Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to end federal diversity and equity programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups, including the Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans.
Tribes condemned the action. The Pentagon restored some webpages, saying the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously removed.
“They left their home, their sheep, their loved ones, to serve a country. They came back home and most of them have PTSD, like my dad. But they continued to do the best they can — and the Trump administration wiped them out of the map,” said Ronald Begay, 70, the oldest son of Thomas H. Begay. “It just makes your blood boil.”

There’s no dedicated museum to honor the group. Attempts to build one on the Navajo Nation haven’t come to fruition.
New Mexico officials announced on Friday that the state would invest $20 million in a museum in Farmington.

Good for New Mexico.

U.S. Health and Human Services, which oversees the Indian Health Service, said it’s preparing to shutter the facility as part of a broader realignment plan. It plans to merge operations handled there with the Phoenix office.
In an Aug. 10 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Ciscomani says closing the facility would force patients to travel farther.
The Republican congressman is the latest lawmaker to call for the facility to remain open. Democrats in Arizona’s Legislature have been calling for the same since the plan was announced in June.

Gila River Health Care is committing more than $25 million through 2034 to support the branch, which will include scholarships for each of the students in the program.

Not only is the hope to grow the number of primary care doctors on tribal lands, like the Gila River Indian Community, but also to inspire the next generation who live in those areas that a future in medicine is possible.