
Clean it up
Rep. Deb Haaland and two of her colleagues in Washington are pushing the Remove the Stain Act, which would rescind medals awarded to 18 US soldiers for their part in 1890's Wounded Knee massacre ($ TNM). Haaland says she thinks the bill shows "our country is finally on its way to acknowledging and recognizing the atrocities committed against our Native communities." Including the 18 for Wounded Knee, a total of 421 Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers of the Indian War Campaigns between 1868 and 1890.
Inked
A recent cartoon by local cartoonist Ricardo Caté shows a Native character at a lemonade stand run by a child, asking, "Do you take EBT?" Some folks are pissed, some folks are amused, some see it as a non-issue, and many support Caté's often humor-driven jabs at the challenges faced by Indigenous people. Caté is from Kewa Pueblo.
Missed out
Back in April, the Word told you about how a federal judge has ruled that extraction companies need to pay full royalties to the state of New Mexico. Sounds like a pretty basic concept, but it's one that has been ignored for a long time. A new report says that taxpayers have missed out on more than $5 billion ($ TNM) in royalties in the last 10 years; half of that would go to the feds, but $2.5 billion for the state is nothing to sneeze at. The report also says that subpar emission-control policies in New Mexico have contributed to lost revenue and environmental degradation.
For God’s sake
New Mexico Political Report shares stories originally reported by the Texas Tribune that not only report migrant children being returned to a squalid Texas holding facility (they'd initially been removed after reports of horrifying conditions), but regular folks who want to donate supplies are being turned away at the gates. Quoth one of the would-be donors: "For God's sake, they're kids, man."
Cruel irony
Joline Gutierrez Krueger over at the Albuquerque Journal has published a nuanced, touching remembrance of Laura Hanish, a social worker and public defender who was killed in her Albuquerque home on Friday. Hanish and her 19-year-old daughter were found stabbed to death; her daughter's ex-boyfriend has been charged with their murders. "She was fearless and open-hearted," Krueger writes of Hanish. "In [her] defendants, the world saw horror and hate. But Hanish saw the humanity, the hurt child, the broken soul."
Learn more
A community discussion at the Center for Progress and Justice this evening bills itself as answering all the questions you were afraid to ask about women's health and reproductive justice. This is a forum for everyone, not just women, so read more about who will speak and get over there this evening if you have the chance.
Get a jorb
New Mexico's private-sector, non-agriculture job growth rate was 1.9% in the last year, which means we outpaced the federal rate of 1.5% for the first time in six years; plus, New Mexico's job growth was the ninth-fastest in the country since May 2018.
Reaching out
As part of an initiative to get as full and accurate a count of New Mexicans as possible for the 2020 Census, the County Commission has created a Complete Count Committee to hit the most hidden and historically undercounted areas of Santa Fe County. Trusted community members from Chimayó to Edgewood will attempt to quiet anxieties and reach folks who are largely off the grid in order to get every body counted.
Thanks for reading! The Word baked some banana bread last night, and you should definitely be jealous.