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On Monday, Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Apache people and their allies, asked all 29 judges on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review its case to protect Oak Flat in Arizona from a mining project.

In March, the group received a blow in its efforts to protect the site after a panel of 11 judges on the court ruled 6-5 that the federal government can transfer Oak Flat to Resolution Copper.

The group is trying to prevent the land transfer saying the copper project violates religious freedom.

Attorneys say Monday’s appeal gives the full court one more chance to protect Oak Flat before the case goes to the Supreme Court.

The area is sacred to Western Apache and other Native people.

In a statement, Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold said Oak Flat is the heart and soul of the Apache where generations come to connect with their Creator and conduct ceremonies.

In March, the court ruled the land transfer is not subject to federal laws protecting religious freedom.

After that ruling, Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of foreign-owned mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP, welcomed it saying the project will help supply copper to the U.S., create jobs and boost Arizona’s economy.

The Ninth Circuit is expected to decide by the fall whether all 29 judges will rehear the case.

Research shows cultural tourism is on the rise in Indian Country, because travelers crave authenticity and want deeper experiences with Indigenous peoples.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, Alaska tribes could be poised to take advantage of this trend.

Cultural tourism in Alaska can be as simple as a hike on a trail with a Native storyteller – or a visit to a dance festival.

Although it’s still in its infancy, Emily Edenshaw says cultural tourism holds a lot of promise for the whole state.

“It’s a sleeping giant. It’s untapped.”

Edenshaw is director of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, one of five Native groups across the nation to receive federal money to expand cultural tourism.

Edenshaw says it’s an opportunity to re-think tourism in Alaska, which has come to rely too much on wildlife and scenery to draw tourists.

“Come and see the mountains and the brown bears and come explore and discover and go on the glaciers and look at the berries. What about the Indigenous experience? Our people have been here for 10,000 years, in some cases even longer than that.”

The Heritage Center will receive about $50,000 to boost tourism.

The money comes from the Office of Indian Economic Development, under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has partnered with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association to oversee the grants.

Sherry Rupert, the association’s director, says it’s a good time to invest in Indigenous tourism.

“Visitation to our communities is increasing. That’s why we’re so interested in supporting efforts up in Alaska. Alaska has the largest number of federally recognized tribes than in any other state. There is so much potential there for these small communities.”

Rupert says cultural tourism not only creates jobs and economic opportunity, but also helps tribes hold on to their heritage.

“I think it really sparks a light and really sparks that pride in who they are, so it helps us to preserve our cultural identity.”

Edenshaw says the grant will be leveraged with other private and public funds – and will complement ongoing efforts at the Heritage Center to study on the impacts of cultural tourism.

“We need to get the data. We need to know how many jobs it creates. We need to know the economic impact through a cultural tourism lens. And the truth is, this has never happened before.”

As the Alaska Native Heritage Center approaches its 25th anniversary, Edenshaw says it’s well positioned to be a statewide leader in cultural tourism and share what it’s learned over the years about what does and doesn’t work.

Some of the other organizations to receive funding: the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York, The Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce in South Dakota, the Shonto Economic Development Corporation in Arizona, and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association in Honolulu.

University of Utah women’s basketball forward Alissa Pili was picked by the Minnesota Lynx during Monday night’s 2024 WNBA Draft.

Pili, from Anchorage, Alaska, is Alaska Native and Samoan.

She’s had a large following at games from the Native community.

After her pick, ESPN asked what it means to be representing her cultures.

“A lot of Indigenous and Polynesian girls don’t get to see that role model and I’m just so blessed that I could be in the position to be that for them.”

Pili was the number eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft.

we got our girl. 🔥 @alissa_pili pic.twitter.com/QgdL7vbgAC

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) April 16, 2024

 

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In January 2023, a catastrophic fire destroyed the generator and a backup source of power for Newtok’s school. The charred remains are housed inside a metal container behind the main school building. (Photo: Emily Schwing / KYUK)

A group of Alaska Native mothers from the village of Newtok reported on deteriorating conditions in their community at the annual Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage last week.

As Emily Schwing reports, climate change means the permafrost under the Alaska Native community is deteriorating and causing severe erosion.

The village has been trying to relocate for more than three decades.

The five women took to the stage barefoot, in solidarity for their friends and family members who live in Newtok. 

For many years, the village has been working with several state and federal agencies to relocate the entire community – nearly 400 people –  to higher, more stable ground at Mertarvik. It’s nine miles across the Ninglick River.

Carolyn George is a Newtok Village Council member. 

“There is no blueprint on how to do this relocation. Relocating the whole community to a whole different place and, we did not know how to do it and it’s been taking too long.” 

There are neatly 150 communities in Alaska considering partial and full relocations due to climate change driven environmental disasters.

Jackie Schaeffer is the Director of Climate Initiatives at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

Schaeffer says lessons from Newtok and Mertarvik can inform those future projects. 

“This is just one community of many that will need to be relocated in the state of Alaska and if we can’t figure it out for a community of 400 people there’s no way when we hit Louisiana, la and all the other lower 48 communities, that we’re gonna be able to figure it out.” 

In the meantime, she says the mothers of Newtok are an inspiration.

“They’re going to adapt.”

Digital Exclusive: The last day of the Arctic Encounter Symposium Friday ended with a discussion about emergency preparedness and disaster contingency.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA has more.

The panel of five included Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Geraldine Byrne Nason; and Melanie Bahnke, President & CEO of Kawerak, Inc.

After hearing the plans the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and DHS had for the future of arctic communities, Bahnke responded saying she would rather have proactive action, rather than responding after a disaster happens in the Native Village of Savoonga where she lives.

“We’re the most wealthy country in the world, and to tell me we can’t build a sea wall, but yet we’re going to respond when we have a flooded community is – I’ll say it in a nice way, malarkey.”

Britt’nee Brower is from Utgiagvik, formerly known as Barrow.

She say that the changes that are happening to the community are happening at a rapid pace.

“Growing up in Barrow in terms of the beach, we’ve had a lot of roads wash out these days, to where we don’t have a road anymore, and you have to travel by ATV or ski-doo.”

She says that, while gatherings like Arctic Encounter are a great way for everyone to put their minds together for the betterment of Arctic communities, it might too late and adapting to the changes is the way to go.

“In a perfect world, it would be ideal to have it be successful, but facing realities I feel like, within the community, I’m sure we can adapt to changes. I feel like we’ve been doing that for years now, the changes in the permafrost where our Ice sellers are melting now. We’re figuring out ways to adapt to those changes, but I’m hoping we figure something out.”

As for Bahnke, she says regardless of what happens in the future as far as climate change, she will not leave her community.

“We’re not moving. We’re not moving to Anchorage, we’re not moving to Ireland, I’m sorry, but these are our homelands. Where our ancestors have thrived for thousands of years, and all of a sudden, we’re experiencing these rapid weather events. Rapid climate change. We’re not going anywhere.”

Each year during Arctic Encounter, more than 1,000 stakeholders, domestic and international, gather to address the most pressing challenges in the Arctic region.

A formal process begins this week in Anchorage to document Native boarding school abuse.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports.

The project is part of the U.S. Interior Department’s Federal Boarding School Initiative.

The National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition will conduct three days of interviews.

Although the testimony will be given in private, it will become a permanent part of a national oral history collection.

From the early 1900’s to the 1970’s, Alaska Native children from rural areas across the state were forcibly taken away from their families and sent hundreds of miles away to boarding school.

In some cases, they faced physical abuse and sexual assault.

The session begins with opening ceremonies Monday at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

 

40 acres near Bear Butte have been purchased by an Indigenous-led organization in the hopes of teaching the next generation about traditional values and land stewardship.

The group’s leaders say it’s also a chance to reclaim a piece of what was stolen after colonization.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene checks in.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project has purchased the Black Hills land adjacent to a culturally significant site – Bear Butte.

Group CEO Julie Garreau says when reservations are hours from these important places, it becomes a matter of access.

“It’s also really a practical thing to do, because the Black Hills and those sacred sites are extremely important to the connection to Lakota people. Being able to access them is critical in terms of raising healthy, young Lakota children. It is, for us, a place we can call home in our traditional homelands.”

More than that though, Garreau says reclaiming this space after over a century of broken treaty obligations stirs deep emotion.

“The Supreme Court already said that land is ours, they wanted to pay for it, and we won’t accept it. Is it unfair that we had to buy it? Yeah, it is, but we did what we had to do because the kids that we work with are so important. It was overwhelming and highly emotional within our own team, and when the announcement came out, I think everybody here was as emotional as I was.”

In turn, Garreau says they can deepen the well of cultural programming they offer.

“We want to teach kids about what the land can offer them in terms of foods and medicinal plants. I think a lot of people refer to the plains as food deserts, and I don’t really believe that’s what that is. I think we have a lot of our traditional foods, we just can’t access them because we don’t have access to the land like we used to.”

The land dedication ceremony will be held in private at the end of the month.

 

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Dignitaries, high ranking military officials, and Indigenous leaders from across the Arctic are in Anchorage this week.

As KYUK’s Emily Schwing reports, they’re here for the annual Arctic Encounter Symposium – the largest annual Arctic policy-focused gathering in the United States.

Pearl Brower is the President and CEO of the Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC).

She says the people who live every day in the Arctic should be the focus beyond this week’s discussions.

“When you’re thinking about the Arctic while you’re here, think about us, think about the people and that’s, I think, really the key critical component. As policy makers, as people working within the region, thinking about the arctic, we think about the people first, because that’s what it’s all about.”

Brower, who is from Utqiaġvik, was among six Indigenous leaders from across the state who took to the main stage at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center to kick off this year’s symposium with a conversation about their visions for success into the future.

Roy Algoinga grew up in White Mountain. He was recently named the President and CEO of the First Alaskans Institute, a policy and advocacy non-profit organization that also focuses on building leadership skills among Alaska Native youth. He says any future success must include younger generations.

“I look at our youth as the starting point of new discussion of change, of functionality of being capable to move forward with all of the things that we need in our community.”

Among the long list of topics on the Arctic Encounter agenda this week are discussions on sustainable energy, infrastructure investments, and emergency preparedness in the Arctic.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA spoke with some Arctic Encounter attendees about top priorities facing their regions, as speakers Wednesday from around the world discussed topics such as Arctic energy investments, and climate change, something a majority of attendees, especially in Alaska say they are impacted by.

Britt’nee Brower from Utgiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, says growing up, the land was lush, and spread out.

As the years went by, she noticed many changes due to climate change.

“There’s been a lot of changes going on in Barrow in terms of the beach. We’ve had a lot of roads wash out these days, to where we don’t have a road anymore, and you have to travel by ATV or ski-doo.”

Brower says that while there have been projects in the past to try to rebuild the roads after the erosion, it’s short lived.

As far as hunting, she says hunters are struggling.

“Over the past 20 years that I’ve witnessed we’ve lost a lot of our beach. I think some of the hunters have to go further out with the ice and the walrus.”

Emmalina Gayayok is from Togiak, and while erosion is also a problem in her village, the berries too have taken a hit.

“Our rivers that laid out to the ocean also changed drastically, and our berries on the tundra kind of dried up, and they’re really scarce.”

Arctic regions are disproportionately impacted by climate warming at twice the rate of non-Arctic regions, according to the Arctic Encounter.

Speakers in the afternoon consisted of scientists, ambassadors, and senior advisors.

They discussed the future of the climate and how to navigate the changes happening in such a rapid pace.

Brower worries about what will happen when the permafrost continues to melt, and for the future of her community, but she says they will always work together to roll with the tide.

“I feel like within the community, I’m sure we can adapt to changes. I feel like we’ve been doing that for years now.”

The Arctic Encounter continues through Friday.

LISTEN to this Arctic Encounter web extra from NNN anchor Antonia Gonzales and NNN reporter Rhonda LeValdo

 

Several Anishinaabe tribes in northern Michigan decided not to tap their maple trees this spring after an unusually mild winter.

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is one of those tribes who’ve decided to let their trees rest. Despite that, the band was able to continue with parts of the tradition at their sugar shack, using maple sap that had been saved or traded for.

Interlochen Public Radio’s Ellie Katz spoke with Tera John, who works on restoring traditional foodways and food sovereignty for the Grand Traverse Band.

Kathleen Smith works for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Smith, whose title in Anishinaabemowin is ganawandang manoomin, or “she who takes care of the wild rice,” does a lot of work with traditional foods in the upper Great Lakes. And she says some places went ahead with sugar bush.

“The areas where I have harvested and helped, the sugar bushes, they’re doing quite well. They were offering themselves up.”

Smith is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

She’s helped out with sugar bush in a few places in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin this year, where she says they had signs to harvest, like heavy snowpack over the winter and good freeze-and-thaw conditions in early spring.

But with steadily warming winters plus challenges like disease and pests, Smith says it will become more and more important for tribal communities across the Great Lakes to talk with each other and keep rebuilding foodways and traditions.

“So for instance, like the black ash [tree and] the emerald ash borer … we had relatives downstate that were asking us for black ash, since we didn’t have [the borer] yet. I think it’s important that communities that still have sap running – maybe we could trade for something later on. Because we need to bring that back, we need to be able to help our relatives out as well, that weren’t able to do sugar bush.”

Back at the sugar shack in Peshawbestown, Tera John pulls out a few bottles of maple syrup harvested nearby that she was able to trade for.

She pours the liquid into a cast iron pot over the fire and starts stirring.

“I’m boiling it down. I’m going to sugar this.”

After several hours of careful stirring, the syrup will thicken, eventually reducing down to a granular, golden-brown sugar.

John has led a few sugar bush workshops like this one to teach tribal and non-tribal community members about the tradition. And the band’s agriculture department says they’re aiming to tap 600 trees next year, up from around 300 last year.

They’ve invested in new equipment and home tree-tapping kits to give out to families, thanks in part to a big grant aimed at reinvigorating food traditions for tribal members.

 

Later in the afternoon, the sun comes out and more people have joined around the fire.

John says this – the act of showing up to sugar bush with intention, being outside the sugar shack and near the ininaatigoog, the sugar maples – is vital during this year of rest, for the people and the trees.

“I’m going to sugar this down and show these guys that I mean business to take care of them. This is what I’m intending for them – to occupy this space throughout the year, to host workshops, or harvesting, or teachings, storytellings right here so we can live life with these guys.

“They miss our laughter, and our arguing, and our kids running around. They’re supposed to be part of our lives … we’re coming back. We’ll learn how.”

 

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An inter-tribal council from Native Nations, mostly in Wisconsin, wants to create a substance use recovery center for young people in an area that’s considered a treatment desert for recovery facilities.

As WXPR’s Hannah Davis-Reid reports, they’ve hit a roadblock.

The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) is a non-profit organization that serves Native people in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Over the past 20 years, they’ve worked on plans for a recovery and wellness center for young people.

The 36-bed facility is designed to treat and support Indigenous youth with culturally relevant services and amenities.

It would also serve non-Native youth.

However, the local town board of Cassian doesn’t want the center in their area and has been fighting against it for the last year.

Last week, the Oneida County Planning and Zoning Committee denied the permits to build the center.

The committee cited a concern of a drop in nearby property values and that GLITC could place the property in a sovereign trust as its reasoning for rejecting the permit.

This is President Shannon Holsey of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, one of GLITC’s member tribes.

“You have to remember, sovereign immunity is ‘of the sovereign’, you’re talking about 12 tribal nations that are involved in this project. So there wouldn’t even be continuity to the involvement of whose sovereign immunity it was.”

GLITC does plan to continue with the project, saying it’s too important to not reassess and move forward on.

This time of year is typically maple syrup season in northern Michigan when daytime highs get above freezing while nights stay cold.

But this year’s mild winter meant that many people began tapping their trees unusually early in January and February.

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians took the warmer weather as a sign to let their sugar maples rest.

Interlochen Public Radio environment reporter Ellie Katz has more, in the first of a two-part special feature.

Tera John is gathering kindling for a fire outside the Grand Traverse Band’s sugar shack in Peshawbestown. The sound of a woodpecker echoes through the woods.

“We listen for that guy to return to sugar bush. That woodpecker is saying those bugs underneath the bark are starting to wake up.”

John is a tribal member and works with the Grand Traverse Band’s agriculture department on restoring traditional foodways and food sovereignty.

She says the sound of woodpeckers is just one of many ecological signs that the trees are waking up again and their sap is starting to flow — that it’s time for sugar bush.

“We are coming back to this forest, this grove. These maples – we call him ininaatig. That’s our standing brother, our elder brother, the one who, like, gives you the side-eye if you’re not behaving at Thanksgiving dinner. That’s the maple for us.”

Tapping maple trees for sap, syrup and sugar is an old Anishinaabe tradition — one that John and the tribe are working to strengthen after generations of settlement made it harder to practice and pass down.

“The beginning of the year is sugar bush. When we report for sugar bush, we check in with our family, get the good gossip. We laugh together, argue … everything that families do.”

March is typically sugar bush season in northern Michigan, when daytime highs get above freezing while nights stay cold. But this year’s mild winter meant that many people began tapping their trees unusually early, in January and February.

John says she became concerned when signs to tap started coming early — things like the sound of woodpeckers and the appearance of baby skunks. She says the snowpack never came all the way up to the trunks of the trees.

“That was a red flag for me. And I asked my elders about what to do and what to say. And I asked the trees, because they have not been respected or appropriately thanked or allowed to rest for quite a long time.”

With that input, she decided the band’s agriculture department would let the trees rest, then hopefully tap next year.

CJ Minzey, agriculture coordinator at Grand Traverse Band, says he was excited about the decision.

“The way Tera [John] explained it to me, was our tradition was we’d tap three years, and then give the fourth year a break. I was really pushing to get that going. … Because I think it’d be nice to give Mother Nature a break.”

They’re not alone in that choice.

Several other tribes, like the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and the Saginaw Chippewa, are doing the same.

Tune into National Native News tomorrow for part two of Ellie Katz’s special feature

 

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Construction on a memorial to honor the nearly 50 documented children who died at a Rapid City Indian Boarding school starts soon.

Officials say crews will finish the memorial by Native American Day in October.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

After World War II, the city of Rapid City, through a congressional authorization, annexed 1,200 acres of land of what’s called West Rapid.

The move displaced natives living near the former Sioux Sanitorium.

Native Americans were then moved to what’s considered North Rapid.

A new memorial will pay homage to that displacement as well as honor 50 children believed to have died when the facility was a boarding school.

“The intention is to build empathy and understanding in our community.”

That’s Amy Sazue (Lakota), Executive Director of the Remembering the Children Memorial.

“To help people understand their community members and neighbors a little bit better. To understand race relations in our community a little bit better. See some of the symptoms of historical trauma and understand those that are suffering from historical trauma a little bit better.”

The memorial will be built on tribal trust land belonging to the Rosebud, Oglala, and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes.

The location is near West Middle School and Canyon Lake United Methodist Church.

Once construction is complete, the next phase of the memorial will take shape, which is art installation.

Sazue says the memorial will look like a public art space.

“The spirit of different parts of the story have to be present, and there’s no better way to do that than through art. Everything on site, actually — there are benches, there’s a little plaza where people enter, there’s a food shelter where people can have meals — everything is being designed by artists.”

The memorial will also feature a sculpture by Indigenous artists, who will work collaboratively with South Dakota sculptor Dale Lamphere.

The sculpture will likely be installed by Spring of 2025.

Tribes across the country observed Monday’s solar eclipse in various ways or took time to reflect during its occurrence.

Tribes have different beliefs and stories regarding solar eclipses with cultural narratives that vary.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma held a Solar Eclipse viewing party.

One of Cherokee Nation stories focuses on a frog.

As educator, storyteller, and Cherokee Nation National Treasure Robert Lewis explains, the story originates around the 1800s.

Lewis says Cherokee people gathered and noticed a darkness across the landscape, they noticed the sun being covered – a giant frog swallowing the sun so they decided to scare it away.

Here’s part of the story Lewis shared on social media.

“They decided they were going to try and scare it away. So, the medicine people said we need to frighten it away they pulled out their guns and firearms and started to shoot them in the air and got their pots and pans and began to bang as well. They did every kind of noise they can to frighten the frog away. Eventually, the sun came back, the mouth let go and the frog disappeared. That’s basically the story that has been passed down. As a storyteller I can embellish it and have other aspects of the creature showing up. The basic part is the frog was coming to swallow the sun and we scared it away.”

Lewis says during an eclipse, Cherokee people will go out and try and frighten the frog away.

The Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma also held activities and events across Choctaw Country to observe and educate.

A Choctaw story involves a black squirrel who nibbled the sun as Choctaw people noticed it getting darker, so they scared the squirrel away.

The Navajo Nation, located in the Four Corners region, views the eclipse as a sacred time – traditionally staying indoors, praying, and reflecting.

The Navajo Nation kept the executive branch open, as well as essential services including police and hospitals.

The solar eclipse crossed North America where people gathered at various location, especially in the path of totality from Mexico, across the United States from Texas to Maine and Canada’s Atlantic coast.

 

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Two Western South Dakota tribes are giving a Rapid City-based women’s health clinic a month to turn around its program.

The Native American-centered, pre-natal care clinic in question has seen zero patients since last April.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Rosebud and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal officials are giving the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Native Women’s Health Clinic until May 4 to implement a corrective action plan, staff the clinic, and start seeing patients again.

All three tribes contract with the federal government to provide pre-natal and women’s healthcare for tribal members in Rapid City. The Oglala Sioux Tribe administers the program.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out says the tribe has addressed the Native Women’s Health Clinic.

“We’ve already addressed that. We already made agreements that, we hired—that situation’s been handled. It’ll be monitored from here on out. We have—we definitely did address it. It’ll be handled by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, for now.”

Star Comes Out says the intention is for the tribe to still run the clinic going forward.

A report last year found the number of healthcare visits quickly decreased over three years, down to zero since last April. Patients are being referred elsewhere—including to an Oyate Health Center midwife located a floor below the clinic.

During a March tribal council meeting, Rosebud Sioux Tribal president Scott Hermann said the tribe is considering moving its share of funding to cover women’s health to Oyate Health Center.

Hermann says the tribe needs to do what is in the best interest of tribal members living in Rapid City.

“Because it can cause some problems. We can be liable for anything that could happen to them because we’re not providing that service for them,” Hermann said. “Something happens as far as their pregnancy, or a miscarriage or something like that, that comes into play. Those kind of issues will come up if we don’t address it.”

Some estimate the lack of services affects anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 of enrolled Native women living near the Black Hills.

On-site counseling will be offered at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. this week.

This follows Friday’s announcement by police that Haskell student and actor Cole Brings Plenty was found deceased.

The Haskell community and the greater Kansas City Native community were hoping for his safe return after he went missing on March 31.

Community events have been taking place on campus since last week to hold space and offer support.

A candlelight vigil was held over the weekend.

Morningstar Counseling, which will be on campus Monday and Tuesday, says its services for students, staff, and faculty are to help address grief and loss.

Police say Brings Plenty was found in a wooded area in Johnson County late Friday morning.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and are not providing further details.

The Lawrence Kansas Police Department was seeking his arrest in connection to an alleged domestic violence incident.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota released a statement Friday saying Brings Plenty is a citizen of the tribe, and that the tribe is offering its deepest sympathy and support to his family and friends.

The statement goes on to say the tribe is demanding a full and thorough investigation into Brings Plenty’s disappearance and death, and that the tribe’s attorney general will be in contact with Kansas authorities.

His family released a statement Friday thanking people for their support and asked for privacy as they grieve.

Brings Plenty’s disappearance and subsequent death not only impacted the greater Kansas City Native community, but people across Indian Country have been offering their support.

An online campaign asks his supporters to wear braids on Monday in his honor, but also to raise awareness of the missing and murdered Indigenous people’s movement.

 

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The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe is reacting to the South Dakota governor showing up to a meeting between tribes and the federal government last week.

The Pine Ridge leader says the Republican governor’s actions were a distraction.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Last Friday, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) tweeted she felt it was important to show up at a meeting between various South Dakota tribes and the Biden Administration.

She says it was an important conversation as they discussed co-stewardship of the Black Hills.

But tribal officials say the meeting was a government-to-government meeting about Pe Sla, a mini-prairie located in the center of the Black Hills that is considered a sacred site.

The meeting was also about other sacred sites in the hills.

Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out calls Gov. Noem’s appearance a publicity stunt for personal gain.

“She wasn’t on the schedule. She definitely wasn’t invited.”

President Star Comes Out says tribes don’t play the politics game.

“For her to do something like that was not only unprofessional, but it just showed no respect.”

President Star Comes Outs criticism is about more than Gov. Noem’s appearance at the Pe Sla meeting.

The potential vice-presidential candidate has alleged Mexican drug cartel activity on several reservations and is calling for the federal government to audit the tribes.

In a social media post, Gov. Noem said they can solve problems by talking.

In the post, she reiterated an earlier offer to meet and work together on public safety.

President Star Comes Out says working with tribes takes more than that.

“The governor needs to realize we’re a sovereign nation that requires consultation. It requires some time to set up for that consultation. She needs to respect tribal nations. We stress that in this administration all the time. I don’t see it happening.”

The Oglala Sioux Tribe recently reiterated its ban on Gov. Noem.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has also banned Gov. Noem from its reservation.

Zooming across the Navajo Nation, a new non-profit called NDN Girls Book Club is bringing books written by Indigenous authors to the reservation.

The team hopes they create community-wide change and education on the extensive world of Indigenous-written literature.

Hannah Bissett from our flagship station KNBA has more details.

NDN Girls Book Club has six of its members going on the book tour.

They’re traveling with various books written by Indigenous people. 

So far, the tour has given out all their books slated to handout at each stop.

They’ve completed three locations, all in Arizona.

The goal: to bring thousands of books to the Nation.

“We are on, to our knowledge the biggest Native book drop on the Navajo Nation. So, we have over ten thousand books that we are sharing at four different main stops in each direction.”

That was Kinsale Drake, who’s from Navajo Mountain, Utah.

She is the founder and director of NDN Girls Book Club.

She started the nonprofit right out of college and, at the age of 24, is the oldest member of her team.

She says, at each stop, they’ve had a local medicine man present to ensure safe passage.

The team also notified the local communities of their presence by working with vendors and using other means of marketing.

“We have a big pinky truck that we have zooming around the rez right now, which has been so much fun. People have been spotting it and honking and following it.”

Drake says that their presence on the reservations is part of a mission to highlight Indigenous authors.

She says currently, the Navajo Nation is considered to be a book desert by the United States, meaning there is a low likelihood of 100 or more books in the home.

“We know and say as Navajos, ‘I’m from the desert.’ The desert is such a beautiful and generous thing.”

Indigenous authors represent less than half of 1% of all authors since 2014, according to statistics, and with an alarming decline in recent years.

Drake says not only do they hope to show Indigenous communities the works of Indigenous authors, but also highlight the creation of these stories in terms of cultural repatriation.

“In a desert, in a book desert per se, there is so much there you really have to take the time to listen to a community and what they need especially with historical context.”

Research shows, that within the book industry, Indigenous authors made up less than 2% of children’s books in 2019, and less than three-percent of award-winning books. 

The book club distributes various genres from children’s books to contemporary works.

“Success for us is measured in terms of community involvement. And, really seeing an increased joy and investment in Native Literature.”

The tour reaches its final destination on Friday in Shiprock, N.M.

Drake says the NDN Girls Book Club is far from finished spreading its message of Indigenous art and literacy, and she hopes to continue similar projects beyond the Navajo Nation.

Partners in the Native book drop include the Abalone Mountain Press, 4KINSHIP, and Cellular One.

 

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Members of the Native community in Lawrence, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo. are supporting Haskell Indian Nations University students and the family and friends of missing Haskell student Cole Brings Plenty.

Brings Plenty, 27, who’s also an actor is known for his role in the TV show “1923,” was last seen in Lawrence on Sunday.

This week, members of the Native community have held gatherings at Haskell, which is located in Lawrence, to hold space and offer prayers, as police search for Brings Plenty and are seeking his arrest in connection to an alleged domestic violence incident at an apartment in Lawrence on Sunday.

The Kansas City Indian Center is offering its support as staff attends the gatherings and shares information including “missing person” fliers of Brings Plenty.

In a telephone interview Wednesday with Kansas City Indian Center Executive Director Gaylene Crouser, she said the Native community is coming together, because when a Native person goes missing, they often do not get much public attention or media attention to help find them.

Crouser says she’s been in brief contact with his family, which has expressed that it’s out of character for Brings Plenty to be out of touch with his family and friends.

As for the accusations against Brings Plenty, his family has posted on social media that the most important thing right now is to locate him and that there’s a time and place to address the allegations.

Crouser agrees with the family’s sentiments and says the Indian center will continue to offer its support in the search.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Lawrence Kansas Police Department had no new information or updates on the search for Brings Plenty.

According to the police department regarding the incident, officers responded to reports of a female screaming for help, but the suspect fled before officers arrived.

Police say the investigation has identified Brings Plenty as the suspect and that traffic cameras showed his vehicle leaving the city, traveling southbound on 59 Highway.

Brings Plenty was last known to be driving a 2005 white Ford Explorer.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.

Meanwhile, students at Haskell have built a fire and will keep it burning until Brings Plenty is found.

Students are also meeting Thursday to plan a search party.

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Researchers are working to understand all factors underlying maternal health care for Native Americans in western South Dakota.

Most counties west of the Missouri River are considered a maternal health care desert.

As South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger reports, that means women live more than 100 miles away from medical providers that specialize in delivery.

Distance, weather, transportation, and trauma are just a few of the barriers standing in the way of pregnant Native American women needing or wanting prenatal health care.

That’s coupled with a lack of providers West River — both in reservations and in the Black Hills.

Dr. Amy Elliott is a chief research officer at Avera McKennon. She describes the issue bluntly.

“It’s crisis levels. With the lack of obstetrics providers especially on the western side of the state. How do we find solutions, not just for recruiting more people, but also do we have to think a little bit different about how we deliver care?”

According to the South Dakota Department of Health, from 2012 to 2021, American Indians made up 20% of all live births, but 44% of all pregnancy-associated deaths.

Dr. Elliot and others want to fully understand what’s causing that issue, and others.

Dr. Elliot says a lack of data hinders insight into understanding causes or generating solutions.

“An advantage of being in a health system is we have access to quite a bit of data and we also have close partnerships with the Department of Health, Great Plains Tribal Leaders Board and other agencies around so we’re able to help maybe combine different data streams that haven’t been combined before.”

That, Dr. Elliot hopes, will lead to lasting and systemic change in better health outcomes for Native women on the great plains.

 

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McGrath School, above, is one of three that will get a school nurse and counselor through a new program. (Photo: Paul Walker / KSKO)

Southcentral Foundation of Alaska is using federal grant funds to place a school nurse and behavioral health consultants at three rural schools that don’t have them.

It’s partly in response to high rates of suicide in rural Alaska, especially for youth.

Alaska Public Media’s Rachel Cassandra has the story.

McGrath, Nikolai, and Takotna will now share a school nurse.

Those are small communities in the Yukon-Koyukuk area in the Interior of Alaska.

They’ll also now have behavioral health consultants.

Donna Asay is a manager for Southcentral Foundation.

“Some of the things we would like to address that have been brought to us not only by the school, but the administrators and staff, would be reducing barriers and accessing care or trying to meet some of those high suicide rates with some behavioral health services, and just support the overall well being of the student in the community.”

Asay says the nurse will be based in McGrath. And they’ll visit schools in Nicolai and Tokotna quarterly, or more often as needed.

She says the nurse can provide basic care and referrals. And she says having a nurse in schools can help kids get care without their guardian needing to travel or take time off work.

Dani Gapinski oversees Southcentral’s rural behavioral health team.

She says the behavioral health consultants will visit schools in-person at least quarterly.

They’ll also be able to schedule telehealth appointments with students in between visits.

She says the consultants can also run workshops at schools that help with mental illness prevention.

“Teaching students at a young age to understand what their emotions are, really helps them to then be able to identify as they’re growing- how they’re managing what’s going on for them, they might be more willing to talk about what’s going on since they have the words to use and know how to express themselves.”

She says that can help reduce substance abuse and suicidal ideation later on. And she says it can keep kids in the classroom more, which helps with academic success. Southcentral Foundation hopes to begin the program before the end of the school year.

It’s the first time they’ve run a program like this, but if successful, they hope to expand it to other rural schools.

In California, plans to open a new gateway to Redwoods State and National Parks got a big boost recently, paving the way for a key parcel of land to be returned to the Yurok Tribe.

Suzanne Potter reports.

The place is called ‘O Rew in the Yurok language, on Highway 101, about 40 miles north of Eureka, at a former lumber mill site in Orick.

Joseph James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said this is a model for the land-back movement.

“We are able to share our culture, our knowledge as Indigenous people, first people, keepers of the land. It’s not driven by western society providing interpretation. It’s being driven by Yuroks.”

The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League bought the 125-acre property 13 years ago and has been restoring the mill site and nearby Prairie Creek alongside the tribe and the nonprofit California Trout.

The area is closed for construction now, but will reopen in 2026 as the ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway with new trails, cultural signage, and visitor facilities.

Steve Mietz, superintendent of Redwoods National and State Parks for the National Park Service, said it is the first-ever co-management agreement for tribally owned land with the National Park Service and California State Parks.

“This is just a recognition of their sovereignty; their need to regain land that was taken from them years ago and turning it back, and creating greater understanding about the original people in this area.”

Future plans include a visitors center with a tribal village with plank houses and a sweat lodge.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock archivist is discussing Native American views on the solar eclipse and traditional stories surrounding celestial events.

According to a university news release, Erin Fehr (Yup’ik), assistant director and archivist of the university’s Sequoyah National Research Center, is speaking at a family event Wednesday at a public library in North Little Rock.

Fehr says, with the more than 500 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., there are different beliefs regarding solar eclipses and traditional stories with cultural narratives that vary.

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will cross North America.

Fehr says the total solar eclipse marks a great opportunity to learn about cultural stories, traditions and perspective. She’ll also be giving another presentation on Saturday at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.

 

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