A new mobile app created by a Navajo man is offering travelers in both New Mexico and Arizona an opportunity to learn about historic routes and insight on Native American cultures.

KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more.

Whether you are driving from Gallup, N.M. to Flagstaff, Ariz. or Flagstaff to Phoenix, a new app called Tribal Trailz, created by former Navajo educator George R. Joe, serves as your audio tour guide while you are on the road.

“Are you driving over the bridge yet? It is known as Canyon Diablo, and Two Guns is right on the rim of Canyon Diablo. Many years ago, Route 66 entrepreneurs once had a roadside gas station, trading post, even a tiny zoo, where lions and bobcats were behind chicken wire.”

That is one sample of the self-guided tour.

Joe says the app includes information about Navajo and Acoma territories because a lot of tourists on the road are very uninformed about Native Americans.

“The education world hasn’t done a good job of letting Americans know about tribal people, so they have these crazy ideas and misconceptions about us. So, I thought, ‘Here’s my chance to try to correct some of that information about housing, about how we live, about how we make money, things we do.’”

Tribal Trailz is GPS-activated so all drivers need to do is open the app and start a tour. During your drive, the app will detect where you are at and point out different monuments, houses, or landmarks.

“You don’t have to look at your app, you just put it right there on your dashboard. It doesn’t have to be visible, because I don’t show pictures, because I think you know you’re driving. You don’t have time to be looking at pictures and things like that. You just want to hear.”

Joe says the app is meant to be a bridge for curious travelers wanting to know more about Native American communities and the Southwest.

“More like bringing down that barrier, and then inviting them to go eventually visit the tribe.”

Joe is currently working on including more tours in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M.

The F/V Loretta Ann in Sitka Channel in 2023. (Photo: Berett Wilber / KCAW)

The commercial king salmon fishery opened July 1 for trollers in Southeast Alaska.

In the first king opener of the season, trollers can catch just over 81,000 Chinook salmon, roughly 70% of the allocated summer kings, as KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports.

The allocation is set by the Pacific Salmon Commission, under the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said, based on summer harvest rates in previous years with a similar amount of fish, state fisheries biologists anticipate it will take trollers anywhere from seven to 10 days to catch the 81,000 Chinook.

The fishery typically opens a second time in August for trollers to target the remaining treaty kings.

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio)

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is urging Tribal Nations to remain vigilant in protecting Native voting rights following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on mail-in ballots.

The organization issued the statement after the high court upheld a Mississippi law allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive afterward.

NCAI says the ruling is especially important for many Tribal communities, where mail service delays and long distances can make it difficult for ballots to reach election offices on time.

NCAI joined the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in filing a friend-of-the-court brief, arguing that rural and remote Native voters face unique barriers to casting ballots.

While welcoming the decision, the organization says threats to Native voting rights remain and is encouraging Tribal governments and citizens to continue monitoring election policies and preparing to ensure Native voices are heard in future elections.

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