The distant sound of drums beating, voices singing of prayers and thanksgiving, the aroma of fresh frybread lingering in the air in downtown Gallup can only mean one thing – the Gallup Summer Nightly Indian Dances are underway once again.

Marking its 34th year, the always anticipated Summer Nightly Indian dances are held nightly at the McKinley County Courthouse plaza from 7-8 pm Monday through Sunday, sponsored by the City of Gallup and Chamber of Commerce.

In the beginning, the event was held at the Red Rock State Park and attracted mostly tourists to the park’s museum and trails. Today, it not only attracts tourists from all over the world, but it entertains many...

More than one year after three top state officials refused to answer questions in federal court about fraud allegations and nine months after a federal judge held their cabinet secretary in contempt of court, the state Human Services Department (HSD) appears to still be seriously mishandling how it processes federal benefits to New Mexico’s poor.

This includes an apparent department directive instructing caseworkers to limit interviews with those enrolled in and seeking federal benefits and lie to their superiors about it.

Now, the advocacy organization representing plaintiffs in a decades-long lawsuit against HSD is asking a judge to impose monetary sanctions on HSD and its...

Potholes, bad spots a thing of the past

 

Milling and inlaying are being done to a short stretch of U.S. Highway 491 as it goes out of Gallup and near the east and west exit points to Shiprock and Window Rock — and at a cost of $3.2 million, officials said.

The work is not connected to the bigger and more than $150 million four-laning project of U.S. 491 that goes from Shiprock to Gallup.

“This is maintenance with that the department planned,” Delane Baros, public information officer with the state Department of Transportation, said of the milling and inlaying work. “We are making a lot of progress with the project.”

Baros said the milling and inlaying work started on...