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Photo: Mount Konocti in Lake Co., Calif. (tawnn)

A divided vote by county supervisors in Northern California recommend changing the name of the community of Kelseyville due to its connection to a 19th century settler who murdered, raped, and enslaved Wappo and Pomo peoples.

As Jacob Resneck reports, the decision bucks a countywide referendum held last month, where a majority wanted to keep the name.

Kelseyville was named for Andrew Kelsey, a 19th century settler from Kentucky who was killed in 1849 in an uprising by tribal members resentful of his ill-treatment of their people.

The following year, a bloody reprisal on Clear Lake by the U.S. calvary killed hundreds of people, in a dark chapter known as the Bloody Island Massacre.

A citizen-led movement has pushed to change the town’s name to Konocti, after the volcano that towers over the town 95 miles north of San Francisco.

But an advisory referendum on the November ballot found that more than 70% of voters were in favor of keeping the name.

Opposition to the name change came from business owners.

Mark Borghesani’s family has owned Kelseyville Lumber since the 1950s and said a change would be hasty.

“There was no discussion of what the name Konocti would be. There was no discussion of the impacts to businesses. There’s no discussion of the harm that’s being done to this town, to our community.”

Lake County’s Native American leaders say the lopsided result validates the racism in the community.

“I wanted it on record where this county stood with its Native population. It’s on record now. No running away from it.”

That’s Moke Simon, an elected member of the county board of supervisors and tribal chairman of the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California.

He said the conversations sparked by this controversy has created a point of no return for the county reckoning with its past and present.

“This isn’t going away. Whether you think you win or you lose, one side or the other. Here the education has started. People have stood in this room and said, I did not know what this vote meant or who we are voting for. The education has started town of Kelseyville. Name will change before they put me back in the earth. I’ll guarantee that.”

But it’s not a done deal.

The California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names meets in February and will deliberate on the recommendation.

The final decision to change the name to Konocti – or something else entirely – rests with the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.

New Year’s Eve – like many holidays – is often celebrated with adult-themed parties and alcohol.

A Portland, Oreg. group is offering a free event that caters to those who’d rather ring in 2025 with their families, minus the booze.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, it may be one of the oldest – if not the first – such pow-wows in the U.S.

The 37th Annual Sobriety Powwow will be at the Oregon Convention Center.

The Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA) organized the event.

SandeBea Allman is NARA Northwest’s Chief Community Engagement Development Officer.

“To offer a clean and sober environment, for folks to celebrate.”

She says it all began in the 1980s with NARA’s Cultural Director Phillip Archambault, who wanted an event for those staying sober or just wanting to avoid the alcohol scene entirely.

“And also, some of the local Oregon and Washington tribes have created their own sobriety powwow, and Phillip took pride in that, that maybe they got the idea from NARA, so then they’d told us, ‘Hey, we want to do our own’, y’know, so we have our elders, we have our little ones, there’s things for everyone to enjoy.”

NARA Northwest’s Sobriety Powwow features kids’ activities in the afternoon, and goes through midnight, just into the New Year.

 

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Photo: The Alaska Native Heritage Center’s new exhibit on the impact of government and religious boarding schools is part of a series that will also look at the education of Native children before and after the boarding school era. (Rhonda McBride)

As it marked its 25th Anniversary, the Alaska Native Heritage Center underwent a major facelift at its Anchorage campus this year, which included new galleries and museum exhibits.

One of the latest projects looks at the history of Native boarding schools in Alaska. As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, it’s a work in progress.

The Native Boarding School exhibit is the first installment in a series that explores the history of Alaska Native education.

It is stark and simple, but damning.

“There is a power in naming the evil.”

Benjamin Jacuk is the Alaska Native Heritage Center’s director of Indigenous Research.

Over the past few years, he has been looking at the role of churches in boarding school abuse.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a map of Alaska, with tiny red threads hanging from various villages.

Each represents a child abused by Catholic clergy.

Combined, they make a curtain of red across the state.

“There’s actually a difference in just talking about these things, but actually seeing it right there in front of you.”

Next to the map is a plaque with the names of more than a hundred priests and missionaries, acknowledged by the church as having credible claims of sexual abuse against them.

The exhibit is called “Education in Alaska: Disruptions in our teachings” and will be completed sometime next year.

Future installments will look backwards, beyond the boarding school era, long before missionaries and Bureau of Indian affairs teachers took over the education of Native children.

“Really this history of us and our relationship with ourselves each other and our environment is something that is millennias old, tens of thousands of years old.”

Jacuk says project will bring the history of Native education in Alaska full circle with exhibits that showcase how Native languages and cultures are being taught in schools today.

“We also have generations of ancestors who still walk with us today, teaching us who we are.”

Jacuk says to fully understand how to heal centuries of historical trauma , you have to understand how boarding schools systematically attempted to destroy the identity of Native children.

A Native-owned game company is making resources to help Ojibwe language learners of all ages.

Kathleen Shannon has more.

Tony Drews — whose Native name is “Chi-Noodin,” meaning Big Wind — was struggling to engage students in learning Ojibwe culture and language, until he brought a board game into class.

That day led him to launch Nashke Native Games in 2023, which sells games that help teach Ojibwe lessons.

One is a Native spin on a 1920s-era stock market game.

The new version is based on the fur trade and players deal in important traditional Ojibwe goods such as maple sugar, beads, and wild rice.

“The funny thing about the word ‘miigwech’ is that it means ‘thank you’ in our language. And the word comes out of the fur trade era. So it was just a natural catalyst to use this game to talk about culture and language. And it was an absolute hit.”

Drews says that teaching language through joy, music, crafts and games increases retention by about 95%.

He’s currently working with Lakota leaders to create versions of his games with Lakota language and culture.

In his own family, Drews’s great grandmother exclusively spoke Ojibwe, his grandmother was sent to boarding school and his father only knows a couple Ojibwe words.

He says Ojibwe culture is baked into the language.

The games are designed for Native language learners of any level, Drews says, and for their non-Native neighbors and community members, as well.

This story was produced with original reporting by Amy Felegy with Arts Midwest.

 

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President Joe Biden and members of his administration may be packing up their offices, but at this week’s Tribal Nations Summit, they also made some announcements of historic importance to Indian Country.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) is, admittedly, biased, but she says there’s no debating that President Joe Biden “has been the best president for Indian Country in” her lifetime.

“And I felt the best way for us to acknowledge that was with a blanket. This is an eighth-generation blanket from a tribally owned business, and I’ve had it embroidered – it says, ‘Joe Biden, champion for Indian Country, 2021 to 2024.’”

President Biden just wishes he had the blanket at the White House last week.

“I could have used that blanket when I was lighting that Christmas tree — both of us were freezing. Thank you, Secretary Haaland.”

Biden used the summit to announce he’s taking further steps to enshrine his recent apology for America’s past Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

First, he’s establishing Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a new national monument.

It was the nation’s first off-reservation federal Indian boarding school that housed some 7,800 children from more than 140 tribes.

“Stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong. Making the Carlisle Indian School a national monument we make clear that what great nations do, we don’t erase history, we acknowledge it, we learn from it and remember it so we never repeat it again.”

Boarding schools like Carlisle were meant to erase the heritage of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, which is why Biden also announced he’s instituting a new 10-year plan to revive Native languages.

“It’s a vision that works with tribes to support teachers, schools, communities, organizations, in order to save Native language from disappearing. This matters. It’s part of our heritage. It’s part of who we are as a nation. It’s how we got to be who we are.”

Biden is hoping Indian Country is remembered as a part of his legacy.

“This is my final White House Tribal Nations Summit as your president. It’s been an overwhelming honor, I mean this sincerely, an honor of a lifetime, to usher in a new era of tribal sovereignty and self-determination. A new era grounded in dignity and respect that I’ve seen and experienced in many ways.”

The North Dakota State Historical Society obtained a collection of original lithographs depicting life among Indigenous peoples of the Dakotas.

What was once hidden in a San Francisco arthouse are now part of the group’s permanent collection.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene reports.

In 1832, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer and German Prince Maximillian embarked on a journey throughout the American Interior West.

One of the results of that expedition were the paintings of dozens of lithographs depicting Indigenous life in the region before widespread colonization of the plains.

Less than five years later, a smallpox epidemic would devastate the local Indigenous population depicted in these paintings.

Kara Haff is the public information officer for the North Dakota State Historical Society.

“The expedition stayed at Fort Clark, they were down in South Dakota, up near Fort Union. Along the way, a number of significant portraits of different Native American chiefs were a part of it, but the daily life too were documented through Bodmer’s artwork.”

Haff says it’s a rare collection of originals to see, let alone acquire for a state historical society.

“Bodmer was working on turning the sketches, paintings, and drawings to transfer those artworks onto plates to be stamped or lithographed. They don’t come up to auction very often, or come even in a complete set very often.”

The 1830s originals will be placed into rotation at the North Dakota Historical Society soon.

The collection, featuring over two dozen total works, was acquired via a donation from Sam McQuade Jr., with an earmark for fine art purchases.

 

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Photo courtesy Watonga Public Schools / Facebook

Across many parts of the U.S., Native American students miss school at rates higher than the national average.

KLCC’s Brian Bull talked to one educator in Oklahoma, who’s worked to bring down absenteeism and truancy in her community.

Hollie Youngbear (Cheyenne Arapaho) works as the Watonga Schools Indian Education Director.

“I retired two years ago, but they couldn’t find anybody take my place, so I stepped back in and the school let me come back to work three days a week.”

Youngbear says her district’s absenteeism rate is the lowest in Oklahoma. She says she knows all the families and has come by to pick up absent students from challenging home environments.

“Parents who have drug problem or alcohol problems, and they just don’t get their kids up on time. I go out to the homes and pick them up, take them to school. You know, just work with the parents to get them to school.”

Youngbear adds that the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes also help with school supplies, class fees, and rewarding good grades and attendance.

Special programs also help students avoid trouble.

“They have ‘tradition, not addiction’, and they come in and meet with the kids every month and talk about, you know, not smoke or drink or vape.”

The tribal jurisdictional area for the Cheyenne-Arapaho has generations of families, some who were subjected to the boarding school system.

Besides the attempts at assimilation and abuse many encountered, Youngbear says this also may have caused challenges when some boarding school alumni started families.

“They never knew how to actually parent when they got out of school, and so if you don’t know how to parent, then you might not want your kids to go to school. It wasn’t a priority. I guess you could say.”

Youngbear’s advice to school administrators who may be dealing with absent Native students is to work with families, and try to get counselors or education directors from Indian education backgrounds.

“You know, have good grades, and lead them on the path to maybe go to college or vo tech or, you know, just keep ‘em motivated.”

Other challenges that can affect Native American attendance include racism, poverty, or lack of support services.

Does your insurance company make you 😳🤪😤😡? Contact our consumer advocates for help! 🤗https://t.co/0aQMufqZ87 #AskKreidler #NationalEmojiDay pic.twitter.com/buesDex41h

— WA State Office of the Insurance Commissioner (@WA_OIC) July 17, 2018

The state of Washington is helping Native Americans access health care after decades of barriers.

Eric Tegethoff has more.

Health insurers have made it difficult for tribal members to get care covered, despite state and federal laws that bar this.

Vicki Lowe is head of the American Indian Health Commission, which has led efforts to remove hurdles for Native Americans.

She says health insurers would try to make tribal clinics charge out-of-network rates and wouldn’t honor their referrals.

However, the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner has come out with guidance to prevent this.

“Not only will tribes have more money to help pay for services for their tribal members, tribal members will get care in a more timely manner. So those two things just are really important, and insurance companies have been a barrier for that for decades.”

Washington is among the first states to move forward with guidance for insurers and also enforcement of the law, so that insurers will stop putting up roadblocks for tribal members to get care in the state.

Todd Dixon is the tribal liaison for the Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

He says one reason for releasing the guidance was that the agency has seen an uptick in complaints – the number one complaint typically coming from billing managers at clinics.

“It says, ‘Hey, we have an enrolled member. He or she was seen at our clinic. We billed the insurance company. They said we’re out of network and so we’re only paying 60%.’ And then they send a bill to the enrolled member. It’s not how it works.”

The Insurance Commissioner’s office has been sending notices to insurers who violate protections for Native Americans.

 

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Photo: Darryl George. (Courtesy MOBB United for Social Change, Inc. / Facebook)

Several multicultural organizations have submitted an amicus brief – or friend of the court filing – in a case involving a Black family and a Houston-area school district.

The brief endorses Darryl George, a Black high school student who supporters say was suspended from the Barbers Hills Independent School District in his junior year, due to his long hair.

Attorneys for the family say this violates the 2023 Texas Crown Act, which prohibits schools from discriminating against hair styles and textures associated with race and cultural identity.

Malia Gesuale is with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF).

She says with the law on the family’s side, she expects George to win in Texas appellate court.

Gesuale added that this case is relevant for hundreds of Native American tribes as well.

“Hair is incredibly important for many Native people. Hair is deeply associated with cultural and religious beliefs. It’s a symbol of moral strength. It can be a very personal choice, for how a Native person wants to present themselves. We understand that students across the country, and particularly in Texas want to be able to wear their hair long in representation of that heritage.”

Groups behind the amicus brief include the National Congress of American Indians which NARF represents, as well as Black Parents and Families Collective and the ACLU of Texas.

The school’s suspension of George is also regarded as a violation of the first and fourteenth amendments.

The Barbers Hills district has continued to defend its dress code.

Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribal members protested outside of the office of U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) in Riverton, Wyo. Thursday.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Chris Clements reports the protest was over the defunct Pilot Butte Power Plant, which sits on the Wind River Reservation, but is currently owned by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Last year, Sen. Barrasso filed a bill that would transfer the plant to a non-tribal irrigation district so it can be used to generate power for Fremont County.

Residents of the Wind River Reservation say they were never consulted about the transfer, and that they oppose it.

Felicia Alvarez is Eastern Shoshone.

“No more taking, no more stealing. We sold enough. They’re doing this underhandedly, without our consent.”

Nicole Wagon is Northern Arapaho.

“The Pilot Butte Conveyance Act is another in a long line of violations against the 1863, 1868 Eastern Shoshone treaties.”

In an emailed response, Barrasso said he’s “been in contact with members of both … tribes as the bill has advanced in the Senate.”

There’s been a fight between county and state officials in Montana over who should fund law enforcement on the Flathead Reservation.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports a state supreme court ruling Tuesday settled the dispute.

Lake County officials have long said taxpayers can no longer afford the 4 million dollar price tag of providing law enforcement on tribal lands. Under a deal known as public law 280, the county is responsible for jailing and prosecuting tribal members accused of felony crimes.

The county sued the state arguing that because it’s also a part of the deal with the federal government, it bears some fiscal responsibility.

A lower court ruled that it’s up to state lawmakers whether they want to fund the county’s law enforcement on tribal lands.

State lawmakers did pass funding, but Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) vetoed the legislation.

The supreme court agreed with the lower court, and said the county can also opt out of providing law enforcement for tribal members altogether.

The county did try to do that, but Gianforte refused to sign off, claiming it didn’t file the proper paperwork.

 

 

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Photo: A sign at Camp Marcedes in Winnipeg. (Antonia Gonzales)

Audio available by 12 p.m. ET

A grim search is underway at a landfill site near Winnipeg for the remains of two murdered Indigenous women.

This is the fourth stage of a five-stage plan that is expected to continue until the spring.

More from Dan Karpenchuk.

Wab Kinew, the province’s first Indigenous premier, was on hand for the start of the work as teams began the huge task of sifting through nearly 8,000 square feet of waste.

They are looking for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

Jeremy Skibicki was convicted of killing them and two other Indigenous women – Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found in a different landfill, and a victim identified only as Buffalo Woman.

Premier Kinew was with the Myran and Harris families as the work began.

“This morning I was there with two family members as we watched that first blue truck of landfill material come down to the search facility. And it is an intense emotion.”

It was two years ago that the families found out that the two girls had been murdered by Skibicki.

Tons of material have already been excavated to bring the search to the approximate time the women’s bodies would have been left there.

Amna Mackin leads the project.

“As we start to find items of interest, such as receipts or papers that have dates and addresses we’ll be continually looking at that information to see what it’s telling us and whether or not we’re in the right location of interest.”

There are about 45 people in the search team, which includes family members, a forensic anthropologist, a health and safety officer, and a director of operations.

The search of the landfill will continue six days a week for the next several months.

Kinew says he prays to God that the search will succeed.

After nearly 70 years of work, fishery managers say lake trout have fully recovered in most of Lake Superior, a development that’s sure to please regional Native American tribes.

As Danielle Kaeding reports, that comes after a fish-killing invader decimated the trout’s numbers.

The lake trout population dropped dramatically during the mid-1900s due to overfishing and an invasion of sea lampreys.

The eel-like parasitic fish feeds on the blood of lake trout.

It spread to Lake Superior by 1938.

At that time, the commercial harvest of the lake’s top predator was four million pounds.

But, that dropped 95% by the mid-1960s.

Bill Mattes chairs the Lake Superior Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

“What we’re seeing in our assessments are that the numbers of fish in the lake are similar to that seen in the lake prior to lamprey invasion and over harvest.”

Mattes is also with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Lake Superior tribes use gill nets to commercially harvest fish, and he says the assessments show they can be used to sustainably catch fish.

“We’ve done a really good job of harvest management and of controlling those harvests over time.”

Mattes says those efforts along with lamprey controls has helped create a self-sustaining population.

A people’s celebration for the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River takes place Saturday in California’s Arcata Theater Lounge.

Regina Chicizola is with the group Save California Salmon.

She says previous events featured politicians and tribal councilors.

“What we want to do with this celebration is celebrate all the people and organizers and families. So we have a lot of elders coming out, and then we’re going to have a few bands play. All three of the bands are part of communities that helped fight for dam removal.”

The removal of the dams follow decades of lobbying by Native Americans and allies, who say salmon are already back to their traditional spawning grounds.

“It’s time to celebrate, and it’s time to bring our kids up there to see the salmon spawning, and just let the world know that you can win these really big fights even when it seems impossible, especially if people listen to the guidance of the native communities that have knowledge on how to get it done.”

 

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Photo: The Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho. (Staplegunther / Wikimedia)

With a second Trump term near, Native American tribes are concerned for environmental restoration efforts.

In his first term, President Donald Trump opened up lands considered sacred to Native people for development, as well as rolling back dozens of environmental protections.

In a press call with tribal officials last month, Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said she’ll stand with Oregon values as the White House changes hands again.

“My hope is that we’ll see respect and cooperation from the federal administration to work with our tribes.”

Gov. Kotek said she’s focused on the Columbia Basin Initiative, which has worked with President Joe Biden to restore fish runs.

William Ray Junior, chair of the Klamath Tribes, then spoke about protecting salmon and two species of sucker fish.

“Our biggest concerns about the incoming administration is how it’s gonna affect our endangered species of C’waam and koptu mullet species. If all the water delivery agreements are fulfilled at 100%, extinction becomes real viable.”

Trump has discussed diverting water from the Columbia River to California and has also questioned the need for protecting the endangered Delta smelt there.

President Biden has created more national monuments in a single term than any president since President Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

Tribes and environmental advocates are pressing him to do even more.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.

After President Donald Trump shrunk the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante monuments in Utah, Biden’s first step was restoring them.

“And because of that, he really started thinking about monuments right from the get go. So you see much more activity than you usually see during the first term.”

Justin Pidot is a professor at the University of Arizona law school, who worked in the Biden and Obama administrations.

He says Biden has had a particular focus on monuments proposed by tribes. That includes Avi Kwa Ame established last year in Nevada. It’s a site sacred to the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, among others.

Before leaving the White House, Biden could designate more national monuments.

Local campaigns are advocating for protection of the Owyhee Canyonlands on the border of Oregon and Idaho and the Dolores Canyons in southwest Colorado.

A new report reveals Indigenous-owned businesses contribute more than $46 billion to the U.S. economy each year. And a lot of that activity is happening in the West.

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

Research firm B2B Reviews analyzed the percentage of Indigenous-owned businesses within each state and how many people they employ, among other factors.

Researchers found that Oregon is the best state in the country for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and New Mexico also cracked the top ten.

Arizona and California made the top 20, Colorado and Montana landed in the middle of the rankings, and Wyoming and Utah were near the bottom.

Zac Carman is a member of the Kaw Tribe, and CEO of ConsumerAffairs, a national user-review website.

He says Indigenous business owners face many challenges that politicians should address.

“Oftentimes state and federal are just completely disconnected from the realities of Indigenous peoples. I think you would need to start by listening and building resources and programs that fit their reality.”

He says that could help Indigenous entrepreneurs gain more access to funding, business education, and mentorship.

And 35 years ago, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed the week of December 3-9 as National American Indian Heritage Week, as Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford had done in their terms.

But the following year, President Bush would approve a Joint Resolution making November 1990 the first National American Indian Heritage Month.

It kept the name until 2009, when President Barack Obama issued a proclamation making November Native American Heritage Month.

 

 

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(Photo courtesy Save the West Berkeley Shellmound / Facebook)

As thousands of shoppers took advantage of Black Friday deals last week, Indigenous Ohlone people and supporters gathered for the 28th annual Shellmound Prayer Walk in Emeryville, Calif.

The event is to bring attention to the shopping malls built on burial sites known as shellmounds.

Christina Aanestad reports.

Some 200 Ohlone activists and supporters gathered at the Berkeley shellmound for the Shellmound to Shellmound Prayer Walk, bringing attention to the Indigenous villages and burial sites from Berkeley to neighboring Emeryville, where shopping centers are built.

 

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Corinna Gould is tribal chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan.

“Bay Street (Emeryville) mall was placed on there in the late 1990’s and the city of Emeryville knew, even though they were cleaning up a brownfield at the time, that that was a sacred site and one of the largest cemeteries in the area, and yet they decided to do it anyway. We protested for many weeks, at city council and zoning meetings in Emeryville, and still they allowed that to happen. So it’s a reminder that even though there’s buildings on top, even though there’s asphalt, that these shellmounds, these burial sites, remain in our area and they’re covered by all these places.”

Gould first organized the rally nearly 30 years ago. Then, three years ago, she passed on the organizing to her daughter Deja Gould.

“We’ve started doing this walk to set prayers down, set intention down, but also to bring awareness to community, and people, that our people are still here, are still active.”

Now they march and stop at shellmound sites and villages along the way that were also developed or paved over.

Expansion of gaming across Oregon doesn’t seem likely, a development some tribes were hoping for.

During a recent press call with tribal officials, Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said she appreciated visiting with all nine federally-recognized tribes within Oregon this year. However, in terms of allowing more development of gaming venues…

“My position has not changed, and we have had fruitful conversations about the importance of gaming.”

The Coquille Tribe has expressed interest in an electronic bingo facility in Medford, Oreg., which Gov. Kotek said she opposed in 2023.

Her stance continues a “one tribe, one-casino” policy that’s been the mainstay for the state.

And for tribes across the Pacific Northwest, it’s an ideal time to burn hazel.

About a dozen Native people gathered yesterday to burn hazel growth in a rural spot used for Traditional Ecological Inquiry Programs (TEIP) near Eugene, Oreg.

Jerome Viles is a Siletz Tribal member, who led the burn demonstration.

He says this practice makes for better baskets for his people.

“When it burns, it stimulates a plant to send up really straight, long shoots. So when it doesn’t burn, we’re still able to get shoots, but they’re not as straight or long, so basket weavers really want those long, straight hazel shoots to weave baby baskets and all sorts of other baskets.”

Nearby, TEIP leader Joe Scott – also Siletz– pares down hazel with a hedge trimmer, as Jerome Viles’ father Drew explains.

“That’s one technique that we’ve resorted to since reservation times to tend the hazel with. It likes to put up straight shoots after coppicing, and that’s what Joe’s doing right now.”

The senior Viles appreciated his son taking his knowledge of hazel and basketry, and put it to use.

“Gives me encouragement and makes my heart a lot lighter when you see young people who are practicing their culture.”

In roughly a year and a half, the hazel will be harvested for baskets.

 

 

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A new true crime documentary series looks at the murder of activist Annie Mae Aquash, whose body was found on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation in 1976.

A Mi’kmaq Native from Nova Scotia, Aquash was a teacher and mother who was active in the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s.

Her disappearance and murder shook the Native community deeply for generations.

Yvonne Russo is the director and producer of Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae.

“I’ve always known Annie Mae’s story growing up because I was a kid on the reservation. And also, AIM was pretty prominent during that time. Decades later, who knew that, as a filmmaker, this project would be presented to me? So I said, ‘Yes, I’m definitely interested,’ but I knew that I needed to call home and seek some guidance with regards to this story and speaking to elders and community, because it was kept silent for decades, people were afraid of the truth.”

Russo worked on this four-part docuseries for six years.

She says nearly 50 years after her death, the fight for justice for Aquash never ended, especially for her family.

“There was a botched autopsy. There were lots of misinformation out there, we’ll just say, and they wanted to know the truth. When I learned about all the harrowing efforts they did to seek truth and justice, it made me realize, you know, in this day and age that the past is still present in Indian Country in terms of the crimes that happen on reservations, and the injustices that happen within our communities. And maybe question, why cases -as it pertains to missing and murdered Indigenous people – why aren’t they being solved?”

Russo says she and her team wanted to get all sides represented, which included talking to people active in AIM and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But they had to also be shrewd with some accounts.

“As you know, in Indian Country, sometimes it could be a double-edged sword, because you hear many different accounts of what people think happened to her, and for us, the responsible way, at least, you know in the reporting is that we have to corroborate, but also give meaningful consideration to what people are saying. And it can’t be hearsay. One thing when you have somebody saying they heard something happen, because so and so and so and so told them, Well, okay, that’s fine, but that’s not actual proof.”

Russo says she’s very happy with the end result of this project. And she made sure that Aquash’s family, including her daughter Denise, was pleased with the results as well.

“What it meant for me was, it’s like repatriating her mom’s story, but repatriating also like her legacy and all of us understanding what Annie Mae stood for, and it was important that the story brings healing to the community. You know, healing in the form of even like a spiritual justice.”

Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae is now available on Hulu.

And today is Native American Heritage Day, an occasion to reflect and appreciate the contributions the First Peoples of the North American continent have provided, including serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

 

 

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