Navajo Nation

Many homes in rural areas of Coconino County lack access to the Internet, but that's changed for forty-five households in Tuba City, thanks to a new partnership with SpaceX. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports.

It’s estimated that more than seven hundred thousand Native Americans in the U.S. are living without access to clean and reliable water.  A recent report from the Water & Tribes Initiative surveyed thirty tribes in the Colorado River Basin and found widespread problems with lack of water access and contaminated supplies. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with the report’s lead author, Heather Tanana, a Navajo Nation citizen and assistant professor at the University of Utah.

Gov. Doug Ducey has signed at least a dozen voting bills into law during this legislative session. Republicans say they make elections more secure and efficient, but according to tribal leaders, some of the measures are nothing more than attempts at voter suppression following former President Donald Trump’s loss in Arizona last year. Tribes worry the new laws combined with language barriers, the remoteness of reservations and even poor road conditions will disenfranchise Indian Country voters, especially elders. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius spoke with Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren, whose district includes the Navajo Nation, of which she’s a member.