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One tribal official is offering details into the Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit recently held by Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD).

Gov. Noem convened the summit after tribes banned her for comments she made about cartels on reservations and about Native children not having any hope.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB)’s Lee Strubinger has more.

At least two tribes, Flandreau Santee and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes, sent members to the summit to hear from the governor and other law enforcement officials.

Representatives from the US Attorney’s office and Attorney General also attended.

Francis Wakeman is a spokesperson for the Flandreau Santee tribe.

He attended the summit and says it was a good first step.

“The governor was very interesting in going to Congress with the tribes and asking for additional appropriations that would benefit both the tribal and the state law enforcement. But, everything’s being held up because the BIA isn’t doing their data—I don’t know if they’re inputting it or what thew issue was there—but they’re not providing the data that reflect the necessity for the governor or the tribes to go to congress and ask for more money.”

He says no mutual aid agreements were made during the meeting. That’s something Gov. Noem wants to see happen.

Gov. Noem has said that could help with cross jurisdictional law enforcement.

Currently, state law enforcement cannot go onto tribal lands and tribal police cannot enforce the law off reservations.

Wakeman says that’s something they heard about from law enforcement officials.

“I think the governor got everybody in the right room and stuff like that. But it was interesting to hear from law enforcement—not the governor or not the head of tribes or anything like that, but actually the people on the ground doing the work. That was very eye opening. Ducking in and out of the reservations, state lands, bringing crimes to the reservation and state.”

Wakeman says many Native Nations were not in attendance, as the summit was held the day before celebrations for the Battle of Little Big Horn when Lakota and Northern Cheyenne defeated General George Armstrong Custer in what is now southeastern Montana.

The governor’s office says all nine tribes were represented at the summit. But, at least two tribes, Lower Brule and Rosebud Sioux Tribes, confirm to SDPB they did not send representatives to attend the summit.

When asked to clarify, the governor’s spokesperson Ian Fury said, “there were tribal members in attendance.”

Gov. Greg Gianfonte (R-MT).

Lake County commissioners turned down Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT)’s offer to temporarily pay for law enforcement services on the Flathead Reservation.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports this is part of an ongoing fight over who will manage felony crimes.

Lake County this spring was set to leave a longstanding agreement to arrest and prosecute tribal members for felony crimes, citing the cost of those services. But Gov. Gianforte argued the county couldn’t leave because of a paperwork technicality.

Gianforte offered the county $1.3 million over the next three years.

The governor said that money would give commissioners and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes time to work out funding.

The commissioners argued in a letter Monday that the state is trying to buy time while it too tries to step away from the deal.

Commissioners say the state is responsible for law enforcement on the Flathead Reservation and the county will bill the state for the enforcement of felony crimes.

Gov. Gianforte has previously said the state is not responsible for law enforcement on the reservation.

His office did not respond for comment by deadline.

Sheilah Nicholas, a professor in the University of Arizona’s College of Education and faculty member in the university’s American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI), leads a workshop for the Gila River Indian Community in 2019. The institute is now home to a new West Region Native American Language Resource Center. (Courtesy AILDI)

A new center at the University of Arizona, designated by the U.S. Department of Education, is working to help tribal communities revitalize and maintain their languages.

The new West Region Native American Language Resource Center is one of four inaugural centers doing similar work at other institutions.

The others are in Hawai’i, Oregon, and Nebraska.

The U of A center is focusing on Indigenous communities in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Bratt.

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

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

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

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

Clayton Dumont.

Clayton Dumont is Friendship House Program Director.

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

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

Friendship House Sweat Lodge.

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

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

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

Artists workshops. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation)

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma is offering a new series of workshops to provide artists with business development support.

The workshops will be held July through September.

The courses include helping artists connect with customers online, craft product descriptions, and report tax.

There will also be a workshop on how to produce a bronze sculpture from start to finish.

The workshops will be led by Cherokee National Treasures.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phillip Williams.

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

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

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

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

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

Watch our collaboration with FNX TV story here:

Mary C. Winder Community Center. (Courtesy Oneida Nation)

This weekend, the Oneida Indian Nation in New York is welcoming the Haudenosaunee Nationals women’s box lacrosse team to its new community center and field house for two practices.

The team will also offer girls box lacrosse camp for Oneida Nation community members for ages 15 and under and another for 20 and under.

A grand opening ceremony was recently held for the community center.

According to the tribe, the 90,000 sq. ft. center offers a number of resources to support cultural engagement and community building.

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The US Parole Commission is denying parole for Native American activist Leonard Peltier (member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians), who has served 49 years in federal prison.

Supporters worry the 79-year-old won’t make it to his next parole hearing.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Leonard Peltier is serving two life sentences for an incident in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation that led to a shootout between American Indian Movement activists and two FBI agents.

FBI Director Christopher Wray says Peltier fatally shot Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

Wray says Peltier has never accepted responsibility or shown remorse for the incident and is wholly unfit for parole.

Amnesty International calls Peltier’s continued incarceration a human rights travesty.

Some see Peltier, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, as a symbol of racism and oppression against Native Americans by the US criminal justice system.

He’s considered a champion for Native American civil rights.

Nick Tilsen (citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation), president and CEO of NDN Collective, characterizes the parole denial like a death sentence.

“They have chosen to take a boarding school survivor, taking America’s longest serving political prisoner in American history that’s Indigenous and keep him in prison for a crime that they have no physical evidence against him on.”

Ed Woods is a retired FBI agent with the No Parole Peltier association.

He’s fought for decades to keep Peltier behind bars.

“There’s been enough from Peltier that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s guilty—no matter how much he tries to pretend otherwise. As far as I’m concerned, justice spoke and continues.”

Tilsen says the organization will now push for clemency from President Joe Biden.

Peltier’s lawyers say appealing the parole decision could take years.

Time to free Peltier from prison is limited.

Supporters say Peltier is in declining health.

The Blackfeet Nation is one of two tribes to receive grant funding for enhanced cybersecurity. (Photo: Murray Foubister / Flickr)

Two Montana tribes will receive about $60,000 to bolster cybersecurity.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports these grants are the first time the federal government has helped tribes with cyber defenses.

The Blackfeet Nation will receive nearly $39,000 and the Chippewa Cree of the Rocky Boy Reservation will get nearly $22,000.

These grants come as cyberattacks have become a growing problem for businesses and governments big and small.

The FBI says cyberattacks and financial losses have risen steeply over the past five years.

Thirty-two tribes across the country received funding.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, tribes will be able to apply for millions of dollars more of cybersecurity funding next year.

The grants come from the bipartisan infrastructure bill congress passed in 2021.

Incoming AFN president Ben Mallott. (Courtesy AFN)

The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Board of Directors recently announced the selection of Ben Mallott as the organization’s next president.

AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska.

Mallott has been with the organization for more than a decade, currently serving as Vice President of External Affairs.

Board Co-Chair Joe Nelson cites Mallott’s background in Alaska Native issues and state and federal public policy as key to his selection.

Mallott will succeed Julie Kitka.

Kitka has led AFN for 40 years.

Kitka will be the keynote speaker at this year’s AFN’s annual convention in Anchorage in October to celebrate her legacy.

Mallott will begin his new role in August to allow an overlap with Kitka through October.

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(Photo: Mariam Nanalook / AFN)

Alaska’s heavy reliance on wild foods has prompted the U.S. Interior Department to take an unusual step.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, it has pulled the federal Office of Subsistence Management out from under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Emily Schwing and Sage Smiley of KYUK contributed to this story.

Roosevelt Arch, the north gate of Yellowstone National Park, one of the locations of this summer’s art exhibit. (Photo: Yunner / Wikipedia)

An arts nonprofit is partnering with Yellowstone National Park for a summerlong art installation at the park’s five entrances.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Olivia Weitz reports.

This year, the project features a traditional teepee at each entrance.

Minnesota’s Prairie Island Indian Community has opened a recreational cannabis dispensary.

Island Pezi, which means grass, is a Native cannabis company owned by the tribe located in Welch.

Prairie Island Tribal Council President Grant Johnson says the dispensary represents many important milestones and will create revenue for the tribe.

He also says it allows them to offer high-quality cannabis products to consumers.

The tribe is partnering with the White Earth Nation, carrying Native American-grown and branded cannabis from White Earth.

The tribe’s newly formed Cannabis Regulatory Commission will regulate the business.

Visitors to the business must be 21 or older.

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Native young people from across the country are gathered in Portland, Ore. this week.

They’re enhancing their leadership skills at the United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY), Inc. Conference, as Rhonda LeValdo reports.

This year’s UNITY Conference theme is “Revitalizing Our Roots”, which focuses on increasing access to cultural protective factors and traditional tools to improve the mental health of Native youth nationwide.

UNITY attendee Mateni Hutchins. (Photo: Rhonda LeValdo)

First time attendee Mateni Hutchins from the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation says it’s been a great experience.

“Leadership wise, it’s good to have communications with all the people to know like what needs to be done, what does not need to be done, and what’s already finished. And that, other than that you can like communicate, like try to help others when they need it, and when they don’t.”

UNITY attendee Miss Indian Northwest Leilonnie Wilson. (Photo: Rhonda LeValdo)

Many tribal royalty are in attendance.

Miss Indian Northwest Leilonnie Wilson says it helps with her leadership skills.

“For two years, I was our female co-president and so I had to get up and talk about, you know, what we have done, you know, what we are accomplished or what we want to accomplish. So you know, being and talking in front of the whole region and it kind of brought me out of my shell, you know. Especially with royalty, that’s another thing, you know takes me out of my shell. It helps with my public speaking skills.”

On Monday, all attendees will take a trip to visit the NIKE world headquarters.

The conference ends on July 3.

Sealaska Heritage Institute Director of Archives and Collections Emily Galgano shows the Chilkat robe. (Photo: Yvonne Krumrey / KTOO)

A Wisconsin museum has sent a Chilkat robe it’s had for the last 80 years to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska.

The idea is to identify which clan it belongs to and give it back to them.

KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey has more.

In the basement of the Walter Soboleff building on a recent afternoon, Emily Galgano opened a huge white cabinet.

She pulled out a long drawer with a Chilkat robe laying inside. The robe’s colors are faded.

“So it could be very old, or it could be less old. I’m assuming at least 100, 150 years old. But it’s hard to say exactly.”

In May, a Wisconsin museum sent a Chilkat robe that it’s had for the last 80 years to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau to identify which clan it belongs to and, hopefully, give it back to them.

Galgano is Sealaska Hertiage Institute’s archives and collections director.

She said the robe is a diving whale design.

Some of the black coloring has faded to purple and rust. Other spots are still rich and dark, which could indicate a different batch of dye.

With gloves on, Galgano flipped a corner of the robe to reveal colors much closer to how they might have looked when the robe was new: dark blacks and bright yellows.

Earlier this month, the robe was on display during Celebration.

Galgano had hoped that people might see it and know something about its origins.

“We’re always working with the community to try and crowdsource that sort of information. This is the first time I’ve done something with an object like this, that’s of this scale — but we have done similar, smaller projects.”

The robe is on loan from the Rahr-West Museum in Manitowoc, Wisc.

Greg Vadney, the museum’s executive director, said they don’t have anything else like it — he believes it came to the museum in the 1940s from someone who served in the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska.

“We have nothing else that we know that even comes from the Pacific Northwest, let alone Alaskan tribal culture. So we were excited to be able to return it to its home. And we’re also very excited that hopefully, while it’s at Sealaska Heritage, some of the gaps in the history that we don’t know about — some of that detail can get filled in in this partnership.”

He said the idea to reach out to SHI came from Manitowoc artist Skip Wallen, who designed the whale sculpture in Juneau’s Overstreet Park.

Vadney said Rahr-West is eager to return the robe to its original owners.

“Certainly as a museum, oftentimes we kind of, unfortunately, look at the things as things, and forget about the material culture of it and the human element. And in this case, the spiritual element that is inherent to it.”

The robe is on loan to SHI for the next year, but it could stay in Juneau long term while the organizations decide next steps.

“Our thought process is, this is a step towards repatriation.”

Galgano said SHI’s next step will be gathering expert weavers to study the robe.

“If it belongs to a clan, and it’s something like at.oo — where it’s a clan-owned object — then we also have a process where clans can long-term loan items here, where we’ll still care for it. It’ll still be in our climate-controlled vault and taken care of here, but it won’t belong to the museum, and they can then check it out for ceremonies, things like ku.eek.”

Galgano said she wants anyone who thinks they may have information about the robe to make an appointment to come see it by emailing her at emily.pastore@sealaska.com.

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After delays, Montana’s Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force has been re-created with more members and new staff.

Montana Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin has more.

The new task force members met for the first time last week.

The group has existed in Montana since 2019, but it hasn’t met since lawmakers funded an expansion of their work within the Montana Department of Justice (MTDOJ) last year.

The bill was carried by State Rep. Tyson Running Wolf (Blackfeet Nation/D-MT) from Browning.

“We’re still in the dark about, you know, how it’s going to function, but at least we got the task force in place and we got that position filled. It’s better late than never.”

Lawmakers last year also allocated $60,000 to train Missing Person Response Teams, but as of last week, the MTDOJ said that money hasn’t been spent.

Montana has one of the highest rates of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) in the nation.

Indigenous people make up around 7% of Montana’s population, but 26% of the state’s missing persons cases, according to MTDOJ.

This new task force is made up of representatives from tribal, state, and federal offices, and the Montana Highway Patrol.

Haley Omeasoo (citizen of the Hopi Tribe and a Blackfeet descendant) is one of the new members.

She’s a University of Montana PhD student studying forensics and the founder of a company that investigates missing person cases.

“I’ll basically just kind of be the person that brings the forensic science aspect to the task force. I’m kind of hoping that I can be that person that will start to do, like, the actual case work. For some of these missing and murdered indigenous persons cases.”

The newly expanded task force plans to meet quarterly going forward.

Organizers gather at the federal courthouse building in downtown Rapid City, S.D. calling for the release of Leonard Peltier. (Photo: Lee
Strubinger / SDPB)

A caravan full of activists and organizers worked its way through downtown Rapid City on Thursday calling for Leonard Peltier’s release from federal prison.

Peltier has spent nearly five decades behind bars.

As South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger reports, a US Parole board is set to decide on Peltier’s release in the coming days.

The Iron Bull drum group plays as over two dozen vehicles roll up to the Federal Courthouse in downtown Rapid City on a hot summer day.

The caravan’s message is simple: Release Leonard Peltier.

Peltier is serving two life sentences for an incident that turned into a shootout between American Indian Movement members and FBI agents near the Pine Ridge Reservation town of Oglala.

The incident resulted in the death of the two FBI agents.

Peltier supporters call him America’s preeminent political prisoner.

Jean Roach was there that day in 1975.

She says Peltier’s case is emblematic of more than the incident.

“The whole story doesn’t start with Leonard Peltier. It starts with first contact. Leonard Peltier is an example—they’re making him an example of what can happen or what is happening. Until they let Leonard Peltier free there’s not going to be no good faith effort between us and the United State’s government.”

Peltier had a hearing before the US Pardons and Parole board earlier this month.

The board is expected to decide on Peltier’s release starting in early July.

In his letter to the pardon’s commission, FBI Director Christopher Wray called Peltier a “ruthless murderer”.

Supporters say Peltier’s health is failing. He has type-2 diabetes and is losing his eyesight.

Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota Nation) is the President and CEO of NDN Collective. He says Peltier is not receiving proper medical care.

“He gets really disoriented because part of what connected him to the outside world was writing letters. This is a message, too. If anyone wants to send him letters, it’s got to come in about 22-point font for him to be able to read it. He’s strong in the sense that he’s still has that fight in him to fight for his freedom and fight for the people. But his health is deteriorating.”

Tilsen was one of two individuals allowed to testify in favor of Peltier’s release earlier this month.

If Peltier is not granted parole, Tilsen says they’ll start a clemency push from President Joe Biden.

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The Native-led organization NDN Collective is holding a caravan drive Thursday in Rapid City, S.D., calling for the release of Leonard Peltier.

A parole hearing was held on June 10 and a decision from the U.S. Parole Commission is expected to take place soon.

The leader of the organization was one of two people to testify at Peltier’s parole hearing outlining a re-entry plan and what his release would mean for Indian Country.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Nick Tilsen is the president and CEO of NDN Collective.

He was one of two witnesses who testified in favor of Peltier’s release at a parole hearing.

Peltier is serving two life sentences in federal prison after being convicted for taking part in a fatal shootout between American Indian Movement members and FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975.

Tilsen says the fight for Peltier’s release is an uphill battle, but he says he left the parole hearing with a little hope.

“One of the reasons why we fight for Leonard so fiercely is that how Leonard was treated during his prosecution and continued prosecution is consistent with how they have treated Indian people throughout history.”

Tilsen says NDN Collective has purchased a house for Peltier on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota, where Peltier is enrolled.

He says he outlined Peltier’s re-entry plan, including helping Peltier get signed up for programming services through Indian Health Service (IHS) community health as well as building a sweat lodge near the home.

Kevin Sharp is Peltier’s lawyer.

He says if parole is approved, he expects an appeal from those opposed to his release.

Then, he says, Peltier would start re-entry.

“Leonard would likely be transferred to a medical facility while we work on getting the process inside the bureau of prisons taken care of. Could likely take months to get him out. If it is denied, then our next step is to appeal to the national appeal board.”

If they lose the parole hearing, Sharp says it could take years to appeal through the courts.

“Any appeal of any case ends up taking way too long.”

Peltier’s supporters feel time is of the essence.

Sharp says Peltier’s health is failing.

His next parole hearing would be in 15 years, which, he says, Peltier likely would not make it to.

Those opposed to Peltier’s release say he has not earned parole and should serve out his two life sentences.

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Tribes and states will have another opportunity this summer to compete for federal funding to address collisions between wildlife and cars.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.

About 1-2 million motor vehicles crash into wildlife each year in the U.S.

Kylie Paul, a road ecologist with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, says that threatens animals, human life, and property.

“Each year, it costs Americans more than $10 billion to hit wildlife on their roadways.”

Last year, the Federal Highway Administration gave out $110 million for bridges, tunnels, fencing, and broader plans to keep animals off roadways. 

But Paul says states and tribes proposed more than three times as many projects than got funded.

“It’s very evident that states and other entities across the country are really looking to address this problem.”

Now, the federal agency is giving out more money for crossings.

Applications are due in September.

Isabel Deroy-Olson, left, and Lily Gladstone star in “Fancy Dance”. (Courtesy Apple TV+)

Fancy Dance will begin streaming globally on Apple TV+ this week.

The film follows Jax, played by Lily Gladstone, who searches for her missing sister, while she also cares for her niece, on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma.

Writer and director Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga Nation) talked to National Native News about how the film is raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

Tremblay says she hopes the film bring some humanity to these topics, which she says is not often the case in Hollywood.

“You go online and it’s hardly a day goes by where you don’t see a missing poster coming across our social feeds. And I think that there’s just so many people in this country that don’t realize that this epidemic exists and how traumatic and how impactful it is on our communities. So we wanted to tell a story about these issues, also forced removal of Native kids from, you know, ICWA was going through the Supreme Court while we were writing this and it was really important for us to talk about these topics, but do it in a way that the story is told through the survivors of this and the people left behind.”

Tremblay says when it came to character development the writers were inspired by their own friends and family members.

“We cared about these characters and we curated them and we built them in a way that mirrored the people in our lives that we love and respect so much and our heroes. You know, Jax is an amalgamation of my mom and my aunties and queer folks that have guided me through my journey on this earth. And so I hope people do recognize people and themselves and that they feel excited and inspired and represented.”

And as far as Native representation in Hollywood, Tremblay says she’s hopeful there’s more to come.

“We’re finally arriving at a place where our talents are being recognized and we’re being allowed to tell our own stories. And I’m optimistic but guarded that this will continue because we’re certainly not going backwards. But it’s about time and Hollywood still hasn’t done enough, right? There’s still so much work to do and there’s still so much more to, so many more stories to be expressed. So, I’m hopeful that there will be more to come.”

“Fancy Dance” streams on Apple TV+ on Friday.

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