Sec. Haaland Announces Federal Review of Traumatic Native American Boarding School Legacy

COVID-19 by the numbers

New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 100 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 205,058. Bernalillo County had the most new cases: 29, followed by San Juan County with 12 and Valencia County with 11. Santa Fe County had four new cases.

The state also announced four additional deaths from four counties, including a female under the age of 10; there have now been 4,330 fatalities. As of yesterday, 79 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.

Currently, 68.5% of New Mexicans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 59.9% are fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, 77.4% have had at least one dose and 68.2% are fully inoculated.

Yesterday, DOH announced the first four winners of its Vax 2 the Max sweepstakes, one from each public health region of the state: retired nurse Ruth Meilstrup, 72, of Santa Fe; Phillip Perez, 53, of Albuquerque; Linda Tobkin, 68, of Ruidoso; and Taylor Brooke Provencio, 23, of Chamberino in Doña Ana County. Four more $1 million Friday drawings, with four regional $250,000 winners each, will occur through the summer (with drawings July 2, July 16, July 23 and July 30), and a grand prize $5 million drawing scheduled for early August. Health officials say the vaccine incentive has led to a 250% increase in first-time visitor traffic to the vaccineNM.org registration site week over week. Anyone registered for the vaccine sweepstakes does not need to re-register; vaccinated New Mexicans who have not yet opted in can do so at vax2themaxnm.org.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here. If you’ve had experiences with COVID-19, we would like to hear from you.

Haaland: US to review Native American boarding school legacy

US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland yesterday announced a new federal initiative to review the traumatic legacy of federal boarding school policies. “The Interior Department will address the inter-generational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be,” Haaland, the country’s first Native American cabinet secretary said in a news statement. “I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace.” Haaland discussed the troubling history in an Op-ed earlier this month for the Washington Post, noting that her “maternal grandparents were stolen from their families when they were only 8 years old and were forced to live away from their parents, culture and communities until they were 13. Many children like them never made it back home.” In a secretarial memo, Haaland notes that the recent discovery of 215 unmarked graves by Canada’s Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation at the Kamloops Indian Residential School should “prompt us to reflect on past federal policies to culturally assimilate Indigenous peoples in the United States,” which began with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819 and ran through the 1960s. The multi-phase review will include identifying and collecting Interior Department records related to the oversight of the Indian boarding school program; formal consultations with tribal nations, Alaska Native corporations and Native Hawaiian organizations; and the submission of a final written report by April 1, 2022.

Health care collaboration aimed at equity

Using $4.6 million in grants from the WK Kellogg Foundation, New Mexico’s health department will be partnering with Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, Con Alma Health Foundation and the University of New Mexico Center for Social Policy to conduct equity-based outreach in its COVID-19 vaccination strategy. The news accompanied national and New Mexico survey results from a poll related to vaccination hesitancy, access and messaging. At the national level, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans ranked as having the highest percentage of vaccine hesitancy in the poll, which says it surveyed more than 12,000 people nationally. In New Mexico, Native Americans had the highest percentage of hesitancy: 30%, followed by white people at 23% and Asian American Pacific Islander community members at 22%. The multi-organization partnership has both short and long-term goals. In the immediate future, continued efforts to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines remain front and center. “I think the beauty of it is it’s already proven to be effective as a partnership,” Gabe Sanchez, executive director for UNM’s Center for Social Policy, tells SFR, noting that researchers have been able to pull out data in real time and share it with health care partners “so they could update their outreach” efforts. Longer term, the groups plan to use the model to address systemic inequities and access to health care overall.

Local government lags on cannabis preparation

Adult-use cannabis sales will be legal in New Mexico within the year, but you wouldn’t know it based on the pace of preparation from both the county and municipal governments. While the state’s new Cannabis Regulation Division sent a letter last week to the heads of the New Mexico Association of Counties and the Municipal League explaining two provisions of the law require “timely action by local jurisdictions,” neither Santa Fe County nor the City of Santa Fe have presented a clear timeline for doing so. In fact, the Santa Fe County Land Use Department initially provided inaccurate information to Michael Protiva and his partner Silvia Geiger, who want to offer their land and buildings for sale to cannabis entrepreneurs and retire. While both county and city spokespeople say the issue is in the queue, no public hearings or specific provisions have been made public as of yet. For all the latest cannabis news, be sure to check out the most recent installment of SFR’s monthly “Leaf Brief” newsletter.

Listen up

While some folks’ first post-pandemic experiences involve concerts or beach vacations, others can’t wait to walk down the aisle. COVID-19, according to wedding industry experts, created a new crop of engaged couples who figure if they survived lockdown together, they can survive anything. “More than anything, people are just ready,” New Mexico Wedding Collective owner Shauna Pointer tells KSFR’s Bryce Dix in a segment on “The Busiest Wedding Season of All Time.” “They’re ready to make decisions for their life. Whether it’s the love of their life, careers…Everybody hit that block this last year. People are just ready to make those commitments now.”

Ski town summer

US ski areas had an unexpectedly busy summer season last year as the COVID-19 pandemic sent travelers into the great outdoors in search of fresh air and easy social distancing. That led to packed trails and mountain towns taken unawares, the New York Times writes. This summer, even with the pandemic fading, resort operators expect the trend to continue, and this year they’re ready. That includes Taos Ski Valley, which added a via ferrata last August for summer explorers on the mountain. “We’re not looking for zip lines or mountain coasters,” Taos Ski Valley Chief Executive David Norden tells the NYT. “We want people to engage with the mountain and get that sense of accomplishment.” Guided climbs with the via ferrata are currently slated to start July 1; Taos Ski Valley also will be offering lift-service mountain biking, scenic chair rides, eBike rentals, hiking and food, according to its website.

Drinks on the house

Yes, summer has only just begun. Nonetheless, the high temperatures have us despairing at moments of ever feeling cool again. Which leads to the inevitable question: What to drink? Edible New Mexico, as always, comes through with its early summer edition of recipes for non-alcoholic refreshments. These include DIY tonic, made with lemongrass stalks, dandelion root and star anise, among other ingredients (we felt refreshed just reading the recipe). The DIY ginger beer and berry mocktail looks a little intimidating, but if you’re not up for it yourself, hopefully you can foist the recipe on that unwitting friend always offering to make cocktails. And if the heat has you despairing about this summer’s garden, “Herb Appeal” will provide some solace about at least being able to grow garnishes for those cocktails (among other items, of course).

Hot time in the city

Today will be partly sunny with a high near 90 degrees and north wind 10 to 20 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Tonight, however, some clouds will roll in and with any luck the sun won’t come out tomorrow quite so much as the National Weather Service forecasts a 20% chance for storms on Thursday. Those odds, as of now, increase over the weekend.

Thanks for reading! The Word’s refrigerator frequently contains mostly condiments, so this story ranking the world’s most popular condiments sparked particular interest, along with the delayed revelation that most people think of guacamole as a condiment, not an end onto itself.