Navajo students in Gallup-McKinley County, New Mexico, face a systemically rigged school district: a 2022 ProPublica investigation found they endure harsher discipline than non-Indigenous peers, and a new report from the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission confirms the pattern while linking it to institutionalized colonial attitudes. The district, home to the largest Indigenous student population in the U.S., subjects its children to disciplinary policies that “rooted in colonization” and “institutional racism,” says Wendy Greyeyes, the commission’s chair.
This isn’t a story about isolated teachers or rogue principals. It’s a story of structural neglect. The district’s former superintendent, Mike Hyatt, blamed “poor data collection” for disparities—data collection the state Public Education Department also failed to audit. Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s completed investigation found “troubling disciplinary practices” but admitted New Mexico law lacks clarity on holding districts accountable. Without new civil rights legislation, advocates like Greyeyes argue, systemic racism in education will remain unaddressable.
The report synthesizes haunting testimony from public hearings. Parents and students described retaliatory fear: children refusing to testify, parents speaking for them, transcripts withheld. One child’s drawing of friends holding hands—labeled “racist”—mirrors broader patterns of silencing youth in classrooms (see the 9th Circuit’s recent defense of a first-grader’s censored artwork). The Gallup-McKinley case illustrates how colonial power dynamics endure in policies that punish difference under the guise of order.
Torrez’s office claims implied authority to police discrimination but awaits legislative clarity. This legal limbo reflects a national failure: Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits race-based discrimination in federally funded programs, yet enforcement lags in rural Indigenous communities. The commission’s call for restorative justice policies—modeled on successful programs in Cuba, New Mexico, and Arizona—highlights a path forward rejected by districts clinging to punitive paradigms.
The missing voices here are glaring. The Gallup-McKinley school district has not responded to requests for comment. Where is the input of teachers or local non-Native parents who may benefit from the status quo? The report’s recommendations risk stagnation without union cooperation or funding for cultural competency training.
Next steps hinge on Torrez’s legislative push and the state’s capacity to audit education spending. But without federal intervention, the district’s $181 million annual budget for 27,000 students, half Navajo, will continue to reflect the same “entrenched racism” Greyeyes condemns.