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In California, hundreds gathered at the state capitol for the dedication of a Miwok statue to replace the one of Catholic missionary Junipero Serra.

Christina Aanestad has more.

Tribes Indigenous to the Sacramento area, including Pomo and Miwok, gathered with California state lawmakers to unveil the new statue at Capitol Park of Miwok leader William Bill Franklin.

Jesus Torrango is tribal chair of the Wilton Rancheria.

“It is an important step in telling an honest account of what happened on this land. As you heard, the man portrayed in the statue is a Miwok-Aneeshnan leader, William Bill Franklin. His life epitomized the strength, honor, and commitment of California Indian people. The statue isn’t to just honor Grandpa Bill, because every tribe across this state has their own Bill Franklin – a leader who fought to keep our traditions and culture alive during a time when it wasn’t easy to be Indian, it wasn’t easy to be Indigenous.”

The statue replaces the one of Junipero Serra, the Catholic missionary who established the racist mission system that enslaved and indoctrinated Native Americans in California form of genocide.

“On July 4, 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, the father of Junipero Serra statue that stood here since 1967 was toppled.”

The state’s only Native American lawmaker, State Rep. James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), then introduced legislation to replace the statue.

It passed and Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed it into law one year ago.

Rep. Ramos commemorated the statue’s unveiling.

“Our people survived against great odds to be able to be here today, showing the resiliency of California’s first people. That’s why we’re here today to be able to unveil this monument to start the discussion about including factual curriculum about who we are and what’s being taught in the state of California.”

The Native American Development Council in Montana is hosting events for Native American Heritage Month.

Yellowstone Public Radio’s Orlinda Worthington attended a recent event in Billings and has this report.

On a chilly Montana morning, six Native Americans carrying tribal flags ran two miles to the Eagle Seeker Community Center in the middle of Billings.

They came from each of the four directions.

Tally Monteau with the Native American Development Corporation shares the significance.

“So in my tribe, we believe that the four directions ties back to our creation story and how there were four brothers and carries all our prayers coming from those four directions. And then it helps tie us to Creator and the environment and the world surrounding us.”

Sixteen-year-old Abbilee Runs Above came from the east, representing the Northern Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Sioux, and Cree tribes.

“It was really a powerful experience. And throughout the running I was praying and wishing good thoughts for the new year. For like what I want to see come out of everybody.”

NADC has events planned throughout November with the goal of bringing the diverse tribes in the state and non-native Americans together, with Monteau adding, “We just want to celebrate who we are and express how proud we are as a people and really invite the outside community in and get this little glimpse and share our culture.”

Leonard Smith is the CEO of that organization.

He too feels the national month of recognition is an opportunity to find common ground among different cultures.

“For me it means unity among our tribes. And having pride in our past and then use it for the future of all of us.”

Billings is home to a Native American population representing over 60 tribes nationwide.

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As a part of a larger effort to reckon with its historical ties to slavery and other atrocities, Harvard recently held an event looking at its legacy of mistreatment of Indigenous people.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Murphy Woodhouse reports.

Actor, comedian, and activist Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota and Dińe) is well-known for his role in the acclaimed series Reservation Dogs.

He did not mince words in his keynote at the Responsibility and Repair conference.

Harvard’s massive collection of Native American remains came up often.

“Y’all had the audacity to do a report, name a whole conference. Legacies, Indigenous, slave, indentured, and you still got bodies in the buildings… Man, you guys are saucy.”

He says the work that led up to Reservation Dogs taught him about the power of collective action.

“Accountability is not an individual task necessarily. When we’re talking about social injustice and the harm perpetuated by institutions. It is a collective task that we as individuals take responsibility for. Institutions like Harvard cannot undo the harm of the past until it stops the harm that it is doing today.”

The fourth season of the show Native Shorts, which airs on FNX TV and is presented by Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Films program, is now in production.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA has more.

The show focuses on short Indigenous films from around the world.

Bird Runningwater (Mescalero Apache and Northern Cheyenne) is film curator and host.

He has also worked with Sundance’s Native American and Indigenous Program for more than 20 years.

Host Ariel Tweto is Inupiaq. She connects with the everyday viewer asking questions that the audience might have about the film.

Tweto says they have a lengthy process to choose which episodes air on the show.

“I mean we wanted an array of films or genres, and so they’ll find a horror, a romance, comedy, something very abstract and so we want to get films from all over the place.”

From New Zealand, to Australia, to the Aleutian chains of Alaska, Indigenous filmmakers share stories of their cultures, and ways of life.

Tweto says she notices a lot of differences from one continent to the next.

“Just to see how other people live is I think really special. I’ve learned a lot just about different cultures from around the world. I think that’s really cool. Different ways of storytelling, how someone in New Zealand tells a story a lot different than someone say from Finland, and it’s cool to see the diversity.”

Tweto says Native Shorts is a great platform to showcase short films, when in the past, it was only shown at film festivals

“It’s so cool that we get to showcase the short films because there’s not really a platform for short films after festivals. Usually if it’s not in a festival, it’s just, I don’t even know where it goes, so this is just a really cool opportunity for us to showcase all these amazing indigenous filmmakers and actors and actresses. I’ve learned about different cultures from around the world.”

Production of this season will wrap up on November 14 with the series premiere on November 30 at 8pm on FNX.

Marla Ollinger says her son Justin Lee Littledog died of a fentanyl overdose at her ranch on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. (Photo: Tony Bynum for KHN)

The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is holding a hearing on fentanyl and Native communities.

Senators will hear from tribal leaders and Native health experts about its impacts on tribal communities and also learn about some tools being used to address the crisis.

The hearing is taking place Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Wilma Mankiller is the newest addition to the Barbie Inspiring Women series.

Barbie is recognizing the Cherokee Nation leader in advance of her birthday on November 18.

Mankiller was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

According to the Cherokee Nation, a special event to celebrate the release of the Wilma Mankiller Barbie is being scheduled for a future date in Tahlequah, Okla.

The doll is available for purchase online at the Mattel Shop.

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Federal officials from the U.S. and Canada plan to meet with Montana and British Columbia tribes over coal mining pollution.

Selenium has for years flowed from B.C. coal mines into the transboundary Lake Koocanusa.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has more on the meeting this month.

The U.S. State Department and Global Affairs Canada will meet with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Ktunaxa Nation on November 9.

The meeting aims to address selenium pollution coming from Teck Recourses’ coal mining operations along the Elk River.

The Elk River flows into Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River in Montana.

Selenium pollution is known to harm fish reproduction.

The tribes want the issue to be settled by the International Joint Commission, which handles transboundary water disputes between the U.S. and Canada.

CSKT Chairman Tom McDonald hopes IJC involvement would eventually lead to the closure of Teck’s mines.

“We would want to make sure that they’re going to immediately cease and desist from their actions that are causing an increase in pollution.”

The U.S. State Department has long said it supports IJC involvement.

Global Affairs Canada in a statement did not say whether it supports the move.

The meeting comes after President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a deal to address selenium pollution would come by summer’s end.

McDonald says it’s possible that a deal could be struck at this month’s meeting.

Kodiak’s Alutiiq Museum recently acquired a newly minted atkuk, a kind of traditional clothing.

As KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, staff say it fills a gap in their collections and they’re excited to share it with the public.

The atkuk is a type of traditional Alutiiq clothing.

It looks kind of like a black floor-length dress with red stripes and white fur.

Amanda Landcaster is the curator of collections at the Alutiiq Museum.

“The snow falling parka is what these are sometimes known as and when someone is dancing, wearing it, you see the ermine tails just sort of sway and it really does look like snow falling.”

The atkuk was commissioned by the museum about a year ago and staff received the new piece a few weeks ago.

Lancaster says it was made very similar to ones that have been worn since before western settlers came to Kodiak.

She says once they had the funding, they talked to a local artist to help them fill the gap in their collections.

“We have never had a traditional atkuk like this and there are garments like this in collections around the world that hold Alutiiq collections.
The commission was funded through the Rasmuson Foundation, which awards grants to Alaska-based nonprofits and tribes, local governments, and artists.”

Landcaster says commissioning pieces helps the museum have one of the most complete collections on Alutiiq culture in the world.

“It’s a really good chance to see what are the holes in our collection. Maybe there are Alutiiq cultural materials in other museums that we do not have that we would like to get versions of.”

Landcaster says adding to their collections will be a major help in continuing revival movements after historic suppression.

The Alutiiq Museum is currently undergoing major renovations though, so the public will have to wait to see the atkuk in person until they reopen in 2025.

The multi million dollar project will include a classroom for education opportunities and to expand their gallery to feature more of their collections on Native history.

The Chief of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians died this weekend.

KLCC’s Brian Bull has this remembrance of “Doc” Slyter.

Chief Donald “Doc” Slyter was fond of carving and playing Native American flutes.

He’s heard playing one of his creations in a 2018 recording for KLCC.

Brenda Brainard is a fellow tribal member, who worked with Slyter on restoring federal recognition for their people in the 1980s.

She says he battled cancer in his final years.

“What will always stand out to me with Doc was his smile. He just had the cutest, sweetest, little smile. And it kinda had a hint of impishness with it. But what I remember most about him was his quietness. He was very calm, he was a very humble man.”

Slyter was also a U.S. Army veteran.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR) said Slyter’s spirit and his memory “leave a legacy of resilience and hope.”

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The federal Not Invisible Act Commission has issued its recommendations to help tribal communities, federal agencies, and law enforcement respond to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has more.

According to federal crime data, American Indians and Alaska Natives go missing or are murdered at higher rates than their white counterparts. Many cases go unsolved.

Congress passed the Not Invisible Act in 2020.

The bill formed a federal commission made up of tribal leaders, federal agencies, families, and survivors.

This Not Invisible Act hearing in Minneapolis, Minn. was one of seven this year.

The commission held several hearings across the country to get input from tribal communities.

The commission issued numerous recommendations.

It called for more federal funding for tribal police and changes to federal laws that limit tribal police investigations.

It also called for more training and collaboration between tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

Federal agencies have 90 days to respond to the commission’s recommendations.

A new report from Canada’s corrections watchdog says there are still too many Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, he calls the prison system disturbingly and unconscionably Indigenized.

Correctional investigator Ivan Zinger over the past decade the problem has become significantly worse.

In his latest report, Zinger says 32% of all federal inmates across the country, as well as 50% of the women, are Indigenous. That’s compared to 25% ten years ago.

And he says the system still bears many of the lingering hallmarks of colonialism, which Zinger adds, contributes to the marginalization, criminalization and over imprisonment of Indigenous people in Canada.

“For many years now, my office has been sounding the alarm. The discriminatory treatment of Indigenous persons in federal custody was among the first set of issues raised by my office when it was created 50 years ago. In the decades that followed, my office has issued more than 70 recommendations specific to Indigenous corrections sadly most of these calls have gone unanswered.”

And Zinger says the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in federal custody continues to widen.

“It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the correctional system perpetuates conditions of disadvantage and discrimination that contributes to such a disproportional incarceration rate”

In his report, Zinger urges the transfer of federal operated healing lodges to local authorities.

He is also calling for a national strategy of Indigenous de-carceration and better support for Indigenous elders who work with the correctional system.

The Coquille Tribe says it’s landed one of the biggest competitive grants ever in its history.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the nearly $8 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation will benefit the tribe’s wharf and port development.

The money will fund three phases of improvements to the Ko’Kwel Wharf near the tribe’s Mill Casino Hotel in North Bend.

In short, dock repairs will be made to sections which have seen little or no work in 40 years.

A 600 to 700 foot extension will be added as well.

Ray Doering, the project manager for the wharf, says the final piece is making electrical service available to large ships that dock there.

“What a lot of ports are doing now, and we’re certainly out to be one of them, is providing electricity in heavy enough volume that they can turn off their diesel engines and connect to electricity here on the dock face. It’ll be a lot cheaper, and it’s a huge environmental improvement.”

Doering is with Tribal One, an organization that helps the Coquille Tribe with economic development.

He says there’s potential in overseas commerce that this wharf improvement will support.

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The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has apologized to the Inuit in northern Labrador for the harm suffered in residential schools.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, Andrew Furey said in his official apology that the provincial government failed to protect Indigenous children in those schools.

“I extend this apology to the students, the families, and to the people of Labrador. We are sorry.”

Premier Andrew Furey has been touring Inuit communities along Labrador’s northern coast.

He is making six stops where he will offer apologies to residential school survivors and their families.

Furey told them that the provincial government turned a blind eye and neglected its responsibility and duty as a government.

“And today with a heavy heart I respectfully and humbly offer an apology to the students of Nunatunavut who attended residential school in Newfoundland and Labrador”

Furey acknowledged that many children were separated from their families and their communities and sent to the schools were their connections to their culture, language, and families were degraded.

Many of the survivors of the five schools in the region shared their stories of sexual and physical abuse or neglect.

When former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in 2008, he excluded people in Newfoundland and Labrador because the five schools in the region were not funded by the Canadian government.

But that changed in 2016 after a class action lawsuit.

A new children’s book in the Lingít language was celebrated at a gathering in Juneau on Friday, the first of its kind in decades.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, it is the first of a nine-part series.

“You all agree this book is beautiful?”

Tlingit and Haida’s president Richard Peterson held up the book to show off the illustrations by two Lingít artists – Nick and Kelsey Foote.

The book Kuhaantí means “orphan” in Lingít.

It’s a story about a girl taken in by a powerful family and through her struggles, learns life lessons about the tribal values of respect.

President Peterson wishes he had had a book like Kuhaanti to read when he was a boy.

“We didn’t have this opportunity. And it may not make sense, because certainly we had more elders, we had more first language speakers, but we know that things like boarding schools and historic trauma, there was a lot of shame and probably people telling us we couldn’t be who we are.”

But students from the Tlingit, Culture, Literacy, and Language program were full of pride as they performed at the celebration.

Jill Meserve, a Lingít language instructor, says the new book will help learning become more meaningful.

“These kids are so fortunate to see themselves in their teachers, in their curriculum, and in their books and in our community.”

Lance Twitchell, Director of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast: “If you’re looking for the English translation, it doesn’t exist.

X’unei Lance Twitchell says it’s important that the language stand on its own.

He worked with a team of elders to produce the book including Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis, Shaksháani Marge Dutson, and Daasdiyáa Ethel Makinen,

“I thought of George and I thought of Marge, and I thought of Ethel, and how much I wish I could show this to them.”

Courtesy: Tlingit and Haida Central Council

X’unei produced a video of the book, so everyone can both see and hear the story.

The books are free to children of tribal members.

Raven and the Salmon House will be the next story to be published.

The project was a collaboration between Tlingit & Haida, a regional tribal council; the Goldbelt Heritage Foundation, a Native corporation non-profit; and Cedar Group, a regional economic development agency.

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The federal government is spending another $327 million to help fulfill water rights settlements with tribes across the West.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports.

The money will be used on projects to create reliable water supplies for tribes.

Nearly $70 million is going to the Pueblos of Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, and Tesuque in New Mexico.

More than $6 million is going to the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho. Roughly half of that will go to the Southern Ute Tribe in Colorado.

More than $160 million will fund a pipeline project that would deliver water to dozens of Navajo chapters as well as the Teepee Junction area of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the city of Gallup, N.M.

Here’s Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren speaking before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee earlier this year.

“About 30% of the Navajo households continue to lack running water. They rely on hauling water to meet their daily needs. This region has long suffered from limited access to clean and reliable water.”

He says the completion of the pipeline would provide just that to 250,000 people.

Courtesy Cost Savers / Facebook

In Alaska, Kodiak’s wholesale store Cost Savers is now under tribal ownership.

People should expect business as usual, but as KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, it’s the latest move in improving food security on the island.

The deal was in the works for about two months before it was announced.

The Native Village of Afognak is the new majority owner of the store, which will still be called Cost Savers with 55%.

They’ve partnered with the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak for the purchase who owns the other 45%.

JJ Marsh is the Tribal Administrator for the Sun’aq Tribe.

“I just think it’s a great partnership – it’s time for our tribes to collaborate and work together.”

Candice Branson is the Tribal Administrator for the Native Village of Afognak.

Courtesy Cost Savers / Facebook

She says they initially wanted to buy just an empty lot near the store to expand the village’s farm programs, but ended up buying the store as well.

“After some contemplation and looking at the financials and thinking about the impact that it would have to run our own grocery operation like that, and the impact on food security, that it could have, and on our bottom line.”

Branson says, for now, staff are looking at filling open positions and overall, maintaining the status quo.

“We are looking at just stabilization for the next year and a half – two years and then we’ll start on the development. But we’ve got some time to build a good plan and make sure that we have everything in order before we start.”

Marsh says this is the Sun’aq Tribe’s latest step in diversifying its investment portfolio.

“We are trying to find ways to sustain our tribes in the future, especially with food security and putting our people to work also. So we discussed it and met and decided. Our Tribal Council and the Native Village of Afognak’s Tribal Council thought that it would be a good partnership.”

But buying Cost Savers isn’t the only part of a new joint business venture.

The Native Village of Afognak co-operates Mal’uk Farms with the Tangirnaq Native Village, which is one of six tribally-owned farms on the island.

Branson says they hope to have locally grown produce on shelves in the next few years.

“We’re going to keep using the system we’re using for now and as we develop comfort in managing the store and are able to expand out to include our farms.”

The Sun’aq Tribe also owns Kodiak Island Wildsource, a seafood processing business.

Marsh says it’s still too early in the process to sell its products in the store, but patrons could see local seafood in freezers there in the next six months.

The American Bar Association is recognizing Native American Heritage month with a presentation Thursday from Native women trailblazers.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

The speakers include U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as well as Valerie Davidson, former Alaska Lieutenant Governor and currently head of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

The other panelists include Abby Abinanti, Kim Teehee, and Stacy Leeds.

Abinanti is a Yurok tribal judge and the first California tribal woman to be admitted to the California State Bar.

Teehee is director of government relations for the Cherokee Nation and served as the first senior policy advisor for Native American Affairs in the White House.

Leeds is an Indigenous law and policy scholar and the first Indigenous woman to serve as a law school dean.

The panel will be moderated by Makalika Naholowa’a, executive director at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.

It will be followed by the discussion of a new study called “Excluded and Alone”, which examines the experiences of Native American women in law and the path towards equity.

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The Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, S.D. – already embroiled in legal battles – now faces yet another discrimination lawsuit.

It’s the latest development since the business and its policies were vaulted into national attention last summer.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene reports.

The hotel has been entrenched in legal battles since ownership last year posted to social media their intentions to ‘ban any Native from property’ – leading to months of protests and multiple lawsuits.

In addition to blaming the mayor, police chief, sheriff, candidate for sheriff and the court system, a local hotel bans all Native Americans for a shooting a few days ago on hotel property. Neither the shooting or Grand Gateway’s response to it reflect our community values. pic.twitter.com/vA9oXND0qi

— Steve Allender (@Just_Allender) March 21, 2022

Those properties include the Grand Gateway and Cheers Lounge in Rapid City.

The latest suit, from a Wisconsin family, alleges they were denied service at the hotel based on the race of a Native family member.

Court documents say Jessica White, who is Caucasian, was not bothered as she attempted to check into the hotel on vacation this August.

Her husband Ryan, who is Native, unloaded their car and entered the lobby second.

The lawsuit alleges the employee abruptly denied the couple service or honor the booking after Ryan entered.

After contacting Travelocity, the family confirmed the family had three rooms reserved at the hotel.

Despite Travelocity confirming the booking and speaking to hotel staff, the employee still refused the family the rooms.

At this point, the employee of the hotel reportedly told the Travelocity representative, who spoke with an accent, to “speak English,” which the lawsuit alleges reinforced the racial nature of the incident.

Further, the family says the employee told Ryan to leave the lobby, called for security, and told security to bring backup before then telling Jessica he would be calling dispatch.

Feeling threatened for the safety of himself and his children, Ryan White then left the hotel.

The lawsuit alleges the White family was not refused service on plausible basis, and instead were the victims of unlawful discrimination which fits into a larger pattern for the business.

The suit asks for the courts to declare the hotels conduct unlawful and for the family to be reimbursed attorney fees and awarded damages at trial.

Owner Connie Uhre has already been convicted of two counts of simple assault for an incident in May which saw her spray cleaner at protesters.

Representatives from the hotel did not return request for comment.

Photo: Lina Tran

Milwaukee County signed a rights of nature resolution last week, becoming the first in Wisconsin to endorse the Indigenous legal movement.

Lina Tran of member station WUWM reports.

The resolution was signed steps from the Menominee River, which plays a central role in the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s creation story.

Now, the county recognizes the water’s right to thrive.

Here’s Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

“That’s exactly why we’re here today. To state clearly and unequivocally that Milwaukee County land and waterways deserves to be protected and maintained to be healthy, robust, and resilient.”

Guy Reiter is a Menominee citizen and leads the movement in the state. He likened the moment to the Moon landing.

“This is one step for man and then a huge step for our environment and that’s the way I think about it. Because it’s been a very long time that we’ve been able to think of our environment as a part of us. As not something that’s external, but it is internal.”

The resolution doesn’t have the teeth of legal penalties. But organizers hope it inspires communities across the state to take similar steps.

Photo: Lina Tran

Megan Keller is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She said the resolution is an important tool.

“So, I feel like having this legal framework to stand on will help further that cause, but also really prevent people from being like traumatized and punished for standing up for our Mother.”

She said Indigenous women especially have been criminalized for protecting water in the Great Lakes. Rights of nature gives them legs to stand on.

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“The entire subject matter is really emotional and really intense.”

Dr. Holly Norton is Colorado’s State Archaeologist and she led the boarding school study.

Dr. Norton says one story came out of a school newspaper published at the Fort Lewis boarding school.

It was the story of Frank Taylor, who at one point was the only Ute child at the school.

“When Fort Lewis Indian boarding school first opened, there was a lot of disease that hit the school really quickly, and it kind of devastated the student population. And so the Ute pulled all of their students out of Fort Lewis, there was one student, Frank, who was identified as Ute and he spent his life at that school.”

Dr. Norton wasn’t able to determine from her research whether Frank Taylor had parents or not.

“And they called him an orphan. a lot of these orphans actually weren’t. they had parents and family, but I think the government could designate them as orphans and make it easier for them to make decisions without having to consult with the parents or the tribe.”

In the newspaper article, Frank Taylor’s story intersects with the story of another Native American child.

“A young girl, she must have only been like three or four. It sounded like maybe she had wandered away from her parents or from her family. Frank found her. they brought her back to the school. they didn’t try to find her parents, they didn’t try to contact any adults. They cut her hair, they changed her clothes. And they immediately kind of enrolled her and adopted her into the school system. The father came and found her and collected her and took her home. But I’m just imagining this very casual kidnapping, this idea that it was okay for people at the school to essentially abduct these children.”

Colorado’s new report on Indian boarding schools recognizes and remembers children like Frank Taylor.

He lived more than half his life at the Fort Lewis Indian boarding school.

He died of pneumonia there when he was 11 years old. And he may be one of the 46 children buried at the old Fort Lewis cemetery.

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The Native Village of Karluk on Kodiak Island in Alaska went viral this summer for an ad offering cost-free living in an effort to reopen its school.

But just a month after classes started, that school is closing again.

KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, the school’s student enrollment is back down to just two kids after both families chosen to move there left the village.

The decision to close the school was unanimous at an emergency school board meeting.

Cyndy Mika is the Kodiak Island Borough School District superintendent.

“It’s a sad day when you have to close a school. And it’s not anything that I ever wanted to do in my tenure – it’s nothing that I want to ever repeat again. It weighs heavy on your heart when you have to close a school.”

Karluk, on the southwest end of Kodiak Island, had just a few dozen year-round residents, with only two of them being school-age kids.

The village advertised free living expenses for two families to move there over the summer.

The state requires 10 students to be enrolled in order to receive funding.

The ad worked; two families with eight kids between them moved to Karluk in September, and the district’s board of education voted to reopen the facility.

Then both of the new families left Karluk.

Alicia Andrew, a Tribal Chief for the Tribal Council said in an email it was a blow to the community.

“It’s so disappointing, we thought we picked the right families.”

October is when the Alaska Department of Education does a headcount of students for funding.

But since the families left before the count was finished, Mika says they could be out about $80,000 in their already tight budget.

“We didn’t make it through the count and that’s predominantly the reason why – that is the really, solely, the only reason why we are closing.
The district is currently working with the state to try to get prorated funding for serving the 10 students for the weeks they stayed in the village, but otherwise that money will come out of the district’s fund balance, or savings.”

While it didn’t work out, Mika says she still stands by her recommendation and the Board of Education’s decision to reopen the school in the first place.

“We knew it was in the best interest of the students to open the school as a learning site and I think we did the right thing. It was a risk – it didn’t pay off. But we did our best while we had the school open.”

The representative for the Karluk Tribal Council said in an email they may look for other families to try again.

If they do find new families, the school board would have to vote to open the school again, even if they had enough students again.

The building will officially close on Nov. 2, exactly one month after it opened.

The kids still in Karluk are currently working with the school district to transition back to homeschooling.

Photo: Kimberli Mäkäräinen via Wiki CC

Artist Buffy Sainte-Marie is speaking out about a media report that questions her Indigenous identity.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary suggests Sainte-Marie’s claim to Indigenous ancestry is contradicted by family members and a birth certificate.

The CBC says it found her birth certificate.

It says she was born in 1941 in Stoneham, Mass.

Her parents were Alberta and Winifred Sainte-Marie. The documents also lists the baby as white and includes a signature by an attending physician.

From her early days, Sainte-Marie has claimed to be a Cree woman, that’s now being contradicted by members of her own family and an investigation suggesting she has European roots.

Sainte-Marie says the questions about her origins are hurtful.

“These questions hurt me. They still do. But they also hurt others. They’re questions I’ve struggled with my whole life.”

In the 1971 Buffy Sainte-Marie Songbook, which she wrote and illustrated, she said, “When I go home to the Cree reserved in Canada where I was born, I usually spend a few hours of every day teaching the Cree language.”

Also, in a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times magazine. she said had been born on the Piapot Reserve in Saskatchewan.

In her 2018 biography. there’s no official record of her birth.

“I don’t know where I’m from, who my birth parents are, or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England town.

The 82-year-old Sainte-Marie says she realized decades ago that she would never have the answers.

Still some Indigenous academics say it’s unacceptable for non-Indigenous people to speak for Indigenous people and take honors they shouldn’t.

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Alaska will now be a part of the oral histories that the U.S. Interior Secretary collected during her visit to Anchorage.

It was the tenth stop on her Road to Healing Tour to document the abuse Alaska Native children suffered at government boarding schools.

Secretary Deb Haaland told the gathering at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Sunday that it’s important to hear from survivors and their families, to better understand how to end the cycle of trauma that has been passed down through the generations.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, the Secretary heard from a Lingít elder from Sitka, who asked her to dig deeper.

“My Lingít name is Shaagunastaa.”

Bob Sam (Lingít from Sitka). (Photo: Matt Faubion / Alaska Public Media)

Bob Sam says that his Lingít name gives him an important responsibility. The words means the man….“who taught human beings to respect the dead.”

And out of respect for the dead, Bob Sam called for a full accounting of what happened to Alaska Native children, who were sent to schools out of state, where many died.

“Every single boarding school child that has died, their last thought was, “I want to come home.”

Sam says the remains of these children should be returned to their families, so they can heal.

He also says the Interior Department’s investigation needs to use a wider net – to include institutions like the Morningside Hospital in Portland, Ore.

Before statehood and into the early 1960’s, children with physical and intellectual disabilities were sent to the asylum. Many never returned. Some died.

“This gets even deeper. You know how Morningside was funded – the Department of Interior. “

Sam told the secretary there was also an orphanage called Baby Louise Haven in nearby Salem, where many Alaska Native babies died – also funded by the federal government.

“I think it’s critically important for us to know this history.”

Niesje Steinkruger, a former Fairbanks judge, came out of retirement to launch the Lost Alaskans Project.

She says knowing the history, helps to prevent the mistakes of the past.

That’s why she and other volunteer researchers have combed court records at the State Archives in Juneau to find out what happened to Alaskans who were sent to Morningside and Baby Louise Haven.

Steinkruger agrees with Bob Sam that families deserve answers.

“We know that there were at least 1,500 Alaskans that died at Morningside Hospital and never came home to Alaska.”

Steinkruger says these were mostly adults, both white and Alaska Native, but most of the children, based on archival photographs appear to be mostly Native.

She says one photo stands out – a picture of the children outdoors with hand-typed words in the left-hand corner that reads,

“Alaska defectives, happily in the mild climate at Morningside.”

Steinkruger says she also came across some disturbing correspondence between staff at Baby Louise Haven and the state of Alaska.

“I just remember this one letter asking about up to what age child they would take, and they said, well, the children had to be under four feet, because the enclosed cribs, as they call them, which is like a crib cage – a child could not be longer than four feet to fit in there.”

Steinkruger says, based on records of family names, most of the children at Baby Louise Haven were Alaska Native.

She says the government entities that took charge of these children have a responsibility to help their families.

“Bring the remains back to Alaska for their families.”

As for Bob Sam, he’s planning a trip to Portland to visit the graves of the children who died at Morningside. He says he will drink tea and talk to them–and sing songs in the Lingít language.

“Let’s be the best of who we are. And let’s bring our children home.”

And that says Bob Sam, is the first step on the road to healing.

Following the painful day of testimony in Anchorage on Native boarding school abuse, the gathering moved outdoors for a totem pole raising – the first in the nation to be dedicated to boarding school survivors and their families.

More than 500 people watched as the pole was positioned into place at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Sunday.

At the base, a mother bear holds her cubs close. A father in human form sits above her, crowned by feathers from Raven’s tail, with Raven in a state of transformation. And at the top of the pole, nestled in Raven’s ear, are two children. A girl and a boy, gazing out towards the generations to come.

After hours of ceremony and preparations, it took only a few seconds for the pole to go up.

The pole was carved by two Haida brothers, Joe and T.J. Young.

Joe says it was an honor for them to work on the pole.

“If nothing, if it helps people feel more comfortable when they come by it, think or talk out loud, maybe it’ll help them out, knowing other people’s done the same thing, maybe it will help them out. At least get the conversations going with healing. That’s kinda what it’s for, is healing.”

The Young brothers spent three months carving the pole.

In Oklahoma, the Inter-Tribal Council of Five Tribes has approved a resolution supporting the nomination of Sara Hill to serve as a federal judge.

Hill is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the tribe’s former attorney general.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Hill for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

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