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A federal grand jury this month indicted two men for allegedly killing eagles on the Flathead Reservation in Montana to sell feathers on the black market.

Montana Public Radio’s John Hooks has more.

The indictment charges two men – one from Ronan, Mont. and one from Washington state – with illegally killing over 3,000 birds from 2015 to 2021.

The men are also accused of trafficking parts from bald and golden eagles for “significant sums of cash” across the United States.

The investigation was initiated by Fish and Game Conservation Officers with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the investigation.

In a statement, CSKT Chairman Tom McDonald said eagles have “tremendous significance” to the ecosystem on the Flathead and to tribes’ religious and cultural practices.

Golden and bald eagles are protected under state and federal law.

Taking or transporting feathers is outlawed except for religious use by tribal members.

The indictment accuses the men of baiting eagles with deer carcasses before killing them and selling feathers, wings, and tail sets.

The men are scheduled to appear in a Missoula, Mont. court in January.

A spokesperson for the Montana US Attorney declined to comment on the indictment.

Navajo Mountain in San Juan County, Utah.

One Utah nonprofit is visiting every structure in the western half of San Juan County to connect off-grid residents with essential services they don’t receive due to a lack of an address.

Alex Gonzalez has more.

Daylene Redhorse is an addressing specialist with the Rural Utah Project.

She explains for those who live on the Navajo Reservation in San Juan County, formal street addresses are rare.

So families may go without access to services – from mail delivery and internet to emergency medical services and the government-issued ID they need to vote.

Redhorse is helping people get connected with the open-source “plus code” tool, developed by Google, which consists of 10-digit versions of conventional geo-coordinates.

“We were able to put people back in the right precinct or have them register in the right precinct. Not only that, while doing this job, we were able to reach people who had no idea of where to register to vote. We were able to bring these forms to them, get them registered.”

Redhorse says the technology is simple and useful.

The Rural Utah Project identified voting as a key target for the initiative, when it found almost 90% of Navajo residents were registered by San Juan County at the wrong location and a quarter in the wrong precinct.

Redhorse adds the “plus codes” do have limits, but she is encouraging service providers to use them.

Redhorse says she took on the project and was determined to make a difference after her mother experienced a stroke and emergency personnel couldn’t easily reach her, waiting for an hour as she tried to explain her location.

Redhorse says because of the plus codes, firefighters’ and paramedics’ response time has been shortened by at least 30 minutes.

“So they’re able to get to these homes, and that was another way we’ve seen that it was beneficial. A lot of people would like to see it help them on the postal side, but we are still trying to reach out to distributors, to see if they can implement this code into their system.”

In addition to rural Utah, similar models have also been implemented in densely populated urban areas that also lack addresses, in countries like Brazil, Egypt, and India.

This story was produced with original reporting from Peter Yeung for “Yes!”

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard has extended the ban on new oil, gas, and mineral leasing on thousands of acres of state lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park through December 2043.

The commissioner placed the leasing ban on state lands in 2019, which was set to expire at the end of the year.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) issued a similar 20-year ban on federal lands in June.

Pueblo leaders are among those celebrating the move.

They want to see permanent protection of the area, while the Navajo Nation and Navajo allottees have opposed the ban.

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Indigenous community leaders held a lecture series in Washington D.C. this week to discuss successes in federal partnerships to boost tourism, as well as a path forward to build on that success.

But federal assistance that was expected nearly a decade ago is arriving slower than anticipated.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, Dylan Simard reports.

When President Obama signed the NATIVE Act in 2016, Native leaders were hopeful that it would stimulate a vibrant tourism industry in their communities. It got off to a good start.

But Wizipan Little Elk Garriott says it tapered off within a year – and leaders want to get it started again.

Garriott is with the Interior Department and a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

“The act continues to really have a strong mandate, and everyone is supportive – the tribes, Congress – and it’s really about how can we implement and how can we continue to think about strengthening these efforts.”

Garriot discussed long term plans for getting federal agencies on board with the NATIVE Act.

It mandated that certain agencies make resources available for economic development surrounding tourism in Indigenous communities.

Father Oleksa and Rhonda McBride after an interview in 2016.

Many Alaska Native people are members of the Russian Orthodox Church and observe Christmas in early January with a seven-day celebration called “Slaviq” or “Slavvy,” which comes from the Russian word, glory.

For many this year, there will be something missing from this holiday – the presence of Father Michael Oleksa, who died in November at the age of 76.

Father Oleksa was probably one of the most well-traveled clergy in Alaska, serving Native communities from Kwethluk to Kodiak and across the Aleutian chain.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride knew him personally and shares a few of her memories.

Father Michael Oleksa was a priest, a teacher, scholar, historian, and much more – but the thread that ran through it all was his storytelling.

And like many Alaskans, I have a favorite one from his time living in the Southwestern Alaska village of Kwethluk, where he was studying for the priesthood.

It was there he met his wife Xenia who, at 4 feet, 11 inches tall, was small in stature, but a tower of strength and not to be trifled with.

When they first crossed paths, Xenia says he kept winking at her.

“I thought he was very brazen myself,” she said, with that matter-of-fact touch of dry, Yup’ik humor.

But she must have over gotten over her initial annoyance, because they soon married and Father Oleksa found himself in the heart of Yup’ik life, the well spring of many stories like this one he told me years ago about a hunt for muskrats.

“And we came home one afternoon with about a dozen muskrats. And the lady of the house, who was my Yup’ik teacher, Annabelle Olick, she was delighted. She skinned and gutted these muskrats. Then she set the table with washcloths as well as spoons. I knew we were having soup, but the washcloths mystified me. I was soon to find out those were for pukug-ing, a word I had not yet learned.”

Pukug in Yugtun, or the Yup’ik language, is to eat tiny bits of meat, that cling to the bone – which you patiently pick away at with your fingers.

“At the end of the meal, my teacher, Annabelle, came to me and said, ‘Are you done?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ but she didn’t look happy about my answer.”

As he looked around the table, he saw that everyone else was still pukug-ing their muskrats, so he did his best to copy them.

“And with a lot of extra effort and noise (makes sucking and slurping sounds), that’s the Yup’ik word, “pukug-ing” – removing the meat from every little bone.”

For Father Oleksa, this was his first lesson in Yup’ik etiquette.

“Waste nothing. You consume everything as a sign of gratitude and respect, even for the animals who have died to keep you alive.”

It was the spirituality of living off the land that he shared in lectures across the state, to bring about an appreciation for Alaska Native culture and history.

One of his lasting legacies, his work to canonize Matushka Olga, or Mother Olga, the Russian Orthodox church’s first female saint in North America and wife of a Kwethluk priest known for her healing love, especially for abused women, was also a cause close to Father Oleksa’s heart.

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Legislation was introduced this year that would restore the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians’ right to hunt, fish, and gather on their ancestral lands.

As Brian Bull of KLCC reports, the bill passed a major hurdle this week.

The U.S. House approved H.R.2839, penned by U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR).

During a hearing Monday, she spoke to the need to counter a 1980 consent decree that made the Siletz Tribe lose their subsistence rights in exchange for getting their status and land restored.

“It is an unjust and racist policy that should have never happened.”

Dee Pigsley is the Siletz Tribal Chair.  She’s hopeful the Senate will approve the measure and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk.

“It would be the next best thing that’s happened to us since restoration, actually. It will make many, many, tribal members happy, and it’ll be a real Christmas present if we can get it through the Senate before they adjourn this year.”

The Siletz are one of two federally-recognized tribes in the entire U.S. that don’t have these rights.

The other is the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, also in Oregon.

Courtesy Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center

New research by a Native women’s group examines the impact on Indigenous people in South Dakota after the rollback of abortion services.

C.J. Keene with South Dakota Public Broadcasting has more.

The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, based in Lake Andes, S.D., published their post-Roe report with a focus on tribal lands.

The report calls the removal of abortion protections an attack on tribal health care and sovereignty.

It found financial implications and access to rural health care options as two of the biggest concerns facing Native abortion seekers post-Roe.

Charon Asetoyer, CEO of the group, says nothing good comes from removing access.

“Whenever you take services away from people, the solution is to return them and to increase those health services that should be available to us. The group in the state of South Dakota that is hurting the most are Indigenous women.”

The findings echo another recent study from the Guttmacher Institute that found the overturn of Roe v. Wade disproportionately affects Indigenous communities.

Asetoyer says Native people across the country should think of healthcare as a human right, rather than a privilege.

“We gave up so much so that we could have healthcare. It is our right, our human right, our treaty right, so when they try to diminish our services they’re violating our human rights, so just remember that. Don’t be afraid to speak out and seek healthcare services of any nature.”

Though the decision was made on Roe, she reminds women the battle over abortion is not yet over.

“Time is of the essence – just remember that. You’ve gotta work fast, but there are funds out there, there are women and groups that are willing to help you access these services.”

You can find a link to the report here.

The Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, S.D. has published an apology on its social media channels.

It’s in line with a court ordered settlement.

In it, ownership formally apologizes for comments made by former owner Connie Uhre regarding the treatment of Native Americans at the establishment.

Last year, the hotel and associated businesses became the center of months-long protests and boycotts by Indigenous people, and caused a social media storm.

This after Uhre attempted to ban Native people from the business.

Along with the apology, the terms of the settlement have also mandated Uhre to step away from decision-making roles within the business for at least four years.

The ownership group still faces two lawsuits connected to the matter.

The first from the Native advocacy network NDN Collective and another from a Wisconsin family.

Both lawsuits allege the business denied Native people service solely based on their race.

UPDATE: Statement from NDN Collective

NDN Collective Responds to Grand Gateway Hotel’s Court-Ordered Apology

Rapid City, SD – Yesterday, NDN Collective received a court-ordered apology letter from the Grand Gateway Hotel. In response, the organization released the following statement:

“While we are glad the court saw Connie Uhre’s statements about refusing to serve Native people as unacceptable, the fact that they had to issue an order for this letter is very telling. We find this so-called apology – which attempts to center Grand Gateway Hotel as an inclusive business – to be insulting and disingenuous.

“The letter contains an apology for ‘statements made by Connie Uhre,’ yet fails to mention that those statements were actually enforced when multiple Native people were denied a room. It fails to acknowledge the dangerous, dehumanizing, and very public physical assault Connie inflicted on community members.

“The letter tries to reposition the owners as friends to Native people, despite the fact that another lawsuit was filed against the Grand Gateway Hotel just a couple months ago for racial discrimination against a Native person visiting from out of town.

“The letter says the owners know the Native community is made up of ‘hardworking individuals,’ to us, this begs the questions – who gets to decide which of us is ‘hardworking,’ and which is a threat? Do Native people have to prove ourselves as ‘hardworking’ just to get treated with basic human respect – a near impossible task when we’re constantly met with racism? When will Native people get the same benefit of the doubt and dignity as white people in South Dakota?

“From the beginning, we have made clear that our actions to hold owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel accountable for their discrimination and violence against Native people is part of a much bigger fight to address the rampant racism in Rapid City.

“We will continue to stand up for the rights and safety of the Native community. We encourage the owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel to rethink this letter. We would welcome another apology demonstrating reflection and a desire for real accountability, and containing next steps about how they plan to concretely repair the harm they’ve caused.”

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The Reno Sparks Indian Colony says it will end its legal fight against a lithium mine on sacred land after a Nevada court dismissed their lawsuit.

The Thacker Pass lithium mine would be located at the site of a village that was massacred.

Christina Aanestad reports.

“We didn’t lose the lawsuit because we were wrong. We lost the lawsuit because the law favors mining.”

Reno Sparks Indian Colony Chair Arlan Melendez says continuing a legal fight against the Thacker Pass lithium mine would be costly and take too long,

“By the time you would get through to appeal, they would have already desecrated all of the sacred sites.”

But the Washoe Paiute and Shoshone Tribes that make up the colony aren’t giving up the fight either.

Melendez says the next phase will be a public awareness campaign about the $2 billion project – the largest open pit lithium mine in North America.

To produce electric vehicle batteries in the push to transition off of fossil fuels and combat climate change.

Will Falk is the tribes’ lawyer.

“This project is absolutely a fossil fuel-based project. They’re gonna burn 12,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline on site every single day to operate the Thacker Pass lithium mine. There’s going to be over 152,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, emitted by operations of the Thacker Pass lithium mine single year. That’s the size of a small city.”

The lithium will go to General Motors (GM), which invested $650 million in parent company Lithium Americas earlier this year.

GM makes the electric Hummer, a large SUV that is predicted to emit more emissions than a gas-powered sedan, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a non-profit climate research center.

There are more than 21,000 other lithium mining claims in the state of Nevada alone, according to the Nevada Division of Minerals.

Brenda Beyal sits with the third grade students in a circle as each student shares how they can manage stress by singing their answer in the middle of the song “Shí Naashá”. (Photo: Martha Harris / KUER)

In Utah, a group of educators at Brigham Young University is working with the eight sovereign nations in the state to create lessons that reflect what tribes want taught about them.

KUER’s Martha Harris went to a classroom to see one of these lessons in action.

Brenda Beyal is visiting a third grade class at Spanish Oaks Elementary in Spanish Fork.

She’s teaching the students how to say words in Navajo, her Native language.

Beyal is Diné, a member of the Navajo Nation.

The students are learning the song “Shí naashá.”

What makes this lesson unique is it has the Navajo Nation stamp of approval. It’s a part of BYU’s Native American Curriculum Initiative.

The project started because of what Beyal heard from teachers.

Educators wanted help knowing what’s appropriate to teach about Indigenous people. So Beyal and her colleagues started creating lesson plans.

“It was important that we actually go to the sovereign nations and we asked them, what would you like the children of Utah to know about your ways?”

Beyal says every single tribe wanted kids to know that they are still here. They’re not historical figures.

“But then after that, every one of them has a different topic or content that they want children to know.”

Beyal says many lessons treat Indigenous people as having one singular viewpoint.

“Within Utah, there are eight sovereign nations with eight different ways of viewing things, different cultural ways, different arts.”

In these lessons, students are not just learning about the sovereign nations and their history. They’re learning from them and through their perspectives.

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The first woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice has died.

Sandra Day O’Connor died early Friday morning in Phoenix at the age of 93 due to complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.

The 25th Navajo Nation Council and Speaker Crystalline Curley said in a statement, “it’s important to acknowledge Sandra Day O’Connor’s influence on the American Justice System by being the first woman appointed to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. In Diné culture, we honor the symbiotic relationship that exists between men and women.”

O’Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

She served on the court for 25 years.

Prior to her tenure on the Supreme Court, she was a judge and an elected official in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate.

She was honored in 2009 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from helping transform the American Judiciary by paving the way for women to join the nation’s highest court.

She was often referred to as “the most powerful woman in America.”

The 25th Navajo Nation Council sent their condolences to the family of Sandra Day O’Connor.

A virtual conference about issues facing the Columbia river was held last week, bringing together Native tribes and interested parties.

Steve Jackson tells us about the Transboundary Water Governance and Ethics Symposium.

Participants in the virtual conference addressed issues like climate change, the effect of the dams on endangered salmon, and water quality.

DR Michelle, Colville tribal member and spokesman for the Upper Columbia United tribes,spoke of tribal efforts to reintroduce native salmon above the major dams, like Chief Joseph Dam, where they haven’t existed for 80 years.

“And early on in some of these studies when we talked about doing educational and cultural releases, folks would say, ‘Oh, those fish aren’t going to know what to do, they’ve been out of those waters so long they’re not going to remember.’ And that first batch of fish we turned loose above Chief Joe went straight up the river, went heading for home, right up the headwaters where for thousands of years they’ve been, and after everything we’ve done to them, they still want to get to those spawning grounds.”

The conference was billed as a continuation of a dialogue that began before the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was organized to discuss serious issues that threaten the well being of the river system, issues that weren’t addressed when the Columbia River treaty between the U.S. and Canada was signed in 1964.

Negotiations are underway now behind closed doors to renew the treaty, which originally addressed flood control and hydro power management.

Courtesy Center for Native American Youth

The rate of suicides involving a firearm is increasing nationwide, according to a new report.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports Indigenous people are seeing the largest increase.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were about 27,000 suicides involving a firearm nationwide in 2022. That’s according to preliminary data.

The rate of suicide by firearm increased by 11% from 2019 through 2022.

Rates increased among all racial groups, but Indigenous Americans saw the largest increase at 66%.

The CDC says that could be attributed to lack of access to mental health care, high unemployment rates, and isolation in Indigenous communities, all issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

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