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Since the US Supreme Court struck down affirmative action practices at public and private universities, Alaska Native leaders have been assessing the impacts.
As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA found out, the court’s decision has left them with a lot to consider.
Alaska’s regional Native corporations, all twelve of them, have a lot riding on affirmative action.
Since their formation 50 years ago, they have collectively invested more than 100 million dollars in scholarships. And that doesn’t include village corporations on the North Slope, like the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation.
Its president and CEO, Pearl Brower, says the corporation has grown to 60 companies.
“We employ about 3,600 people in almost every state in the nation.”
Many of those are Alaska Natives, and include executives who have attended prestigious colleges.
Brower says affirmative action has improved Native hire and helped companies succeed.
“At the core, what all of this does is provide more opportunity for everyone.”
Brower and others like Rosita Worl (Tlingit), president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, worry the ruling could unravel decades of hard work.
“To me, it’s just so unfathomable that the Supreme Court did that.”
But Worl is pleased with the court’s other decision last month – to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“And the individuals who brought the case were saying that it was racial discrimination. But the Supreme Court ruled, no, it wasn’t racial discrimination because the rights that we hold are political rights.”
Political rights, she says, that could have bearing in the court’s affirmative action ruling.
Worl says Sealaska attorneys have begun an intensive legal review, one she calls urgent for hundreds of Sealaska students currently on scholarships. But that argument is yet to be tested.
In Guatemala, Indigenous groups are among those protesting government action to block the results of a June 25 election, in which a center-left, anti-corruption candidate came in second to qualify for a run-off.
Now election results still hang in the balance, despite a court ruling saying a court ordered vote review did everything according to the law.
Maria Martin reports.
Indigenous organizations have been among the most vocal groups protesting a court ordered review of Guatemala’s June 25 election, which some say is akin to an election coup.
The Indigenous authorities of the prominent 48 Cantones de Totonicpan group said the court action was illegal and placed the August run off election in jeopardy.
That election was to have been between former First Lady Sandra Torres and the surprise second-place winner Bernardo Arevalo, the anti-corruption candidate of the Semilla (Seed) Party.
A spokesperson for the 48 Cantones called on the court to revoke their order for a vote review and to respect the will of the people.
They also said that if the electoral authorities don’t complete their review of contested results, they’ll call for road blockades and other protest actions across Guatemala.
Indian Industrial School, located in the eastern part of Genoa, Neb., now operated as a museum. (Photo: Ammodramus via Wiki CC)
Nebraska archeologists are searching for remains at a former Indian boarding school in Genoa.
3 News Now reports above ground technology was used months ago to identify grave sites at the Genoa Indian Industrial School.
Now, excavation is underway at the school.
The team hopes of find some answers about the children who passed away at the school.
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