Gallup gathering to release report on Native youth issues

Native youth issues were put before Gallup families, educators and tribal voices at a free gathering held at the El Morro Events Center, where organizers released Being a Good Relative: A Report on Native Youth in New Mexico.

The event ran from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 7, at 210 South Second Street. Food and music started at 4:30, setting a community tone for a report release that was meant to be more than a formal presentation. The Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce listed the gathering as free and open to the public.

Event materials described the report as statewide and grounded in the experiences of Native students, families and communities across tribal communities in New Mexico. Organizers said the evening would include what they learned in listening sessions, a signal that the report was shaped by testimony from the communities most affected by school climate, access to services and youth well-being.

Dr. Andy Nez, a Diné K-5 language and culture teacher at Gallup-McKinley County Schools, was slated to give the keynote. His role linked the discussion directly to the local classroom and to language preservation, two issues that sit at the center of Native education in western New Mexico.

Gallup gave the release added weight. The city, the county seat of McKinley County, had a population of 21,899 in the 2020 census and is often described as the Heart of Indian Country. That makes it a natural place for a statewide conversation about Native youth, especially one that aims to reach families, school leaders, tribal communities and local officials in the same room.

The policy backdrop is already familiar in New Mexico. The state’s Indian Education Act and related reviews have stressed the unique cultural and linguistic needs of Indigenous students, while the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department formed its Indigenous Youth Council in February 2021 after listening sessions with Native youth from across the state. Those sessions raised concerns about access to higher education resources and behavioral and mental health needs, issues that remain central for many families in McKinley County.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools has also faced intense scrutiny in recent years. A 2023 investigation by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica led state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to open a probe into disproportionately harsh discipline of Native American children by the district. The district has remained under federal and state scrutiny over discrimination allegations, which makes any new youth-focused report especially consequential for local schools and the communities they serve.

The Gallup gathering did not just put research on a stage. It placed Native youth concerns in a city where schools, health, housing and opportunity are still being judged by how well institutions respond once the listening ends.