, language and land.

Multiple federally operated boarding schools were established in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and many of them are still operational today, though under different policies than when they were constructed.

Curley said that there are still a lot of federally operated Bureau of Indian Education schools in operation on the Navajo Nation, but some families still hesitate to enroll their children in them because of the boarding school history.

She hopes that this apology will lead to the federal government investing in the education system within tribal nations.

“Start investing back into our children and our mental, spiritual, (and) psychological health that this has caused for many decades,” she added.

Curley said she hopes that the momentum of Biden’s apology will be carried on into the next administration by acknowledging the wrong done to Indigenous communities.

Now that an official apology has been given, Curley said that healing needs to take place and that comes in the form of investing in Indigenous communities, something she said is best done by funding public and mental health resources, as well as reinvesting in the culture and language revitalizations within their communities.

“For healing to take place, it takes at least two generations,” Curley said.

After Biden issued his apology, Native organizations and advocates from across Indian Country called for action.

Cheryl Crazy Bull, the president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, said that the federal government and philanthropists need to make a significant investment in restorative and healing approaches as well as institutions to repair the harm done by the boarding school era.

“The Native people who we support, from our youngest children to our college students, deserve that investment,” she said.

Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder and CEO of IllumiNative, called Biden’s apology a significant step toward justice for Indian Country, but said it must not be the end of the government’s efforts.

“True accountability requires comprehensive action — beginning with full transparency about the extent of these abuses and the return of Native children’s remains to their families and communities,” she said.

“We must continue to demand further accountability of the harms done to Native peoples, especially the Native children who experienced neglect, inhumane conditions, physical and sexual abuse, and death under the guise of education,” Echo Hawk said. “The federal government must commit to supporting Native-led healing initiatives, language revitalization programs, and cultural preservation efforts to effectively begin repairing the damage of the past.”

***UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional comments from Native advocates.

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