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In California, the Yurok Tribe’s justice system is providing a path for healing.

Yurok Tribal Chief Judge Abby Abinanti says they’re also focusing on helping people off the reservation – other tribes and the urban Native population – through their close connection with the social service organization the Friendship House in San Francisco.

“We need to work more with the urban population, because many of our people went to the urban area. And a lot of the relocated people have been in the urban area. And we need to team up. Our like value systems will help them and will help the communities they live in.”

Friendship House founder, the late Helen Waukazoo, was a close friend of Judge Abby.

Peter Bratt, Friendship House Village SF Project Lead, says Judge Abby and Helen were soul sisters.

“And they were always plotting and they always had these incredible dreams and visions. And one of them was to, was to bring inpatient and outpatient recovery services to the remote northern part of the state where the Yurok Nation is. And so that vision is finally coming to fruition and so Friendship House is working with the Yurok to build inpatient services up in Northern California that will serve not just the Yurok, but the eight surrounding tribes, and then in turn a lot of the clients that come to Friendship House are from the Yurok Nation.”

Peter Bratt.

Bratt says when a Native relative goes through recovery, often they leave the program and cannot return back to their tribal community. So, they often stay in San Francisco for longer.

“They live here, they get job training, they get work. And so, we have a lot of Yurok tribal members who are part of our staff and who live in and around the Bay Area. The Yurok are also helping us build housing for tribal members here in the city and county.”

Friendship House services include substance abuse treatment, a youth program, and recovery for women with children and expectant mothers. Those involved with the Indigenous-led organization believe culture is medicine.

“It centers traditional practices, ceremonial practices, as its treatment model. And again, going back to our founder, Helen Waukazoo, she put a stake in the ground and back in the early 80s and started bringing traditional people to work with our clients. And that was a very radical thing to do back then. But that essential cultural aspect of our program, now that has become a standard throughout Indian country.”

Clayton Dumont.

Clayton Dumont is Friendship House Program Director.

“In the last three months, we’ve actually brought in nine different individual traditional practitioners to work with our clients, it’s really important to help build trust with our clients. They’re dealing with intergenerational trauma in order for them to open up and address those issues they need to trust us. We look at the healing process in terms of interconnected between the spiritual, the mental, the physical, and being able to address all those different things that comes out of a culture.”

Bratt says the Friendship House is expanding with a village project, which will also be a cultural and spiritual hub.

Friendship House Sweat Lodge.

“That will offer medical, dental, behavioral health services, we’re going to have our women’s lodge program there where young mothers, young American Indian mothers go through recovery with their small children, youth programs, other services, and a rooftop farm.”

And the village is a vision Judge Abby shares. Construction has already begun on the Village SF project.

This story is a collaboration with First Nations Experience Television with support from the Public Welfare Foundation. Listen to part one. Watch the television story below:

Courtesy U.S. Interior DepartmentThe Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs announced this week the opening of the Division of Indigenous Connectivity and Technology within the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The new division will assist tribes with managing and expanding new technological and wireless services on their lands.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) says it will modernize the way tribal nations engage in these types of opportunities.

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In California, the Yurok Tribe’s justice system is providing a path for healing.

Yurok Tribal Chief Judge Abby Abinanti is well-known for her work in the legal field.
She’s the first Native American woman to be a member of the California State Bar.

Judge Abby, as she’s commonly referred to, recently joined tribal leaders, advocates, law enforcement, and others in Sacramento for a day devoted to justice issues.

Her work with the Yurok Tribe, located hundreds of miles away from the state’s capital city, centers on wellness.

“Essentially what we’re trying to do at home is to build a court system that would have been sort of the natural evolution of our value system. That means that our practices are much different than what you learn in the state court. So, my job there is to help people return to their responsible roles in community.”

Judge Abby says they do more intensive work with each person that comes before the court and they ask them to think as the wellness court as their extended family with special expertise.

She says it’s very different than state court with traditional values being a vital part of helping people.

“We look at culture as a way of living, this is how you live, this is what your value system is as a human being. And these are your responsibilities. And once you get people back into that walking on that road, they just act differently, you know, and we’ve had a lot, the invasion brought us a lot of problems, and we have to face those, and we have to push them back.”

Judge Abby says based on their value system, the wellness court has advocates who serve as mentors and friends that take on the role of cultural aunts and uncles.

“And they walk with people, they help them, they talk to them, they’re there for them. And they become part of their extended family. ‘You need to test. You didn’t test. And if you’re dirty just tell me and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do about it.’ You know, so we get people, we encourage people, and we help them find their way back.”

Judge Abby says they also focus on other wellness – behavioral health, housing, and requirements people need to get them back to where they need to be in society.

Tribal officials says it’s essential for justice to include traditional knowledge, culture and spirituality.

Phillip Williams. 

Phillip Williams, a Yurok Tribal Council Member, says Native people get lost in today’s society.

“Colonialism has stripped away most of everything that we are. And so that’s why a lot of our people are in addiction and alcoholism, because they don’t know who they are, where do they fit in this world. And so, part of that, that keeps us going in that is our traditions, our dances, our ceremonies. One of the most basic parts, I think that people miss is your prayer. You know, the elders teach you to pray every day. So, you wake up, you wash your face, you pray, and then you start your day. And a lot of the people don’t, don’t get that. And so, we’re trying to replicate that, give a person, you know, something to live for in life.”

The Yurok Tribe and Judge Abby’s work are not just on the reservation.

They’re helping other tribes and the urban Native population through their close connection with the social service organization in San Francisco – the Friendship House.

The Friendship House work will be featured in part two of this special series, a collaboration with First Nations Experience Television with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.

Watch our collaboration with FNX TV story here:

The Native Youth Olympic Senior Games literally kick off Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska.

Students in grades 7th through 12th will take part in three days of competition.

Athletes not only test their skills needed for everyday life, but the games promote sportsmanship, health living and leadership skills.

Thursday’s games include opening ceremonies, the Toe Kick, Wrist Carry, and the Alaskan High Kick.

The games continue through the week with closing ceremonies and awards on Saturday.

Listen to our special coverage, Alaska’s Native Voice: Live From NYO 2024, hosted and produced by Antonia Gonzales and featuring reports from Jill Fratis, Hannah Bissett, and Rhonda McBride this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 12 p.m. AKDT

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The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska is launching a new program to provide fresh, organic, Alaska-sourced foods to the entire Aleutian community – and to some regional partners.

KUCB’s Andy Lusk spoke with tribal staff to learn more.

Organizers did a distribution trial run last month.

At the event, Unalaskans came to the tribe’s food bank and received bags full of carrots, potatoes, cabbage and beef — all completely free. That produce and meat came from a family farm in Palmer.

The tribe is interested in partnering with multiple providers over the course of the program, including local fishermen.

Tanaya Horne is the tribe’s COO.

She says the program is part of their ongoing wellness initiatives, and aims to support Alaska farmers by offering their products to locals looking for high-quality, minimally processed foods.

“For Alaska Native people, for American Indian people, our love language is food. That is how we show that we want to be partners with you, and we want to show you that we care about you.”

The project first developed last spring, when the Qawalangin Tribe met with USDA representatives at an economic summit.

The tribe was ultimately awarded over $2 million for the project through the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Program.

The project came together in partnership with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, who helped facilitate rollout of produce and meat to tribal organizations across the Aleutian Islands region.

Anfesia Tutiakoff is the Qawalangin Tribe’s cultural director. She hopes the program can dovetail with some of the foods already available in Unalaska, including local herbs.

“The more that we’re able to harvest our natural foods on-island, and use natural foods from these farmers, you’re getting less and less processed foods the more that we do these kinds of programs.”

Tribal services manager Marie Schomer says that during the trial run, around 5,000 pounds of food arrived and was distributed to the community.

“I love doing it, personally, because a lot of families out here are struggling [with] the cost of food. And if you’re able to give them a couple bags of fresh produce and meat, it’s very helpful.”

The cost of food in Alaska is famously high and Unalaska is no exception.

Groceries are barged into the island and take longer to deliver than to stores in the lower 48.

Organizers expect the program to continue throughout the next two years, working in conjunction with other regional tribal organizations’ food security initiatives.

In Unalaska, there are no income restrictions to participation.

Anyone is welcome to take food whether they are a member of the Qawalangin Tribe or not.

The next event is slated for late April.

Horne says she expects the program to do bi-weekly food bank events by the summer.

Chickasaw Nation Lt. Governor Chris Anoatubby, left, Choctaw Nation Assistant Chief Jack Austin Jr., Seminole Nation of Oklahoma Chief Lewis Johnson, Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill, and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., at the April 19 quarterly meeting of the Inter-Tribal Council (ITC) of the Five Civilized Tribes. (Courtesy Chickasaw Nation Media)

The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma is the latest Native American organization to pass a resolution in support of the establishment of an event code to be used to help find Missing and Endangered Adults.

KCNP’s Brian Brashier has more.

The resolution cited statistics from the National Crime Information Center which shows that Native American men and women have historically been disproportionately affected by missing persons cases at a percentage which is more than double that of the general U.S. population.

Native American women are at an even greater risk of going missing or being endangered with estimates they are ten times more likely to fall victim to homicide than the average American woman.

The resolution also stated that these statistics emphasize the urgent need for focused attention and specialized support, like the new Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) code.

Used with the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), the code would work like the familiar Amber Alert initiated when children are missing.

The resolution stemmed from a letter from Native Public Media who also sponsored a resolution that passed last year by the National Congress of American Indians.

The resolution passed unanimously by the council comprised of the Chickasaw Nation, Cherokee Nation, Muscogee Nation, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

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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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