Faced With US Heat Waves, The Navajo Push For Power -- And A/C
It will be a luxury in the vast Native American reservation, the largest in the United States, where more than 10,000 families are still without electricity and therefore air conditioning.
"It's climate change. It's getting hotter," Shorty tells AFP.
"This would be easier for us with the fan and maybe air conditioning. And we look forward to that."
In her 70 years, Shorty has seen her isolated, tiny hamlet of Tonalea, a dot in the enormous area of the reservation, change dramatically.
Summer monsoon rains are rarer,
and temperatures can touch 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in July and August -- previously unthinkable in the hamlet, located on a plateau at an altitude of 5,700 feet (1,730 meters).
The area's seasonal lakes are drying up, and in some years the livestock are dying of thirst.
Like many others, Shorty has a generator and small solar panels that allow her to power a gas fridge, cook and watch television.
But their power is limited, and she often has to choose which appliance to plug in.
Being hooked up to the electrical grid is "a big change. It's going to make my life a lot easier," she tells AFP.
Most of the United States was electrified in the 1930s under president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives.
But in the Navajo Nation, which stretches across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the first efforts only began in the 1960s, and there are still not enough power lines.
"This area was looked over," says Deenise Becenti of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), the agency that manages the reservation's infrastructure.
"That surprises many people. They're saying, you know, why are there third world conditions that exist here in the United States, the greatest country in the world?"
To catch up, the semi-autonomous government of the reservation launched the "Light Up Navajo" project in 2019.
The humanitarian initiative sees electricity companies from all over the country send their employees to work in the reservation for around a dozen weeks a year.
Since 2019, electricity has been supplied to 5,000 families in the reservation, including 1,000 thanks to "Light Up Navajo," Becenti said.
But as climate change drives temperatures higher, families still without power in the reservation -- where many live below the poverty rate and unemployment is high -- are in "survival mode," she said.
Elbert Yazzie's mobile home turns into a furnace in the summer, and he has already lost one member of his extended family to heat stroke.
"I used to like the heat," the 54-year-old, who lives in nearby Tuba City, tells AFP.
"But when you get older I guess your body can't take it no more."
His home was finally connected to electricity just weeks ago.
Since then, he has rigged up an evaporative air cooler, also known as a "swamp cooler," by salvaging three broken appliances from a garbage dump.
"Now we can turn on the A/C anytime we want, so we don't have to worry about the heat, and the generator and the gas, and all that stuff," he says.
"Now we don't have to go to (other) people's houses to cool down, we can just stay home, relax, watch TV, things like that."
He and Shorty are the fortunate ones.
Without more funding, connecting the remaining 10,000 Navajo families without electricity could take another two decades, Becenti says.
That is far too long for Gilberta Cortes, who no longer dares let her children play outside in the summer, for fear of getting heat-exacerbated nosebleeds.
An electricity pole has just been erected in front of the 42-year-old's house and a line is due to be extended to her in a few months' time.
But she has endured too much false hope to be serene.
"My mom and dad were in their 20s, they were promised power," but it never materialized, she says.
"I'm still angry." Most of the United States was electrified in the 1930s, but efforts in the Navajo Nation only began in the 1960s, and there are still not enough power lines AFP New utility poles bringing electricity to the Navajo Nation are seen in Cameron, Arizona AFP Elbert Yazzie's mobile home turns into a furnace in the summer, and he has already lost one member of his extended family to heat stroke AFP Navajo Nation resident Gilberta Cortes, 42, who uses a generator for electricity, carries her child outside her home in Cameron, Arizona on July 9, 2025, as she waits for electricity from the power grid to reach her residence AFP 'Light up Navajo' sees electricity companies from all over the country send their employees to work in the reservation AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
11 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Gaza Civil Defence Says Israeli Strikes Kill Over 30 As Truce Talks Deadlocked
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 30 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha. There has meanwhile been no let-up in Israeli strikes on Gaza, where most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war. Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage had reached "critical levels", threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity. The civil defence agency said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into the morning. Eight people were killed in strikes on houses in Gaza City, in the north, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, 10 people were killed in a strike on a house, while 10 others including eight children were killed at a water distribution point, Bassal said. "We woke up to the sound of two large explosions," Khaled Rayyan told AFP after a house was flattened in Nuseirat. "Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble." Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough." In southern Gaza, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza. On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 57,882 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military reprisals. The UN considers the figures reliable. Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries". A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated "a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement". Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms. Thousands of people gathered in Israel's coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for the release of the hostages. "The window of opportunity... is open now and it won't be for long," said former captive Eli Sharabi. The strike was among several that killed more than 30 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday AFP Protest in Tel Aviv calling for the release of the remaining hostages still held in Gaza AFP
Int'l Business Times
19 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Rewriting The Past: Indonesia's New History Books Spook Scholars
The Indonesian government's plans to issue new history books have sparked fears that mention of deadly riots in 1998 targeting mostly ethnic Chinese in the country will be scrubbed from the text. The 10-volume account was ordered by the administration of President Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general accused of abducting activists in the unrest that preceded dictator Suharto's fall, claims he denies. Scholars fear his government could use the exercise to rewrite history and cover up past abuses. Draft volume summaries and a chapter outline seen by AFP do not include any specific section on the 1998 violence. A summary of Suharto's rule in the volume dedicated to him only mentions how "student demonstrations... became a factor" in his resignation. "The writing was flawed since the beginning," said Andi Achdian, historian at Jakarta's National University, who has seen the outline. "It has a very strong tendency to whitewash history." Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for more than three decades after grabbing power in the wake of a 1965-6 massacre. The culture minister overseeing the government's history project, Fadli Zon, told lawmakers last week the account "does not discuss May '98... because it's small". Neither does it promise to include most of the "gross human rights violations" acknowledged by former president Joko Widodo in 2023. Jajat Burhanudin, a project editor, contradicted Fadli and dismissed concerns, telling AFP the new volumes would include 1998 events, with the draft outline just a "trigger for discussion". Officials say the new historical account is needed to strengthen Indonesian identity, but warned that any omission about its darkest past will raise eyebrows over objectivity. "What is feared is that... the cases that have been accepted by the previous government to be resolved will be ignored," said Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general and head of a civil society coalition opposed to the volumes. While it remains unclear how the government plans to use the books, Jajat said the volumes could be used as "one of the main sources" for history books taught in schools. Neither historian Susanto Zuhdi, who is helming the project, nor the presidential palace responded to requests for comment. The revisionist history garnered renewed scrutiny after the culture minister questioned whether mass rape had occurred at the end of Suharto's rule. Ethnic Chinese Indonesians bore the brunt of the bloodshed during the riots, when rape squads -- purportedly led by army thugs -- roamed Jakarta's streets. "Was there really mass rape? There was never any proof," Fadli told local media in an interview last month. "If there is, show it." A 1998 fact-finding report, commissioned by Indonesia's first president after Suharto, found at least 52 reported cases of rape in the unrest. "This project risks erasing uncomfortable truths," said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia. Fadli told AFP the nation-building project would go ahead despite criticism. "The consensus (is) we continue," he said. "This is an updated version of our history," he added, saying there would be a public debate "this month", without elaborating. The project involves 113 academics including historians, but at least one of them has resigned. Archaeologist Harry Truman Simanjuntak told AFP he quit in a dispute over language -- the term "early history" was used instead of "prehistory" for Indonesia's ancient civilisation. Fadli told lawmakers the phrase was avoided because it was created by Indonesia's former Dutch rulers. But Harry said it showed the political influence over the text. "It was very obvious that editors' authority did not exist. They were under the control of the government," he said. The furore around the project has caused some opposition lawmakers and critics to call for its suspension or cancellation. Activist Maria Catarina Sumarsih, whose son was killed in a military crackdown after Suharto's fall, accused the writers of warping the past. "The government is deceiving the public... especially young people," she said. Others said documenting Indonesia's past was best left to academics. "If the government feel this nation needs a history that could make us proud... it can't be through the government's version of historical propaganda," said Marzuki. "It should be the result of the work of historians." Draft volume summaries and a chapter outline seen by AFP do not include any specific section on the 1998 violence AFP Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for more than three decades after grabbing power in the wake of a 1965-6 massacre AFP Sumarsih Budiwati, whose university student son who was killed in 1998, holds a silent protest to demand justice for victims of human rights violations in Indonesia AFP
Int'l Business Times
20 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Faced With US Heat Waves, The Navajo Push For Power -- And A/C
Workmen plant electricity poles in the rust-orange earth of the Navajo Nation and run cables to Christine Shorty's house -- finally giving her power against the searing Arizona desert heat. It will be a luxury in the vast Native American reservation, the largest in the United States, where more than 10,000 families are still without electricity and therefore air conditioning. "It's climate change. It's getting hotter," Shorty tells AFP. "This would be easier for us with the fan and maybe air conditioning. And we look forward to that." In her 70 years, Shorty has seen her isolated, tiny hamlet of Tonalea, a dot in the enormous area of the reservation, change dramatically. Summer monsoon rains are rarer, and temperatures can touch 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in July and August -- previously unthinkable in the hamlet, located on a plateau at an altitude of 5,700 feet (1,730 meters). The area's seasonal lakes are drying up, and in some years the livestock are dying of thirst. Like many others, Shorty has a generator and small solar panels that allow her to power a gas fridge, cook and watch television. But their power is limited, and she often has to choose which appliance to plug in. Being hooked up to the electrical grid is "a big change. It's going to make my life a lot easier," she tells AFP. Most of the United States was electrified in the 1930s under president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives. But in the Navajo Nation, which stretches across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the first efforts only began in the 1960s, and there are still not enough power lines. "This area was looked over," says Deenise Becenti of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), the agency that manages the reservation's infrastructure. "That surprises many people. They're saying, you know, why are there third world conditions that exist here in the United States, the greatest country in the world?" To catch up, the semi-autonomous government of the reservation launched the "Light Up Navajo" project in 2019. The humanitarian initiative sees electricity companies from all over the country send their employees to work in the reservation for around a dozen weeks a year. Since 2019, electricity has been supplied to 5,000 families in the reservation, including 1,000 thanks to "Light Up Navajo," Becenti said. But as climate change drives temperatures higher, families still without power in the reservation -- where many live below the poverty rate and unemployment is high -- are in "survival mode," she said. Elbert Yazzie's mobile home turns into a furnace in the summer, and he has already lost one member of his extended family to heat stroke. "I used to like the heat," the 54-year-old, who lives in nearby Tuba City, tells AFP. "But when you get older I guess your body can't take it no more." His home was finally connected to electricity just weeks ago. Since then, he has rigged up an evaporative air cooler, also known as a "swamp cooler," by salvaging three broken appliances from a garbage dump. "Now we can turn on the A/C anytime we want, so we don't have to worry about the heat, and the generator and the gas, and all that stuff," he says. "Now we don't have to go to (other) people's houses to cool down, we can just stay home, relax, watch TV, things like that." He and Shorty are the fortunate ones. Without more funding, connecting the remaining 10,000 Navajo families without electricity could take another two decades, Becenti says. That is far too long for Gilberta Cortes, who no longer dares let her children play outside in the summer, for fear of getting heat-exacerbated nosebleeds. An electricity pole has just been erected in front of the 42-year-old's house and a line is due to be extended to her in a few months' time. But she has endured too much false hope to be serene. "My mom and dad were in their 20s, they were promised power," but it never materialized, she says. "I'm still angry." Most of the United States was electrified in the 1930s, but efforts in the Navajo Nation only began in the 1960s, and there are still not enough power lines AFP New utility poles bringing electricity to the Navajo Nation are seen in Cameron, Arizona AFP Elbert Yazzie's mobile home turns into a furnace in the summer, and he has already lost one member of his extended family to heat stroke AFP Navajo Nation resident Gilberta Cortes, 42, who uses a generator for electricity, carries her child outside her home in Cameron, Arizona on July 9, 2025, as she waits for electricity from the power grid to reach her residence AFP 'Light up Navajo' sees electricity companies from all over the country send their employees to work in the reservation AFP
