After Years of Waiting, Navajo Nation Is Powering Up

After a five-year wait, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumblings of an electrical crew reach their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation. In five days' time, their home would be connected to the power grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer would the CPAP machine Gillis uses for sleep apnea or his home heart monitor transmitting information to doctors 400 miles away face interruptions due to intermittent power. It also means Black and Gillis can now use more than a few appliances at the same time. "We're one of the luckiest people who get ... electric," Gillis said.

Many Navajo families still live without running water and electricity, a product of historic neglect and the struggle to get services to far-flung homes on the 27,000-square-mile Native American reservation that lies in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, per the AP. Some rely on solar panels or generators, which can be patchy, and about 32% have no electricity whatsoever. Gillis and Black applied to connect their home back in 2019. But when the COVID pandemic started ravaging the tribe and everything besides essential services was shut down, it further stalled the process. Their wait highlights the persistent challenges in electrifying every Navajo home, even with recent injections of federal money for tribal infrastructure—and as extreme heat in the Southwest intensified by climate change adds to the urgency.

For years, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has worked to get more Navajo homes connected to the grid faster. Under the Light Up Navajo program, using a mix of private and public funds, outside utilities send electric crews to help connect homes and extend power lines. But installing power on the reservation, about the size of West Virginia, is time-consuming and expensive due to its rugged geography and vast distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours due to underground rock deposits, while some homes near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict regulations around development in the area. More from the AP, as part of a series on how Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.

(More Navajo stories.)