People

From competing as a standout guard at San Jose State to playing a role in Netflix’s Rez Ball, Analyss Benally is no stranger to the pressures of the spotlight.

“To serve as Poet Laureate of Colorado is to write from a landscape that teaches us how to listen. Listen to mountains that hold silence like an old wisdom, to rivers that speak in silver tongues of time, to plains that remind us of breath, distance, and belonging.

The 1977 Coconino High School boys cross-country team that delivered the program’s first Class AA state championship was honored last summer as part of the Flagstaff Sports Foundation Hall of Fame class.

Deandra Jones wraps barbed wire around trees in the Chuska Mountains, places sardines and glazed doughnuts in the center of a square-shaped collection site, then sprays commercial liquid called Bear Lure that smells sweet and fishy. When black bears arrive to investigate the scents, they brush against the wire and leave behind hair samples containing their DNA.

Edison Eskeets, a 66-year-old runner from Springstead, New Mexico, has spent decades preparing for a journey that mirrors one of the most painful chapters in Diné history. Through distance running, ceremony and storytelling, Eskeets retraced the 330-mile route of the Long Walk to honor those who endured the forced march and those who never returned home.