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The Kobuk River runs through the Ambler Mining district. (Photo: Berett Wilber / Alaska Public Media)

The U.S. Interior Department effectively rejected Alaska’s proposal to build the Ambler Road, a 200-mile industrial road that would have run west from the Dalton Highway through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to access copper and zinc deposits in Northwest Alaska.

Tribal leaders with the Tanana Chiefs Conference applauded the decision calling it a historic win and the right decision for the protection of land and animals, while leaders in favor of the road expressed outrage, as Alaska Public Media’s Kavitha George reports.

The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management chose a “no action” option in its environmental analysis, effectively ensuring the state’s development authority would not receive a right-of-way to build the road across federal lands. 

The Biden Administration said the road, also known as the Ambler Access Project, would cause irreparable damage to wildlife including caribou, which many local people rely on for food.

The Administration also announced stronger protections for 13 million acres inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast swath of oil-rich — but environmentally sensitive — federal land in the Arctic.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) decried the decisions, saying President Joe Biden is limiting the state’s economy and domestic resource development.

“When you take off access to our resources, when you say you cannot drill, you cannot produce, you cannot explore. This is the energy insecurity that we’re talking about.”

Environmentalists and some Indigenous rights groups, meanwhile, applauded the decisions.

The Wilderness Society’s interim state director Meda DeWitt said the decisions are “good news for everyone who cares about America’s public lands.”

Courtesy Greater Yellowstone Coalition / YouTube

The Wind River Water and Buffalo Alliance is looking for a graphic artist to develop a logo.

Artists are being encouraged to submit their work representing efforts to restore Indigenous culture.

Eric Galatas has more.

Before Europeans arrived, some 60 million buffalo roamed North America.

After the animal was slaughtered, in part to extinguish tribes that lived alongside buffalo for centuries, just 23 remained by 1900.

Wes Martel (Eastern Shoshone), senior conservation associate with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the new logo should convey a message of hope and power, as the alliance works to restore buffalo and other key elements of Indigenous culture.

“So now we’re seeing a revival. We’re seeing a new energy, we’re seeing our young people now becoming educated in the modern technological ways and scientific ways that we need to protect what we have. And that’s all we’re trying to do, protect a way of life.”

The alliance, based on the Wind River Indian Reservation at Fort Washakie, Wyo., uses a community-centered approach to support food sovereignty, river restoration, buffalo restoration, advocacy, and education.

Martel said the reservation’s landscapes are ideal for protecting the Indigenous way of life.

“We have everything at Wind River that Yellowstone has, except Old Faithful. All of the buffalo, and grizzlies, and wolves, and bighorn sheep, and elk, and deer, and antelope – and all these other relatives that we have on this earth, are with us at Wind River.”

The project is an Indigenous-centered organization of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes working with elders, young people and tribal leaders.

Martel said he hopes the new logo can capture the sentiments and energy felt when tribes are blessed with buffalo, their spiritual connection, and the power they bring to lodges, ceremonies, and overall well-being.

“This whole movement that we’re seeing now, of restoring buffalo and restoring our heritage and restoring our energy, our spiritual strength. That’s really powerful.”

More information about how to apply for the logo design can be found on their website greateryellowstone.org.

The deadline is May 15.

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As high school and college students plan for their graduations, some Native students could face resistance for wanting to wear tribal regalia with their caps and gowns.

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

For Native communities, an eagle feather is a symbol of wisdom and strength. And given in times of great honor – like a graduation. 

But every spring, the Native American Rights Fund hears from students who were not allowed to wear an eagle feather or other tribal regalia.

Morgan Saunders is an attorney with the Colorado-based law group. She says parents often break down in tears when they discuss their child being denied their tribal identity. 

“For many families, the wearing of the eagle feather is more important than the diploma because it’s something that’s given at this important time in their child’s life – they’re transitioning, often, into adulthood.”

More than a dozen states have laws to protect a Native students’ right to wear tribal regalia – including Nevada, Colorado, and Utah. 

Saunders says families in states without those protections should review their school district’s policies and request dress code accommodations as early as possible.

Nunam Iqua in the Yup’ik language means land’s end – a place on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska that is so flat, it’s hard to tell where the land meets the sea.

But when it comes to spelling, this community stands tall.

The championship for this year’s statewide Yup’ik Spelling Bee went to Nunam Iqua.

The tournament was held at the University of Alaska Anchorage and Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA was there.

Spelling bees aren’t the best of spectator sports. But families and coaches filled about fifty seats in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Acceleration Building with lots of cell phone cameras ready to roll.

“I’m happy for the students. Nervous at the same time and I have butterflies in my stomach.”

Although Marina Barner can’t cheer out loud, she’s here to support a student from Bethel. And like everyone else in this room, she keeps quiet to help the students concentrate. But the sense of pride they feel speaks volumes.

Thomas Carl (Yup’ik) is a Spelling Bee parent.

“To be here, to be watching my daughter. I cannot express how it makes me feel. I am proud of her.”

Thomas Carl’s daughter Megan is only a fifth grader, but like the rest of the kids here, she’s a shining star of hope her community to keep the Yup’ik language, or Yugtun, alive.

Samantha Afcan coached this year’s champion from Nunam Iqua, Kirstin Manumik, a seventh grader, as well as Jaylynn Strongheart, a fifth grader who finished third.

“They’re awesome. The way their brains can connect it.”

They spent hours and hours every week to prepare for the competition, and one of the carrots was a trip to Anchorage.

Afcan says it was fun to hear them when they first arrived.

“Oh, look at that car. Oh, look at that truck. Look at that tree.”

Excitement for students who live in a place, where there’s not so much as a hill.

This year’s competition also included an Inupiaq spelling bee, with two students and a dance group that performed a song called the “Polar Bear Shake” to celebrate.

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In Canada, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled its budget for the year with nearly $53 billion in new federal spending.

But as Dan Karpenchuk reports, First Nations leaders say the omission of reconciliation in the budget speech was alarming.

After criticizing this year’s budget, many First Nations leaders are looking for a renewed commitment from the Trudeau government.

They say finance minister Chrystia Freeland failed to talk about reconciliation in her budget speech.

Among those who were looking for more is Newfoundland regional Chief Brendan Mitchelll.

He was expecting to see what he calls a reconcile-action budget.

“We’re not seeing a lot of positive change. And the changes we need with respect to housing and infrastructure in this country, on behalf of Indigenous people and communities, requires a faster pace of action.”

 Also disappointed, Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.         

“And yesterday, Canadians heard how the federal government plans to spend resources for the coming months and years. Yet, this process is marred by a glaring omission and I was there yesterday to be able to hear, and I did not hear any words pertaining to reconciliation, unfortunately.”

Others were less critical.

The Metis National Council praised the financial blueprint calling it a step in the right direction.

There was new cash for Indigenous peoples, $9 billion to cover major issues such as child and family services, education, health, housing, and on-reserve income assistance.

Ministers in charge of Indigenous Affairs say reconciliation has not dropped in priority calling $9 billion a big investment.

But in the 2021 budget, $18 billion was earmarked for Indigenous communities.

Mary Owen. (Courtesy University of Minnesota Duluth)

A Wisconsin tribe is one of the first tribal nations to sue social media companies.

As Danielle Kaeding reports, it’s one of two tribes accusing companies of contributing to higher suicide rates among Native American youth in a recent lawsuit.

The Menominee Indian Tribe and Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota filed the suit against companies that own Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

They’re demanding companies take responsibility for dangerous features that lead to compulsive social media use.

Mary Owen (Tlingit) is director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health in Duluth.

She says anything that’s harmful to teens will be felt even more by Native American youth.

“These social platforms, media platforms, are harmful to everyone in that they’re not about community. They’re about an individual. But they’re even that much more harmful to a vulnerable population like Native people.”

Chief Tadodaho Sidney Hill of the Onondaga Nation performs a traditional welcome at the opening of the 23rd Session of Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. (Courtesy UN)

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues began this week in New York.

The forum is covering a number of issues including the environment, culture, education, health, and human rights.

Leaders are also focusing on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The theme of the session includes a focus on Indigenous youth voices to highlight their role and values in Indigenous communities.

A 10-year milestone is being marked this year – the adoption of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. It will be commemorated on Thursday with an event hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly.

The session on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues runs through April 26.

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On Monday, Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Apache people and their allies, asked all 29 judges on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review its case to protect Oak Flat in Arizona from a mining project.

In March, the group received a blow in its efforts to protect the site after a panel of 11 judges on the court ruled 6-5 that the federal government can transfer Oak Flat to Resolution Copper.

The group is trying to prevent the land transfer saying the copper project violates religious freedom.

Attorneys say Monday’s appeal gives the full court one more chance to protect Oak Flat before the case goes to the Supreme Court.

The area is sacred to Western Apache and other Native people.

In a statement, Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold said Oak Flat is the heart and soul of the Apache where generations come to connect with their Creator and conduct ceremonies.

In March, the court ruled the land transfer is not subject to federal laws protecting religious freedom.

After that ruling, Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of foreign-owned mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP, welcomed it saying the project will help supply copper to the U.S., create jobs and boost Arizona’s economy.

The Ninth Circuit is expected to decide by the fall whether all 29 judges will rehear the case.

Sealaska’s “Celebration” dance festival in Juneau, Alaska in June 2022. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Research shows cultural tourism is on the rise in Indian Country, because travelers crave authenticity and want deeper experiences with Indigenous peoples.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, Alaska tribes could be poised to take advantage of this trend.

Cultural tourism in Alaska can be as simple as a hike on a trail with a Native storyteller – or a visit to a dance festival.

Although it’s still in its infancy, Emily Edenshaw says cultural tourism holds a lot of promise for the whole state.

“It’s a sleeping giant. It’s untapped.”

Edenshaw is director of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, one of five Native groups across the nation to receive federal money to expand cultural tourism.

Edenshaw says it’s an opportunity to re-think tourism in Alaska, which has come to rely too much on wildlife and scenery to draw tourists.

“Come and see the mountains and the brown bears and come explore and discover and go on the glaciers and look at the berries. What about the Indigenous experience? Our people have been here for 10,000 years, in some cases even longer than that.”

The Heritage Center will receive about $50,000 to boost tourism.

The money comes from the Office of Indian Economic Development, under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has partnered with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association to oversee the grants.

Sherry Rupert, the association’s director, says it’s a good time to invest in Indigenous tourism.

“Visitation to our communities is increasing. That’s why we’re so interested in supporting efforts up in Alaska. Alaska has the largest number of federally recognized tribes than in any other state. There is so much potential there for these small communities.”

Rupert says cultural tourism not only creates jobs and economic opportunity, but also helps tribes hold on to their heritage.

“I think it really sparks a light and really sparks that pride in who they are, so it helps us to preserve our cultural identity.”

Edenshaw says the grant will be leveraged with other private and public funds – and will complement ongoing efforts at the Heritage Center to study on the impacts of cultural tourism.

“We need to get the data. We need to know how many jobs it creates. We need to know the economic impact through a cultural tourism lens. And the truth is, this has never happened before.”

As the Alaska Native Heritage Center approaches its 25th anniversary, Edenshaw says it’s well positioned to be a statewide leader in cultural tourism and share what it’s learned over the years about what does and doesn’t work.

Some of the other organizations to receive funding: the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York, The Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce in South Dakota, the Shonto Economic Development Corporation in Arizona, and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association in Honolulu.

Courtesy Minnesota Lynx

University of Utah women’s basketball forward Alissa Pili was picked by the Minnesota Lynx during Monday night’s 2024 WNBA Draft.

Pili, from Anchorage, Alaska, is Alaska Native and Samoan.

She’s had a large following at games from the Native community.

After her pick, ESPN asked what it means to be representing her cultures.

“A lot of Indigenous and Polynesian girls don’t get to see that role model and I’m just so blessed that I could be in the position to be that for them.”

Pili was the number eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft.

we got our girl. 🔥 @alissa_pili pic.twitter.com/QgdL7vbgAC

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) April 16, 2024

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In January 2023, a catastrophic fire destroyed the generator and a backup source of power for Newtok’s school. The charred remains are housed inside a metal container behind the main school building. (Photo: Emily Schwing / KYUK)

A group of Alaska Native mothers from the village of Newtok reported on deteriorating conditions in their community at the annual Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage last week.

As Emily Schwing reports, climate change means the permafrost under the Alaska Native community is deteriorating and causing severe erosion.

The village has been trying to relocate for more than three decades.

The five women took to the stage barefoot, in solidarity for their friends and family members who live in Newtok. 

For many years, the village has been working with several state and federal agencies to relocate the entire community – nearly 400 people –  to higher, more stable ground at Mertarvik. It’s nine miles across the Ninglick River.

Carolyn George is a Newtok Village Council member. 

“There is no blueprint on how to do this relocation. Relocating the whole community to a whole different place and, we did not know how to do it and it’s been taking too long.” 

There are neatly 150 communities in Alaska considering partial and full relocations due to climate change driven environmental disasters.

Jackie Schaeffer is the Director of Climate Initiatives at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

Schaeffer says lessons from Newtok and Mertarvik can inform those future projects. 

“This is just one community of many that will need to be relocated in the state of Alaska and if we can’t figure it out for a community of 400 people there’s no way when we hit Louisiana, la and all the other lower 48 communities, that we’re gonna be able to figure it out.” 

In the meantime, she says the mothers of Newtok are an inspiration.

“They’re going to adapt.”

Photo: Antonia Gonzales / National Native News

Digital Exclusive: The last day of the Arctic Encounter Symposium Friday ended with a discussion about emergency preparedness and disaster contingency.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA has more.

The panel of five included Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Geraldine Byrne Nason; and Melanie Bahnke, President & CEO of Kawerak, Inc.

After hearing the plans the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and DHS had for the future of arctic communities, Bahnke responded saying she would rather have proactive action, rather than responding after a disaster happens in the Native Village of Savoonga where she lives.

“We’re the most wealthy country in the world, and to tell me we can’t build a sea wall, but yet we’re going to respond when we have a flooded community is – I’ll say it in a nice way, malarkey.”

Britt’nee Brower is from Utgiagvik, formerly known as Barrow.

She say that the changes that are happening to the community are happening at a rapid pace.

“Growing up in Barrow in terms of the beach, we’ve had a lot of roads wash out these days, to where we don’t have a road anymore, and you have to travel by ATV or ski-doo.”

She says that, while gatherings like Arctic Encounter are a great way for everyone to put their minds together for the betterment of Arctic communities, it might too late and adapting to the changes is the way to go.

“In a perfect world, it would be ideal to have it be successful, but facing realities I feel like, within the community, I’m sure we can adapt to changes. I feel like we’ve been doing that for years now, the changes in the permafrost where our Ice sellers are melting now. We’re figuring out ways to adapt to those changes, but I’m hoping we figure something out.”

As for Bahnke, she says regardless of what happens in the future as far as climate change, she will not leave her community.

“We’re not moving. We’re not moving to Anchorage, we’re not moving to Ireland, I’m sorry, but these are our homelands. Where our ancestors have thrived for thousands of years, and all of a sudden, we’re experiencing these rapid weather events. Rapid climate change. We’re not going anywhere.”

Each year during Arctic Encounter, more than 1,000 stakeholders, domestic and international, gather to address the most pressing challenges in the Arctic region.

A formal process begins this week in Anchorage to document Native boarding school abuse.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports.

The project is part of the U.S. Interior Department’s Federal Boarding School Initiative.

The National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition will conduct three days of interviews.

Although the testimony will be given in private, it will become a permanent part of a national oral history collection.

From the early 1900’s to the 1970’s, Alaska Native children from rural areas across the state were forcibly taken away from their families and sent hundreds of miles away to boarding school.

In some cases, they faced physical abuse and sexual assault.

The session begins with opening ceremonies Monday at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Sacred Mato Paha is now part of Bear Butte State Park in Meade County, S.D. (Courtesy Jerrye and Roy Klotz, MD)

40 acres near Bear Butte have been purchased by an Indigenous-led organization in the hopes of teaching the next generation about traditional values and land stewardship.

The group’s leaders say it’s also a chance to reclaim a piece of what was stolen after colonization.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene checks in.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project has purchased the Black Hills land adjacent to a culturally significant site – Bear Butte.

Group CEO Julie Garreau says when reservations are hours from these important places, it becomes a matter of access.

“It’s also really a practical thing to do, because the Black Hills and those sacred sites are extremely important to the connection to Lakota people. Being able to access them is critical in terms of raising healthy, young Lakota children. It is, for us, a place we can call home in our traditional homelands.”

More than that though, Garreau says reclaiming this space after over a century of broken treaty obligations stirs deep emotion.

“The Supreme Court already said that land is ours, they wanted to pay for it, and we won’t accept it. Is it unfair that we had to buy it? Yeah, it is, but we did what we had to do because the kids that we work with are so important. It was overwhelming and highly emotional within our own team, and when the announcement came out, I think everybody here was as emotional as I was.”

In turn, Garreau says they can deepen the well of cultural programming they offer.

“We want to teach kids about what the land can offer them in terms of foods and medicinal plants. I think a lot of people refer to the plains as food deserts, and I don’t really believe that’s what that is. I think we have a lot of our traditional foods, we just can’t access them because we don’t have access to the land like we used to.”

The land dedication ceremony will be held in private at the end of the month.

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Dignitaries, high ranking military officials, and Indigenous leaders from across the Arctic are in Anchorage this week.

As KYUK’s Emily Schwing reports, they’re here for the annual Arctic Encounter Symposium – the largest annual Arctic policy-focused gathering in the United States.

Pearl Brower is the President and CEO of the Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC).

She says the people who live every day in the Arctic should be the focus beyond this week’s discussions.

“When you’re thinking about the Arctic while you’re here, think about us, think about the people and that’s, I think, really the key critical component. As policy makers, as people working within the region, thinking about the arctic, we think about the people first, because that’s what it’s all about.”

(Photo: Antonia Gonzales)

Brower, who is from Utqiaġvik, was among six Indigenous leaders from across the state who took to the main stage at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center to kick off this year’s symposium with a conversation about their visions for success into the future.

Roy Algoinga grew up in White Mountain. He was recently named the President and CEO of the First Alaskans Institute, a policy and advocacy non-profit organization that also focuses on building leadership skills among Alaska Native youth. He says any future success must include younger generations.

“I look at our youth as the starting point of new discussion of change, of functionality of being capable to move forward with all of the things that we need in our community.”

Among the long list of topics on the Arctic Encounter agenda this week are discussions on sustainable energy, infrastructure investments, and emergency preparedness in the Arctic.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA spoke with some Arctic Encounter attendees about top priorities facing their regions, as speakers Wednesday from around the world discussed topics such as Arctic energy investments, and climate change, something a majority of attendees, especially in Alaska say they are impacted by.

Britt’nee Brower from Utgiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, says growing up, the land was lush, and spread out.

As the years went by, she noticed many changes due to climate change.

“There’s been a lot of changes going on in Barrow in terms of the beach. We’ve had a lot of roads wash out these days, to where we don’t have a road anymore, and you have to travel by ATV or ski-doo.”

Brower says that while there have been projects in the past to try to rebuild the roads after the erosion, it’s short lived.

As far as hunting, she says hunters are struggling.

“Over the past 20 years that I’ve witnessed we’ve lost a lot of our beach. I think some of the hunters have to go further out with the ice and the walrus.”

Emmalina Gayayok is from Togiak, and while erosion is also a problem in her village, the berries too have taken a hit.

“Our rivers that laid out to the ocean also changed drastically, and our berries on the tundra kind of dried up, and they’re really scarce.”

Arctic regions are disproportionately impacted by climate warming at twice the rate of non-Arctic regions, according to the Arctic Encounter.

Speakers in the afternoon consisted of scientists, ambassadors, and senior advisors.

They discussed the future of the climate and how to navigate the changes happening in such a rapid pace.

Brower worries about what will happen when the permafrost continues to melt, and for the future of her community, but she says they will always work together to roll with the tide.

“I feel like within the community, I’m sure we can adapt to changes. I feel like we’ve been doing that for years now.”

The Arctic Encounter continues through Friday.

LISTEN to this Arctic Encounter web extra from NNN anchor Antonia Gonzales and NNN reporter Rhonda LeValdo

O. Patricia Lekanoff Gregory, Board Vice President, Aleut International Association

The Anishinaabeg have a long history of harvesting maple sap, then processing it into syrup and sugar. Traditional technology included sumac branches used as spiles, pictured here, which would be tapped into trees. A paddle is used to work the sap down to sugar over heat. (Photo: Ellie Katz / IPR News)

Several Anishinaabe tribes in northern Michigan decided not to tap their maple trees this spring after an unusually mild winter.

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is one of those tribes who’ve decided to let their trees rest. Despite that, the band was able to continue with parts of the tradition at their sugar shack, using maple sap that had been saved or traded for.

Interlochen Public Radio’s Ellie Katz spoke with Tera John, who works on restoring traditional foodways and food sovereignty for the Grand Traverse Band.

Kathleen Smith works for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Smith, whose title in Anishinaabemowin is ganawandang manoomin, or “she who takes care of the wild rice,” does a lot of work with traditional foods in the upper Great Lakes. And she says some places went ahead with sugar bush.

“The areas where I have harvested and helped, the sugar bushes, they’re doing quite well. They were offering themselves up.”

Smith is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

She’s helped out with sugar bush in a few places in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin this year, where she says they had signs to harvest, like heavy snowpack over the winter and good freeze-and-thaw conditions in early spring.

But with steadily warming winters plus challenges like disease and pests, Smith says it will become more and more important for tribal communities across the Great Lakes to talk with each other and keep rebuilding foodways and traditions.

“So for instance, like the black ash [tree and] the emerald ash borer … we had relatives downstate that were asking us for black ash, since we didn’t have [the borer] yet. I think it’s important that communities that still have sap running – maybe we could trade for something later on. Because we need to bring that back, we need to be able to help our relatives out as well, that weren’t able to do sugar bush.”

Back at the sugar shack in Peshawbestown, Tera John pulls out a few bottles of maple syrup harvested nearby that she was able to trade for.

She pours the liquid into a cast iron pot over the fire and starts stirring.

“I’m boiling it down. I’m going to sugar this.”

After several hours of careful stirring, the syrup will thicken, eventually reducing down to a granular, golden-brown sugar.

John has led a few sugar bush workshops like this one to teach tribal and non-tribal community members about the tradition. And the band’s agriculture department says they’re aiming to tap 600 trees next year, up from around 300 last year.

They’ve invested in new equipment and home tree-tapping kits to give out to families, thanks in part to a big grant aimed at reinvigorating food traditions for tribal members.

Tera John opens a bottle of syrup. Though the band’s agriculture department decided to let the trees rest this year, John is still leading sugarbush workshops to teach tribal and non-tribal community members about the tradition. The workshops, along with new sugaring equipment and at-home tapping kits for families, are thanks in part to a grant the band is using to reinvigorate food traditions for tribal members. (Photo: Ellie Katz / IPR News)

Later in the afternoon, the sun comes out and more people have joined around the fire.

John says this – the act of showing up to sugar bush with intention, being outside the sugar shack and near the ininaatigoog, the sugar maples – is vital during this year of rest, for the people and the trees.

“I’m going to sugar this down and show these guys that I mean business to take care of them. This is what I’m intending for them – to occupy this space throughout the year, to host workshops, or harvesting, or teachings, storytellings right here so we can live life with these guys.

“They miss our laughter, and our arguing, and our kids running around. They’re supposed to be part of our lives … we’re coming back. We’ll learn how.”

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An inter-tribal council from Native Nations, mostly in Wisconsin, wants to create a substance use recovery center for young people in an area that’s considered a treatment desert for recovery facilities.

As WXPR’s Hannah Davis-Reid reports, they’ve hit a roadblock.

The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) is a non-profit organization that serves Native people in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Over the past 20 years, they’ve worked on plans for a recovery and wellness center for young people.

The 36-bed facility is designed to treat and support Indigenous youth with culturally relevant services and amenities.

It would also serve non-Native youth.

However, the local town board of Cassian doesn’t want the center in their area and has been fighting against it for the last year.

Last week, the Oneida County Planning and Zoning Committee denied the permits to build the center.

The committee cited a concern of a drop in nearby property values and that GLITC could place the property in a sovereign trust as its reasoning for rejecting the permit.

This is President Shannon Holsey of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, one of GLITC’s member tribes.

“You have to remember, sovereign immunity is ‘of the sovereign’, you’re talking about 12 tribal nations that are involved in this project. So there wouldn’t even be continuity to the involvement of whose sovereign immunity it was.”

GLITC does plan to continue with the project, saying it’s too important to not reassess and move forward on.

Tera John stirs a pot of maple syrup outside the Grand Traverse Band’s sugar shack in Peshawbestown. (Photo: Ellie Katz / IPR News)

This time of year is typically maple syrup season in northern Michigan when daytime highs get above freezing while nights stay cold.

But this year’s mild winter meant that many people began tapping their trees unusually early in January and February.

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians took the warmer weather as a sign to let their sugar maples rest.

Interlochen Public Radio environment reporter Ellie Katz has more, in the first of a two-part special feature.

Tera John is gathering kindling for a fire outside the Grand Traverse Band’s sugar shack in Peshawbestown. The sound of a woodpecker echoes through the woods.

“We listen for that guy to return to sugar bush. That woodpecker is saying those bugs underneath the bark are starting to wake up.”

John is a tribal member and works with the Grand Traverse Band’s agriculture department on restoring traditional foodways and food sovereignty.

She says the sound of woodpeckers is just one of many ecological signs that the trees are waking up again and their sap is starting to flow — that it’s time for sugar bush.

“We are coming back to this forest, this grove. These maples – we call him ininaatig. That’s our standing brother, our elder brother, the one who, like, gives you the side-eye if you’re not behaving at Thanksgiving dinner. That’s the maple for us.”

A gravity tube from last year’s sugarbush runs up through a grove in Peshawbestown, allowing taps from dozens of trees to run down to the sugar shack. (Photo: Ellie Katz / IPR News)

Tapping maple trees for sap, syrup and sugar is an old Anishinaabe tradition — one that John and the tribe are working to strengthen after generations of settlement made it harder to practice and pass down.

“The beginning of the year is sugar bush. When we report for sugar bush, we check in with our family, get the good gossip. We laugh together, argue … everything that families do.”

March is typically sugar bush season in northern Michigan, when daytime highs get above freezing while nights stay cold. But this year’s mild winter meant that many people began tapping their trees unusually early, in January and February.

John says she became concerned when signs to tap started coming early — things like the sound of woodpeckers and the appearance of baby skunks. She says the snowpack never came all the way up to the trunks of the trees.

“That was a red flag for me. And I asked my elders about what to do and what to say. And I asked the trees, because they have not been respected or appropriately thanked or allowed to rest for quite a long time.”

With that input, she decided the band’s agriculture department would let the trees rest, then hopefully tap next year.

CJ Minzey, agriculture coordinator at Grand Traverse Band, says he was excited about the decision.

“The way Tera [John] explained it to me, was our tradition was we’d tap three years, and then give the fourth year a break. I was really pushing to get that going. … Because I think it’d be nice to give Mother Nature a break.”

They’re not alone in that choice.

Several other tribes, like the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and the Saginaw Chippewa, are doing the same.

Tune into National Native News tomorrow for part two of Ellie Katz’s special feature

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