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As unprecedented wildfires rage across Canada, many First Nations find themselves in the path of the flames.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the Canadian government is mobilizing resources to help them.

Canada’s emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair says there have been nearly 2,300 wildfires across Canada, from British Columbia and Alberta, to Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, not to mention the provinces in between.

Several First Nations communities have been evacuated because of the advancing fires some buildings and homes have been destroyed.

“There are thirteen First Nations that are evacuated. More than 6,500 people will remain evacuated.”

Patty Hajdu is Canada’s minister of Indigenous Services.

“It is the safety of people that is the first priority and occupation of the chiefs that I’ve spoken with. Indeed people have been working incredibly hard to make sure that people are moved to safety. Not just from the effects of the fire itself, but certainly the incredible health risks of being exposed to the degree of smoke that folks are facing in communities.”

Minister Hajdu says First Nations remain on the front lines of climate change.

Their communities are not only devastated from the effects of wildfires, but many are surrounded by forests that provide the economy that many members work in and depend on.

Minister Hajdu says Ottawa will be with those communities as they reassess what it will take to rebuild, as well as helping with evacuations.

She says what Canada is facing is an emergency and it is all hands on deck.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is raising concerns about childcare in her state.

She recently spoke during a Senate committee hearing about the lack of childcare.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA has more.

Sen. Murkowski says in her home state, 61% of Alaskans live in a childcare desert. She says they have nothing.

“So, when we’re looking for workers from everything from slope workers, to teachers, to doctors, I’m having workforce issues in other spaces because we don’t have access to childcare.”

Sen. Murkowski used the community of Valdez as an example, which she says is struggling economically due to the impacts of not having reliable and adequate childcare.

“They’re trying to get some providers, they’ve got some nurses lined up to come and they find out that the only licensed childcare community has closed down and there is no plan for it. The Coast Guard says if we don’t have childcare there in Valdez, we’re not so sure about the viability of Valdez as a Coast Guard community.”

She says it’s not only about no childcare or facilities, but also the price of childcare in general. Sen. Murkowski pointed to a recent article, which showed long waiting lists and high costs in communities around the state.

“At the childcare facility just up the road from where I used to live in Anchorage, families are being charged for one kid $1,700. You tell me how a family who is a teacher and a firefighter is finding $1,700 for their one kid; It’s not only childcare deserts.”

Sen. Murkowski is co-sponsoring a bill to provide grants for states to expand the supply and capacity of childcare providers.

She spoke at a hearing in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has passed a bill to establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S.

The commission would document the impacts of Indian boarding schools, and then make recommendations for healing efforts for tribal communities.

The bill passed with feedback from former students, descendants, tribal leaders, advocates, churches, and local governments.

They provided testimony for the record following a hearing on an identical bill last year.

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Across Canada, several First Nations have been impacted by wildfires raging across the country.

Dan Karpenchuk reports on one battle in northern Alberta.

The fire raging near Fort Chipewyan near Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta has already destroyed several cabins.

Mikisew Cree chief Billy Joe Tuccaro share the news with his community after taking an aerial tour of the fire.

He says the homes lost were part of the Devil’s Gate reserve.

“It’s been a tough day. I can’t believe what’s going on, but we will be here in regards to doing everything to protect everybody.”

Meanwhile firefighters from British Columbia, Yukon, and the United States have already arrived in the region and over the past couple of days, more than 200 firefighters arrived from South Africa.

They too will deploy to parts of northern Alberta.

And Chief Tuccaro says he’s been assured by Ottawa that any cabins that were lost at Devil’s Gate will be rebuilt.

He’s also asked the federal government for military firefighting personnel, resources, and equipment.

The out of control fire near Fort Chipewyan has grown aggressively for several days.

The Mikisew First Nation, Fort Chiepwyan Metis Nation, and the Athabaska First Nation were evacuated a week ago.

Chief Allan Adam of the Fort Chipewayn Metis Nation says it’s been an emotional few days and fighting back tears. He added: “we’re in Mother Nature’s hands.”

There are about 50 wildfires in Alberta, about a dozen of them out of control.

Kalispel tribe archaeologist Kevin Lyons with camas bulbs and a grinding bowl at an archeological site recently uncovered by the Kalispel tribe. (Photo: Steve Jackson / SPR)

Land in northeastern Washington purchased by the Kalispel Tribe for new tribal housing produced an unexpected find – rock ovens that were built 5,000 years ago.

Steve Jackson reports an excavation is now underway to uncover more secrets of that ancient era.

Kalispel tribal archaeologist Kevin Lyons says analysis of the leftover charcoal at the site near the Pend Oreille River is providing insight into the diet and culture of the ancient people who lived there.

“Salmon had to be imported, or brought up from the Little Spokane, but this is 3,000 years ago, so it’s pre-horse, people are packing this around dried and processed. Most of the bitter root came from the channel scablands or Montana. That’s a long walk. These folks were connected to very distant places early on.”

Lyons says the tribe decided to partner with Washington State University for the excavation.

Archaeology professor Shannon Tushingham says field school students from WSU and other schools are getting valuable experience in what is called Cultural Resource management, an industry where archaeologists are called on for assessments in advance of construction projects.

“So there’s archaeologists who work for the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, all of these agencies, and they need people. What’s happening now with the infrastructure bill, there’s a huge need for trained archaeologists, and very few trained archaeologists, especially after Covid, I haven’t been able to have a field school for four years.”

Tushingham says the students are also learning to communicate more effectively with tribal members – something archaeologists haven’t always prioritized.

Researchers will work to document as much of the ancient Kalispel site as they can before the housing development is completed.

Photo courtesy: United Houma Nation

In preparation for hurricane season, the United Houma Nation is holding a drive-thru bundled items event this week for tribal citizens.

Items have been donated to the tribe and will be given out, including food, hurricane preparedness kits, and feminine hygiene products.

The distribution will take place Saturday in Houma, La.

The majority of the tribe’s 19,000 citizens live along the coastal bayous of southeast Louisiana, which has been hit hard by hurricanes.

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Another Indigenous human rights defender has been killed in Honduras.

The activist’s body was found last week in a river located in a region his community had succeeded in gaining back from land grabbers.

Maria Martin reports.

Martín Morales Martínez was a leader of the Garifuna community of Triunfo de La Cruz in northern Honduras.

The activist was a member of a committee in charge of implementing a property agreement in favor of his community as a result of a ruling by the International Court of Human Rights.

Morales had been receiving death threats for several months and had asked for government protection.

At least four other human rights defenders in the area have been killed or disappeared this year alone.

Human rights organizations say the Garifuna community of Triunfo de La Cruz has been the victim of reprisals and violence since they began an effort to reclaim their ancestral lands.

Honduras is the fifth most dangerous country worldwide for Indigenous environmental and land defenders.

The University of Montana has hired a new coordinator to lead efforts to return Indigenous remains held at the college back to tribal custody.

Montana Public Radio’s John Hooks has more.

Courtney Little Axe began working on the repatriation of Indigenous remains and artifacts held at the University of Montana as an intern in the Anthropology Department in 2015.

This Spring, she returned to her alma mater as the first official coordinator of the university’s efforts.

“Watching it grow from 2015 to now, it’s pretty powerful, and it’s pretty meaningful for me to be able to fill this position.”

Little Axe is Northern Cheyenne, Absentee Shawnee, and Seminole, and grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.

She has degrees from UM and Haskell Indian Nations University.

Little Axe said it is crucial to have Indigenous people leading the effort to return their cultural artifacts.

“Because if you don’t understand where these items come into play in a certain culture, then I don’t think you’ll understand the significance or importance of why we need to get them back.”

A database of Indigenous remains, created by ProPublica, shows UM has made the remains of 42 Indigenous people available to return to tribes, while at least 25 are still being studied to determine tribal identity before they can be returned.

A law passed in 1990 requires federally funded institutions like UM to endeavor to return Indigenous remains and other artifacts to their tribes.

So far, the university has struggled to bring itself into compliance with the law without a dedicated coordinator.

The New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) must follow state anti-discrimination laws.

The ruling revives an anti-discrimination lawsuit involving an incident at an Albuquerque high school in 2018, where a teacher is accused of cutting a Native student’s hair and calling another student a bloody Indian on Halloween in the classroom.

The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit accuses APS and former teacher Mary Jane Eastin of creating a hostile learning environment and discriminating against Native American students.

It also alleges that APS failed to properly train teachers on the harms of racism and to provide for its students’ safety.

The incident sparked outrage from the Native community – students, family members, and grassroots groups held protests at school board meetings.

The appeals court overrules a district court 2021 decision.

The lawsuit has been remanded to the district court for a hearing on the merits of the case.

Albuquerque Public Schools is said to be considering an appeal.

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It’s approaching the end of graduation season, and for some families it is a momentous occasion.

For some students, being able to decorate their cap and gown in their traditional garb is one of the most important things they need as they graduate – to be connected to their journey, culture, and ancestors.

This year in Broken Arrow, Okla., a graduate wanted to do just that, when educational staff took her cultural item and damaged it.

Now, the student who’s an enrolled member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and of Osage descent, is pressing charges.

Hannah Bissett from our flagship station KNBA has more.

For Lena’ Black, her graduation at Broken Arrow High School was something she was anticipating.

With her eagle plum attached to her cap where a tassel would be.

On the day, Black says she saw several staff who had no issues – until one teacher stopped her.

Black says the teacher told her she needed to remove the eagle plum. And when Black explained, the teacher allegedly started to yell and attempted to pull it off her cap.

“At that point Lena’ actually ended up sort of falling or collapsing to the ground… because everything (the plum) was pinned to her cap and her cap was pinned to her hair, she actually ended up being the one to take the cap off. In an attempt to protect the plum.”

That was one of the people on Black’s legal team, Morgan Saunders.

Saunders works for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) who is in partnership with Pipestem Law Firm, P.C.

The lawsuit brings a claim on the conduct toward Lena’ and her first amendment rights.

In Oklahoma, a recent law was vetoed by the governor that would have prohibited discriminatory graduation dress codes and make the language loose for all students who have different cultural backgrounds.

The right to decorate one’s cap and gown with their cultural items is one that has been tested in recent years not only in Oklahoma, but across the country.

According to NARF, 11 states have laws explicitly stating the rights for cultural items at graduation.

Saunders says that if the lawsuit goes to trial, the proceeds could continue with the next year.

The Broken Arrow School District did not respond by deadline for comment about the lawsuit.

(Photo courtesy: MSNBC / The Culture Is: Indigenous Women)

Indigenous women were featured on MSNBC Sunday night.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, Alyssa London hosted the one-hour special.

London is a former Miss Alaska USA and the first person of Tlingit heritage to wear the crown.

London recently became MSNBC’s first Native American contributor.

(Photo courtesy: MSNBC / The Culture Is: Indigenous Women)

In one of her first assignments, MSNBC tapped her to host an episode in a four-part series called the “Culture Is,” highlighting women from Black, Latina, Asian and Pacific Islander, as well as Indigenous cultures.

London’s program The Culture Is: Indigenous Women features a one-on-one conversation with U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK).

London: “I don’t think that the civil rights or the racism that took place in Alaska is as known in the lower 48.”

Rep. Peltola: “But one of the things I don’t think most Americans know is that the civil rights movement was alive and well in Southeast Alaska long before it took hold in the lower 48.”

The mainstay of the show is a roundtable with seven prominent Native American women.

London guides the conversation, an experience she says is hard to describe.

“Pretty surreal sitting there with the seven trailblazing Indigenous women who it is difficult to even get one of them in the room. I just felt tremendous amount of respect for the position I was in and the desire to do a good job and also a lot of just trying to be present and appreciate each of those moments.”

Some of the topics on Sunday’s program include: Native boarding schools, missing and murdered Indigenous women, Native identity, and stereotypes.

MSNBC & NBC News Contributor Alyssa London crosses the Puget Sound to Squamish, Wash. (Photo courtesy: MSNBC / “The Culture Is: Indigenous Women”)

The line-up of guests includes Crystal Echo-Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative, Amber Midthunder, the first Indigenous actress to lead an action franchise, and Kimberly Teehee, Cherokee Nation’s first delegate to Congress.

Also in the mix: an Emmy award winning producer and a 2024 Olympic hopeful.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland also makes an appearance.

So how did London become a contributor to MSNBC?

Her business Culture Story caught the attention of network producers.

They liked her concept for producing videos that tell the stories of Indigenous cultures.

“Culture story is really a way for any person to explore their own culture story, which is really their story of their culture and heritage, their identity as a human being, which seems to be an intrinsic need that everyone has know who they are and where they come from.”

London’s interest in telling the stories about culture comes from her upbringing in Seattle, where she found herself constantly having to explain what it means to be Tlingit.

Later, when she moved to Anchorage to take a marketing job, she embraced the role of a “professional explainer.”

London’s Native roots are in Sitka.

If you missed her show, The Culture Is: Indigenous Women, you can watch online.

The show also plans to stream on Peacock.

The All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 19 Pueblos in New Mexico, is celebrating the Department of the Interior’s decision to protect a sacred landscape in the state.

On Friday, Sec. Deb Haaland took action to protect the cultural and historic resources surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from new oil and gas leasing and mining claims.

A new public land order withdraws public lands within a 10 mile radius of the park for 20 years.

The Interior Department says the action included significant consultation from tribes.

All Pueblo Council of Governors chairman Mark Mitchell called the action a resounding triumph for their communities, sacred lands, and future generations.

In a statement, he went on to say the decision demonstrates the power of unity and collaboration in the pursuit of preserving cultural heritage.

The withdrawal applies only to public lands and federal mineral estate and does not apply to minerals owned by private, state or tribal entities.

Navajo Nation allottees can continue to lease their minerals.

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An Ojibwe chef has opened a restaurant in Wisconsin on Lake Superior.

Lina Tran of station WUWM reports.

Miijim is on Madeline Island, a sacred place for Ojibwe people.

It’s a homecoming for chef Bryce Stevenson, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

He says he wants the place to represent the Red Cliff and Bad River bands, who were forcibly removed from the island.

“I want to reclaim a little spot on the island with our traditional foods and to take those foods and just make them accessible.”

Miijim’s focus is seasonal, serving up meats like venison and bison alongside wild rice, mushrooms, and ramps.

They aim to source products from Native-owned businesses.

Stevenson has been cooking since he was young, using commodities like ramen and Rice-A-Roni.

“When things started getting rough for my mom and her marriage, she was working three jobs, night and day. There were 5 of us, and I had to cook a lot. I had to cook dinner for my siblings.”

He entered the food industry in Milwaukee and worked in fine-dining spots across the country. But he always told himself he needed to open a restaurant where he was from.

“I just kept putting it in my head, I have to go back to Red Cliff, I need to open up where I’m from. I need to make something like this up there because nothing like it has ever existed.”

The island is a summer tourist hotspot.

Stevenson says there aren’t many expressions of current Indigenous culture.

With Miijim, he wants to show Native people are there and thriving.

At college graduation ceremonies across the nation, universities also award honorary doctorates.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, one of those went to an elder in Juneau, Alaska.

Anna Elhers’ love affair with Lingít weaving began in downtown Juneau, as a small child, when she saw her uncle in a July 4 parade, wearing a Chilkat blanket with fringe that seemed to have a life of its own.

Anna Ehlers. (Photo courtesy: University of Alaska Southeast)

“The fringe was very blowing and graceful. The colors and the design. My little four-year-old eyes just fell in love with it, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life was to make those.”

It wasn’t until 20 years later that she shared her dream with a state lawmaker while working at the State Capitol.

When Elhers explained she would have to take a year off from work to learn to weave, something she couldn’t afford to do, a group of Alaska Native lawmakers got together and wrote a bill to give her a grant, equivalent to a year’s salary.

Jennie Thlunaut, left, is credited with saving the art of Chilkat weaving and mentoring a young Anna Ehlers, right. (Photo courtesy: Sealaska Heritage Institute)

It came just in time for Elhers to work under Jennie Thlunaut, then in her nineties, and a master at using mountain goat wool and cedar bark fibers to weave, knowledge that is precious.

“Jennie Thlunaut said we were not to be stingy with the knowledge she gave us.”

Knowledge that Elhers has used to teach more than 300 students, a spirit of generosity the University of Alaska Southeast recognized during its graduation ceremony this year.

“I am honored to present Anna Elhers with the Honorary Doctorate of Fine arts. Congratulations, Dr. Anna Elhers.”

At 68, Dr. Elhers is not done yet.

“The project I’m doing is the biggest Chilkat blanket in the world”

The design is secret until the blanket goes on a national tour in 2025.

Mikayla Miller (youth services coordinator), left, Theresa Quiner (library director), Eleanor Oser (AmeriCorps Jesuit volunteer), and Thomas Daniel (student worker) celebrate the summer reading program at the Kuskokwim Consortium Library in Bethel. (Photo courtesy: KCL)

A library in Southwest Alaska has received a National Medal for excellence.

As KNBA news reports, the Kuskokwim Consortium Library is one of four libraries nationwide to be honored by the Institute of Museum and Library Service.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says she nominated the Bethel library, because it provides a wide range of services that go beyond giving access to internet connectivity and educational support, but also works to preserve Yup’ik culture and help the homeless.

The library serves a primarily Alaska Native community, as well as students who attend the Kuskokwim Campus, a branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Three other libraries were recognized – the Los Angeles County Library, the Long Branch Free Public Library in New Jersey, and the Toledo Lucas County Library in Ohio.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. this summer.

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The remains of five Native American children who died at an Indian boarding school more than a century ago will finally be returned to their living relatives.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Will Walkey reports.

“The Carlisle Indian Industrial school in Pennsylvania was a symbol of the notorious boarding school era. Thousands of native children were taken from their families sometimes at 6 years old and forced to assimilate into white culture.”

Gwen Carr is a member of the Cayuga Nation of New York and is Executive Director of the Carlisle Indian School Project. She says conditions at the school were harsh.

“Basically they tried to empty out all of the Indian in you, you know cutting your hair, taking your clothes. And you know being beaten a lot of times or punished with corporal punishment when you were heard speaking your language etc.”

Now, the U.S. is reckoning with that history. This will be the sixth disinterment at Carlisle since 2017, where the military transfers remains to relatives for reburial. Cemetery officials say 28 children have been returned so far.

Carr says these efforts are a critical part of healing for tribal members often suffering from generational trauma.

“Their spirit is still wandering around lost, and they need to go home, where the earth recognizes them and where they can truly be laid to rest in the land that birthed them with the people, family and tribes that they came from.”

The students will be moved this September, and they died between 1879 and 1910.

One named Beau Neal is from the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming. Others are from the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, the Puyallup Tribe of Washington State, the Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe of South Dakota.

Officials are also working to recognize the troubled legacy of the boarding school era through the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

(Photo courtesy: Jamie Murphy / Treasure Leitrim)

Three Lakota water protectors are in Ireland this week as part of a series of solidarity events.

Seo McPolin has more from Dublin.

Irish musicians and water activists on both sides of the border in counties Leitrim and Tyrone welcomed the group of Standing Rock protest veterans from South Dakota.

Several local communities here face increased mining and fracking activity.

Fracking is banned in the 26 counties of the Irish Republic, but allowed in the six counties still controlled by the British government known as Northern Ireland.

Scientists point out that pollution from mining and fracking is undeterred by Ireland’s 100 year-old political borders.

One of the water protectors, Lewis Grassrope from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Council, found a lot in common with his Irish counterparts during the event in County Tyrone.

“Since being here, you’re not so much different from us. Very similar. To hear your speeches, to hear the very same words, the same words I heard from Standing Rock.”

Activists are now fighting back against the extraction activities – and using lessons from the campaigns against North American pipeline projects.

Grassrope encouraged them not to give up even if it feels like they are losing.

“It’s not about if we win or lose. It’s about the gathering. About the love. It’s about what we create together. We will always keep standing because in the end, we think of giants as corporations, but they just awoken… a sleeping giant.”

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Schools are coming to end across the U.S. and graduating Native high school students who want to wear tribal regalia at their ceremonies, in many cases are not allowed to.

In California, a law protects the right to wear tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies.

Christina Aanestad reports.

California’s first Native American lawmaker, State Rep. James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), is reminding the near 1,000 school districts and 9,000 schools across the state to respect Native students’ rights to wear tribal regalia at their graduation ceremonies.

“We urge local school administrators to know the law and respect the rights of our Native American students and to celebrate with them and to honor then and allowing them to move forward with their constitutional right to wear tribal regalia.”

His statement comes after Jessica Lopez, former chair of the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu Indians, said she had to argue with school district officials about her son’s right to wear regalia at his graduation.

California lawmakers passed legislation in 2018, allowing tribal regalia, in most cases, at graduation ceremonies.

In 2021, they passed another bill, to establish a task force educating school districts about the legislation giving students that right, but some districts still are unaware.

A Cochiti Pueblo artist opened a new exhibit in Colorado called Virgil Ortiz Revolt 1680/2180: Runners and Gliders.

It looks at the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in a futuristic light.

In part two of her special series, Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau shows how it’s made an impact on visitors.

The exhibit opened to the public this month. Jeremy Morton with History Colorado says this is unlike anything the museum’s done before, pushing the boundaries of how history can be taught.

“Someone who is maybe not a history person, maybe not a history buff, is able to look at this exhibit and create this association of, wow. I didn’t realize history could be told in this unique, interesting sort of cool way.”

It’s left an impact on some visitors like Heider Tun, a college history professor in Denver.

He’s Yucatec Maya and he says he struggles to remind himself that his people are still here.

“I think this exhibition brings this idea that we are not just here, but that we are modern, we are part of the future as well.”

Kat Lovato, who’s part Jicarilla Apache, also came to see the exhibit.

She came dressed to the event in traditional regalia.

“Everything that Virgil does, that has an emphasis on the Indigenous population in the wars and everything, it matters to us.”

She hopes exhibits like these educate people about Indigenous history.

People like Emmaline Cheroutes, her 8 year-old granddaughter.

“I love learning about our family’s history…and people need to know.”

Virgil Ortiz, the lead artist of the exhibit, agrees.

“Every time the people talk about indigenous people, it’s like in the past, right? … I just want them to acknowledge and know that we’re still here, living and thriving, creating.”

He hopes that other Indigenous communities can join him in his mission to highlight their prevalence – in Colorado and throughout the Mountain West.

“I really want them to come speak up and tell their history, all of their ancestors, and be acknowledged of how we’re all still here together.”

Virgil Ortiz Revolt 1680/2180: Runners and Gliders is on display at History Colorado until next May.

Suzan Shown Harjo was one of five people to receive an honorary degree from Princeton University on Tuesday during its 2023 commencement ceremony.

The advocate, poet, and president of the Morning Star Institute was honored for her lifelong work advocating for Native rights.

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Advocates for clean water have reached a settlement with a north Idaho business over stormwater that’s discharged into a tributary to the Spokane River.

Spokane Public Radio’s Steve Jackson reports.

CHS Incorporated deals with transporting fertilizer and agricultural chemicals.

The company was found to have violated a stormwater permit, by allowing runoff that contained excessive sediment, and minerals such as copper and zinc, to flow into Rock Creek, a tributary of Hangman Creek.

The Coeur d Alene Tribe and the Spokane Riverkeeper told the company they planned to sue, and after negotiations, a settlement was reached.

Spokane Riverkeeper Jerry White says CHS agreed to modify a basin where the stormwater is collected.

The company also agreed to put $152,000 into a fund that aids Coeur d’Alene Tribe environmental projects.

“The Coeur d’Alene tribe is doing amazing work, and will do amazing work with this fund to intercept and stop pollution with the creek restoration they are doing above this facility.”

White says the work will help benefit chinook salmon and redband trout.

Both types of fish were hurt by the sediment and minerals in the plant’s runoff.

Courtesy: History Colorado

A Cochiti Pueblo artist is showcasing his latest work at a museum in Colorado, using contemporary art to blend historic events with futuristic elements.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau has more.

The year is 2180.

The New Mexico pueblos are under attack by Spanish invaders.

Two leaders in metallic combat gear – Omtua and Catua – are going to each Pueblo to share the news about an uprising.

That’s the premise of Virgil Ortiz Revolt 1680 2180: Runners and Gliders.

The new exhibit at Denver’s History Colorado museum blends augmented reality and futuristic fashion with more than 800-year-old pottery.

It’s an artistic expression that’s based on the true story of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

“It’s America’s first revolution, but it’s not called that or taught that because of the bloodshed.”

That’s Virgil Ortiz, lead artist on the project.

His ancestors told him about how tribal runners coordinated the revolt against the Spanish using knotted deer hide.

“At each pueblo, they dropped off a knotted cord to all the leaders and they instructed them to untie one knot every morning. So on the the day when the last knot was untied, then all the people rose up and pushed out the invaders.”

Experts call it the most successful Indigenous uprising in North American history, even though it has rarely been taught in schools.

“So I’m trying to educate globally about what happened to our people, the atrocities of bloodshed and eventually the peace that came after it, but using art.”

But this isn’t your average exhibit.

It explores the concept called Slipstream, where events in the past, present and future are occurring at the same time.

Wren Batista modeled for the exhibit.

“I’ve got this awesome silver crocodile skin patterned chest piece on with a spiky sort of headdress coming out of the back. And it’s all very sci-fi and transformative.”

The exhibit also features a projection room with colored lights, Indigenous symbols and characters searching for artifacts.

Batista says the layout of the exhibit shows that Indigenous history transcends time.

“That heritage has survived on despite the violence, despite the colonialism against them. And so to see it finally being socially relevant, to see voices like Virgil’s being highlighted by history centers is such an awesome turn of tides.”

Tune in to our next episode for part two and hear how the exhibit has made an impact on visitors

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A young Yup’ik man from Kipnuk, Alaska, joined TikTok in 2020, making videos of his everyday life living in a rural village just for fun. He couldn’t have predicted what following he would grow.

Martin Paul, 19, has over 140,000 followers and growing.

A majority of his videos are funny Native humor skits, but he also shares what it’s like living in a rural village including his Yup’ik culture and dancing.

Paul says he never imagined his videos would go viral.

“I started just wanting to share the Yup’ik culture, the Native culture on my platform. We have to share our culture to keep it alive, that’s very important, and my account just started growing and growing because people found that kind of thing interesting.”

Martin shares videos of riding on snow machines and four wheelers, the only form of transportation in his village, as well as videos of him going out in negative -20 F weather to get ice.

“In most of rural Alaska, there is no running water still. So what do we do? We get ice. There’s other ways to get water, but at the place I am at right now, Kipnuk, Alaska, we get water from ice.”

As for Paul’s funny Native humor skits, he says he gets his ideas from various places.

“A lot of the skits are do are memories I’ve had in the past, or experiences I’ve had. Or I’d hear a story from my parents or grandparents, and I’d act it out in a way, and just say whatever Is on my mind and the native humor would just come out,” Paul said.

Like this skit about being a Native weather man.

“Native weather report, super windy, the wind is winding, probably about thirty knots with the wind chill of twenty. And it’s slippery so, you know, you gotta be careful, because you might end up slipping into my arms.”

@nativevoiceone @martin.h21 chatted with Jill Fratis from our flagship station #KNBA about his @TikTok channel and high kicking at the #Native ♬ original sound – Native Voice One

Paul finds a balance on his channel sharing funny and informative content, but he says that because of his elders, he wants to make sure sharing his culture goes above all else.

“Well, the elders would always tell me to keep the culture alive. I grew up Yup’ik dancing, and I was always encouraged by my elders to always keep the songs alive, because they go way back and it’s so important to keep it alive basically.”

Paul says the best thing to come out of his channel is when people from all over the world reach out to to say what his videos have done for them.

“Quite a bit of people have told me that, ‘hey your videos make me happy when I’m sad,’ they’d say hey the song you posted was so relatable to me. There were a few people that nearly made me cry they were like ‘your song saved me’ or like your videos, I don’t know. Hearing that it meant so much to me.”

Martin is taking a break from college to be with family and spend time his home town, and continues to share his culture, humor, and life.

Photo courtesy: Frank Star Comes Out/Facebook

Complete with the pen President Joe Biden used to sign the RESPECT Act, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) recently presented a framed copy of the law to Oglala Sioux President Frank Star Comes Out.

Sen. Rounds sponsored the act.

It repealed eleven laws that, while not enforced, directly discriminated against Native peoples in American legal code.

Among other issues, these laws gave the federal government the right to ignore treaties, take Native children from families for placement in boarding schools, and economically disadvantage Native communities considered “hostile.”

Sen. Rounds said the bill represents a four-year effort.

“It is symbolic, but I think it sends the message that it’s time to turn the table between the federal government and the tribes and show the respect that sometimes has not been shown in the past. It would not have happened if it wasn’t for your work, and the work of a number of other tribes around the United States.”

Star Comes Out is also a representative of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association.

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Lake County commissioners Thursday delayed a decision about whether to stop county law enforcement work on the Flathead Reservation.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports the county is waiting for a court to weigh in.

Lake County commissioners pushed back the effective date for a resolution that would have stopped law enforcement services on the Flathead Reservation this week.

Commissioners say the county will continue policing the reservation while a court case to determine whether the county or state is financially responsible for that work plays out.

The county filed that lawsuit last year.

Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) recently vetoed a bill to pay Lake County $5 million over the next two years, arguing the state isn’t responsible for paying for law enforcement on the reservation.

Lake County, the state, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) entered into an agreement in the 1960s giving the county police jurisdiction, but it’s long been a question of who pays for those services.

The CSKT have repeatedly declined to comment on the issue.

The Lake County district court could make a ruling on the case this summer.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation Hospital in Bethel, Alaska, in October 2014. (Photo: Tiffany Beardslee/Wiki CC)

A new study in Southwest Alaska on COVID-19 vaccinations shows a high rate of success.

As reported in the Alaska Beacon, the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) tracked COVID cases throughout 2021 and found vaccines were 92% effective in preventing hospitalizations over the year.

They also helped to head off serious cases.

The mostly Yup’ik communities in the region have no road systems to distribute the vaccines, a lack of piped water and sanitation systems, and chronic overcrowding in homes – factors that put them at high risk for the spread of COVID.

Tribal governments and other health organizations helped to mobilize bush planes and snow machines to get the vaccine out to remote areas.

The study found that protection waned as the virus mutated but bounced back after booster shots.

YKHC says the study could have lessons for tribes across the nation.

The recognition for an Alaska Native soldier comes almost eighty years after he died in action in World War II.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA brings us the story of Pfc. George Fox, who grew up in Unga, a tiny village in the Shumagin Islands, that today has no inhabitants.

He signed up for the Army in 1941 just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The last his family heard from him was in a letter to his father, dated May 17, 1944, written in Italy, in which he downplayed the dangers he faced.

He said he was finally seeing a little action, but told his family not to worry about him.

Instead, he asked about the price of salmon and wrote, “I sure would like to be fishing again. This makes three seasons that I’ve missed.”

Two weeks later, Pfc. Fox died near Anzio Beach, a bloody campaign in which Allied Forces lost 800 soldiers a day.

“He was literally fighting the Nazis. A bomb exploded near him.”

Michael Livingston has spent almost a decade researching Pfc. Fox’s story.

He says he one of the forgotten soldiers of World War II – and the only Unangax to die in that war.

He says Pfc. Fox was buried in Italy, his remains later sent to Unalaska, where he was buried in an unmarked grave on a rocky hillside next to his mother, hidden underneath bushes that grew over his grave.

“Eighty years is really a long time for unfinished business. Pfc. George Fox should have been recognized in 1944 after he was killed in action.”

Last year, a headstone went up on Pfc. Fox’s grave followed by a full military ceremony.

This year, efforts to acknowledge his service continue. Pfc. Fox’s name was added to a fallen soldier’s memorial in Anchorage.

“You can see at the very bottom here, Pfc. George Fox’s name has been added, it was just added a few days ago. This is the first time that, since this wall was erected, that a new name has been added.”

Livingston doesn’t know why Pfc. Fox’s service was forgotten, possibly because he was an Alaska Native from a remote part of the world.

Livingston took some rubbings of the engraving for Pfc. Fox’s family.

As the black crayon rubbed the paper, and Pfc. Fox’s name emerged, Livingston said it was metaphor for what had happened – that Pfc. Fox’s sacrifice, once forgotten, is now finally coming into focus.

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