Navajo Nation

The Four Corners region, where the borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet, have been pummeled with rain over several weeks.

That includes the Navajo Reservation, which has been especially hard hit by these storms.

And at least one person died in the flooding last weekend.

As a new weather pattern moves through the region, Heath's family, like many displaced residents, is staying in a shelter, waiting out the worst of it.

1.

Ella Mae Begay 62-year-old Ella Mae Begay was a staple in the Navajo Nation in Sweetwater, Arizona.

She was a well-loved and respected member of the community who was known for her beautiful rugs that she weaved by hand.

In 2021, Ella had spent much of her time indoors, shielding herself from the virus and whatever was going on outside.

That was until June 14th, 2021, when Ella mysteriously disappeared.

Reports indicate that Ella left her home in a remote part of Sweetwater at around 2.30 a.m. on May 15th.

A witness saw Ella getting into her truck and driving off, but where was she going? Ella had stayed in throughout 2020 and 2021 to keep herself safe, so why would she leave suddenly in the middle of the night? Ella was reported missing by her neighbors, the closest of which were 50 yards away, and the Navajo Nation Police Department drove out to the area to investigate.

Ella's son was notified about his mother's disappearance and that is when his world came crashing down.

I am born to the Bilagana clan for the Ta'achini clan.

I am a member of the Navajo Nation as well as Dutch heritage.

In my practice, I honor the ancestors.

At the beginning of this year, I prayed to all of the ancestors, both near and far.

For Member Station KNAU, Chris Clements reports that rural communities and tribal nations are bracing for another round of stormy weather.

Arizona election officials say they're concerned about the ability of Navajo Nation residents to reach polling places after previous floods wiped out roads.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs says she's considering all options to help counties dealing with the disaster, which prompted evacuations and caused tornadoes to touch down.

We've been in constant communication with emergency managers at the county level and at the tribal level, providing support where we can.

by a lot.

Right on the edge of the Navajo Reservation.

And there's some casinos there.

I can't remember.

We are powering over 600 homes now on the Navajo Nation with solar and battery storage.

Our first megawatt of deployment of solar on the Navajo Nation, before we exported a single electron off the lands, we built a megawatt on it to power its people.

For decades, the Navajo Nation powered the American Southwest.

The coal under Black Mesa fed the largest coal plant in the West, and the electricity went to Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

Next to the mine, thousands of Navajo families lived without a light switch.

Part of the reason these institutional investors weren't coming to tribal lands was they didn't understand how to invest alongside tribes or the unique situations that federal trust status has, including the impacts on collateral and the land status, but also the sovereignty of tribal institutions.

The other side of that for utility scale is we had saw what was happening in the trend in the Southwest with California leading the way to decarbonize.

And the Navajo Nation was really just dependent on exporting coal and fossil fuel resources.

This is a very good hint because it's quite unique.

The only reason I know of this is I've always found it fascinating that the Navajo Nation Reservation down that straddles between Arizona and New Mexico, I think it crosses both of those, chooses to observe daylight savings time, but the state of Arizona does not.

So you've got this little piece of Arizona that doesn't follow the same rules as the rest of the state.

So...

So Arizona does not go on daylight savings time.

So it switches... relative to the rest of the states and much of the world, twice a year to confuse things even more.

The Navajo Nation doesn't want to cross time zones, so it does observe daylight savings times in Arizona.

So you literally can have a foot in Arizona where one foot is on Arizona time and the other foot is on Navajo Nation time, and you'll be in two different time zones.

And they have a project that they send volunteers, about five crews, 16 people.

So it's between four to five crews down to Navajo Nation each year for a month to build power lines, set poles, build power lines, trying to electrify people.

the nation, uh, or the Navajo nation down there each year.

Um, it's in conjunction with, well, the linemen come from PG&E of Northern California and, uh, uh, a contractor up there.

It's a native contractor.

that are

really quick to give everybody context.

There's a more than 10,000 homes on the Navajo nation and the Pueblos in the Southwest that don't have running water or electricity.