As we approach the 150 year anniversary of the treaty of 1868, a signing that would release the Navajo and other native tribes from imprisonment at Fort Sumner, it’s time to celebrate another form of freedom, freedom from disease.

Last week I wrote the column “Haatiishaa aaldi nei? (Autoimmune Disease)” and described what autoimmune disease is and what it does to our bodies. In this week’s column I was asked go a step further and tell you what it means for you, the native.

Let’s start with a little history.

When I went to the Navajo Museum in Window Rock, AZ for the first time about 4 years ago I was struck by the fact that no pictures contained any native person, child...

Report shows a 232 percent increase in Native uninsurance under Senate bill

ALBUQUERQUE—By slashing Medicaid and making marketplace coverage unaffordable, the U.S. Senate Republican health bill would have devastating consequences for New Mexico’s American Indians. The uninsured rate among Native Americans in New Mexico would jump an estimated 232 percent under the bill, according to a new report from the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“The Senate Republican health bill would be devastating to Native American people living in New Mexico,” said James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children. “Our tribal communities are the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich led a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol with U.S. Senator Tom Udall and a number of other Senate Democrats July 11, on President Donald Trump’s executive order that could unravel dozens of America’s national monuments despite the strong outpouring of support from across the nation. The Senators were joined by public lands and community coalitions who called on President Trump and Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to listen to the American people and keep existing monument protections in place.

The monument review threatens public lands and national monument designations including the Organ Mountains-Desert...

Camping is one of this nation’s great equalizers. Whether you camp with the latest, most expensive gear, or you hang a tarp and sleep in the bed of a pickup truck, there is a camping style to fit most every budget. It continues to be, for many families, one of the cheapest ways to vacation and enjoy the great outdoors. Camping is becoming an equalizer in a different way, as more and more racial and ethnic minorities are pitching tents.

A recent survey showed that of the one million U.S. households that went camping for the first time in 2016, nearly 40 percent were either Hispanic (13 percent), African American (12 percent) or Asian American (14 percent). Non-white campers now...