
Navajo program again distributes reservation coal to heat tribal homes
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – For decades, coal from the Navajo Nation helped deliver water and helped power homes and businesses throughout Arizona and the Southwest.
Now, some of that coal is being used to heat Navajo homes as well.
For the fifth straight year, the Community Heating Resource Program (CHRP) is helping Navajo residents stay warm through fall and winter months by distributing coal for free from the Navajo Mine – one ton at a time.
The program
kicked off this year on October 28 and will continue through spring. It was formally established by Navajo Transitional Energy Co., which owns the mine in Fruitland, New Mexico, in 2016.
“We’ve probably provided over 18,000 tons of coal to Navajo families,” since 2016, said Cortasha Upshaw, the mine’s community affairs coordinator, who also oversees the program. She said “about 8,900 tons of coal” were distributed last winter alone.
Good first day for NTEC's Community Heating Resource Program, 213 loaded vehicles with free coal. 41 different…
Posted by Navajo Transitional Energy Company on Monday, November 2, 2020

Horseherder said comparing the industrial-scale burning of coal to the program’s small-scale distribution of a Navajo Nation resource to Navajo people is like comparing apples to oranges. “That coal belongs to Navajo,” she said. “That’s what Navajo were using that coal for (heat) all along … before big companies came in and started burning tons of it.” For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.Volunteers with Chizh for Cheii are preparing to deliver firewood to elders on the Navajo Nation, where nearly 90 percent of homes rely on wood for heat. #ChizForCheii #CronkiteNews @ChizhForCheii @Loren_Anthony_ https://t.co/FRAaeujfen
— indianz.com (@indianz) December 8, 2020
Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Advertisement
Search
Filed Under
Tags
More Headlines
Trump supporter in coyote headdress and ‘war paint’ indicted for role in D.C. insurrection
Who is Jorge Riley? Self-described Native man boasted of role in U.S. Capitol riot
Director of Indian Health Service steps down at request of President-elect Joe Biden
Native America Calling: Best books of 2020
Impeachment won’t stop Donald Trump from leaving impact on Indian Country
Jim Kent: Sometimes the truth hurts in Indian Country
Native America Calling: Native in the Spotlight
‘Two wrongs do not make a right’: Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-New Mexico) on Impeaching Donald Trump
Indian Country Today: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes prevail in sovereignty dispute
Stephen Roe Lewis: Donald Trump must be impeached
Native America Calling: Learning loss during the pandemic
‘There’s no role for Congress’: Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) on Donald Trump
Cronkite News: Hate crimes on the rise as Trump era comes to an end
Terry Rambler: An attack on the Native vote in the nation’s capital
‘I have a very hard time with mandates’: Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) on #COVID19
More Headlines
Who is Jorge Riley? Self-described Native man boasted of role in U.S. Capitol riot
Director of Indian Health Service steps down at request of President-elect Joe Biden
Native America Calling: Best books of 2020
Impeachment won’t stop Donald Trump from leaving impact on Indian Country
Jim Kent: Sometimes the truth hurts in Indian Country
Native America Calling: Native in the Spotlight
‘Two wrongs do not make a right’: Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-New Mexico) on Impeaching Donald Trump
Indian Country Today: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes prevail in sovereignty dispute
Stephen Roe Lewis: Donald Trump must be impeached
Native America Calling: Learning loss during the pandemic
‘There’s no role for Congress’: Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) on Donald Trump
Cronkite News: Hate crimes on the rise as Trump era comes to an end
Terry Rambler: An attack on the Native vote in the nation’s capital
‘I have a very hard time with mandates’: Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) on #COVID19
More Headlines