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President Joe Biden has designated the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
President Biden signed a proclamation Tuesday during a visit to Arizona.
In remarks at Red Butte, a sacred Havasupai site at the southern part of the monument, President Biden said the action honors tribal nations; protects sacred places, wildlife, and water; and conserves public lands.
He reiterated his commitment to tribes.
“I made a commitment as president to prioritize (and) respect tribal sovereignty (and) self-determination; to honor the solid promise the U.S. government made to tribal nations; (and) to fulfill trust and treaty obligations. I pledge to keep using all the available authority to protect scared lands. My administration has worked alongside tribal leaders, many of you here today to keep that promise.”
President Biden says this marks the fifth new national monument he’s created and will conserve nearly one million acres of greater Grand Canyon landscape.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and a number of tribal leaders were at the signing ceremony.
Courtesy Alutiiq Museum
Kodiak, Alaska’s Alutiiq Museum is publishing a coffee table book that highlights contemporary Native art.
As KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, museum staff say the book will include more than 200 pieces and feature dozens of Indigenous artists.
The Alutiiq Museum received a grant for nearly $150,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to develop a book of modern Native art.
Amy Steffian is the chief curator of the Alutiiq Museum.
She says the goal is to show that Alutiiq tradition is a living culture, expressed in many different ways.
“The book looks at the contemporary art collections from the Kodiak History Museum and the Alutiiq Museum – we’re going to combine our collections to show artwork that’s been made since about the mid 1980s. That’s about when the heritage movement started, and that’s when there’s an explosion in contemporary art production.”
The hardcover book will have images of artifacts and feature essays about the art and biographies for artists.
Museum staff plan for it to be a coffee table-style book up to 300 pages thick.
The book will feature artists from Kodiak and others with Alutiiq roots.
She says they will feature both traditional pieces like baleen carvings and masks, as well as western pieces made by Indigenous artists.
“They’re quite diverse – they range from everything from skin sewing and things like weaving and carvings to more western art forms like oil paintings, for example.”
Some of the grant funding will go towards a first printing of 1,000 copies to be distributed around Kodiak for free.
Steffian says the ultimate goal is to share the book with as many people as possible.
“Our partner at the Kodiak History Museum will have a number of copies to share, we’ll give them to Tribes and corporations and schools. We also then will have a number of copies available for free public distribution if people want to come to the museum and pick one up.”
Steffian says they’ll likely print more copies to sell at their store after the first thousand are gone.
The museum will also have an e-book on their website for the public to access for free.
The grant gives the museum a deadline to complete the project within three years, but staff hope to publish in the next two.
The Native American Journalists Association is celebrating 40 years.
The organization is hosting journalists in Canada.
Among agenda items, members will vote on whether or not to change the organization’s name to the “Indigenous Journalists Association” and hold a listening session for Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ members and community.
The conference begins Thursday in Winnipeg.
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