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President Joe Biden mentioned tribal communities and Native Americans during his State of the Union Thursday night as he highlighted key issues.
He mentioned tribes when talking about his infrastructure law creating projects across the U.S. including modernizing roads, addressing clean drinking water, and expanding broadband.
“Providing affordable, affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. Urban, suburban, and rural communities — in red states and blue. Record investments in tribal communities.”
President Biden later mentioned Native people when he touched on immigration.
“I know who we are as Americans. We are the only nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old and new. Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years. Home to people from every place on Earth.”
Native people at the address included Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, a guest of First Lady Jill Biden; Navajo uranium workers advocate Phil Harrison, a guest of U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM); Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna), and Native U.S. lawmakers.
Watch parties are being planned across the country, including in tribal communities, for Sunday’s Academy Awards, which will include Indigenous representation, as KNBA’s Jill Fratis reports.
There’s much anticipation and excitement among Indigenous people who are cheering on three Indigenous people nominated in different categories this year.
Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet and Nez Perce) is up for Best Actress for her role as Mollie Burkhart in the film Killers of the Flower Moon. Also, nominated for awards for their contributions to the film are Scott George (Osage), who composed Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People), which is up for best song, and Robbie Robertson (Mohawk and Cayuga), nominated for best score.
Killers of the Flower Moon investigates the murders of dozens of Osage people in Oklahoma in the 1920s for oil money.
Gladstone recently became the first Native American to win a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.
An award she dedicated to Native youth.
Gladstone also took home an honor from the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Indigenous people working in the film and television industry are applauding Gladstone’s achievements and the other Oscar nominations.
Ariel Tweto, an Inupiaq from Unalakleet, is a television personality, producer and actress.
Tweto says Gladstone winning the awards, and being up for an Oscar is paving way for other Indigenous actors.
“Her being nominated and winning a bunch of these awards already is paving the pathway for people like me who are in the industry. We need someone to look up to, even though she’s just a year older than me I see her as such a trailblazer and role model.”
She says Killers of the Flower Moon is helping to highlight the work both on and off the screen by Indigenous people in the film and television industry.
“It’s like proving to people that people are interested in these types of stories. Like writers, directors, they’re watching these types of movies, they care about people like us. And they see our faces onscreen and Native people see people that look like them onscreen and now they’re like they’re living their dream, our stories, telling our stories. Yeah I think it’s super cool that there are people outside of Indigenous culture and outside of the Native communities that they care about us.”
Tweto will be anticipating the news after the awards as she’ll be in a cabin with no electricity.
“I’ll be like snowboarding or playing somewhere or in our cabin in Alaska. So, good luck Lily and Killers of the Flower Moon. I’m rooting for you!”
Watch parties taking place in tribal communities include the Osage Nation in Oklahoma and a Navajo community in New Mexico.
The Indigenous organization IllumiNative has a downloadable Oscars Watch Party Kit.
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