Stagecoach Elementary Teacher Benina Maldonado is Teacher of the Month

With the 2018 school year in full swing, it’s time once again to recognize another outstanding individual for excellence in teaching.

Each month during the school year, Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe in Gallup recognizes a local teacher as Teacher of the Month. Teachers are nominated by students or those who feel they deserve the recognition for their seemingly effortless, hard work.

Camille’s presents the teacher with an award for excellence in their field.

Kicking off this brand-new school year, Camille’s congratulates Benina Maldonado, their September Teacher of the Month.

Maldonado is a pre-school teacher...

Actor emphasizes role of Native Americans in film-industry history

A star shot through Gallup for the opening night of the 2018 Gallup Film Festival at El Morro Theatre Sept. 13.

Wes Studi, known for his roles in The Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, among other films, attended the GFF screening of featured documentary Defending the Fire as the event’s special guest.

The film, produced by Silver Bullet Productions, is narrated by Wes Studi and tells “the story of the Warrior, the importance of cultures in modern quests, and the lessons of war through the lens of these cultures,” according to the film’s website.

The film festival...

Sixth Annual Rotten Sneaker Contest WAFTS through town

There’s a classic rock song called “That Smell,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which aptly describes an event held at the Gallup Walmart Sept. 15.

It was the Sixth Annual Rotten Sneaker Contest sponsored by Odor-Eaters and Walmart, where contestants from Gallup and the surrounding area sign up for to pursue victory in the art of smelly, odorous, rotten sneakers.

Odor-Eaters chose the Gallup Walmart, 1650 W. Maloney Ave., for the past six years because the store sells more Odor-Eaters products than elsewhere. The contest’s primarily open to kids, but this year, a few adults entered the contest to take on the smelly youth — to...

Documentary reveals relevance of 1680 today

Veiled Lightning, a documentary that’s been on the film festival circuit of late, inspiring social change and receiving national acclaim, is also playing on the Gallup Film Festival big screen.

The film “weaves archival footage, informant interviews, original art and exclusive news coverage” to explore the way “protest movements unfurling across the Southwest and the nation provide for social and environmental justice and fight genocide, oppression, exploitation and appropriation to save Indigenous culture while simultaneously creating a way for us to all heal from our national history,” according to its website.

The woman...