- VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW MEXICO
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — A governor-ordered lockdown designed to combat a surging coronavirus outbreak in the western New Mexico city of Gallup expired Sunday, but the mayor said the problem persists. Mayor Louis Bonaguidi says city officials likely will now ask every Gallup resident to wear a mask when they go outside. Gallup is in McKinley County, which has just 3.5% of New Mexico's population but has had nearly one-third of the state's coronavirus cases and one-fifth of known deaths. The city is one of the largest communities bordering the Navajo Nation, which had nearly 3,000 coronavirus cases as of Saturday and 98 reported deaths. The vast reservation is the nation's largest with 175,000 people and extends into part of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
- VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW MEXICO SURVIVOR
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — A 105-year-old New Mexico woman who beat back the 1918 flu that killed millions, including her mother and infant sister, is battling COVID-19. The Gallup Independent reports Lubica "Luby" Grenko has been fighting the novel corona virus since being diagnosed April 29 at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Gallup, New Mexico. The 1918 flu took the lives of her 28-year-old mother Marijeta Kauzlaric, and 1-month-old younger sister. Grenko's granddaughter Misty Tolson says she doesn't think her grandmother understands the current virus. More than 4,800 people in New Mexico have been tested positive for COVID-19
- AP-US-VIRUS-OUTBREAK-TRIBAL-CASINOS
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Some 500 Native American casinos have shut down during the pandemic, often taking away tribes' main source of income. While some Native American-owned casinos have reopened or plan to in coming weeks, most are still closed. Besides costing tribes millions of dollars, the closures have forced layoffs and furloughs. One tribe in Washington state says it can't fund anything without the casino but recently reopened after two months. In Connecticut, workers at two large casinos are eager to get back to work. But they say it's better to be safe than sorry because "to open and close again would be terrible."
- VETERANS CEMETERY
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — U.S. officials have signed off on a new veterans cemetery outside of Albuquerque. KRQE-TV reports New Mexico is offering more than 200 acres in Sandoval County for the project. Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block says county officials, lobbyists and members of Congress were instrumental in getting the U.S. Veterans Administration to choose the county for the cemetery. There are two national veterans cemeteries in New Mexico _ in Santa Fe and Fort Bayard. In recent years, there has been a push to add cemeteries so military members can be buried closer to rural communities. The state opened its own veterans cemetery in Fort Stanton and Gallup, with one in Angel Fire opening soon.
- CONSTRUCTION SITE-GRAVES
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Construction of a new Santa Fe retirement community continues as the project awaits approval of testing connected to recently discovered graves. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports developers of the the future La Secoya de El Castillo retirement community are waiting for results around additional graves on what is presumed to be part of an old cemetery. A portion of the property under construction has long been suspected to include graves associated with what was once one of the largest 19th-century cemeteries in Santa Fe. The Masons and Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature in 1853, is the earliest non-Catholic burial ground in New Mexico's capital.
- AP-US-VIRUS-OUTBREAK-ENDANGERED-TRIBES
PICURIS PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — Small Native American villages in the southwestern United States are embracing extraordinary isolation measures that include guarded roadblocks to turn away outsiders and near-universal testing for the coronavirus. It comes in reaction to a contagion with frightening echoes of the past. At Picuris Pueblo in northern New Mexico, leaders say survival is at stake and are going further than a statewide order. Native Americans account for more than half of the COVID-19 infections statewide. New Mexico's 19 indigenous pueblos view the coronavirus as an existential threat after early infections raced through some of their communities.
- NATIONAL FOREST-NEW MEXICO
TAOS, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico national forest's top administrator says there's an elevated risk of human-caused wildfires due to drying conditions and some visitors' negligence. Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran said there's a high fire danger in the 2,340-square-mile forest as it is visited by many people weary of staying at home during the coronavirus outbreak. Duran said that has fire managers concerned about an early start to this year's fire season. Duran says patrols last weekend reported crowding in day-use sites and disbursed camping sites in violation of state public health orders on mass gatherings and social distancing. The forest remains open but its developed campgrounds are closed and campfires and use of charcoal grills are prohibited.
- AP-US-VIRUS-OUTBREAK-BARRICADED-TOWN
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people living on and around the vast Navajo reservation in the U.S. southwest do their shopping in Gallup, a town of 22,000 people. The town has been locked down because of a coronavirus outbreak that has infected hundreds. The effectiveness of the lockdown is up for debate. Infections are still climbing as local hospitals, homeless shelters and nursing homes are reeling from demoralizing outbreaks of their own. The dividing line traced by roadblocks also is tugging on sensitivities about birthrights and inequities. Native American visitors worry about the social stigma of being locked out because of the contagion.