By Nalani Lopez Each February, UNITY, United National Indian Tribal Youth, hosts a midyear conference in preparation for the organization’s annual conference in July. The three-day conference held February 2-4 in downtown Phoenix brought together more than 700 tribal youth from communities across the United States. Members of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community’s Young […]

By Kari Haahr To cap off Scottsdale’s annual Western Week celebration, which began on January 27, the Arizona American Indian Tourism Association held its annual Arizona Indian Festival on February 3 and 4 at the Scottsdale Civic Center.  While Western Week as a whole is a celebration of Scottsdale’s identity as part of the “Old […]

By Nalani Lopez In recent decades, the traditional game of toka has found its way back to the O’odham women of the Sonoran Desert. In the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Community member Jessica Ruiz, shared the ins and outs of the recreational sport with interested women on January 31 at the Salt River Tribal Library. The […]

Rolling up to the Early Childhood Education Center, a ladder from one of the Salt River Fire Department fire engines stood tall in the sky. Then came the honks, beeps and engine roars from the vehicles at Big Wheel Day on January 26, which brought joy to the many enrolled ECEC children, their families and […]

While gardening in the Valley can be quite a challenge due to extreme heat, one of the unique things about growing plants here is that you can do it year round. As the soil steadily warms up from the occasional frost during the winter, another planting season arrives: the early spring. Usually this planting season […]

By Nalani Lopez Inside the Accelerated Learning Academy on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, sounds of cumbia music filled the halls as students and families gathered for Salt River Schools’ Education Native Language and Culture Program’s Vaila Night on January 17. In the ALA cafeteria, the great tunes could be traced to the band […]

By Nalani Lopez Residents and visitors in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community come across a variety of animals, both domestic and wild.  The Animal Control Unit, one of the Salt River Police Department’s specialty units, protects and serves the four-legged creatures that call the Community home.  “We enforce the [SRPMIC Code of Ordinances] regarding […]

“I rented a house in Phoenix about seven years ago,” began Memory Long Chase, domestic violence response director for the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition (SWIWC) during her webinar presentation on stalking on January 10. “My neighbor was very interested in getting to know me, and it was really weird to me. He was constantly looking […]