Defendant goes missing during his rape trial in Santa Fe
Morning person? You might have Neanderthal ancestry
LOBOS RALLY TO BEST NMSU Dent’s clutch layup puts UNM on top to narrowly avoid an upset SPORTS, B-1
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Saturday, December 16, 2023 santafenewmexican.com $1.50
Tradition, or time to make a change?
INDIAN AFFAIRS D EPAR TMENT
Gov. replaces controversial Mountain with deputy
Dispute over tables, heaters brings to light tension over rules for Native artists on Palace of the Governors portal By Maya Hilty
mhilty@sfnewmexican.com
With winter settling over the city last month, Santa Fe business owner Amy Denet Deal attended a Museum of New Mexico board meeting to call attention to “an urgent health issue” — a lack of tables or heaters for Native vendors at the Palace of the Governors. Denet Deal followed up her concern with an offer to donate
tables, chairs and space heaters from her Santa Fe store to the New Mexico History Museum for its Native American artisans program, which hosts Native artists selling handmade, traditional works in the portal on the north side of the Plaza every day year-round. The board, museum director and a committee of artists appear poised to decline that offer — to mixed Please see story on Page A-4
LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Melanie Jones and her boyfriend, Marty Simmons, both of Tampa, Fla., purchase jewelry from Lyndon Standing Elk, Northern Cheyenne, on the portal of the Palace of the Governors on Friday.
‘Aggies town right now’ NMSU faces off against Fresno State today at rival’s University Stadium for the New Mexico Bowl
Move to swap out former San Ildefonso leader comes amid backlash stemming from sexual assault allegations in 2007 By Robert Nott and Daniel Chacón
rnott@sfnewmexican.com dchacon@sfnewmexican.com
The state Indian Affairs Department has a new leader. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday appointed Josett D. Monette, who currently is the deputy secretary, to head an agency beset by controversy after the governor’s decision to appoint James R. Mountain to the post earlier this year. Lujan Grisham announced her nomination of Mountain, a former governor of San Ildefonso Pueblo, during the 2023 legislative session. The pick quickly came under fire, including from some members of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force, when it James was reported Mountain had been charged Mountain with rape in 2007. The case was dismissed in 2010 after the prosecution said it did not have enough evidence to take it to trial. Mountain will move to a job in the Governor’s Office as a senior policy advisor for tribal affairs, according to a news release issued Friday. Mountain did not return a phone call seeking comment. Attempts to reach a representative of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women in Albuquerque, which has been critical of Mountain’s appointment, were unsuccessful. The Governor’s Office declined to answer questions on the move. “We are looking forward to James Mountain joining the governor’s office as senior advisor for tribal affairs,” spokeswoman Maddy Hayden wrote in an email. “This is a role that was not previously filled in the office, and having strong leaders working in both the governor’s office and at the head of the Indian Affairs Department will continue to foster productive relationships with the 23 Nations, tribes and pueblos of New Mexico.” Please see story on Page A-4
PHOTOS BY GABRIELA CAMPOS/THE NEW MEXICAN
NMSU football players Dion Wilson Jr. (3) and J.J. Dervil (5) dance and hype up the crowd gathered to support the Aggies during a pep rally Friday in Old Town Albuquerque for their upcoming game against Fresno State in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl. The rally featured cheer squads, mascots and dueling bands from both schools. The Isleta New Mexico Bowl will take place at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at the UNM football stadium.
By Will Webber
wwebber@sfnewmexican.com
ALBUQUERQUE mid a sea of red, the preferred hue in Loboland this week is crimson. That of course is the color of New Mexico State’s football team, which along with a growing legion of fans has swarmed enemy territory for Saturday’s nationally televised Isleta New Mexico Bowl game against Fresno State. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. at University Stadium on the home field of the University of New Mexico, a school that wears crimson and, for most of its existence, has viewed itself as being on a higher plane of existence than its southern brethren. NMSU, in the throes of one of its greatest seasons in school history, has been designated the visiting team, and its fans will occupy the east side of the stadium — fitting, since any Lobo fan forced to sit and watch the University of New Mexico’s biggest rival run out of a locker room reserved for the hometown
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Estimate shows 1st-time unhoused people driving increase, which officials blame on affordable-housing lack, high home costs By Kevin Freking The Associated Press
NMSU band members, cheerleaders and dance teams cheer together at Friday’s pep rally in Old Town Albuquerque to celebrate the upcoming Isleta New Mexico Bowl between NMSU and Fresno State. “I mean, look, it wasn’t that long ago that no one thought we’d ever be invited to a game like this,” said NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia.
Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble
Today
Obituaries
“Winter Lights,” holiday selections; 3 p.m., Sunday encore; First Presbyterian Church, 208 Grant Ave.; $30 in advance, $35 at the door; 505-303-8468, sfwe.org.
Mostly sunny. High 43, low 27.
Richard Gaddes, 81, Dec. 12 Phillip I. Lujan, 91, Los Alamitos, Dec. 2
More events Fridays in Pasatiempo
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Homelessness rate at highest reported level raises alarms
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WASHINGTON — The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for INSIDE more Americans, federal officials u Why housing prices said Friday. may pose a problem for About 653,000 people were Biden. PAGE A-5 homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier. The latest estimate indicates that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of the increase. A rise in family homelessness ended a downward trend that began in 2012. “For those on the frontlines of this crisis, it’s not surprising,” said Ann Oliva, chief executive officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge said the data underscored an “urgent need” to support proven solutions that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place. Going back to the first 2007 survey, the U.S. then made steady progress for about a decade in reducing the homeless population as the government focused particularly on increasing investments to get veterans into housing. The number of homeless people dropped from about 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017. The numbers ticked up to about 580,000 in the 2020 count and held relatively steady over the next two years as Please see story on Page A-4
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