Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Sara Hill, former attorney general of the Cherokee Nation, has made history with her confirmation to serve as the first female Native American federal judge in Oklahoma.

Judge Hill, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was confirmed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate to serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

In November, during her nomination hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Judge Hill about tribal sovereignty and challenges she faced as tribal judge.

“Post-McGirt, especially, has been very challenging. There’s been a great increase in the number of criminal cases that are being heard. Indian tribes have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians across their Indian Countries. So throughout the reservation of the Cherokee Nation, the Cherokee Nation has jurisdiction, and the Office of the Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting those. So as the Attorney General, it has been the responsibility post-McGirt, to scale up that office in a way that we were able to handle all the different cases that came to us. And I think that, you know, that’s something that for people who have Indian Country in their districts are probably more familiar with that process and may not be that familiar to other people.”

Judge Hill was also asked if she would serve differently on the federal bench.

“Certainly a district court judge for the United States is an entirely different job than the job of an advocate. As attorney general, of course, I was an advocate for the tribe’s legal position and for its rights. Like all attorneys, I would advocate on behalf of my client with all the intellect and all of the strategic thought I could put into it on behalf of the nation. For a federal district judge, it’s an entirely different job. The job is to look at all the cases that come before you impartially and fairly and looking at everything on their own terms and then applying the facts to the law and it’s a much different role entirely.”

The Cherokee Nation celebrated her confirmation as well as a group of national Native organizations.

They say Judge Hill brings a critical perspective and deep knowledge of federal Indian law.

There are 39 federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma.

Young Native people are making strides in leadership.

Tribal college students were among hundreds of tribal leaders at the White House Tribal Nations Summit held this month in Washington, D.C.

Sareya Taylor, who holds the 2023-2024 title of Miss American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AHEIC), was among them.

“A lot of the times I think youth are told, you’re the voice of the future, you’re our future. But in reality, we’re the present. I really think we need to be here for these conversations to know what’s happening right now today. We will be taking on these positions and we need to learn more about what’s expected and just what’s happening with our tribes currently.”

Taylor says one of the themes she heard throughout the summit was efforts to heal tribal communities.

“I think it is really vital for our communities that we really emphasize the healing aspect. One of the panel members mentioned that he has grandchildren and that he wants them to be healed also from the trauma that occurs and the generational trauma that’s passed down and I thought that was a really beautiful sentiment.”

Taylor, who promotes wellness in tribal communities, is using her Miss AHEIC title to talk about food sovereignty and healing.

“I think there’s a lot of beauty and a lot of livelihood in our food and how we heal as people. So, something I’ve been working on recently is I’ve been interviewing different Indigenous folks and talking about the importance of food to them and how it’s helped with their healing journeys. I’ve learned a lot about how sovereign food is and how much power it holds. Like when we look at corn, we can use corn for prayers, we can use corn for toys for children like with little corn dolls. And obviously we use it for food and it has different roles in ceremony and I think that’s really beautiful.”

Taylor is attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.

The senior is studying creative writing, focusing on poetry.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Students who are enrolled members of Wisconsin’s eleven federally-recognized tribes will get free tuition, housing, and other educational needs at the state’s largest university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Chuck Quirmbach from station WUWM has more.

University officials say their aim is, starting next fall, to cover the full cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree for Native students who live in Wisconsin and meet tribal enrollment criteria.

Tribal leaders helped develop the program and announced it at a Madison news conference.

Shannon Holsey is president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is chairwoman of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.

She noted that the UW campus sits on ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

“Embedded in the land that we stand on today lies the legacy of the Ho-Chunk people. Today is historic and cycle-breaking”

Only about 650 of the UW-Madison’s roughly 50,000 students identify to the school as American Indian or Alaska Native.

Ho-Chunk President Jon Greendeer praises the tuition program, but says he has some work to do to get Native students to consider higher education.

“Many of us are in the generation, where if you went to college, you stopped learning about your ways, and you stopped learning your language, and it was frowned upon. Now, it’s very much supported, very much needed.”

Lac Courts Oreilles tribal member Kalista Cadotte is a third-year student at the UW-Madison.

She encourages Native students to apply to the campus.

“And to be able to achieve your goals. It’s not something that comes easy. But it’s definitely doable.”

Campus officials say donors and institutional funds will pay for the program.

A pilot effort will cover in-state tuition and fees for enrolled tribal members pursuing a law or medical degree at UW-Madison.

Courtesy American Prairie

A conservation group says it sent more than 100 bison to tribes in Montana, South Dakota, and Washington.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.

American Prairie sent 107 bison from its herd in eastern Montana to five tribes in November.

Twenty-one were sent to the Blackfeet Nation and Rocky Boy tribe.

The conservation nonprofit distributes bison to tribes every year.

The InterTribal Bison Council says this helps tribes build their herds and diversify genetics.

The bison are tested for brucellosis and other diseases before they are sent to tribes.

American Prairie says the distribution also helps it maintain its own herd, which now stands at about 900.

Restoring bison to the landscape is culturally important for tribes, which relied on the animals for centuries.

Minnesota’s new state flag and seal design features the Dakota language.

Last week, a state commission picked the new seal design, which is a red-eyed loon on a lake surrounded by trees, the North Star, and wild rice.

It features words in Dakota for “land where the waters reflect the sky.”

The Star Tribune reports the current one has long drawn criticism due to depicting colonization, featuring a white settler plowing a field and a Native American on a horse riding into the sunset.

The new design is set to become official in 2024, unless the state legislature vetoes it.

Poster art by Lyn Cowan

The Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, the University of Manitoba, Disney/Lucasfilm, and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) announced Monday a partnership to create an Ojibwe version of Star Wars: A New Hope.

The project is part of language revitalization efforts.

Auditions for voice actors are expected to take place in Winnipeg next year.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A federal grand jury this month indicted two men for allegedly killing eagles on the Flathead Reservation in Montana to sell feathers on the black market.

Montana Public Radio’s John Hooks has more.

The indictment charges two men – one from Ronan, Mont. and one from Washington state – with illegally killing over 3,000 birds from 2015 to 2021.

The men are also accused of trafficking parts from bald and golden eagles for “significant sums of cash” across the United States.

The investigation was initiated by Fish and Game Conservation Officers with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the investigation.

In a statement, CSKT Chairman Tom McDonald said eagles have “tremendous significance” to the ecosystem on the Flathead and to tribes’ religious and cultural practices.

Golden and bald eagles are protected under state and federal law.

Taking or transporting feathers is outlawed except for religious use by tribal members.

The indictment accuses the men of baiting eagles with deer carcasses before killing them and selling feathers, wings, and tail sets.

The men are scheduled to appear in a Missoula, Mont. court in January.

A spokesperson for the Montana US Attorney declined to comment on the indictment.

Navajo Mountain in San Juan County, Utah.

One Utah nonprofit is visiting every structure in the western half of San Juan County to connect off-grid residents with essential services they don’t receive due to a lack of an address.

Alex Gonzalez has more.

Daylene Redhorse is an addressing specialist with the Rural Utah Project.

She explains for those who live on the Navajo Reservation in San Juan County, formal street addresses are rare.

So families may go without access to services – from mail delivery and internet to emergency medical services and the government-issued ID they need to vote.

Redhorse is helping people get connected with the open-source “plus code” tool, developed by Google, which consists of 10-digit versions of conventional geo-coordinates.

“We were able to put people back in the right precinct or have them register in the right precinct. Not only that, while doing this job, we were able to reach people who had no idea of where to register to vote. We were able to bring these forms to them, get them registered.”

Redhorse says the technology is simple and useful.

The Rural Utah Project identified voting as a key target for the initiative, when it found almost 90% of Navajo residents were registered by San Juan County at the wrong location and a quarter in the wrong precinct.

Redhorse adds the “plus codes” do have limits, but she is encouraging service providers to use them.

Redhorse says she took on the project and was determined to make a difference after her mother experienced a stroke and emergency personnel couldn’t easily reach her, waiting for an hour as she tried to explain her location.

Redhorse says because of the plus codes, firefighters’ and paramedics’ response time has been shortened by at least 30 minutes.

“So they’re able to get to these homes, and that was another way we’ve seen that it was beneficial. A lot of people would like to see it help them on the postal side, but we are still trying to reach out to distributors, to see if they can implement this code into their system.”

In addition to rural Utah, similar models have also been implemented in densely populated urban areas that also lack addresses, in countries like Brazil, Egypt, and India.

This story was produced with original reporting from Peter Yeung for “Yes!”

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard has extended the ban on new oil, gas, and mineral leasing on thousands of acres of state lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park through December 2043.

The commissioner placed the leasing ban on state lands in 2019, which was set to expire at the end of the year.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) issued a similar 20-year ban on federal lands in June.

Pueblo leaders are among those celebrating the move.

They want to see permanent protection of the area, while the Navajo Nation and Navajo allottees have opposed the ban.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Indigenous community leaders held a lecture series in Washington D.C. this week to discuss successes in federal partnerships to boost tourism, as well as a path forward to build on that success.

But federal assistance that was expected nearly a decade ago is arriving slower than anticipated.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, Dylan Simard reports.

When President Obama signed the NATIVE Act in 2016, Native leaders were hopeful that it would stimulate a vibrant tourism industry in their communities. It got off to a good start.

But Wizipan Little Elk Garriott says it tapered off within a year – and leaders want to get it started again.

Garriott is with the Interior Department and a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

“The act continues to really have a strong mandate, and everyone is supportive – the tribes, Congress – and it’s really about how can we implement and how can we continue to think about strengthening these efforts.”

Garriot discussed long term plans for getting federal agencies on board with the NATIVE Act.

It mandated that certain agencies make resources available for economic development surrounding tourism in Indigenous communities.

Father Oleksa and Rhonda McBride after an interview in 2016.

Many Alaska Native people are members of the Russian Orthodox Church and observe Christmas in early January with a seven-day celebration called “Slaviq” or “Slavvy,” which comes from the Russian word, glory.

For many this year, there will be something missing from this holiday – the presence of Father Michael Oleksa, who died in November at the age of 76.

Father Oleksa was probably one of the most well-traveled clergy in Alaska, serving Native communities from Kwethluk to Kodiak and across the Aleutian chain.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride knew him personally and shares a few of her memories.

Father Michael Oleksa was a priest, a teacher, scholar, historian, and much more – but the thread that ran through it all was his storytelling.

And like many Alaskans, I have a favorite one from his time living in the Southwestern Alaska village of Kwethluk, where he was studying for the priesthood.

It was there he met his wife Xenia who, at 4 feet, 11 inches tall, was small in stature, but a tower of strength and not to be trifled with.

When they first crossed paths, Xenia says he kept winking at her.

“I thought he was very brazen myself,” she said, with that matter-of-fact touch of dry, Yup’ik humor.

But she must have over gotten over her initial annoyance, because they soon married and Father Oleksa found himself in the heart of Yup’ik life, the well spring of many stories like this one he told me years ago about a hunt for muskrats.

“And we came home one afternoon with about a dozen muskrats. And the lady of the house, who was my Yup’ik teacher, Annabelle Olick, she was delighted. She skinned and gutted these muskrats. Then she set the table with washcloths as well as spoons. I knew we were having soup, but the washcloths mystified me. I was soon to find out those were for pukug-ing, a word I had not yet learned.”

Pukug in Yugtun, or the Yup’ik language, is to eat tiny bits of meat, that cling to the bone – which you patiently pick away at with your fingers.

“At the end of the meal, my teacher, Annabelle, came to me and said, ‘Are you done?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ but she didn’t look happy about my answer.”

As he looked around the table, he saw that everyone else was still pukug-ing their muskrats, so he did his best to copy them.

“And with a lot of extra effort and noise (makes sucking and slurping sounds), that’s the Yup’ik word, “pukug-ing” – removing the meat from every little bone.”

For Father Oleksa, this was his first lesson in Yup’ik etiquette.

“Waste nothing. You consume everything as a sign of gratitude and respect, even for the animals who have died to keep you alive.”

It was the spirituality of living off the land that he shared in lectures across the state, to bring about an appreciation for Alaska Native culture and history.

One of his lasting legacies, his work to canonize Matushka Olga, or Mother Olga, the Russian Orthodox church’s first female saint in North America and wife of a Kwethluk priest known for her healing love, especially for abused women, was also a cause close to Father Oleksa’s heart.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Legislation was introduced this year that would restore the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians’ right to hunt, fish, and gather on their ancestral lands.

As Brian Bull of KLCC reports, the bill passed a major hurdle this week.

The U.S. House approved H.R.2839, penned by U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR).

During a hearing Monday, she spoke to the need to counter a 1980 consent decree that made the Siletz Tribe lose their subsistence rights in exchange for getting their status and land restored.

“It is an unjust and racist policy that should have never happened.”

Dee Pigsley is the Siletz Tribal Chair.  She’s hopeful the Senate will approve the measure and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk.

“It would be the next best thing that’s happened to us since restoration, actually. It will make many, many, tribal members happy, and it’ll be a real Christmas present if we can get it through the Senate before they adjourn this year.”

The Siletz are one of two federally-recognized tribes in the entire U.S. that don’t have these rights.

The other is the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, also in Oregon.

Courtesy Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center

New research by a Native women’s group examines the impact on Indigenous people in South Dakota after the rollback of abortion services.

C.J. Keene with South Dakota Public Broadcasting has more.

The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, based in Lake Andes, S.D., published their post-Roe report with a focus on tribal lands.

The report calls the removal of abortion protections an attack on tribal health care and sovereignty.

It found financial implications and access to rural health care options as two of the biggest concerns facing Native abortion seekers post-Roe.

Charon Asetoyer, CEO of the group, says nothing good comes from removing access.

“Whenever you take services away from people, the solution is to return them and to increase those health services that should be available to us. The group in the state of South Dakota that is hurting the most are Indigenous women.”

The findings echo another recent study from the Guttmacher Institute that found the overturn of Roe v. Wade disproportionately affects Indigenous communities.

Asetoyer says Native people across the country should think of healthcare as a human right, rather than a privilege.

“We gave up so much so that we could have healthcare. It is our right, our human right, our treaty right, so when they try to diminish our services they’re violating our human rights, so just remember that. Don’t be afraid to speak out and seek healthcare services of any nature.”

Though the decision was made on Roe, she reminds women the battle over abortion is not yet over.

“Time is of the essence – just remember that. You’ve gotta work fast, but there are funds out there, there are women and groups that are willing to help you access these services.”

You can find a link to the report here.

The Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, S.D. has published an apology on its social media channels.

It’s in line with a court ordered settlement.

In it, ownership formally apologizes for comments made by former owner Connie Uhre regarding the treatment of Native Americans at the establishment.

Last year, the hotel and associated businesses became the center of months-long protests and boycotts by Indigenous people, and caused a social media storm.

This after Uhre attempted to ban Native people from the business.

Along with the apology, the terms of the settlement have also mandated Uhre to step away from decision-making roles within the business for at least four years.

The ownership group still faces two lawsuits connected to the matter.

The first from the Native advocacy network NDN Collective and another from a Wisconsin family.

Both lawsuits allege the business denied Native people service solely based on their race.

UPDATE: Statement from NDN Collective

NDN Collective Responds to Grand Gateway Hotel’s Court-Ordered Apology

Rapid City, SD – Yesterday, NDN Collective received a court-ordered apology letter from the Grand Gateway Hotel. In response, the organization released the following statement:

“While we are glad the court saw Connie Uhre’s statements about refusing to serve Native people as unacceptable, the fact that they had to issue an order for this letter is very telling. We find this so-called apology – which attempts to center Grand Gateway Hotel as an inclusive business – to be insulting and disingenuous.

“The letter contains an apology for ‘statements made by Connie Uhre,’ yet fails to mention that those statements were actually enforced when multiple Native people were denied a room. It fails to acknowledge the dangerous, dehumanizing, and very public physical assault Connie inflicted on community members.

“The letter tries to reposition the owners as friends to Native people, despite the fact that another lawsuit was filed against the Grand Gateway Hotel just a couple months ago for racial discrimination against a Native person visiting from out of town.

“The letter says the owners know the Native community is made up of ‘hardworking individuals,’ to us, this begs the questions – who gets to decide which of us is ‘hardworking,’ and which is a threat? Do Native people have to prove ourselves as ‘hardworking’ just to get treated with basic human respect – a near impossible task when we’re constantly met with racism? When will Native people get the same benefit of the doubt and dignity as white people in South Dakota?

“From the beginning, we have made clear that our actions to hold owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel accountable for their discrimination and violence against Native people is part of a much bigger fight to address the rampant racism in Rapid City.

“We will continue to stand up for the rights and safety of the Native community. We encourage the owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel to rethink this letter. We would welcome another apology demonstrating reflection and a desire for real accountability, and containing next steps about how they plan to concretely repair the harm they’ve caused.”

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Reno Sparks Indian Colony says it will end its legal fight against a lithium mine on sacred land after a Nevada court dismissed their lawsuit.

The Thacker Pass lithium mine would be located at the site of a village that was massacred.

Christina Aanestad reports.

“We didn’t lose the lawsuit because we were wrong. We lost the lawsuit because the law favors mining.”

Reno Sparks Indian Colony Chair Arlan Melendez says continuing a legal fight against the Thacker Pass lithium mine would be costly and take too long,

“By the time you would get through to appeal, they would have already desecrated all of the sacred sites.”

But the Washoe Paiute and Shoshone Tribes that make up the colony aren’t giving up the fight either.

Melendez says the next phase will be a public awareness campaign about the $2 billion project – the largest open pit lithium mine in North America.

To produce electric vehicle batteries in the push to transition off of fossil fuels and combat climate change.

Will Falk is the tribes’ lawyer.

“This project is absolutely a fossil fuel-based project. They’re gonna burn 12,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline on site every single day to operate the Thacker Pass lithium mine. There’s going to be over 152,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, emitted by operations of the Thacker Pass lithium mine single year. That’s the size of a small city.”

The lithium will go to General Motors (GM), which invested $650 million in parent company Lithium Americas earlier this year.

GM makes the electric Hummer, a large SUV that is predicted to emit more emissions than a gas-powered sedan, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a non-profit climate research center.

There are more than 21,000 other lithium mining claims in the state of Nevada alone, according to the Nevada Division of Minerals.

Brenda Beyal sits with the third grade students in a circle as each student shares how they can manage stress by singing their answer in the middle of the song “Shí Naashá”. (Photo: Martha Harris / KUER)

In Utah, a group of educators at Brigham Young University is working with the eight sovereign nations in the state to create lessons that reflect what tribes want taught about them.

KUER’s Martha Harris went to a classroom to see one of these lessons in action.

Brenda Beyal is visiting a third grade class at Spanish Oaks Elementary in Spanish Fork.

She’s teaching the students how to say words in Navajo, her Native language.

Beyal is Diné, a member of the Navajo Nation.

The students are learning the song “Shí naashá.”

What makes this lesson unique is it has the Navajo Nation stamp of approval. It’s a part of BYU’s Native American Curriculum Initiative.

The project started because of what Beyal heard from teachers.

Educators wanted help knowing what’s appropriate to teach about Indigenous people. So Beyal and her colleagues started creating lesson plans.

“It was important that we actually go to the sovereign nations and we asked them, what would you like the children of Utah to know about your ways?”

Beyal says every single tribe wanted kids to know that they are still here. They’re not historical figures.

“But then after that, every one of them has a different topic or content that they want children to know.”

Beyal says many lessons treat Indigenous people as having one singular viewpoint.

“Within Utah, there are eight sovereign nations with eight different ways of viewing things, different cultural ways, different arts.”

In these lessons, students are not just learning about the sovereign nations and their history. They’re learning from them and through their perspectives.

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