Arizona | Spark of Genius

Old photograph of Native American person

Biden delivers “long overdue” formal apology in Arizona for Indian boarding school atrocities

By Peter Schulte / October 31, 2024

President Biden has issued a formal presidential apology to Native American communities for the atrocities committed against Indigenous children and their families during a 150-year era of forced federal Indian boarding schools. “After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program,” the president said. “But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened — until today. I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did.”

Church of the Eagle and the Condor can now drink ayahuasca legally in the U.S.

By Peter Schulte / May 7, 2024

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew traditionally used by Indigenous cultures in the Amazon and Orinoco. It is now often used to help treat depression, PTSD, trauma, and other mental illnesses and to promote spiritual and emotional development. The Church of the Eagle and the Condor is officially the first non-Christian church in the U.S to obtain legal protections to use it as a sacrament.

Arizona governor greenlights over-the-counter birth control

By Peter Schulte / July 7, 2023

Arizonans 18 and older will soon be able to go to their local pharmacy and purchase oral contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription.

Crystalyne Curley becomes first female speaker of the Navajo Nation Council

By Peter Schulte / January 26, 2023

Council Delegate Crystalyne Curley, 37, who represents Tachíí/Blue Gap, Many Farms, Nazlini, Tsélání/Cottonwood, Low Mountain, has become the first woman to head the Navajo Nation Council.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs extends protections to LGBTQ+ state employees and contractors

By Peter Schulte / January 10, 2023

The executive order goes beyond existing laws banning employment discrimination to include factors such as sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, culture, creed, social origin, and political affiliation.

University of Arizona offers free college tuition to Native students

By Peter Schulte / July 12, 2022

The introduction of such a program, which is offered to any students registered to any of the state’s 22 federally recognized tribes, is the first of its kind in an Arizona public university.

Many U.S. states now allow mental health absences for students

By Peter Schulte / June 21, 2022

At least nine states now allow students to take mental health days. Other states using less expensive solutions like in-class mediation, mindfulness exercises, and social-emotional training.

U.S. federal judge throws out Trump-era rule facilitating development of streams, marshes, and wetlands

By Peter Schulte / September 8, 2021

District Judge Rosemary Marquez’s decision applies nationwide, according to the Washington Post, and will protect drinking water and wildlife habitat for millions of Americans and billions of animals.

Arizona abolishes peremptory challenges to improve juror diversity

By Peter Schulte / September 6, 2021

As reported by Vox, this practice leads to the disproportionate dismissal of jurors of color, and “multiple studies suggest that peremptory strikes play a major role in producing juries that are whiter than the population as a whole.”

Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota vote to legalize recreational marijuana

By Peter Schulte / November 4, 2020

Voters have approved ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona and New Jersey, and both recreational and medical use in in South Dakota. Results have not yet been determined for Montana’s ballot questions on recreational marijuana and Mississippi’s medical marijuana measure.