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The Biden Administration has carved out $120 million for tribal communities across the nation to adapt to climate change.
It’s part of $440 million set aside for tribes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and other federal spending.
The administration says it’s the largest amount of climate change funding for tribes in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
But as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, that money won’t go very far.
As director of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Climate Change Initiative, Jackie Schaeffer (Iñupiaq) travels to places like Kivalina, which are being swallowed-up by the ocean.
“Even a water system, an average water system is 70 to 100 million for a community that size. So, when you look at that, then you start adding those costs. It really is. It’s expensive to build a whole new community.”
Schaeffer says there are many other tribes in Alaska, which face the same challenges – and must completely rebuild their communities, because their homes are too old to be moved.
While Schaeffer says she’s grateful for the funding, she calls it a “drop” in a huge bucket of needs – money that has to be shared with tribes across the country.
In a statement, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) called it a historic investment, which gives tribes the resources they need “to develop and implement protective strategies for their communities.”
Asst. Sec. Newland says tribes should look at this first $120 million as a down payment for more help – once the needs are identified and prioritized.He said the funding builds on the administration’s past work – including $25 million in relocation money – that went to two other Alaska communities, Newtok and Napakiak.
Schaeffer says this is good to hear, but wonders if the federal government has yet to grasp the true cost of climate change.
“Our people, because they’re so connected to the land there and see when they see things wash away that connects them to their ancestry, it’s devastating.”
Realities, Schaefer says, that are hard to truly grasp in both cost and magnitude, unless they’re at your doorstep.
As the U.S. Mint continues its American Women Quarters Program, one of the new faces to enter circulation has Indigenous roots.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more.
Zitkala-Ša, a Yankton Sioux political activist, writer, and musician, is one of five historic women to be immortalized in coinage.
Previously, women like Maya Angelou and Eleanor Roosevelt have been part of this program.
The likeness of Zitkala-Ša, who wrote the first American Indian opera in 1913, will be minted on 600 million quarters for ten weeks in 2024 before being discontinued.
Joining her in this year’s set – designed to highlight women who may not be in history books – are Pauli Murray, Patsy Mink, Mary Edwards Walker, and Celia Cruz.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced Thursday it will reintroduce bison on its tribal lands in Shakopee, Minn.
Dakota people consider bison a relative and the tribe has been planning to bring them back to tribal lands.
This fall, the tribe plans to welcome a small herd of up to 15 bison from Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota.
Chairman Keith Anderson says the tribe has restored and revitalized its relationship with plants over the decades, and now has the opportunity to revitalize the relationship with bison, which will allow the tribe to bring back traditional ceremonies, food, and medicine to his people.
The tribe’s land and natural resources department is overseeing the process and learning from other tribe and organizations, which have successfully reintroduced bison.
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