Editorials

By Senator Crystal Brantley

Last week, I stood in the smoke-shadowed foothills near the Gila, watching the Hotshot crews return from another 16-hour shift fighting the Trout Fire. Faces were blackened, arms scraped, boots worn — but not one of them complained. They were focused, disciplined, and ready to do it again the next day.

These are the kinds of men and women who eat heat for breakfast. They are New Mexico's quiet heroes — firefighters, farmers, ranchers, oil field workers — doing hard jobs under hard conditions. They train for it, they plan for it, and they know how to take care of themselves and each other.

Recently, the New Mexico Environment Department proposed a new "heat illness prevention rule." The rule, as proposed, would require employers to create written heat safety plans, record heat-related symptoms and incidents, provide mandatory breaks, and document all compliance. It goes as far as inspection of each individual's daily water consumption, regardless of existing internal policies.

By Ruben Leyva

After Frank Leyva was listed on the Mescalero Apache census in 1885, his presence at Mescalero is sporadic in the available records. But he reappeared at Fort Sill to escort his aging mother, Ishno'n, to Mescalero in 1909 to visit his brother, Chiricahua Jim Miller. Between those decades, where was Frank? The answer may lie in a borderland not far from Tucson and Nogales—along the Sierra Madre spine where two Apache worlds survived: one hidden in plain sight, the other still free in the mountains.

(PFAS Alternatives ACT) introduced Jul 20, 2023 by Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.

While the municipal water contamination lawsuits have been settled with 3M, DuPont et al., in July and August alone, 1,000 new cases have been added to the AFFF MDL docket, and it has now surpassed 6,400 after 351 new cases were added to the MDL in the past 30 days showing a clear resurgence of individual personal injury cases, which will serve as a promising precedent for those who are still waiting for a resolution to their claims.

The EPA's release re-confirms the potential carcinogenic nature of PFAS chemicals and that there is no acceptable level of exposure or consumption for these substances.

By Paul Gessing

Recently, a group of business and economic leaders traveled to Phoenix, AZ to get some ideas on why the Phoenix economy is so much stronger than New Mexico’s. Ideas were exchanged and I’m sure a good time was had by all. 

But, the trip was a waste of time. You don’t need to travel to see why Phoenix is more economically prosperous than Albuquerque or why Arizona does better than New Mexico. Like most New Mexicans I have indeed been to Phoenix (and other parts of Arizona) many times and seen how the State has grown.

By Ruben Leyva, Gila Apache

The Denver Public Library Digital Collections caption reads, “Apaches Fel-ay-tay Yuma scout, San Carlos.” In another, more obscure photograph, perhaps the same individual stands wrapped in a patterned blanket, his face lowered and half-hidden among a group of Native Americans on the steps of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This individual, the label states, is "Francisco, Indian Name – 'Hollow Loud'" and is among a group of Navajos. But he was neither Yuma nor Navajo. His baptismal name was Francisco de Jesús Leyva (pronounced Lay-vah). He was born a member of the Warm Springs Apache and married and started a family near the Gila River.

By Ruben Leyva

They called him El Indio del Gallo (The Indian of the Gallo Mountains). The term echoed off porch rails and adobe walls—part warning, part forgetting. He lived in Mangas, or just outside it, one of those places in western New Mexico where memory lingers like smoke. While we cannot be entirely sure, some family researchers suggest that the man known as El Indio del Gallo was Procopio 'Pomposo' Leyva, drawing on patterns of residence, kinship, and oral tradition in the Mangas area. Procopio was the son of José Albino Mariscal Leyva and Soledad Alderete, and the grandson of Norberta Ishnoh'n Leyva, a Warm Springs Apache matriarch who once marched from the springs of Cañada Alamosa to the San Carlos Apache Reservation.

By Carter Swanson

The Land of Enchantment has beautiful mountains, a rich cultural history, a hard-working population, and more oil than it can reasonably expect to extract from the ground. These are the kinds of things that make a state prosperous.

But New Mexico remains impoverished.

While the Rio Grande Foundation supports much broader and more aggressive economic reforms than anything discussed in Santa Fe in recent years, one proposal pushed in the 2025 legislative session is a step in the right direction. I'm referring to HB 7 or the "Children's Future Act." This bill would set aside a trust fund so that every child born in New Mexico would receive a check when they turn 18 and graduate high school (or earn a GED).

Bob Ippel

Executive Director

Support for the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA): A Bipartisan Opportunity

The "Big Beautiful Bill" has sparked strong reactions across the political spectrum. However, amidst the debate, one provision stands out as a potential point of bipartisan agreement: the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA).

ECCA proposes a national tax-credit program designed to encourage individual and corporate donations to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. In return, donors would receive a 100% non-refundable tax credit. These funds would provide qualifying students with scholarships to attend non-public schools, offering families greater educational choices.