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Native corporations and tribal organizations, as well as state and federal agencies, have already begun to hold meetings ahead of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

The state’s largest gathering officially gets underway the evening of Wednesday, October 18.

AFN will kick-off with an event to honor veterans. Nicole Stoops, one of organizers for this year’s AFN, says it will feature the work of Bill Hess, who has photographed Alaska Native veterans for more than 40 years.

“There is many in black and white, there are many in color, but they’re all very emotional when you look at them. It’s a beautiful story to be told.”

Three elders, who have served in the military, will share their own stories – Emil Notti, one of the founders of AFN; former Alaska state senator Jerry Ward; and Benno Cleveland, who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam.

Also that evening, AFN will premiere “One with the Whale”, a documentary that tells the story of a St. Lawrence Island teenager who landed a whale – a big accomplishment that was soon inundated by a wave of criticism from environmental activists.

Stoops says some even made death threats.

“And to have that kind of backlash, really. It shows his emotional turmoil and how his family suffered through that but also persevered through it.”

Stoops says the film will set the tone for the convention and its theme, “Our Ways of Life”, which will explore how values are shaped by a culture’s relationship with the land.

“We have diverse cultures, diverse languages, but the core values are still there. The cultural values that our ways of life are still very similar and how we can work together, especially when it comes to those obstacles that we face as Alaska Natives.”

Each region of the state will be highlighted, followed by panel discussions, in part to heal some of the rifts that occurred last year, when a bitter debate broke out on the last day of the convention over the Western Alaska salmon crisis.

 

This Saturday, a western Oregon tribe will celebrate the restoration of its federal recognition.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, that event will happen at a site undergoing its own restoration.

The 1950s saw many tribes’ federal status terminated by Congress, resulting in decades of disruption and loss of ancestral lands.

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians were reinstated in 1984, after nearly three decades.

To mark that event, the tribe will hold several events recognizing its sovereignty, including one at the Siuslaw Estuary outside Florence.

Cultural stewardship manager Jesse Beers says this former dairy farm will be restored to its pre-development status, which will benefit salmon.

The restoration will also incorporate Native language and canoeing into its final design.

“Restoring the lands, the waters. Restoring the languages on the landscape, within our own hearts and minds.  And restoring all the pieces that were stripped from us during the reservation era, during termination, during the boarding school era, all those things.”

A blessing and naming ceremony will complete the project.

 

The Cherokee Nation hosted a gathering of first language and fluent Cherokee speakers on Tuesday at the tribe’s Durbin Feeling Language Center at Tahlequah.

The event is one of the largest gatherings of fluent Cherokee speakers in modern history.

During the gathering, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner spoke about the tribe’s historic efforts at saving the Cherokee language, and gave a glimpse at some of the tribe’s next steps.

In 2019, the council of the Cherokee Nation approved the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act, a legislation introduced by Chief Hoskin and Chief Warner to provide an initial investment of millions of dollars into Cherokee language efforts – the largest language investment in Cherokee Nation History.

 

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The stories of Indigenous Americans are as valuable as any other, but those stories aren’t always told accurately or helpfully. Inclusion of Native voices in media are crucial, but how can we create those opportunities?

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

Journalism, with its degree requirements and institutional power, can be an intimidating field for many to enter.

The inclusion of new voices in the news field could help break that wall down though.

Native journalists like Amelia Schafer are working across America for organizations like Indian Country Today, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, or for your local indigenous publication, but Schafer says there is work yet to do.

“Native people have the sensitivity to tell Native stories in a way that is not as harmful as someone as someone who is uneducated in the community – or is educated on stereotypes of the community. It’s more empowering to be able to tell these stories that effect your community. Native reporters – it’s hard, but it’s also so rewarding because we’re able to tell these different stories in a way the community wants to be heard.”

Schafer says if you’re a young person with an interest in news – don’t stop.

“If I would have had somebody to tell me back then that it’s okay to keep perusing this even though there are people who don’t understand you or don’t want to understand you – that was something I faced in high school – it’s something that’s worth perusing. Native-led organizations like ICT can really help to empower reporters and give you that support that you need, and the ground of mutual understanding.”

It starts with school newspapers and student-broadcasting opportunities.

For Diana Cournoyer, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, there is equal value to be found in the perspectives unique to indigenous journalists.

“We have a lot of storytellers who probably would want to be journalists, but the two schools of thought don’t mesh. We are storytellers first and foremost – to be a storyteller, you also have to be a story-listener.”

Further, Cournoyer says opportunities to enter the field, like journalism internships or fellowships, simply don’t exist to the same degree on reservations than off.

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) says she’s ready to return to work at the nation’s capital.

Rep. Peltola has been spending time with family, following the loss of her husband, Gene “Buzzy” Peltola, who died in a plane crash on September 12.

In a statement, Rep. Peltola said the past few weeks have been some of the most difficult in her life, and that she appreciated how Alaskans have given her the space to celebrate her husband’s life with her family.

“The kindness and generosity that you have shown represents Alaska at its best.”

In the statement, Rep. Peltola talked about the federal shutdown, which she said was “barely avoided and could have hit Alaska’s military families, seniors and children hard.”

Rep. Peltola said after watching all the partisan politics in Washington continue, as another shutdown looms, she’s anxious to return to Congress.

She says she will continue to mourn her husband, but also knows he would want her to get back to work.

In Wisconsin, the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Governing Board has responded to a letter from the LCO Ojibwe School Superintendent Jessica “Hutch” Hutchinson about a rise in behavior and dress among middle school students that has been associated in the past with gang affiliation.

Tribal officials are asking parents and community members to teach young people about the dangers of gang activity, and to remind everyone of the tragedies that happened to Lac Courte Oreilles in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

That’s when gang violence claimed the lives of two young tribal members and eventually, the imprisonment of dozens of community members.

According to officials, the LCO Ojibwe School will begin dealing with associated behavior as a “Class I” offense, which may result in in-school suspensions or out-of-school suspensions.

The Tribal Governing Board says they fully support necessary actions to protect the community as a whole.

 

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Monday marks the third day of ceremonies held by the Presbyterian church in Juneau, Alaska to apologize for its racism towards Alaska Native people.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, for more than a half century, the loss of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in downtown Juneau has been an open wound.

Over the weekend, the sounds of gospel sung in both English and Lingít brought healing.

This choir sang in a fire station where Dr. Walter Soboleff’s church once stood when he preached in the Lingít language and led a mostly Native congregation.

But in 1962, Presbyterian church leaders closed it down to make way for a new church to be led by a white minister.

That church has since been renamed the Kunéix Hídi Northern Light United Church, which means healing house.

It’s where national church leaders like Rev. Bronwen Boswell made formal apologies.

“The Presbyterian Church USA apologizes for the act of spiritual abuse committed by the Presbyterian Church’s decision of closure, which was sadly aligned with nationwide racism toward Alaska Natives.”

Dr. Soboleff lived to be 102, but never spoke of the deep hurt he experienced.

His son Sasha says the whole family suffered yet never received an apology.

“Hearing the illustrious speakers bring their word graciously, brought tears to my eyes for the first time in 52 years. Gunalchéesh for that.”

Sasha Soboleff offered forgiveness, a blessing he says is necessary to build a better future.

“Lift our eyes so we can grow into this new vessel, this new world that is offered to us today, which comes perhaps once in a lifetime.”

The national church is also offering reparations, which Richard (Chalyee Éesh) Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida, says is equally important.

“And today for the first time in my young 47 years, it is the first time I’ve seen an apology go along with reparation.”

The church has offered $900,000 in reparations to be used for language and cultural revitalization.

Read the Presbyterian Church’s press release

The All Pueblo Council of Governors in New Mexico is condemning violence in the town of Española, where a recent celebration was taking place by Native people and their allies over the pause of the reinstallation of a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan De Oñate.

At the prayer event, a 23-year-old man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat is accused of shooting an Indigenous man.

In a statement Friday, All Pueblo Council of Governors Vice Chairman Jerome Lucero (Zia Pueblo) said, “it’s unfortunate that, during a prayer filled ceremony, an individual was seriously harmed over this issue.”

Lucero goes on to state this shows historical trauma and pain inflicted on Pueblo people by Oñate is still here.

Pueblo people say Oñate represents violence – remembered for his cruelty.

Nathana Bird (Ohkay Owingeh and Kewa Pueblos) was among those at the event who witnessed the shooting.

In an interview with New Mexico PBS, she reflected on the deep historical trauma.

“The genocide, the cultural washing, or the banning of traditional practices was done by folks that were brought to really colonize our communities. And so Oñate was sort of like the lead in that piece, along with other folks that came before him. It was basically to colonize and to convert Native people. A lot of our historical documents really, really state that there was a lot of destruction. There was a lot of violence. There was greed. A lot of our folks were really pushed to convert.”

Pueblo leaders say they’re concerned about the possibility of continued violence against Native people who oppose the statue.

Meanwhile, the alleged shooter, Ryan David Martinez, is charged with first-degree attempted murder, as well as a fourth-degree felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

A fundraiser has been set up for Jacob Johns who was shot in the chest and is recovering.

The online fundraising page says Johns is an Indigenous climate activist, artist, musician, and father.

NNN anchor and New Mexico in Focus correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with two Indigenous community leaders about the shooting and the violent history surrounding colonial monuments like the Oñate statue:

 

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The Interior Department is spending around $40 million in tribal communities to plug old oil and gas wells that have caused serious pollution.

A portion of that spending is going to states in the mountain west region.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau has more.

This first round of grant money will primarily assess the abandoned oil and gas wells.

Some funds will go towards actually plugging them. That’s critical to stop methane leaks and contaminated water from further harming tribal communities.

The Navajo Nation will receive nearly $5 million, and the Southern Ute Tribe will get about $500,000.

Four tribes in Montana will receive more than $4 million total to assess about 330 wells.

This is part of the Interior’s master plan to spend billions on cleaning up legacy pollution on public, private and state lands as well.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) spoke about the investment at an event in Colorado.

“These toxic sites pollute backyards where children play, recreation areas and community spaces. They have also threatened homeowners ability to thrive in the one place where they should be happy and comfortable.”

She says Interior has also created a specialized Orphaned Wells Program office to oversee the projects.

Alaska is home to more than 20 Alaska Native languages, but over the last century, the number of fluent speakers has declined.

One woman in Nome, Alaska is using social media as a tool to teach the Inupiaq language.

KNOM’s Ava White has the story.

Gail Smithhisler runs a Facebook page called “Iñupiaq Word of the Day.”

She posts daily videos of herself teaching the meaning, spelling, and provides a phonetic pronunciation of words and phrases from the language.

The “Iñupiaq Word of the Day” started in 2010 on Facebook featuring community members sharing words and phrases in various Iñupiaq dialects.

Smithhisler grew up hearing Iñupiaq spoken by her grandparents and elders in Nome.

After she began running the page in 2020, she enrolled in UAF’s ‘Introduction to the Iñupiaq Language’ class at Nome’s Northwest Campus.

“I felt soulful and happy. After each class I was very mentally drained from trying to retain all the information, but I was so hungry to learn more. I was like, ‘this is what I needed.”

Smithhisler created a TikTok account in 2020 and has since received tens of thousands of views, and thousands of followers.

She says TikTok is more popular among younger age demographics and bridges the gap in language revitalization.

“The health of our language kind of depends on young people, as well as our older people who are fluent. Because our elders and our older people that are fluent, they’re not going to be around forever.”

Smithhisler draws inspiration from elders, and utilizes their knowledge of pronunciations for her videos.

Minnesota will celebrate Indigenous People’s Day as an official state holiday for the first time this year.

Native News Online reports this comes after state lawmakers passed a bill in February requiring the observation in the state and eliminating Columbus Day.

Indigenous People’s Day has been celebrated for years in the state through a proclamation.

The Native American caucus and the state’s 11 tribes advocated for the state holiday.

On Monday, schools are also required to dedicate at least one hour of education to students about the day’s significance.

 

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This week, Colorado released a report on Indian boarding schools in the state, including the Fort Lewis boarding school near Durango.

The comprehensive review has new information about Native American children who died at some of the schools.

As KSJD/KSUT’s Clark Adomaitis reports, Fort Lewis College has been preparing for the report’s public release.

The historic Fort Lewis operated as a boarding school for Native American students in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The new report details the history of systematic abuse and negligence at the school, and it contains a new estimate that 46 children are buried at the old Fort Lewis Cemetery.

“It was really important for us to make sure that students felt supported in terms of having extended counseling center drop-in hours available.”

Heather Schotton is vice president of diversity affairs at Fort Lewis College.

She says the school understands that the report may be traumatic for the estimated 1,400 Native American students at Fort Lewis.

“Our Native American and Indigenous Studies faculty will be available for students to review it, to explain different components of it, help them to process and understand the report.”

It’s part of the charter mission of Fort Lewis College to heal the damage left behind by the Indian boarding school bearing its name.

The Central American country of Guatemala this week saw massive protests against government actions widely seen as an attempt to undermine the transition of power to the president-elect.

As Maria Martin reports, what’s unique about these mobilizations is they’re being led by the country’s Indigenous citizens.

In more than a dozen key points in the country, crossroads, bridges, ports, and airports, Indigenous Guatemalans, who make up 40% of the population, have come out in massive numbers to protest and block traffic, calling for all Guatemalans to join in a national work stoppage to stop those who want to overturn the results of the August 20 election.

Indigenous Mayor Luz Emilia Hulario: “Democracy has died, but the people of Guatemala are going to revive it.”

Manfredo Marroquín of Transparency International: “This mobilization of rural Indigenous people, it’s very rare in the history of Guatemala.”

Marroquín says these recent mobilizations are totally different from mostly urban protests in the past.

Current democracy actions have originated in the rural areas and are well organized.

Marroquín believes the Indigenous movements are what’s kept a total coup from taking place so far, as the ruling business class fears what more disruption could do to Guatemala’s economy.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has collaborated with AT&T on an internet and digital learning center.

On Friday, they’ll open the Connected Learning Center to assist Native citizens and community members who face connectivity barriers.

It will open with a full-time digital navigator who will help provide one-on-one digital skills training and app and device support.

The learning center will also provide computer and internet access for the public.

The Cherokee Nation, especially in rural communities, estimates that at least 6,000 Cherokee citizens do not have access to the internet or computers at home.

This is the first center on the Cherokee Nation and the 28th Connected Learning Center that AT&T has opened nationwide.

The company plans to launch more than 50 centers across the country by mid-2024.

 

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History was made Tuesday night in the Manitoba provincial election.

The New Democratic Party won a majority.

And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, its leader Wab Kinew becomes the first First Nations premier in the province’s history.

Most news organizations called the election just before midnight – on Tuesday night – declaring the New Democrats would form the next provincial government.

For weeks, opinion polls predicted an NDP win, especially in constituencies in the city of Winnipeg.

Wab Kinew, the NDP leader, becomes the province’s first First Nations premier and second Indigenous premier.

Kinew and his party campaigned on a platform of fixing the health care system, tackling the affordability crisis, and addressing crime.

“To the people of Manitoba, I want to say thank you because at the start of this campaign our team made a decision we chose to believe in you. We chose to believe that given the choice, you the people of Manitoba would embrace a positive campaign focussed on the future, focussed on fixing health care and making the economy more affordable and that you would reject the divisive message sent by our opponents.”

Kinew is a former host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He was first elected in 2016.

The following year, he launched a successful bid for the leadership of the New Democrats.

The leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Heather Stephanson, conceded defeat, and said she had called Kinew to congratulate him.

A conservation group has turned an isolated ranch in north central Washington over to the Colville Tribes.

Spokane Public Radio’s Steve Jackson reports.

The 2,500 acre Antoine Valley Ranch in Okanogan County was purchased by the Western Rivers Conservancy.

After a fundraising campaign, the organization has given the entire property to the Colville Confederated tribes.

Western Rivers spokesman Nelson Mathews says Antoine Creek is an important habitat for wild steelhead.

The tribe will work to restore the creek flow during fish migration time and revive spawning habitats that have been choked for decades.

The ranch controls water rights on the creek via a small dam several miles upstream.

“The Colville tribes, their fisheries department, came up with the unique idea of controlling the timing of the water so they can benefit the migration and spawning of the steelhead.”

A pulse of water would be sent out in the spring. The flow would attract the fish to come up that section of the creek.

Later in the year, when the water starts getting low and warm, cooler water will be released when the smolts are in the stream to help them survive.

The tribe also plans to fence off the creek to keep cattle out, and restore the riparian area and the original creek stream bed.

Healing events are set to begin this weekend through Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Juneau, Alaska.

The events surround the 1963 closure of the Walter Soboleff’s Memorial Presbyterian Church to acknowledge the closure and the hurt the closure brought upon the Juneau Indigenous community.

On Saturday, an unveiling of a sign at the site of the former church will take place.

On Sunday, there will be a church service with an acknowledgement and apology from the Presbyterian Church.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day will include a sharing of history and the presentation of checks in partial payment of reparations.

“The Native church,” as it was known, served the Native community, including with its Tlingit pastor Walter Soboleff, who held his first service in 1940.

The church was ordered to be closed in 1962.

The closure was said to have left Soboleff and the Native community devastated.

The acknowledgement, apology, and reparations include $950,000 for the harm and pain the closure caused.

 

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In the ongoing election turmoil in Guatemala, thousands of Indigenous groups came out to protest and block highways.

This was in response to actions over the weekend by the country’s justice department to confiscate dozens of containers of voting material. Protesters say it’s an effort to use the judicial system to block a president-elect seeking reform from taking office.

Maria Martin reports.

They held up traffic in at least eight important crossroads in Guatemala.

Thousands of Indigenous protesters blocked highways to defend democracy and fight against what President Bernardo Arévalo calls a “coup in progress” by a corrupt ruling elite.

At another protest in Guatemala City, Indigenous leader Rosa Castro said Guatemalans are tired of rulers who have robbed people of decent health and education, making millions in private profit during the pandemic, and are now trying to pass legislation that would harm Maya communities.

The protesters are calling for the resignation of the attorney general and others involved in what one electoral magistrate called “nothing short of an assault” on democracy.

The influential Maya groups 48 Cantones (48 Villages) say they’re prepared to blockade indefinitely as their one option for having their voice heard.

The federal government is taking new steps to preserve the oral history of Native American boarding schools that were run by governments and churches.

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

For more than 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools created to strip them of their culture.

The children’s hair was cut off, their traditional clothes were burned, and many were beaten.

Now, the government is giving nearly $4 million to a coalition focused on boarding school healing.

The group will create a collection of survivors’ stories – testimonies that tribal governments, policymakers, and the public can access.

The group also wants Congress to establish a commission to investigate and document the past injustices of boarding school policies.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS) spoke about that proposal in a recent webinar.

“We can make sure that this legacy, this history, the full truth of these policies is not just acknowledged, but that we do something to start to address that chapter of our legacy.”

So far, the commission bill has not passed either chamber in Congress.

Three Democratic U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation to officially recognize the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the federal level.

U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), introduced the bill.

The bill would also replace any mention of Columbus Day in all federal laws or regulations with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

According to the lawmakers, more than a dozen states across the country have already made this change, including New Mexico.

The lawmakers say recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a federal holiday is a step to address generations of trauma and inequity.

Tribal leaders and executive officers of Native organizations are among those supporting the bill.

In the Senate, the bill is cosponsored by 11 Democratic Senators who often advocate for Native issues, including members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

 

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Native groups and their allies are calling on officials to condemn violence against Indigenous people and to keep a suspect charged with attempted murder in jail.

The Red Nation, Three Sisters Collective, Kiva Club, NDN Collective, and their allies say last week’s shooting at a prayerful event in New Mexico, celebrating the halt of the replacement of a Juan de Oñate statue, was a racist attack.

Witnesses say before the shooting the suspect was seen antagonizing the crowd gathered at the Rio Arriba County Annex Building in Española.

Video recorded at the event shows the suspect wearing a hoody and red “Make America Great Again” hat scuffle with people at the rally before pulling out a gun and shooting one person and pointing the gun at another before fleeing.

Police identified the shooter as 23-year-old Ryan Martinez.

He was arrested and charged with attempted murder in the first degree and aggravated assault – use of a deadly weapon.

Martinez is due to appear in court Monday.

Native groups and their allies are calling on officials to not release him and to recognize the shooting as a racially motivated hate crime.

The person shot was identified as 42-year-old Jacob Johns.

An online donation page set up for his medical bills says he’s Hopi and Akimel O’odham and has dedicated his life to Indigenous and climate justice.

The statue was previously removed from a different location in 2020 and was set to be reinstall last week at its new location in front of the county building, but was postponed.

Members of the Native groups against the Oñate statue say he was a brutal Spanish colonizer and the statue represents violence and genocide.

Listen to previous National Native News coverage of this statue
Demonstration celebrates statue of Spanish colonizer taken down

Canada’s western province of Manitoba could make history.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, it could elect its first, First Nations premier to lead the provincial government.

Wab Kinew is the leader of the New Democratic Party.

He was born in Ontario and lived on the Onigaming First Nation. His father was a survivor of the residential school system and Kinew says he passed the Kinew the importance of Anishinabe culture and language. During a recent televised debate Kinew blasted the former premier of Manitoba for closing emergency rooms.

“I don’t think too many of us understood how having to drive further was going to get you seen quicker. We have a plan to fix it. Let me be clear this is going to be hard work. It has to start with staffing up the health care system, and then once the staffing is stabilized two years from now we put shovels into the ground to build a new ER starting in south Winnipeg.’

If elected Kinew would become the first first nations premier, but not the first indigenous premier. John Norquay, who was Metis, was the Manitoba’s fifth premier until 1887.

Kinew says there are still historic barriers to overcome the main reason few indigenous people enter provincial politics.

Soem analysts say if Kinew becomes premier it would be significant because there are still dominant stereo types that see indigenous people in a negative way so, it’s important for other indigenous people to what that it’s possible to succeed at the highest levels.

Manitobans go to the polls on October the third.

The memorial at Wounded Knee, one of the most prominent landmarks on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, was recently vandalized.

C.J. Keene has more.

The memorial was placed in the early 1900’s by Joseph Horn Cloud – a direct descendent of victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The damages were limited to the topmost piece of the monument structure.

The site is under the management of the Oglala Sioux Tribal government, which has indicated plans to increase efforts to protect the memorial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eliot Neal has been picked to represent Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) for the Southwest Region.

The region includes New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.

Neal is one of five MMIP Assistant U.S. Attorneys who will provide support to U.S. Attorneys’ offices to address MMIP issues.

His background and experience includes working with tribes.

 

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The Washington State Department of Commerce has awarded seven grants for clean energy projects around the state.

Steve Jackson reports.

The money comes from the Clean Energy Fund, created by the state legislature ten years ago, says Jennifer Grove, managing director of energy programs in communities at the Department of Commerce.

“The state has invested close to $290 million through the Clean Energy Fund, in a variety of projects around the state, from energy storage, renewable generation, manufacturing, grid modernization.”

Grove says the projects approved this year include those that will improve air and water quality or soil health, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Spokane tribe was one of seven groups that was awarded a grant.

They received nearly $1 million to overhaul systems in the Tribal Administrative Building in Wellpinit.

Director of Public Works Maria Cullooyah says an energy audit determined the building wasn’t very energy efficient, and an upgrade in the H-VAC system was needed.

“If we didn’t do our part to upgrade and do an overhaul, and move into a new system, that by the time we did have to maintain these systems, the fluids and everything they run on would probably not even be made because they are not very efficient”

It’s estimated the improvements to the building will save $30,000 annually through reduced utility bills.

Money from a previous Clean Energy Fund grant is also being used to help develop a mini grid system in Wellpinit utilizing solar power and battery storage to help in the event of a power outage in the rural community .

The Alaska Federation of Natives has sided with the federal government in a legal battle over salmon management on the Kuskokwim River, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

A report from the Alaska Beacon says AFN filed a motion this week to intervene in a federal lawsuit against the state.

In its filing, AFN said the state’s position is attacking its interests and those of its members.

After a series of failed salmon runs, communities along the Kuskokwim river have struggled to feed their families, prompting the federal government to sue in May to stop state-authorized fishing on the stretch of the Kuskokwim that flows through a federal wildlife refuge.

Federal officials limited subsistence fishing to only rural residents, but the state opened the river to all Alaska residents.

Federal managers won an injunction to block open-access fishing, based on provisions under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).

The state filed a motion earlier this month, arguing that the federal government lacks authority to regulate fishing on the Kuskokwim and that the state has a duty to protect subsistence fishing for all Alaskans, both urban and rural.

In its motion to intervene, AFN said the state’s latest motion threatens ANILCA’s long-established rural subsistence priority and has “clear implications for the entire statewide population of Alaska Natives.”

The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Association of Village Council Presidents, and the Ahtna Corporation are also siding with the Federal government.

Dancers and drummers clad in feathered and beaded regalia gathered for a pow-wow to honor Native students and the role of education in empowering tribal communities.

Becky White is the equity manager for the 4J NATIVES program, and is of Cherokee, Cheyenne, and Arapaho heritage.

She says altogether, about 600 people attended the event. And she’s excited for the school year ahead.

“We’re going to have artists of all different disciplines. Culinary arts, performing arts, and fine arts. And teach our students what they do and how they got to where they are. Because we really want our students to understand that nothing is out of their reach.”

White says there’s plans to do another pow-wow in the spring.  Roughly 1% of students in the district are Native American.

 

 

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Indigenous people in Winnipeg are continuing to raise concerns and call on officials to search landfills for their missing and murdered relatives.

Among the Indigenous women they want found and brought home are Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26.

Police believe the women are victims of an alleged serial killer and that their remains could be in a landfill.

Two camps have been set up in efforts to keep pressure on officials and draw awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Two Spirit, and Gender-Diverse People.

On an August morning, firekeeper Shining Gold Star, who lives in Winnipeg, talks about Camp Marcedes, named after Marcedes Myran.

He’s been there since it was first set up in July in the city, next to the Canadian Museum For Human Rights.

“It’s to honor the missing and murdered especially the landfill, its focus is on search the landfill.”

Gold Star walks around the camp where there are a handful of tents and a camp kitchen.

Signs are posted all around – some read “we are not garbage,” “search the landfills,” and “no more stolen sisters.”

There are red handprints and art drawn on sidewalks and benches along walking paths near a river and park.

There are also a number of empty red dresses displayed, symbolizing those who’ve gone missing and murdered.

“The government does not want to look, not only are they in there, there are other people in there and they’ll have to explain things… I’ve had people come up to me with shovels from every community – black, white and blue – and they all say the same thing, we’ll do it.”

A more than 30 minute drive from Camp Marcedes is the city operated Brady landfill where distress flags fly at Camp Morgan, named after Morgan Harris.

There are also red dresses positioned around the camp, tents, a wigwam, and teepees.

Some people say they’ve been in the area since December while others like Ida Manuel, from British Columbia, felt compelled to come here this summer.

“My heart, going out to the families affected and I just had to answer that call. How could you, how could you be human any other way?”

Remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, another victim, were found at Brady last year.

A blockade at the road leading up to the landfill had previously been set up, but was dismantled.

Now, dumping continues.

“For us to stand and say we are not trash and still not be heard. You know, it really needs to be connected – Canada’s lack of respect… with colonialism set out to do to Indigenous.”

The other landfill, Prairie Green, is privately operated outside of Winnipeg.

The Manitoba government is citing costs, and health and safety concerns for not conducting a search at Prairie Green for Harris and Myran.

Advocates say they’re prepared to camp through the winter.

They’re also hoping new leadership of the province will be elected in October to offer assistance.

Last year, Jeremy Skibicki, 35 at the time, was charged for the murder of the three women and a fourth unidentified woman.

The Winnipeg Police Service are asking anyone with information about this investigation to contact the Homicide Unit at 204-986-6508.

NNN stringer Rhonda LeValdo contributed to this story. Photos taken at both camps and the Prairie Green landfill featured in slideshow:

The overall number of maternal deaths nationwide rose from more than 500 to more than 1,200.

That’s according to a recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Black and American Indian and Alaska Native mothers had the highest number of deaths per 100,000 live births.

The rate for Black moms rose from about 27 to 55. The American Indian and Alaska Native rate rose from 14 to about 49.

Health experts say many factors play into these numbers, like a lack of services.

 

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