I have always heard stories about our ancestors and how they controlled their pregnancies. These practices may have been called by different names along with the ancient medicines they used–but now, we refer to all of this as abortion care.

We need to end the shame and stigma around abortion care that has been brought on by the western patriarchal system. I have taught this to my children, and I will teach this to my grandchildren–because change must start somewhere. And for my family here in McKinley County, the change starts with me.

Thirty years ago, I had to make a difficult decision.

My son was around 5-years-old, my daughter around 16, and I was a pregnant for a third time...

New Mexico among hardest hit by incoming president’s pledge to ban development

SANTA FE — A ban on oil and natural gas development on public lands by President Joe Biden would severely harm the economies of eight western states, according to a Wyoming Energy Authority study conducted by University of Wyoming Professor Tim Considine. Over the next four years, the human cost of fulfilling Biden’s campaign pledge would be an average of 72,818 fewer jobs annually. Lost wages would total $19.6 billion, economic activity would decline $43.8 billion, and tax revenues would drop $10.8 billion by the end of Biden’s first term in Alaska, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North...

Diné Artist honors grandmother through craft

Life on the Navajo reservation helped shape 39-year-old Diné artisan Philander Begay. Begay is a Navajo artist who has won numerous awards for his jewelry at the Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial, Santa Fe shows, and the Heard Museum.

Begay remembers hanging on the skirt tails of his grandmother in Round Rock, Ariz., as she would teach him things about the Diné culture. They would walk together as his grandmother pointed out certain things about the land. One of the things he learned about was the horned toad.

“My grandma would find one, pick it up, and pray for it as well as bless it. She would talk to it and say it would give me...

The strong Navajo support for District Attorney Karl Gillson

To understand what motivated McKinley County’s former district attorney, Karl Raymond Gillson, who died on Jan. 24 at the age of 58 after a long illness, all one would have to do would be to look at his record as a Gallup state magistrate in the 1990s.

He had been accused of being too hard on the people who came before him for sentencing. He said he knew that people who had multiple DWI convictions would try their best to get their cases heard by any other magistrate.

“I can see why the other magistrates give lighter sentences. Its better for their political careers,” he said, adding that he could see how people...