Editorials

By Ruben Q. Leyva

One of the quiet truths buried in the Apache Victorio-era record is this: the people who lived on the land often knew exactly whom they were dealing with, even when later archives attempted to portray otherwise. On page 139 of the notes for the book *Horses Worn to Mere Shadows*, utilizing original U.S. military and civilian correspondence collected by Robert Watt, Hispano sheep herders in the Mogollon and San Francisco ranges of New Mexico's Catron County are described as naming individual Apaches involved in raids, not anonymous "hostiles," but actual human beings, known through familiarity, frequent encounters, and long presence among these people. This detail matters. It informs us that Apache movement through the Mimbres–Mogollon–San Francisco corridor was not random or undifferentiated. It was discernable to those who shared the landscape.

By Paul Gessing

The Rio Grande Foundation has been clear in expressing support for a multi-pronged approach to improving our State’s roads. To be clear, the deterioration of our roads is a real issue. Their poor condition costs New Mexicans thousands of dollars annually according to recent studies.

So, we applaud the focus on roads in Santa Fe. Sadly, SB 2 which would add $1.5 billion in road funding through bonding (debt) is the wrong approach for numerous reasons. Most notably:

By Dan Lewis

A recent report from a national transportation research nonprofit organization called the TRIP Report came out last week and it's not a pretty picture for New Mexico. Over the last decade, roads in this state have deteriorated dramatically and if a solution is not found soon, our state could easily become dead last in road conditions, safety, and lost time. Here are some of the facts in the report.

The New Mexico Department of Transportation has identified more than $7.5 billion in needed but unfunded transportation throughout the state to address safety, reliability and preservation challenges, states the report. That's $7.5 billion with a capital B. Since our entire state budget now runs at $11 billion, you can see that we're in a world of hurt when it comes to our roads.

This number is going up dramatically year over year as well. In the last report, our state had only $5.6 billion in unfunded projects around the state. In 2017, there were only $1.3 billion in needed but unfunded projects. As you can see, we're headed in the wrong direction.

By Ruben Q. Leyva

This essay is part of the ongoing "What Does 'Gila Apache' Mean?" series. This essay builds on the earlier pieces by showing how Apache continuity becomes legible not through fixed names or places, but through repeated actions, relationships, and returns across a shared corridor. Sabinal in this essay refers to a negotiated farm settlement located in Socorro County, New Mexico.

By now, we've learned what to trust. We believe in behavior, like farming at Apache peace settlements, more than we do Spanish administrative spelling. We understand farming is diplomacy, not assimilation.

And we know that the archive isn't a stable thing; not because it is meaningless, but because it was never built to reflect Indigenous belonging. Which leads, of course, to the pose that many a reader inevitably strikes at some point while navigating through Spanish colonial and church records: How do you read a name that refuses to stay the same?

By Ruben Q. Leyva

This essay is part of the ongoing "What Does 'Gila Apache' Mean?" series. This essay builds on the earlier pieces by showing how Apache continuity becomes intelligible not through fixed names or places, but through repeated actions, relationships, and returns across a shared corridor.

In the previous essay, I covered why records so often bear south, and how that can be reconciled with family tradition about being Gila or Mogollon or Mimbres. The point was that church and presidio records were located where colonial systems safely could reach Apache people, not the place of origin of Apache life.

There's another pattern that makes this clearer, and it's easier to notice than names.

It is farming.

Escalating "Legal Observer" Activism Raises Public Safety and Civil Liberties Concerns - From Ice Operations to Abortion Clinics

(Online Version): https://www.abortionfreenm.com/news/escalating-legal-observer-activism-raises-public-safety-and-civil-liberties-concerns-from-ice-operations-to-abortion-clinics

By Bud Shaver

Albuquerque, New Mexico — Abortion Free New Mexico is sounding the alarm over the rapid expansion and increasingly aggressive use of so-called "legal observers," a tactic now deployed across multiple enforcement and public-order contexts — including lawful federal immigration operations and peaceful pro-life sidewalk counseling outside abortion facilities.

Originally presented as neutral monitors, legal observer programs have increasingly evolved into activist tools used to escalate encounters, provoke law-enforcement intervention, and suppress constitutionally protected activity.

By Chad Matheson, Interim CEO, Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA)

New Mexico has always been a place where big ideas take root. From the groundbreaking science at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories to the innovations driving our growing aerospace and energy sectors, our state has a proud history of discovery. If we want to secure a prosperous future for New Mexico, one filled with high-paying jobs, thriving businesses, and opportunity for generations to come, we must double down on an what we do best: research and development.

By Ruben Q. Leyva

This essay is part of the ongoing “What Does ‘Gila Apache’ Mean?” series.

Out in the community I’m hearing these same words repeated. My family is from the Gila. We’re Mogollon Apache. We’re Mimbreños. These are not casual descriptions. They are locational identifications, passed generation after generation of families who will recall about mountains and rivers and routes so much more assuredly than any archive could convey but which no professional human had thought to consult.

And then, often later, something challenges that certainty. A baptismal record appears. A parish name. Janos. Chihuahua. Bavispe. Sonora. Suddenly, people are asking: Did we not know something or was what we were told about our family’s previous homeland a lie?

It isn't.