Letters | Plateau summer
Plateau summer
Editor,
June at the Museum of Northern Arizona ushers in the start of an engaging season. Summer is truly special here. Our beautiful setting in the ponderosa pines comes alive with events, visitors and community energy.
I invite you to kick off the summer at MNA’s Party on the Plateau fundraiser on Saturday, June 6. The accompanying online silent auction is open to all, featuring unique items and experiences to explore.
This month we’re proud to celebrate a longstanding museum tradition honoring Indigenous art and culture with two highlights: The Heritage Festival of Arts and Culture taking place June 26-28 and our newest exhibition, Artist Hopid Unveiled.
The Heritage Festival brings roughly 100 Native artists from across the Colorado Plateau to showcase and sell jewelry, pottery, basketry, fine art, weavings and more. It’s a unique opportunity to meet the artists and hear the stories and techniques behind their work. Traditional dance groups add color and spirited energy to the festival. Inside our galleries, Artist Hopid Unveiled offers a deeper look at creative traditions and contemporary expression.
Please join us this summer in celebrating art, culture, and science, all within the place that inspires it, the beautiful Colorado Plateau.
Mary Kershaw
Executive director/CEO
Museum of Northern Arizona
Flagstaff, Ariz.
Where money goes
Editor,
The Albuquerque Journal published an article on May 29, 2025, titled “New Mexico report reveals far higher homelessness than federal count,” highlighting that the number of unhoused individuals living on the streets of Albuquerque is significantly higher than previously reported.
As a state legislator representing District 31 in northeast Albuquerque, I frequently hear from constituents who are increasingly concerned about public safety, especially the safety of their children, as the visible population of individuals experiencing homelessness continues to grow. As policymakers, we have a responsibility not only to develop effective public policy that serves all members of our community, but also to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently and transparently.
It is widely reported that the City of Albuquerque invests tens of millions of dollars annually into homelessness programs. Additionally, in the current fiscal year, the State of New Mexico has allocated nearly $25 million for homelessness initiatives, including $19.7 million for statewide programs and $5 million for various local projects. While these funds are distributed statewide, it is reasonable to assume a significant portion will be directed towards Albuquerque, given the concentration of need in the city.
Despite these substantial investments, amounting to many millions of dollars over recent years, the number of individuals living on the streets in Albuquerque continues to rise. This raises serious concerns about the effectiveness and accountability of current efforts undertaken by your administration to address this public health and safety problem.
Therefore, I am formally requesting a detailed accounting of the City of Albuquerque’s homelessness programs, including:
1. A breakdown of the city’s annual spending on homelessness-related programming, including sources of funding; 2. A description of the specific programs and services supported by those funds; and 3. The performance metrics used to evaluate these programs, along with the city’s current assessment of their effectiveness.
I am deeply concerned that despite the magnitude of public investment, the homelessness crisis appears to be worsening in the city. While there are many ideas about how to solve this problem, it is essential that all solutions be based on the principles of greater transparency, enhanced accountability and a city-wide commitment to use taxpayers’ dollars effectively if we are to make meaningful progress on this issue.
Nicole Chavez
State representative
New Mexico House of Representatives
Albuquerque, N.M.
Consensus in beauty
Editor,
Yá’át’ééh. I am happy to see the Diné Hataałii Association and the Diné Medicine Men Association join the discussion of the proposed Navajo constitution with their May 26 guest column in the Navajo Times, “Diné Law Must Guide Reform.”
As one long favoring Indigenous nations overcoming the problems of imposed governments by returning governance to traditional values, I only wish they had been involved earlier.
Following Diné events from Albuquerque, my view is limited and I may miss much that could be seen from being present at all the decision-making moments. From reading the Navajo Government Development Commission website and its office’s Facebook and Navajo Times postings, I believe the Hataałii and Medicine Men’s presidents and the NGDC both want to move away from the current alien form of Navajo government through a process led by Diné tradition in which the decision comes from and is made by the people.
I ask, if the primary difference in views stems from the difficulties in figuring out how to apply traditional principles to today’s very different conditions?
According to the NGDC website, at least three traditional practitioners were involved in developing the proposal. The proposal was developed from a survey of the Diné, itself arising in response to the findings that Navajo government needed reform by a meeting of the regions at which a great many chapters were represented. The postings consistently call for input from Diné in shaping their future government. Aside from viewing much of one meeting with Internet participation at which there was an hour for Diné participation, plus encouragement for Diné to give input through a variety of means, I cannot say how representative the public participation process and the commission/office response to it has been. But whatever its shortcomings, the evidence available to me seems to show an honest attempt to be representative and responsive.
As the guest column by Avery Denny and Leland Grass points out, there are major issues of contention that need to be resolved in a good way. Certainly, the appropriate use and protection of land and water are central concerns, including whether even a limited sale of any Navajo land should be permitted. Today, because of loss of traditional culture and other sufferings from colonization, as well as the reduction of public opinion as a corrective, the accountability of public leaders has become essential. But is the proposed fourth branch of government the best solution? Is it good as proposed, in need of amendment, or should it be replaced by some other mechanism?
The Navajo Nation is in need of economic development, including appropriate investment which requires maintaining trust with outside entities while limiting their activities to be consistent with the wellbeing the nation and its citizens. That was simpler to accomplish in the old days, when other tribes shared the same basic way of seeing, though with differences in emphasis and detail. Today, the nation must deal with those with different understandings and relate with an alien external legal and bureaucratic system. The investor and related provisions Denny and Grass complain of were written to meet those necessities. Was this a proper solution? Was there simply a problem with the language?
Some statements in the document bothered me when read alone, but while I would have preferred other wording, on seeing these words in context, I saw the problems in them overridden by other language. Or is a different approach to external relations in the best interest of the Diné? It feels to me that both the keepers of tradition and the commission both seek the same end result but come at the problem from different experiences.
In over 30 years of studying Indian nations struggling with these issues, I have noted that there is usually a split between those more traditionally experienced and those more dealing with the mainstream and economic development experienced. That gap usually does not get closed until both experiences are brought together.
At Southern Ute that began to happen with the election of a tribal chair who integrated both concerns in his own views. At Navajo Nation would the best way forward for the Hataałii and Medicine Men to meet together with the commission? Would that be a good teaching example on returning to deciding by consensus?
May all move in beauty.
Stephen M. Sachs
Professor emeritus of political science
Indiana University
Albuquerque, N.M.
Cosmic spider
Editor,
At the edge of time, a cosmic spider wove the illusions that make up the beauty mortals perceive. At times, she paused to look back at her past creations, which had endured for thousands or millions of years, where her small human pets struggled for meager, ephemeral achievements before the indifferent gaze of their unknown arachnid queen. However, one day the marvelous artist of creation was moved by the appearance of a walker strolling through one of the parks she had created more than a century ago.
This singular adventurer seemed to float above the path, as if he were seeing another landscape or as if he understood the grand magic of creation before his eyes.
At that moment, the queen decided to pay closer attention to this creation, for she enjoyed observing this strange humanoid who seemed to sense her presence in all things that touched his heart.
There is undoubtedly something wild in the beauty of nature’s infinite diversity that will never be shaken by any fashion or tradition; it will never be civilized. It is there that diverse worlds and realities also communicate if the appropriate channels of communication are developed.
In that intermediate space, a connection arose between this legendary cosmic spider and the space traveler, for both cared only for beauty, and that was their common language. The only reality was beauty, and the only language was magic. Civilization was a mere childish artifice, the demands of life only treacherous inventions.
The spider was hidden in broad daylight, hidden within her creation. The visible creation was her language, a key to perceiving the divine creation, and the traveler knew how to read that key. This is why the queen of spiders paid attention to the dreams and visions of her chosen creature.
She then began to build in the soul of her creature a being unlike anything created, a different being, playing with its characteristics, modifying it each day. Only by transforming himself could he transform his environment, corrupted by greed and materialism. He became her preferred weapon to combat all darkness. She became his strength and his heart.
In that hybrid union, temporality was lost, and space was a form of love filling all dimensions. The absolute power of the creator over his creation is the most sublime aspect of beauty, a charm as light as spring air. Their encounter was always perfect, silent, total.
The heart was no longer a heart, no longer enough and exploded into a new and magnificent creation. Colors spoke of magic and sweetness, the heavens opened for them, and angels sang, celebrating the mystical union, the sacred conjunction as unspeakable as its inexorable consequences.
At the end of an era, everything is possible. No one can see the cosmic spider. No one wants to see the wanderer. All will have to see the consequences of their encounter.
Horacio Kiel
Honorary chess ambassador
Montevideo, Uruguay
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