Legislative Session Concludes & Albuquerque’s Indian Boarding School History
This week on New Mexico in Focus, the 2022 Legislative Session wraps up on Thursday, February 17th at noon after a grueling 30-day session. The Line opinion panel discuss what made it through the Roundhouse and on to the Governor’s desk. They also discuss the big-ticket items that fell short or ran out of time, and the implications of the final legislative outcomes.
De Haven Solimon Chaffins grew up living with her grandparents on the Laguna Pueblo. The landscape there shaped her view of the world… the natural landscape… and the Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine. That huge open pit mine is a federal Superfund site and is still polluting water and causing cancers. This week, Chaffins sits down with Our Land Correspondent Laura Paskus to explain how her artwork explores the story of the mine and its impacts. You can see some of her work at an exhibit called ‘Radon Daughter,’ on display at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center through the end of this month.
The city of Albuquerque has been involved in conversations with Pueblos and Tribes since June, when 215 unmarked graves of unidentified Indigenous youth were discovered at the site of an Indian Boarding School in British Columbia. Correspondent Antonia Gonzales talks with Dr. Theodore Jojola about this difficult history and the current efforts to acknowledge that history and foster healing.
Host: Gene Grant
The Line opinion panel:
Algernon D’Ammassa, reporter, Las Cruces Sun-News
Julia Goldberg, reporter, Santa Fe Reporter
Trip Jennings, executive director, New Mexico in Depth
Segment(s):
Albuquerque’s Indian Boarding School History
Correspondent: Antonia Gonzales
Guest: Dr. Theodore Jojola, director, UNM Indigenous Design & Planning Institute
Radon Daughter Art Exhibit Reflects New Mexico’s Uranium Legacy
Correspondent: Laura Paskus
Guest: De Haven Solimon Chaffins (Laguna/Zuni), artist