Search Results for: missing indigenous from navajo nation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Native people across the country are responding to President Joe Biden’s formal apology Friday for federal Indian boarding school policies.

“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize.”

KUNC’s Emma VandenEinde has reaction from Colorado.

Tribal Chairman Manuel Heart from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado says it’s a great starting point. But he thinks one of the main steps toward healing is revitalizing the Native languages.

“The extermination didn’t work, but the assimilation that they did to these boarding schools to take away the language, it affected three fourths of the tribal nations across this country. So that’s why it’s so important to bring it back.”

Chairman Heart says he and other tribal leaders have already taken some of their own actions, like getting a charter school on their reservation and working on an Ute Mountain Ute dictionary.

He dreams of having a junior college and a trade school, but he says that’s only possible with additional funding and more action at the federal level.

Members of NDN Collective gather atop a light projection that reads, ‘We are the children of survivors’, the day following Biden’s historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the boarding school system developed and operated by the federal government for over 150 years. (Photo: Angel White Eyes / NDN Collective).

In South Dakota, a Native group wants to see action, not just an apology.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more.

In an emotional, teary, and challenging discussion, Rapid City-based Indigenous advocacy network NDN Collective hosted a press conference to respond to the president’s apology.

However, the tone of the response was definitive.

“This question is a simple one for me to answer about the apology, because I’ve heard many apologies. So, ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t work for me. It just won’t.”

That’s the voice of 78-year-old Daryl No Heart, a survivor of the Indian boarding school system.

It’s a sentiment reflected throughout the press conference.

NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen says apologies without meaningful change mean little.

“Today’s speech can’t just be a speech from the President about what he’s done for Indian people during this administration. It has to be about what this country is going to continue doing for Indian people moving forward. So, we have some demands for the President of the United States, and to the Department of the Interior at this moment in history.”

Those demands include an audit of still-active schools that trace their roots to the boarding school era, the revocation of Medals of Honor for participants in the Wounded Knee Massacre, and executive clemency for indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, a boarding school survivor often described as a political prisoner. He’s serving a life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Boarding school survivor activist Amy Sazue, with Remembering the Children, says there is yet more work to do.

“While I’m relieved and appreciative of the apology, I’m joining the many voices reminding the government and President that while this is an important and historic first step, it is just that. I will anxiously await the next steps.”

Over the weekend, the Harris-Walz campaign held a rally on the Navajo Nation.

Dignitaries included Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, former Navajo presidents Joe Shirley and Jonathan Nez, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) delivered remarks.

KGLP’s Rachel Kaub reports.

Themed as an “Early Vote Celebration”, Window Rock’s October 26 event ended with Gov. Walz repeating talking points from the Democratic platform, honoring late Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel, Sr., and listing how Vice President Harris and the Biden Administration have served Native people – such as lowering insulin costs, providing funding to Native communities, and addressing missing and murdered Indigenous persons.

Then he noted how important the Native vote is.

“If the Navajo Nation turns out the numbers that we know you can and do … it won’t just be Arizona that goes, it is entirely possible, and I think probable, that we win the whole damn thing.”

Watch the rally

Audio from the Window Rock rally courtesy KGLP

Myron Lizer addressing the 2020 Republican National Convention virtually.

The Navajo Times reports the Trump campaign held a Zoom webinar with Navajo Republicans supporting Donald Trump for president, while the rally for Harris-Walz took place on the Navajo Nation.

President Trump supporters include former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer.

Lizer reportedly campaigned for Trump along with a group of people in Window Rock, as the Harris-Walz event was taking place.

They held signs and flags along roads during the vice-presidential candidate’s visit to the reservation.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A new federal Indian boarding school report found nearly 1,000 Native American children died while attending the schools created to strip them of their culture.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.

The report identified nearly 19,000 children who attended a boarding school between 1819 and 1969. But the government acknowledges there were more.

At the schools. teachers were known to do everything from cutting students’ hair to beating them for speaking their Native languages.

This investigation, led by the Interior Department, found marked and unmarked graves at 65 different school sites.

The agency says it is working with tribes that want remains repatriated.

Stacy Laravie. (Courtesy South Dakota Archaeological Society / YouTube)

Stacy Laravie (Ponca) is a member of a national tribal historic preservation group.

She urges the government to focus on…

“…coming up with solutions and ways to heal the trauma. And one part of apologizing or acknowledging would be future investments into tribal nations.”

In fact, the report recommends the U.S. provides funding for culturally based programs centered on intergenerational trauma, violence prevention, and revitalizing Native languages.

Research from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition shows that by the 1920s, there were more than 60,000 children in the schools.

Lavina Willie-Nez, AMBER Alert Coordinator for the Navajo Department of Police, shares her impactful testimony at the FCC’s August Open Meeting.

The Federal Communications Commission voted this week to establish a new alert code for missing and endangered people by delivering messages to the public over TV, radio, and wireless phones.

The alert code will help law enforcement agencies draw public attention to missing people of all ages who do not qualify for AMBER Alerts.

According to the FCC, the decision will support efforts to raise public awareness of missing Indigenous people.

2024 Tri-Ute Games participants. (Courtesy Tri-Ute Games / Facebook)

The Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Ute Indian tribes recently got together for their annual friendly sports competition for young people.

Clark Adomaitis has more.

At the Ignacio High School gymnasium, young people from three tribes are playing volleyball against each other at the annual Tri-Ute Games.

This year, the Southern Ute Tribe is hosting its sister tribes, the Ute Mountain Ute and Ute Indian Tribes, in Ignacio, Colo.

Other sports taking place throughout the three-day gathering include archery, skateboarding, golf, and hand games.

K’ia Whiteskunk is the recreation director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. She says that the three sister tribes gathering for this annual event shows unity.

“We have relatives from the other tribes that we don’t get to see. But this is a time that it helps to youth get to know each other and come together.” 

Over at the Southern Ute Bear Dance trail, athletes in colored shirts are running the Ute Warrior Challenge.

“Almost there, almost there, just good job, good job.”

Darnell Muniz is a recreation specialist at the Sun Ute Community Center. He’s guiding kids running along the road after they just slid through a slip and slide.

“The challenge is having them running bout half a mile on our Bear Dance trail, and then there at the park we have various events like army crawl, slip and slide.”

Muniz says that this year’s Tri-Ute games was the first one since the COVID-19 pandemic with all three tribes.

In 2022, the games only included two of the three sister tribes.

“They still had the temperature checks and also the mask mandate still so at that time there wasn’t that many participants.”

This year, the Southern Ute and Ute Indian Tribes opened up youth registration to second descendants of tribal members.

Muniz says over 300 youth athletes participated this year.

Next year’s Tri-Ute Games will likely be hosted by the Ute Indian tribe in Fort Duchesne, Utah.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Members of the Navajo Nation will gather on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the uranium spill.

KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios has more.

On July 16th, 1979, a dam ruptured and released more than a thousand tons of radioactive waste and nearly 95 million gallons of toxic radioactive wastewater spilled into the nearby Rio Puerco and surrounding Navajo Nation lands.

“And the folks that live in the area tell stories about being out herding their sheep and seeing this wave of green liquid come their way, you know, they weren’t warned about it, and many of them waded in it to get their livestock out and ended up with sores on their legs.”

Susan Gordon is a coordinator for the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment.

She says the contaminants flowed downstream through Gallup and across nine Navajo chapters.

Radiation from the spill was detected as far as 80 miles downstream. As a result, communities around the spill have experienced health problems associated with radiation exposure.

Gordon says the mining company United Nuclear Corporation did little to clean up the radioactive waste.

“They sent a handful of people out with shovels and buckets to try to gather up this green sludge that was all through there. And that’s it. That’s all that was ever done.”

According to Stanford University, the company dug new drinking wells and removed about 1% of the estimated total spill material.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission permitted the company to resume operations five months later. The mine was abandoned in 1982.

The Church Rock spill is the third largest radioactive waste release globally, after the Fukushima disaster and the Chernobyl meltdown.

Gordon says they’re hoping to continue to educate people. 

“But also to bring pressure on the National Institute of Health and our congressional delegation to provide more money for cleanup and for health research.”

The ceremony will have an opening prayer and a walk to the spill site.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Part of Michigan’s economic development arm is considering a $50 million grant for a proposed copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Opponents voiced their concerns at a recent board meeting.

Interlochen Public Radio’s Ellie Katz has more.

The Copperwood mine would extract copper from a deposit at the edge of Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains State Park in the western U.P.

Critics are concerned about environmental risks.

Nichole Keway Biber is a tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands.

“It’s just a bad strategy to double down on destruction and contamination at this time.”

The company, on the other hand, promises 380 new jobs, which proponents say would bring much-needed investment and development to a struggling rural economy.

Quentin Messer Jr., head of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, says the board will weigh comments from both sides – and other economic considerations.

“What’s the cost of inaction? What happens to a community if you decide not to invest?”

He says there’s no specific timeline for a decision.

Bearhat Mountain and Hidden Lake in Glacier National Park. (Photo: Andrew Parlette / Flickr)

Glacier National Park officials are studying the return of free-roaming bison.

The park received nearly $2 million in federal funding to advance projects including the reintroduction efforts started by the Blackfeet Nation.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.  

Glacier will study how deer and elk use the park for grazing before bison return to the landscape.  The park will also try to estimate herd sizes. That information will help researchers understand the impact of reintroducing bison.

The Blackfeet Nation last year released about two dozen animals along the border of the park and the herd is expected to move into Glacier as it grows.

The federal funds will also support efforts to inventory cultural resources such as ancient camp sites impacted by climate change. Funding will go toward whitebark pine restoration as well.

Courtesy NM Indigenous Youth Council / Instagram

The New Mexico Indian Affairs Department on Wednesday announced efforts to address missing and murdered Indigenous people in the state.

The department is launching a public awareness campaign about MMIP, addressing behavioral health and suicide prevention – and highlighting the state’s Indigenous Youth Council.

Messages will appear on billboards, websites, video, radio, and social media.

The Kinship Pledge campaign was created through several years of community health work by the youth council.

IYC member Alysia Coriz says the campaign is authentic to Indigenous young people, and she says it’s received positive feedback.

The campaign includes 56 billboards with an emphasis in cities and locations with large Indigenous populations.

The web and digital promos will be featured on screens and available for mobile devices.

Courtesy Utah Food Bank

The Utah Food Bank is expanding in San Juan County and announced this week the opening of two new pantries to support residents on the Navajo Nation.

Alex Gonzalez reports.

President and CEO Ginette Bott says the new pantries are intended to help enhance food accessibility, as residents often have to drive to places off the Navajo Nation.

“While there are a couple of small pantries in the area of San Juan County in different locations, they still weren’t big enough or still couldn’t be opened every single day. People here will have to drive to Cortez or to Moab, it’s not like you can jump in your car and run a couple blocks and grab a gallon of milk.”

Bott adds the pantries learned more about Navajo diet and preferences, while also aiming to increase available fresh healthy foods.

One pantry is expected to open in the next few days, while the other one needs more time to tie up some loose ends.

According to Utah Food Bank, San Juan County residents face higher rates of hunger compared with the rest of the state, 17% of residents report food insecurity, compared with 10% statewide.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

In the aftermath of Brian Smith’s Anchorage murder trial, there are mixed emotions for the families and advocates of the two Alaska Native women he killed.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, the trial may be over but the need for change remains.

It took the jury less than two hours to convict Brian Smith on all 14 counts in the deaths of Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk.

Both women were from small coastal villages.

They battled addiction and struggled to survive on the streets of Anchorage – vulnerabilities, prosecutors say, Smith preyed upon.

Abouchuk’s sister Margie Lestenkoff says the unusually quick verdict came as a relief.

“It was pretty hard on all of us, but we tried to be strong in our hearts, but it still it hurts a lot. But we’re happy that the trial went through and all the evidence were found.”

Evidence that was overwhelming, much of it focused on an SD card with footage that gave police the key to the case.

It was labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriot,” turned in by a sex worker, who stole the killer’s cell phone and copied footage of Kathleen Henry’s last tortured moments alive.

Only the jury, attorneys, and court staff saw the footage, but everyone in the whole room heard the sound.Golda Ingram, an advocate for Victims for Justice, said nothing in her experience prepared her for the trauma.

“It was just sitting there, hearing the gasping for air – and, ‘You die. You live.’ It’s like he’s sitting there, and he’s proud of listening what he did. That was kind of a wake-up moment for me.”

But Ingram said it was healing to spend time with the Abouchuk family, as they quietly supported each other.

She said their kindness and perseverance helped to restore the dignity of the victims.

Lestenkof says it was only fitting.

“Veronica was a real nice person. She never cussed, didn’t have a mean bone in her soul.”

Abouchuk’s daughter Kristy Grimaldi says her mother’s troubles began when she was molested by a priest as a child.

“I learned that much older, but after that I looked at my mother very differently, (with) understanding and compassion for her.”

Grimaldi’s younger brother Sean Hinson says, all too often, Native families have loved ones gone missing and murdered.

“We’re one piece of that puzzle. Everyone has their own piece. You never know what someone is going through and what baggage they’re carrying.”

Advocates for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People say the deaths of the two women forced the community to confront the horror of racial violence.

The next step, they say, is to do something about it.

The 1,000-mile race to Nome officially gets underway in Willow on Sunday.

Last year, the top three finishers were all Alaska Native.

AFN keynote speaker Ryan Redington.

Ryan Redington, an Inupiat with roots in Unalakleet, is the defending champ. His grandfather, Joe Redington, was one of the founders of the Iditarod.

Also returning is Pete Kaiser, a Yup’ik from Bethel who took first place in 2019.

Last year’s third place finisher Richie Diehl, an Athabascan from Aniak, did not enter this year’s Iditarod, although he’s been helping Kaiser with his team.

The race alternates between a southern and northern route.

This year, 38 mushers are set to run the northern route.

The race in recent years has averaged less than nine days to finish.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced funding for projects on tribal lands, during her remarks at the Tribal Clean Energy Summit held this week in California, as the Mountain West News Bureau reports.

Some include solar projects with the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe in the Southwest – and a hydro-solar project with the Yakama Nation in Washington state, where solar panels will be positioned over irrigation canals preserving environmental and cultural resources.

Granholm announced more than $200 million in funding for 12 tribal projects.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is hosting tribal leaders from across the country this week in Washington, D.C. at its 2024 Executive Council Winter Session.

Tribal leaders will discuss crucial issues facing American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

They’ll also take part in taskforce meetings and listening sessions – and hear from Biden administration officials, members of Congress, and federal partners.

There’s also a Native Youth Leadership Summit.

One top highlight is the 2024 State of Indian Nations speech.

NCAI’s new president Mark Macarro, who was elected in November, is delivering the address, which sets forth tribal priorities for the year ahead.

Among priorities are land-into-trust issues, voting rights, environmental sustainability, and more.

The event kicked off Monday and will wrap up on Thursday.

March during the 2023 MMIP Summit and Day of Action.

The second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Summit and Day of Action is taking place this week in Sacramento, Calif.

The events are sponsored by the Yurok Tribe and the Wilton Rancheria.

Joseph L. James, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe, says putting on these events gives a voice to the state’s MMIP and their families, which he says have, for too long, suffered in silence as countless loved ones have been lost to the MMIP crisis.

Tribal leaders from across California, along with state and federal legislators and leaders, including Assembly Member James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA), and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), as well as law enforcement and families of MMIP are expected to advocate during the two days and seek solutions to target the crisis’ root causes.

Asm. Ramos says although there are increased awareness and resources to combat the MMIP epidemic, they’re seeing California trend the wrong way with numbers of unsolved cases going up instead of down.

Officials say California has the fifth-highest number of MMIP cases in the U.S. with the majority involving young women and girls.

The day of action is taking place as the U.S. Congress reviews legislation on MMIP.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley met with NASA administrator Bill Nelson last week, urging for federal protection of the moon.

The tribe has long advocated for protecting celestial bodies.

Navajo leaders reached out to NASA, the White House, and other federal agencies in December, expressing opposition of a private company’s rocket launch with NASA to the moon carrying human remains.

The Navajo Nation had an initial meeting with officials in January, just days prior the rocket launch.

In a press conference last month, President Nygren talked about the sacredness of the moon and says sending human remains there is desecration.

“The Navajo Nation holds the moon in such high regard, and when it comes to our way and life in our culture, that we shouldn’t be transporting human remains, ashes to the moon to the moon, and also, we’re born here, and we should be left here when we move on as well.”

“Pink Supermoon” shines over Little Bear Peak, located just south of Great Sand Dunes, in April 2021. (Photo: Patrick Myers / NPS)

President Nygren went on to say he’s expressed to the government how the moon plays a vital role to not only the Navajo Nation, but other tribes as well.

“Our land, our culture, our way of life within the four secret mountains. The way we grow things, we use it as a calendar, and our moon is so integral in everything that we do, that there should be some respect, and respect some sacredness to the moon.”

President Nygren says even though they’re opposed to this journey to the moon, the tribe is not opposed to science or space exploration, but wants continued tribal consultation.

The Navajo Nation says last week’s hour-long meeting at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., was a step toward acknowledging and respecting Native perspectives within U.S. space policy.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A Navajo Nation Council delegate has stepped down from his seat.

Seth Damon will take up a new position as Deputy Secretary of Indian Affairs for the State of New Mexico.

KSJD’s Clark Adomaitis has more.

Seth Damon bid farewell to the Navajo Nation council.

“My family and I share a deep appreciation for the communities I had the privilege of representing over the years. And thank you for standing with me during positive and very oftentimes difficult times.” 

Damon is accepting a new position in New Mexico’s Department of Indian Affairs, a department that recently replaced a controversial cabinet secretary, and that has been criticized for its response in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives crisis.

“What Speaker Damon did is really going to help us especially the New Mexico (Navajo) chapters.”

Eugenia Charles-Newton is a Navajo Nation council member who co-sponsored a number of bills with Seth Damon.

Charles-Newton spoke to Council on Seth Damon’s last day.

“Because we do really give millions of dollars back to the state of New Mexico who are trying to help us to with water projects with Chapter projects with road projects. And because of the miscommunication that happens between the federal or the sorry, the state government and the Navajo Nation. I think that Speaker Damon is a perfect fit to try to fix that issue.”

The Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council says that an interim council member will be appointed to fill Damon’s vacant seat.

A special election will be held to permanently fill the seat.

The Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak, Alaska, in collaboration with the Alutiiq Museum, have released a textbook to help revitalize an endangered Alaska Native language.

As KMXT’s Davis Hovey reports, it’s a new tool to teach the next generation of Sugpiaq or Alutiiq speakers.

A new Alutiiq Language textbook, released last month, focuses on the Koniag dialect, although it’s open to anyone who wants to learn Alutiiq.

Dehrich Chya, Alutiiq Language and Living Culture Manager at the Alutiiq Museum, is one of the co-authors.

He says many Alutiiq speakers were consulted to create this textbook.

“Whenever we’re doing any language, producing any language materials, we work as much as we can with language speakers who live here in Kodiak. Over the past few years, that has gotten harder and harder as speakers have passed on.”

Chya started his language journey with nearly no knowledge of Alutiiq, having rarely heard it spoken when he was growing up.

Now he is an advanced speaker who still considers himself a language learner.

He says this textbook, in conjunction with all the other online language resources, can help revitalize the endangered Alaska Native language, but there are still challenges that exist for a beginner to become fluent in Alutiiq.

“I think the hardest part of learning the language is finding time to use it with somebody. Because language learning for a lot of people is quite a personal journey and not everybody has the opportunity to have other people around them who are also learning at the same time or at the same rate.”

Dehrich Chya, the Alutiiq Museum’s Language and Living Culture director, sits with Elders at a weekly session in Kodiak on Sept. 16, 2022. (Photo courtesy Valerie Kern / AKPM)

With Elders and fluent Alutiiq speakers dying off, there is a need for more speaker-teachers to help the next generation achieve proficiency in their second language.

That’s where Peggy Azuyak comes in. She’s teaching Alutiiq language classes to young adults at the Kodiak College, under the University of Alaska Anchorage.

“I’m using it right now in my Alutiiq 102 class. This is the first semester I am able to use it with students.”

The new Alutiiq Language textbook features 15 chapters, including sections on numbers and math, and is targeted towards high school and college age students.

“Several high school students have been interested in going through either the Kodiak High School or College courses and are involved with teaching the language in their home communities.”

Anyone who wants to learn to speak Alutiiq can access the Alutiiq Language textbook online for free.

New Year. New Newsletter. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Recovery efforts are continuing after the devastating Maui wildfires in August.

Although many communities are coming together to offer support, the Native Hawaiian community is having to deal with threats of a new wave of colonialism on their ancestral homelands, according to a grassroots Native Hawaiian advocate.

Community members have been displaced after their land, homes, and businesses have all been destroyed.

Many are still searching for their loved ones.

At a time when many people are afraid, injured, or displaced, Camille Kalama (Native Hawaiian) says they’re now having to fear that corporations and wealthy outsiders will try to take their land.

“And, so some of the residents who were affected by the fires were getting calls as early as the week of the fire offered to buy their land from real estate companies and it’s created and generated a lot of fear that there will be an exploitation of the disaster that happened, and a new wave of development and outsiders coming in and utilizing basically what’s in terms to us is capitalism. Trying to use and exploit the devastation for profit.”

Kalama is the executive director for Ko‘ihonua, a local non-profit organization, and a board member of NDN Collective, a Native-led organization advocating for Indigenous issues.

In August, officials released a list of a few hundred people who are still missing.

Kalama says people are still grieving.

“So, the community, while their active in relief efforts, and a lot of support and provides company and community is still grieving and still processing what’s going on here, and what happened.”

As recovery and rebuilding continues, Kalama says Native groups are urging for Indigenous-led rebuilding efforts.

She also says they’re encouraging those who want to help to verify their donations are going to vetted sources.

Courtesy Robert Martinez

Northern Arapaho artist Robert Martinez combines historic imagery and modern themes to create work that speaks to contemporary Indigenous issues.

His art is currently on display in Cheyenne.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann reports.

Robert Martinez is a Northern Arapaho and Chicano artist born on the Wind River Reservation.

Some of his work draws on the Plains Indian ledger art tradition, blending past and present.

“After we were pushed onto reservations, and we couldn’t hunt buffalo as they were exterminating them, we would trade for or were given already filled-out ledger books, and we would paint and draw over the text in those.”

Ledger books were used to record accounting transactions.

Martinez’ art will be at the Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne until September 8.

NAVAJO T-ATS 6, first of a new class of towing, salvage, and rescue ships for the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command, was launched in Houma, La. (Courtesy Bollinger Shipyards)

During a recent ceremony, Navajo Nation lawmakers joined U.S, Navy officials and Navajo veterans to celebrate the historic christening of the USNS Navajo in Houma, La.

The ship is a new class of rescue, towing, and salvage ships, named in honor of the service of Navajo veterans and Navajo Nation Code Talkers.

Five ships have been named after the Navajo Nation including the first ship, the USS Navajo that came into service in 1908 and the USS Navajo III which served from 1917 to 1919.

In 2015, the Navy notified the Navajo Nation Council that they were considering naming a ship after the Navajo Nation.

Former Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lorenzo Bates, who attended the christening ceremony, says his staff worked with the Secretary of the Navy and late U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to support the naming.

The christening ceremony was attended by representatives from the U.S. Navy and Bollinger Shipyard, United Houma Nation representatives, Assistant Secretary of Tribal Affairs of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other guests.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced seven states, three tribal nations, and the District of Columbia were selected as the second cohort to receive more than $77 million in Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants.

Supported by the Infrastructure Law, the grants are intended to help modernize the electric grid to reduce impacts of extreme weather and natural disasters while also ensuring power sector reliability.

According to the agency, the funding helps deliver on the Biden administration’s goal of ensuring all communities have access to affordable, reliable, 100% clean electricity. 

The tribes awarded funding for fiscal years 2022-23 are the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California.

Many creatives recently took part in an Indigenous Comic Con festival in Denver.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Emma VandenEinde tells us about part of the event – a heavy metal concert.

As the opening guitar riffs rang out at the Levitt Pavilion just outside Denver, eager heavy metal fans lined the barrier, cheering on the Arizona band Merciless Indian Savages as they kicked off a new Indigenous comic and arts festival.

The bands performing at the Rez Metal concert were among the many artists participating in áyA Con, an event designed to celebrate indigeneity and showcase Indigenous creators, similar to the Indigenous Pop Culture Expo, or IndigiPop X.

The word “áyA” is from the Lakota language, meaning “to change, to become.”

The goal is to expand the notion of what art from Indigenous communities looks like, according to Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, the director and co-founder of the three-day event.

“We have powwow dancing and we have a lot of our culture presenting, but we have toys up there (motioning to the McNichols Civic Center, which hosted the event). We’ve got comic books, there’s anime stuff, there’s horror stuff. It’s really broadened.”

Performances ranged from stand-up comedy to poetry to heavy metal.

Corey Ashley, the vocalist for Merciless Indian Savages: “People think it’s nonsense, but we’re spitting some knowledge that people are unaware of. Metal’s the perfect canvas to do that…Natives love metal and we’re no exception to that.”

Along with lyrics about addiction and death, their songs often reference cultural genocide and traumas inflicted upon Indigenous people. One of the songs is titled “Kill Man, Save The Indian,” which references the “White man came across the sea” lyric from Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills,” a song about killing Natives.

“So originally everybody knows, obviously, ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,’ But we’re like, you know, f*** that. We want to empower our people and we want to denounce this way of saying it.”

Other bands that played Friday night explored similar themes.

The all-female group Suspended, from Albuquerque, N.M., played an instrumental track titled “Murdered and Missing,” after the thousands of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Amanda Castillo, a guitarist and vocalist with Suspended: “I had tried to write lyrics several times, but I think it ended up just being an instrumental because I think the music just really speaks for itself.”

Ruben Dawahoya, Merciless Indian Savages’s bass player, said he wants to show that Indigenous people belong in the heavy metal space, too.

“We’re just turning the tides, basically, on everybody else, saying that we can evolve and we can do the things that everybody else can,” he said.

That message reached audience members like Chelsea Kaiah, who was head-banging in the front row.

“I think Denver and Colorado in general have a very romanticized version of what Indigenous people look like and how we are and what alternative cultures we participate in,” Kaiah said. “Supporting organizations like this is super important because they’re seeing us for us and what we love and what we support, and the amazing people that create the bands that we listen to.”

After Friday’s concert, the áyA Con event continued into the weekend with several panels and vendors spanning two buildings, with vendors selling things ranging from body care products to theater masks.

Some of the performers hew to more traditional Native American art, including dancer Rhyia JoyHeart who is Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone and part of the group United Indigenous Dancers. She performed the Jingle Dress Dance. It’s based on a story where an Indigenous girl fell ill and her relative had a dream about four women that gave instructions on how to make a healing dress.

“[The relative] brought it to their people in a drum ceremony, and they expressed how the dance was, how the dress was to be made, and how it was supposed to be danced,” she said. “Once [the four women] were dancing, the young girl went from laying to sitting to standing to then joining the circle with the women.”

JoyHeart said she’s proud to express her Native traditions and identity through dance.

“There’s so much – so much – beauty in our people,” she said. “We might not be rich in money and wealth, but we’re definitely rich in culture and love. So to be able to have these platforms is truly an honor.”

The festival also featured creatives like Shaun Beyale, a Diné multimedia artist who contributed to Marvel’s Heritage Voices comic book.

“I grew up on Marvel Comics,” he said. “For them to come and reach out to me, you know, that made that little rez boy in me happy because I never thought that would be something possible.”

He also helped design the Marvel character Spider Weaver, based on a protector in Navajo culture called Na’ashjeii Asdzáá. She wears a turquoise necklace and other pieces of cultural attire along with the famous spider logo. Beyale believes it is possible for Indigenous artists to embrace the contemporary without forgetting their ancestral roots.

“We do live in modern society, but at the same time, you know, we do hold onto our culture and we do appreciate that,” he said. “I was just a rez kid that didn’t have electricity. And I had to draw at night with kerosene lamps. And now here I am, getting to work on video games, comic books, and get to promote my culture.

“I think by harnessing the power of technology, we can still move forward without forgetting who we are.”

Danielle Boyer, a 22-year-old Ojibwe engineer, also presented at the festival. She made a talking and singing robot, called a SkoBot, that looks like a tiny, colorful minion with cat ears. It helps preserve four endangered Native languages: Ojibwemowin, Diné Bizaad, Taíno and Apache.

“They are wearable language revitalization robots,” she said. “Basically, they sit on your shoulder, sense motion and help protect endangered Indigenous languages.”

For example, she said, it’d say a phrase like “Boozhoo. Hello,” and ask the child to repeat it back.

She also created the STEAM Connection when she was 18 to help teach Indigenous youth about robotics and provide some building kits for free. It’s served over 800,000 youth so far.

Her idea came out of the discrimination she faced when she tried to join robotics clubs in high school and college. She hopes Indigenous youth will still pursue what they want to pursue, even when these spaces are predominantly white.

“We’ve always been scientists, we’ve always been inventors, we’ve always been creating really awesome things,” she said. “I want to show our students that opportunities are available and that we can create things for our communities basically built by us, for us. And we can be innovators now and forever.”

That’s the main reason Maldonado-Bad Hand wanted to create the convention – to show that Native art and culture is much more than the stereotypes of feathers and ancestors. She shared how when she invited some of her friends to present their anime work at áyA Con, they questioned if anyone would like it.

“I was like…’Why would you question whether you belonged somewhere because you had something that was likable for the rest of the general public and assumed that it wouldn’t be likable for Native people?’” she said.

She hopes it allows participants to bond through their shared connections and expand perspectives of what Native people engage in and enjoy.

“We really wanted to encourage that connection while also sharing our culture,” she said. “You can celebrate over fandoms and everybody can be nerds together and kind of celebrate that way.”

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region.

The American Association for State and Local History has selected the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma as a recipient of the History in Progress Award and Award of Excellence for  WINIKO: Life of an Object.

The history progress award is in recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.  

The HIP Award is an additional award for excellence for inspirational, exceptional scholarship, or is entrepreneurial in terms of funding, collaborations, creative problem solving, unusual project design or inclusiveness.    

This year, there are 53 national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, and publications. 

The First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City focuses on educating the public about the cultures, diversity, history, and contributions of the 39 Tribal Nations in Oklahoma today.

The 175,000 square foot facility showcases exhibits, live public and education programs, Native inspired cuisine, and a museum store featuring Native arts.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.