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In Guatemala, an unprecedented national strike led by Indigenous groups has been going on for over 20 days.

Protests and blockades continued over the weekend as Indigenous and other citizens mobilized in support of the President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.

Maria Martin reports.

As Guatemala’s national strike enters its third week, neither the government nor pro-democracy protesters are budging.

Those mobilizing want the government to drop its efforts to block the reformist President-elect Arévalo from taking office while the government wants the protests to stop, calling the blockades quote “crimes against humanity.”

In Guatemala City, doctors from the two largest public hospitals joined protests, one carried a sign referencing the lack of investment in public health saying, “we’re here from all those who’ve lost their lives due to corruption.”

Meanwhile, the Indigenous group 48 Cantones (48 Villages) say some of its blockades will be lifted, but that protests will continue in the capital.

The group’s significant role in leading the pro-democracy movement is now being celebrated in a song going viral on social media.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the official end of the electoral period at the end of the month.

The Justice Department can legally move to disqualify the president elect’s party.

@48_cantonesJuntos defendamos la democracia, la libertad y la institucionalidad nacional. 🇬🇹 Por un país libre de corrupción y dictaduras, 48 Cantones de Totonicapán. 📣♬ sonido original – 48 Cantones Oficial

A Northern Wisconsin Tribe is in the middle of a major housing development project.

In the next year, it’s expected to build and renovate 44 homes within the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation.

WXPR’s Katie Thoresen reports.

Two major housing projects are underway in Lac du Flambeau right now.

The Chippewa Housing Authority received $15 million in tax credits to build 20 new homes and renovate 24 others.

The new homes will range from two-to-four-bedroom units.

The renovated houses will be adding another bedroom and bathroom.

Travois has been working with the housing authority since 2021 to secure the financing.

Brian Schuler is the organization’s Vice President of Housing Development who works with tribes across the country.

“We see a lot of overcrowding within reservation housing. So that was meeting that particular need in terms of this renovation. Additionally, housing authorities maintain a really large waiting list of households that need housing. The new construction was going to be very vital to the LDF community.”

Schuler says the Indian Housing Block Grant allocation hasn’t kept up with inflation which is why tribes like Lac du Flambeau have turned to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

It’s the first time in state history a tribe was able to get both of these types of tax credit projects funded within the same year.

Jeff Ackley is the housing administrator for the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Housing Authority.

“There’s always a way to improve anything that you’re, you know, any community that you’re working in, and that kind of thing. So it’s some of it has been challenging, but the reward is great. And, you know, I think that the whole community and you know, like, Wisconsin wins, basically, you know, basically for affording us the opportunity and putting in for tax credit projects.”

Ackley says one of the long-term benefits is sustaining Tribal membership in the community.

People will not have to move off the reservation to find other housing.

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LISTEN to our special AFN coverage: Alaska’s Native Voice with Antonia Gonzales

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) was greeted with a standing ovation at the Alaska Federation of Natives, when she addressed the convention Friday.

From subsistence to Native veterans, Sec. Haaland touched on a range of topics.

But one issue on this trip to Alaska will get a lot of her attention.

On Sunday, Sec. Haaland held a listening session in Anchorage on the trauma caused by Native boarding schools.

“We must reckon with the past to address the injustices we still face, because we know that intergenerational trauma connects so much of what hurts us.”

Sec. Haaland has been traveling the country on what she calls a “Road to Healing Tour,” taking testimony on the boarding school era about the damage it caused.

“My grandma used to share stories about this trauma with me about how a priest showed up one day in her village, took her and other children away from her parents and families, and sent them on a train to a Catholic boarding school, when she was only eight years-old.”

Sec. Haaland’s listening session was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center and followed by the raising of a healing totem.

The Heritage Center has been investigating church records to learn more about how Alaska Natives were impacted.

Benjamin Jacuk (Kenaitze Indian Tribal Member), one of the researchers, says his grandfather is a boarding school survivor, which got him interested in learning more.

“The road to healing is going to be a very, a very emotional event, because it’s a lot of people, actually telling their stories. Some maybe before, some for the first time. One thing you know, is never leave people in that space.”

The healing totem is the work of two Haida master carvers – Joe and T.J Young.

An elder developed the concept for the design.

The totem pole depicts mother bear, who is holding two cubs, while the father, in human form, sits above her, embedded in a Raven’s tail.

Two children rest comfortably in Raven’s ear.

The totem raising, which was followed by a potlatch, was open to the public, but the Road to Healing Tour was closed to the general public, to give boarding school survivors and their famiies some privacy.

Courtesy Alaska Department of Education

Education in Alaska has followed a westernized, traditional path since 1784, when the first settlement was formed on Kodiak Island.

Since 1784, education has changed, morphing into a system that doesn’t serve all of the children that it’s meant to.

It has been documented that Indigenous children have been stolen, abused, and forced to assimilate in the current westernized system.

At this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives conference, that story seems to be shifting to a conversation about future hires, curriculum changes, and the potential to bring elders into the classroom.

The conversation started off with a video talking about the history of Indigenous people.

“The story our past tells us, is about an education system imposed on Alaskan’s First People, rather than one built along side of us. ”

For the past year, Cook Inlet has been working on reaching out to multiple communities to see what an ideal educational system would look like.

So far, five tribal communities have agreed to participate in the AFN Educational Compacting Project.

Joel Issak, director of tribal affairs for the U.S. Department of Education, says that the focus of the program and the future of education are these three things.

“The first one is funding. And having the funding go directly from the state to the tribes. The second one is local control and looking at self governance. The third one is around instruction and looking at, ‘How do tribes be that driving force for who is in the classroom teaching our students?'”

After the video was played, speakers said conversations of the future must contain the past, and bringing back traditional beliefs from before 1784.

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WATCH and LISTEN to gavel-to-gavel AFN Convention coverage

An exhibit opened Wednesday night at the Dena’ina Convention Center that looks at the work of Bill Hess and his 40 years of photographing Alaska Native veterans.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA was there for the opening.

Before you enter the main convention hall, large panels with portraits and candid photographs line the way.

“Actually, when you walk in, it draws you in.”

Wanda Solomon-Parsons. (Photo: Rhonda McBride / KNBA)

Wanda Solomon-Parsons (Athabascan), Alaska National Guard Member, is dressed in her uniform.

She’s served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was struck by how the photos evoke the spirituality of serving your country.

“It draws you into a story and it draws you into a personal life of an Alaskan Native veteran that served. We all have a story to tell.”

Along with the pictures, you can read about each veteran’s life.

“I capture what I see and feel and the feeling is every bit is important as the eye.”

Bill Hess says this exhibit showcases photographs of more than 60 veterans, culled from four decades pictures he’s snapped at veterans’ ceremonies, as well as sit-down portraits of vets he met along the way.

“I don’t feel like I’ve photographed near enough actually.”

But long enough to know that Alaska Native Veterans don’t get near enough appreciation.

Out of all the ethnic groups in the country, Alaska Natives have the highest rate of service to their country and yet as a people, Hess says, they’ve been treated terribly.

“These are Alaska native indigenous people who are willing to put their life on the line for a country that took it upon himself to subsume most of their country. It’s still their country and, and they have a loyalty to it.”

Photo: Rhonda McBride / KNBA

Benno Cleveland (Inupiaq), who is head of the Alaska Native Veterans Council says, serving your country as a way of life for Alaska Natives, a tradition of service that goes back to World War II, when thousands of Alaska Natives signed up to the Alaska Territorial Guard to defend the country during World War II, a direct threat when the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor in Unalaska and invaded the Aleutians.

“And that way we started to come into the United States as citizens, as equals.”

And also known for their love of service to the country, as well as their endurance and remarkable ability to fight in the cold.

“Our people are adaptable, we can adapt to any situation, anything that comes our way, that is our strength.”

From the Territorial Guard, to Vietnam, to the Persian Gulf Wars, and Afghanistan, the exhibit also shows how this legacy of service has been passed down across the generations.

Courtesy Kodiak Tribal Housing Authority

The 2023 AFN Citizen of the Year Award went to Kodiak resident Margaret Roberts on Thursday.

She was nominated by the Woody Island Tribal council and was selected by the AFN board of directors.

She passed away in July of last year and has been praised by communities all over Alaska for her tireless dedication to the Alutiiq language and dance, as well as advocating for the rights of Alutiiq people and Alaskans.

Born and raised in Kodiak, Roberts was known for her leadership.

She served on boards for many tribal councils including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act corporation, as well as other non-profit organizations.

Robert’s daughters joined the presenters and Alutiiq dancers, a dance group Roberts created, onstage.

Leslie Ann Heglan, Roberts’ oldest daughter, spoke of her mother’s tireless commitment to her people and corporations, even while fighting cancer and just having had surgery.

Painting of Margaret Roberts by Helen Simeonoff.

“She tells me she leaves that Sunday for Seattle for housing meetings and (a) conference. I said ‘WHAT?! Mom you just got back from surgery, what are you thinking you can’t go, you’re still l weak.’ Mom went, it was about a week later, she looked just exhausted. Mom had selflessness and worried about everyone.”

Heglan said Roberts also fought for the Alutiiq language to be taught in her daughter’s school.

“And it did happen. Sammy had four years of Alutiiq language in high school.”

After Roberts’ daughters accepted the award, the Kodiak Alutiiq dance group performed a Native dance to honor the memory of the woman who made it possible for them to be up on the stage that day.

Roberts was known in her Alutiiq language as “the one who dances.”

Check out our Day 1 gallery courtesy of our partners at Alaska Public Media

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After a year of planning, the guests have gathered and the table has been set for another Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, which will officially come to order at 9 a.m. (AKT) Thursday morning.

The Qasigirmuit Dancers from Bethel will welcome delegates today, as they take their seats on the convention floor at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage.

After opening ceremonies and speeches, the convention will hear from two keynote speakers this morning: Sophie Minich, president and CEO of the CIRI Native Corporation, and Ryan Redington, champion of this year’s Iditarod.

This is the 57th annual AFN Convention.

This year’s theme is “Our Ways of Life,” which will explore the subsistence lifestyle in communities across the state and how Alaska Natives are blending their culture and traditions to address today’s challenges.

Get out the Native vote efforts are underway this week in Anchorage, as people from across the state gather downtown for the AFN convention.

Michelle Spark is the director of Get Out The Native Vote, a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan voter education group.

She says one area they’re focusing on is rural communities.

“Rural village precincts with Native populations did not vote at all, either in August or in November. So we’re here to make sure that the staffing happens, that there’s less barriers to voting when it comes to an election day, and that our vote counts in the end.”

Spark says they’re gearing up for 2024.

The theme for this year’s Annual Elders and Youth Conference that was held at the Dena’ina center in downtown Anchorage, Alaska was “Let it be that we all heal each other.”

One of the people in attendance was George Holly, Athabaskan from Soldotna.

He came to the Elders and Youth Conference to promote healing with multi faith daily prayers at dawn.

“About four years ago at elders and youth, a group of Indigenous friends from all over Alaska, proposed that Dawn belongs to all and that the Earth turns and humbles itself before the sun each day. And we can do that too. And the Elders and Youth Conference was so open to it, we had a fire, and folks were attracted to be able to have that kind of expression again, as we get together. And it’s been going since so this is its fifth year.”

Another passion of Holly’s is language revitalization.

He says when it comes to healing, speaking your Native language brings back cultural identity.

Naomi Michaelson (Eagle Wolf tribe of the Shark House) is from Ketchikan.

For ten years she worked for a domestic violence shelter, but found it hard to balance her personal life and her job. Still wanting to advocate for domestic violence victims, she took a different approach.

“ I took some time off and started a business called Café Indigenous Foodways. And my hope and goal is to help people reconnect back to the land and to each other. I’m passionate about helping people, and including myself with healing, and our families and our communities.”

Michaelson’s approach on using food for healing goes hand in hand with this year’s Alaska Federation of Native’s convention theme, “Our ways of Life”, by exploring the subsistence lifestyle in communities in the state, and how using culture and traditions can help address today’s challenges.

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The third day of the 2023 Statewide Annual Elders and Youth Conference at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage, Alaska started off with a Native dance group from Unalakleet and a touching speech from Youth keynote speaker Quannah Chasinghorse (Gwich’in from Eagle Village, Alaska and Oglala Lakota Tribes of South Dakota), an Indigenous land protector and model.

More work shops broke out in the early afternoon, which included salmon cutting, practicing self-governance, and the much-anticipated Native Youth Olympics.

NYO was created by Alaska Natives to help develop crucial survival skills in harsh weather and environment.

Today, the youth compete in the games to preserve and display their cultural identities in modern day life.

Maio Nishkian is a coach at the Ya Ne Dah Ah school in Chickaloon Native Village, a small town just north of Palmer and one of the NYO instructors.

She came to the gathering with three students ages eight through ten. She says NYO today is more than just physical strength and endurance.

“It’s about supporting each other, helping each other. You’ll see kids from different teams teaching each other how to do certain moves, helping each other. It’s very different than most western sports. The cultural learning that they get they’re whether native or non-Native helps them appreciate indigenous cultures.”

One of Nishkian’s students, 10 year-old Colt Jennison, shared what he’s excited about doing during the workshop.

“One foot or maybe Indian if there is Indian. This is my second year. NYO is awesome.”

@nativevoiceone Student Elmo Henry does a 2 foot high kick during the Elders and Youth Conference #Native Youth Olympics workshop. More details in the latest edition of National Native News with Jill Fratis. https://www.nativenews.net/wednesday-october-18-2023/ #Alaska ♬ original sound – Native Voice One

Duke Ngo, another instructor and a coach from Juneau, is anticipating the 2023 Arctic Winter Games which will be held in Alaska this year.

He says while he’s not certain yet about his involvement with this year’s competition, he’s looking forward to the games coming to his home state.

“It’s really exciting and I hope our team Alaska will do their best and be able to have fun at the games.”

As the Elders and Youth Conference is beginning to wind down, at the same time, preparations are underway for the Alaska Federation of Natives convention taking place at the same location starting Thursday.

Guatemala’s three-week-old popular uprising, led by the country’s Indigenous citizens, is beginning to turn bloody.

At least one protester has been killed as armed vigilantes attacked a group of protesters on Monday.

The uprising’s Indigenous leaders  say they’re fighting to save their country’s fragile democracy, as Maria Martin reports.

As this week  started, there were fewer blockades across Guatemala, but people are still leaving their Indigenous communities to come to the capital to protest and demand the resignation of what they claim are corrupt  justice department officials.

Meanwhile, Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras is calling for the government to use force against the hundreds of thousands of largely Indigenous protesters in peaceful resistance.

The protesters want her  resignation  and that of other officials  leading an investigation against the political party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.

The justice department’s illegal raids of electoral offices was the last straw for many Indigenous groups.

48 Cantones  leader Luis Pacheco expressed disappointment that Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei has ignored their demands during a recent dialogue .

“We maintain hope and prayers that this struggle, a peaceful effort for democracy, has a good outcome.”

But yesterday, in various places, violence broke out.

In the Indigenous community of Malacatan in the border province of San Marcos, an armed masked group of vigilantes attacked the protesters.

A food vendor who was part of the protest is reported dead; more are hospitalized.

Representatives of ancestral authorities say they’ll be coming together to discuss  next  steps in light of the violence.

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The 40th annual Statewide Elders and Youth Conference kicked off Sunday at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage.

People from all over Alaska have come to town to take part in the four-day event, as well as the Alaska Federation of Natives convention that will take place later this week.

This is the third time Joseph Johnson Sr. from Angoon has taken part in the conferences. He said it is very important for elders and youth to come together.

“Get all the young kids and everyone together as a group and then split them up where they can talk, and tell other people what’s going on in their community that makes it very interesting.”

Anne Stepetin from Juneau escorted five elders to Anchorage.

She said the children can be a healing source for the elders.

“It is bringing an elder into a space where they can have healing because a lot of our elders have faced a lot of traumas in their life. We have a lot of generational trauma and I’m a huge believer in connecting our youth with our elders, and the youth bring a lot of healing to our elders.”

Those who attended Monday and Tuesday heard keynote speeches from elder Delores Churchill, the last remaining Haida birth speaker in the state, and Indigenous land protector and model Quannah Chasinghorse.

USDA Office of Tribal Relations Director Heather Dawn Thompson, left, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt and Food Safety, and Inspection Service Administrator Paul Kiecker announce a new bison purchase pilot program for tribal feeding programs. (Photo: Lee Strubinger / SDPB)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is awarding half a million dollars in contracts to four tribal buffalo producers located within South Dakota.

The move is part of what the agency hopes will offer more ground bison meat for tribal communities.

SDPB’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Officials with the USDA say they want to change how the agency purchases and delivers bison to local communities.

The agency is announcing a pilot program they say will offer more ground bison to communities through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).

It seeks to align purchasing timeframes with how ranchers manage bison herds.

Heather Dawn Thompson is the USDA Director of Tribal Relations and an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

She says the program will benefit local producers who want to sell meat to the federal government.

“It’s very challenging to be able to sell to the federal government as a small producer. South Dakota has lots of small and family producers. This provides an opportunity for those producers to really participate in the federal procurement process.”

Thompson says the program will benefit communities near bison herds that receive provisions from federal food initiatives.

The USDA awarded contracts to four tribally owned herds and managers in the Cheyenne River, Rosebud, Lower Brule, and Standing Rock Reservations.

Students participated in a Buffalo harvest experience facilitated by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Buffalo corporation and Laplante school. (Courtesy Cheyenne-Eagle Butte Schools)

Jenny Moffit is an Under Secretary with the USDA, who oversees purchasing at USDA.

She says bison present a unique challenge when it comes to federal food distribution.

“There are certain times of year when bison are harvested. If we’re buying year-round and expecting and asking for full truck loads worth of bison and that’s something producers can meet, they’re not able to participate in these programs. That is such a miss.”

The USDA says it will align purchase timeframes with infrequent animal handling, traditional field harvests, and a nature-based calendar.

The agency says it will take lessons learned from the pilot to take the program further in the future.

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Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska granted the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)’s motion to intervene in U.S. v. Alaska, the latest case challenging Katie John.

AFN President Julie Kitka: “This is a welcomed ruling. AFN has a special place in this litigating—dating all the way back to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act—and culminating most recently in Sturgeon. We’ll defend the legal rights of Alaska Natives to engage in subsistence hunting and fishing anytime our ways of life are threatened.”

According to AFN, U.S. V. Alaska began in 2021 when the State of Alaska refused to honor U.S. Fish and Wildlife subsistence management decisions on the Kuskokwim River.

AFN goes on to say it increased rapidly in 2022 when the State, again, refused to abide by federal closures regarding salmon fishing along certain parts of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

In a statement, AFN Co-Chair Ana Hoffman said, “This federal protection for rural Alaskans, secured by Alaska Native leaders decades ago, is the source of our nourishment physically, emotionally, culturally, and spiritually. This is our way of life; it is our existence.”

AFN predicts that U.S. v. Alaska will make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friday, you heard about the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s efforts to recover an endangered fish by modifying a 100-year-old diversion dam.

In part two of his report, the Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more on why the tribe’s fish passage project is more urgent than ever.

Shiva Sundaresan is deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and attended the project’s groundbreaking.

He says dams aren’t the only obstacles fish populations like Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout have to overcome.

“As climate changes in places we’re seeing changes in snowpack, changes in the timing of when you have snow melt, changing water temperatures, all of that is definitely affecting fish populations, fish habitat.”

He says that’s why the fish passage project at Numana Dam is one of dozens nationwide receiving federal funding.

“The more, I think, we can restore these ecosystems, allow fish to migrate up and down the streams, have habitat where they can find refuge when water temperatures rise, the better we will be at protecting and restoring, conserving these fish populations.”

At the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, the underwater ramp will allow up to 600,000 Cui-ui to swim over the diversion dam to new spawning grounds.

Lisa Heki is a Reno-based project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Historically, they move in large numbers at the same time, and they back up behind this current design. Now, with this gradient structure downstream, it’s designed specifically for Cui-ui swimming capacity and speed.”

She says when river flows go down this fall, construction of the ramp will speed up.

The tribe is putting the project out for a construction bid and a third-party contractor will build it.

Tribal Chairman James Phoenix says the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe is excited to finally see shovels break ground on a decades-long effort to recover their Native fish.

“It’s historical. It’s big for us and it’s part of our existence. It signifies us as Numu people here at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.”

He adds he’s looking forward to the day when the Cui-ui population is big enough for tribal members to catch, fillet, and eat them once again.

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As the Guatemalan government prepares to use force against the unprecedented uprising led by Indigenous groups, thousands of citizens in that Central American country are still joining actions against what they see as attempts to block a reformist president-elect from taking power. Maria Martin reports on the second week of the uprising against corruption and authoritarianism in Guatemala.

Bus loads of new protesters entered Guatemala city this week  from the largely Indigenous provinces of San Marcos and Huehuetenango. The protests and the more than 100 blockades across the country are only getting bigger in the wake of recent statements by President Alejandro Giammattei in a nationally televised speech, the outgoing president said protesting Guatemalans that have virtually shut down the country were “poquitos”. 

 “They’re only a few”, President Giammattei said of the hundreds of thousands out in the streets and highways.

At  the major cross roads called Cuatro Caminos, Indigenous TikTok influencers The Pacheco Brothers sent a message in response to Guatemala’s president.

Rafael  Pacheco: “ We are many and we’ll continue fight the corrupt government .”

As the protests grow, tensions are rising, and violence has broken out in some places.

Outgoing President Giammattei blames President-elect Bernardo Arévalo for “encouraging the protesters.” Arévalo says the government is using infiltrators to incite violence, so it can  declare a state of siege.

@_rafaelpacheco Dijo el presidente que somos un grupito de personas aca lo desmentimos 🇬🇹🇬🇹🇬🇹🇬🇹@Antonio Pacheco ♬ Así Fue – En Vivo Desde Bellas Artes, México/ 2013 – Juan Gabriel

Nationwide, millions of barriers – like dams – make it hard for fish to move freely and lay eggs.

Now, the federal government is spending more than $200 million to reopen spawning grounds for fish.

That includes an effort to recover an endangered species that’s sacred to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Nevada.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more in a report edited by Jennifer Coombes.

At the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation in northern Nevada, rolling mountains cloaked in pale-green sagebrush unfold for miles like a painting that never ends.

Standing at an overlook in these hills is the tribe’s chairman, James Phoenix. He’s watching the Truckee River rush over Numana Dam, an irrigation diversion.

As a kid, Chairman Phoenix fished in these waters for Cui-ui – sucker fish that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.

“Bringing them to shore and then cutting and filleting them, that’s what my dad had taught me. And I got to experience that’s how he was taught when he was young.”

The tribe refers to themselves as Cui-ui Tucutta in their Native language, which means “the Cui-ui eaters.”

But tribal members stopped catching them back in the 1980s as the fish population plummeted.

A big reason for the decreased fish population is this dam.

It was built more than 100 years ago to divert river water to the reservation for farming and ranching. But it’s been a barrier for migration of the endangered cui-ui and threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout – another fish crucial to the tribe.

Chairman Phoenix says the previous tribal council discussed removing or modifying the dam, but kept running into the same hurdle.

“A lot of funds weren’t available.”

That finally changed. The tribe is getting more than $8 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modify the dam.

The money will be used to build a large underwater ramp – stretching from bank to bank – so fish can swim up and over the dam.

The project, which recently broke ground, will reopen 65 miles of river for their migration.

Chairman Phoenix says that will impact more than the tribe’s culture.

“It’s important to our economics. We rely on tourism and fishing. We get a lot of anglers that are coming in seasonally, so it’s really big for us.”

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First Lady Jill Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) are the latest high-profile Democrats to visit Wisconsin, in support of re-electing President Joe Biden next year.

Chuck Quirmbach reports on a trip aimed at reinforcing Native American support for the President.

The first lady and the interior secretary spent about three hours touring a Menominee-owned saw mill and a tribal college garden where sustainable agriculture is taught – and speaking at a Native women’s empowerment summit.

First Lady Biden told the conference that President Joe Biden has invested millions of federal dollars to help tribes

“Joe and I stand with you and all of Indian country as we build a brighter future together. “

Sec. Haaland spoke about creating partnerships between the bureau of Indian affairs and philanthropic groups.

“I’m excited that as one of the first partnerships the bureau of Indian education is working with the trust for public lands to build nine new school yards in tribal communities. That includes a new school yard at the Menominee Tribal school right here.”

Sec. Haaland and First Lady Biden were greeted warmly.

Tribal member Marsha Uutela says the Biden administration is moving in the right direction. But Uutela says Menominee county which overlaps the reservation often ranks as the least healthy of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and has the highest poverty rate.

“I’ve lived through the results of being the 72 out of 72. There’s still a lot that needs to be done.”

The overwhelming Menominee count for President Biden in the 2020 Presidential election is one of the reasons he narrowly carried Wisconsin.

Now the Biden family is hoping it is earned tribal members continued support.

Courtesy University of New Mexico

Researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) have found that COVID-19 hit American Indian and Alaska Native patients hard – even inside the university’s hospital.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports.

The researchers met with around 500 patients admitted from 2020 to 2021.

They found a disproportionate number of Indigenous individuals were admitted both in and outside of the ICU, with more than half developing severe COVID-19.

They also would stay twice as long at the hospital and were more likely to be put on a ventilator.

DJ Perkins is a Professor of Medicine and Director of UNM’s Center for Global Health. He says even though this population had low rates of other diseases that could exacerbate the virus, they still faced a high risk.

“The strongest predictor of severe disease and it was about three fold higher, was self identified as American-Indian, Alaska Native.”

Some causes behind these numbers could be lack of access to health care facilities and poor living conditions created by forced government relocation to reservations.

Perkins says one way to turn the numbers around is making sure booster shots and testing sites are more available.

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Native corporations and tribal organizations, as well as state and federal agencies, have already begun to hold meetings ahead of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

The state’s largest gathering officially gets underway the evening of Wednesday, October 18.

AFN will kick-off with an event to honor veterans. Nicole Stoops, one of organizers for this year’s AFN, says it will feature the work of Bill Hess, who has photographed Alaska Native veterans for more than 40 years.

“There is many in black and white, there are many in color, but they’re all very emotional when you look at them. It’s a beautiful story to be told.”

Three elders, who have served in the military, will share their own stories – Emil Notti, one of the founders of AFN; former Alaska state senator Jerry Ward; and Benno Cleveland, who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam.

Also that evening, AFN will premiere “One with the Whale”, a documentary that tells the story of a St. Lawrence Island teenager who landed a whale – a big accomplishment that was soon inundated by a wave of criticism from environmental activists.

Stoops says some even made death threats.

“And to have that kind of backlash, really. It shows his emotional turmoil and how his family suffered through that but also persevered through it.”

Stoops says the film will set the tone for the convention and its theme, “Our Ways of Life”, which will explore how values are shaped by a culture’s relationship with the land.

“We have diverse cultures, diverse languages, but the core values are still there. The cultural values that our ways of life are still very similar and how we can work together, especially when it comes to those obstacles that we face as Alaska Natives.”

Each region of the state will be highlighted, followed by panel discussions, in part to heal some of the rifts that occurred last year, when a bitter debate broke out on the last day of the convention over the Western Alaska salmon crisis.

Jesse Beers, cultural stewardship manager for the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. (Photo: Brian Bull / KLCC)

This Saturday, a western Oregon tribe will celebrate the restoration of its federal recognition.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, that event will happen at a site undergoing its own restoration.

The 1950s saw many tribes’ federal status terminated by Congress, resulting in decades of disruption and loss of ancestral lands.

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians were reinstated in 1984, after nearly three decades.

To mark that event, the tribe will hold several events recognizing its sovereignty, including one at the Siuslaw Estuary outside Florence.

Cultural stewardship manager Jesse Beers says this former dairy farm will be restored to its pre-development status, which will benefit salmon.

The restoration will also incorporate Native language and canoeing into its final design.

“Restoring the lands, the waters. Restoring the languages on the landscape, within our own hearts and minds.  And restoring all the pieces that were stripped from us during the reservation era, during termination, during the boarding school era, all those things.”

A blessing and naming ceremony will complete the project.

(Courtesy Cherokee Nation)

The Cherokee Nation hosted a gathering of first language and fluent Cherokee speakers on Tuesday at the tribe’s Durbin Feeling Language Center at Tahlequah.

The event is one of the largest gatherings of fluent Cherokee speakers in modern history.

Cherokee Nation First Language & Fluent Cherokee Speaker Gathering at Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah, Okla. October 10, 2023. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation)

During the gathering, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner spoke about the tribe’s historic efforts at saving the Cherokee language, and gave a glimpse at some of the tribe’s next steps.

In 2019, the council of the Cherokee Nation approved the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act, a legislation introduced by Chief Hoskin and Chief Warner to provide an initial investment of millions of dollars into Cherokee language efforts – the largest language investment in Cherokee Nation History.

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