- Title: U.S. fentanyl deaths are down, but not on this New Mexico reservation
- Date: 25th January 2025
- Summary: ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) ‘ENTERING ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION’ SIGN DRIVING SHOT OF HOME INSIDE THE ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION HOME INSIDE THE ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION EXTERIOR OF THE ALAMO NAVAJO SCHOOL BOARD BUILDING EXTERIOR OF CARS PARKED AT ALAMO HEALTH SERVICES ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 12, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANUEL GUERRO, 77, AMBROSE BEGAY’S GRANDFATHER, SAYING: “It almost took us apart. It almost took us apart. It took terrible things into the family whenever he passed. By being angry, by having 1 or 2 arguments with the family, even though if the other person didn't do it but I used to blame them.” ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) POLITICAL SIGNS HANGING ON STREET FENCE EXTERIOR OF THE ALAMO NAVAJO COMMUNITY SCHOOL (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAROLD PERALTA, 54, PEER SUPPORT WORKER, SAYING: “We're losing people. We're losing younger generations. And they're still out there. They're still wandering around, you know, lost to the drug.” DRIVING SHOTS OF THE ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION LANDSCAPE VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF THE ALAMO NAVAJO CHAPTER HOUSE ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 13, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHELLE ABEYTA, 41, NEW MEXICO HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE ELECT, SAYING: “One of the striking things that you'll notice is the isolation of it. And that's a pro and a con. For example, on the pro side, that isolation has helped the community maintain their language and their culture very well. But at the same time, when hit with this epidemic of fentanyl and substance abuse addiction, it's become a nightmare where resources have struggled to get to that community.” ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ‘TIIS TSOH’ MINI MART SHEEP OUTSIDE HOME ON THE ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 13, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TARA JARAMILLO, SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST, SAYING: “These children don't have food. These children don't have running water. They may not feel safe at night. So, you know, we need to address basic needs.” ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) ‘BUT WE HAVE HOPE’ POSTER ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 16, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) REBECCA DOW, NEW MEXICO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE, SAYING: “Fentanyl deaths and overdoses and addiction has touched the life of every family that we talked with. And the Democrats have done nothing about it. So we'll trend red we'll continue to turn red.” TAOS, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 15, 2025) (REUTERS) TRIBAL MEMBER MYREON APACHITO EXITING CAR APACHITO WALKING THROUGH THE PARK (SOUNDBITE) (English) MYREON APACHITO, 31, ALAMO NAVAJO TRIBAL MEMBER, SAYING: “The trauma that started everything off, because what my mom would tell me is that it started from her parents giving her trauma is the reason why she started drinking. And because of me doing drugs, because my parents were always never there. I was the only child that was supporting my little brother and basically doing everything. And it kind of got to the point where I got tired of it. And yeah, when I ask the same thing with all my cousins, that they're on drugs and everything, they say the same thing. It's because of trauma.” ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 10, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RETIRED TRIBAL POLICE OFFICER CECIL ABEYTA WALKING INTO THE ALAMO NAVAJO HEALTH CENTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CECIL ABEYTA, 64, RETIRED TRIBAL POLICE OFFICER SAYING: “You know, there's got to be a solution to it. There can't be no solution to it because, you know, it has to have an end to it somewhere.” ALAMO NAVAJO RESERVATION, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) ALAMO COUGARS PAINTED ON A RESERVATION HILLSIDE
- Embargoed: 8th February 2025 11:00
- Keywords: ALAMO NAVAJO TRIBE FENTANYL NALAXONE NATIVE AMERICANS NAVAJO NEW MEXICO OVERDOSE RESERVATION TRUMP
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: North America,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001914824122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Twenty-eight-year-old Ambrose Begay died after a fentanyl overdose under a tree 125 yards from his home on the Alamo Navajo reservation in southern New Mexico two years ago.
He is among a generation of young Native Americans losing their lives to drug overdoses in increasing numbers even as such deaths decline nationwide.
Begay's grandfather, Manuel Guerro, 77, passes the spot every day as a school liaison, shuttling students to class and checking on those regularly truant.
Elsewhere, mourners have made shrines to overdose deaths and vehicle accidents among the arid, rolling landscape of one of the poorest reservations in the country.
Guerro decided not to tie a ribbon to the tree for his favorite grandchild, who died Oct. 19, 2022. He did not want the place to remind him of the drug epidemic tearing through his isolated community of around 2,000, which has among the highest overdose death rates in the country.
“It almost took us apart,” said Guerro, a musician, jeweler and comedian whose work is in the National Museum of the American Indian and Library of Congress, as he sat outside the reservation's community center.
Ambrose told his grandfather he felt alone after his father, stepfather, aunts and friends died during the COVID pandemic, Guerro said. In an effort to stop him buying drugs, Guerro used to follow him to homes of reservation dealers.
Nationally, overdose deaths declined 21.7% to 89,740 people in the 12 months to August 2024 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control. But the Alamo Navajo, like other Native American groups as well as African Americans, have been left out.
Overdose deaths on the Alamo reservation have not fallen in the past year, their rate increasing around 306% to 199 per 100,000 residents in 2024 - over six times the national average - from 50 per 100,000 residents in 2023, according to preliminary data from the reservation's health center.
Reversing that trend will require police on the reservation, which currently has none, and closer detox and rehabilitation centers that cater to Native Americans, according to two dozen tribal members and advocates Reuters spoke to. Longer term, the tribe needs to address basic needs like running water and food security for the 56% of its population in poverty, they said. The reservation is an 85-mile drive southwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city, via a sometimes impassable dirt track.
Across the United States, distribution of overdose reversal drug naloxone and more accessible addiction treatment are among factors the Biden administration cited for the fall in overdose deaths.
President Donald Trump’s pre-election promises to stop fentanyl at the nearby Mexican-American border and lower grocery prices resonated with tribal members, many of whom complained of a lack of resources from the Democratic-controlled Navajo Nation and state of New Mexico. Among a flurry of executive orders Trump issued on his first day as president was one declaring drug cartels terrorist organizations.
Trump won the reservation and surrounding Socorro County by around three points on Nov. 5, marking the first time the area backed a Republican presidential candidate in 36 years, part of a rightward shift across Indian country.
In Alamo, peer support worker Harold Peralta, 54, tries to get tribal members into detox and rehabilitation but says many last days or weeks in facilities they consider "jail."
“We’re losing the younger generations, they’re wandering around lost to the drug,” said Peralta, who recalls a tribal member in her twenties reaching out to him for treatment only to die days later of an overdose.
The reservation, to which the U.S. government moved the tribe in 1907 after it hid out in mountains to the south, is an enclave one tenth the size of Rhode Island about 100 miles southeast of the vast Navajo Nation.
Alamo Navajos come under the jurisdiction of numerous authorities - their tribe, the Navajo Nation and the United States, as well as Socorro County and the state of New Mexico. Sometimes they have difficulty getting support from anywhere.
Tara Jaramillo, a speech language pathologist who is not a tribal member, says reservation children turn to drugs to deal with “generational trauma” from 19th century ethnic cleansing, Indian boarding schools, COVID deaths and parents' addictions.
“These children do not have food, they may not have running water, they may not feel safe at night,” she said.
Jaramillo, a former Democratic state house representative who went to school on the reservation, was defeated in the Nov. 5 election by Republican Rebecca Dow who ran on promises to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
At the front desk of a Walmart in Taos, New Mexico, tribal member Myreon Apachito, 31, works as a team leader. He did seven months of rehab in Taos last year for addiction to heroin, meth and fentanyl.
He hopes to break his family's cycle of addiction. His parents, both former alcoholics, are an inspiration.
"My mom said the reason she started drinking was trauma passed down from her parents, and me doing drugs was because my parents were never there," said Apachito, who plans to stay in Taos.
In Alamo, he said fentanyl was easy to get from dealers at prearranged spots on Interstates 25 and 40, drug transit routes to the east and north of the reservation.
The Alamo reservation’s last full-time cop, Cecil Abeyta, Michelle Abeyta's father-in-law, who retired 12 years ago, is now a member of its powerful school board. He is trying to set up a detox center and bring in federal and Navajo police to bust dealers.
“There’s got to be a solution to it, there can’t be no solution," said Abeyta, 64, who recently recruited two tribal members to train as reservation police.
(Production: Andrew Hay, Jorge Garcia) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None