News

Trump supporter shoots someone attending peaceful rally

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by Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico

Editor’s note: This article depicts gun violence

ESPAÑOLA — A young man wearing a pro-Trump hat shot someone attending a peaceful gathering on Thursday in Española. Native American activists held the event to celebrate Rio Arriba County’s postponement of putting back a statue of the war criminal and Spanish colonizer Juan de Oñate that officials removed in 2020. After an hourslong prayer circle Thursday morning, dozens milled around outside the Rio Arriba County building, which officials closed on Thursday, eating food or watching over their children. 

Tents and blankets sat empty near the base of the statue-less slab where people had been sleeping for days. People dedicated their cause to ensuring that the statue never comes back. They also called for Oñate Street in Española to be renamed to Tewa Valley Road.

News

The federal government accidentally burned down their houses, then made it hard to come home

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by Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: The Long Burn

The Slow Recovery From New Mexico’s Largest Wildfire

The wildfire had already burned 160 square miles of northern New Mexico forest last spring when it suddenly surged ahead, reducing to ash the cozy cabin David Martinez had built for himself more than two decades earlier. Martinez, now 64, had fled days before, one of 15,000 people ordered to leave as the fire spread. He spent the next three months sleeping near the edge of the fire in his pickup truck, his physical and mental health declining from the smoke, stress and lack of sleep.