On this, the next to the last day of the year, Navajo Nation nurse Raymond Joe, was taken to his final resting place after succumbing to COVID-19. KOB-TV's Nathan O'Neal reported that Joe, a 48-year-old combat veteran  was among the first health care workers to draw attention to the dangers of the novel coronavirus on the Navajo Nation.

Joe's common law wife, Eugenia Johnson, said Joe was one of the few people in the region who was fluent in Navajo and as a nurse, he used to go out into the Navajo Nation, parts of Shiprock, Kirtland, and Cove to see patients.

In November, both Joe and Johnson, who is also a nurse on the Navajo Nation, contracted the virus. While she recovered, Joe got...

COVID vaccines roll out across Gallup, Navajo Nation

When the coronavirus vaccines were distributed to Crownpoint Health Care Facility Dec. 14, it created “a lot of excitement” and “anxious feelings,” according to U.S. Public Health Service Lt. Kali Autrey, a pharmacist clinician.

But more than that, a health official at the hospital in McKinley County was compelled to have the vaccines “blessed.”

“It was beautiful,” Autrey said.

Within minutes, she volunteered to be the first to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The doses at Crownpoint were among those sent to sites around the Navajo Nation after the initial allottment was delivered to the Gallup Indian Medical...

The discussion expands to include education, legislation, systemic problems

SANTA FE—Plaintiffs in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez education lawsuit asked the First Judicial District Court Dec. 15 to order the State of New Mexico to provide computers and high-speed internet access to the thousands of “at-risk” students who lack these necessary tools for remote learning.

“Many children in New Mexico, especially those in rural districts and districts serving predominantly Native American students, don’t have computers or high-speed internet access and have been effectively denied access to public education since the pandemic started, worsening existing education inequities,”...

Gallup — Following this weekend’s authorization by the Federal Drug Administration  for the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services received its first shipment of vaccines on Dec. 16. The New Mexico Department of Health will ship the first allotment of 125 doses from its Albuquerque warehouse and will follow up with two more shipments, a week apart.

RMCHCS will follow the Centers for Disease Control  recommendation and administer the first vaccines to healthcare personnel who directly interact with patients and are at the highest level of risk for infection.

RMCHCS is working with the New Mexico Department...