The Navajo Nation report echoes a 2022 investigation by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica that found Indigenous students were punished more harshly than other students in the state’s Gallup-McKinley school district.

One of the largest school districts in New Mexico subjects Navajo students to pervasive discrimination and a climate of fear, according to a report released last week by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.

The 25-page report draws on testimony from parents and community members at four public hearings in Navajo Nation communities within the school district. It urges the New Mexico attorney general’s office to release findings from a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the district’s discipline of Indigenous students.