Families Need an Infrastructure of Autonomy - The Aspen Institute aspeninstitute.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspeninstitute.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Editor s note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com s Historic section.
BLANDING, San Juan County A significant Navajo Nation trading post at the heart of Monument Valley in southeast Utah received major recognition Thursday as efforts begin to save it before it s possibly lost forever.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Oljato Trading Post one of its 11 most endangered historic sites in the United States this year, which highlights it as one of the more important historic sites in desperate need of rehabilitation to preserve it.
The listing comes as members of the Navajo Nation and also historians have started to look into ways to rehabilitate the structures tied to the trading post and turn them into a new community center and tourism destination at the center of growing popular outdoors spots like Monument Valley and Bears Ears National Monument.
Long-awaited bill to settle Navajo Nation water rights in San Juan County passed by Congress
The legislation formalizes tribal water rights in southeast Utah and provides $220 million to construct water projects on the Utah Navajo strip.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) Two young boys fill the family water tank at the Oljato-Monument Valley water spigot adjacent to the post office on June 22, 2020. The water well is one of a few locations in San Juan County where members of the Navajo Nation can get clean water. More than one-third of Navajo Nation households lack running water, and the problem is even worse in San Juan County where over 40% of Navajo Nation residents have to haul water. Families fill jugs at communal wells or buy bottled water from stores both costly and time-consuming burdens that have become only more difficult during the pandemic and the tribe s daily and weekend curfews.