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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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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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The stories of Indigenous Americans are as valuable as any other, but those stories aren’t always told accurately or helpfully. Inclusion of Native voices in media are crucial, but how can we create those opportunities?

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more.

Journalism, with its degree requirements and institutional power, can be an intimidating field for many to enter.

The inclusion of new voices in the news field could help break that wall down though.

Native journalists like Amelia Schafer are working across America for organizations like Indian Country Today, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, or for your local indigenous publication, but Schafer says there is work yet to do.

“Native people have the sensitivity to tell Native stories in a way that is not as harmful as someone as someone who is uneducated in the community – or is educated on stereotypes of the community. It’s more empowering to be able to tell these stories that effect your community. Native reporters – it’s hard, but it’s also so rewarding because we’re able to tell these different stories in a way the community wants to be heard.”

Schafer says if you’re a young person with an interest in news – don’t stop.

“If I would have had somebody to tell me back then that it’s okay to keep perusing this even though there are people who don’t understand you or don’t want to understand you – that was something I faced in high school – it’s something that’s worth perusing. Native-led organizations like ICT can really help to empower reporters and give you that support that you need, and the ground of mutual understanding.”

It starts with school newspapers and student-broadcasting opportunities.

For Diana Cournoyer, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, there is equal value to be found in the perspectives unique to indigenous journalists.

“We have a lot of storytellers who probably would want to be journalists, but the two schools of thought don’t mesh. We are storytellers first and foremost – to be a storyteller, you also have to be a story-listener.”

Further, Cournoyer says opportunities to enter the field, like journalism internships or fellowships, simply don’t exist to the same degree on reservations than off.

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) says she’s ready to return to work at the nation’s capital.

Rep. Peltola has been spending time with family, following the loss of her husband, Gene “Buzzy” Peltola, who died in a plane crash on September 12.

In a statement, Rep. Peltola said the past few weeks have been some of the most difficult in her life, and that she appreciated how Alaskans have given her the space to celebrate her husband’s life with her family.

“The kindness and generosity that you have shown represents Alaska at its best.”

In the statement, Rep. Peltola talked about the federal shutdown, which she said was “barely avoided and could have hit Alaska’s military families, seniors and children hard.”

Rep. Peltola said after watching all the partisan politics in Washington continue, as another shutdown looms, she’s anxious to return to Congress.

She says she will continue to mourn her husband, but also knows he would want her to get back to work.

In Wisconsin, the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Governing Board has responded to a letter from the LCO Ojibwe School Superintendent Jessica “Hutch” Hutchinson about a rise in behavior and dress among middle school students that has been associated in the past with gang affiliation.

Tribal officials are asking parents and community members to teach young people about the dangers of gang activity, and to remind everyone of the tragedies that happened to Lac Courte Oreilles in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

That’s when gang violence claimed the lives of two young tribal members and eventually, the imprisonment of dozens of community members.

According to officials, the LCO Ojibwe School will begin dealing with associated behavior as a “Class I” offense, which may result in in-school suspensions or out-of-school suspensions.

The Tribal Governing Board says they fully support necessary actions to protect the community as a whole.

 

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Monday marks the third day of ceremonies held by the Presbyterian church in Juneau, Alaska to apologize for its racism towards Alaska Native people.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, for more than a half century, the loss of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in downtown Juneau has been an open wound.

Over the weekend, the sounds of gospel sung in both English and Lingít brought healing.

This choir sang in a fire station where Dr. Walter Soboleff’s church once stood when he preached in the Lingít language and led a mostly Native congregation.

But in 1962, Presbyterian church leaders closed it down to make way for a new church to be led by a white minister.

That church has since been renamed the Kunéix Hídi Northern Light United Church, which means healing house.

It’s where national church leaders like Rev. Bronwen Boswell made formal apologies.

“The Presbyterian Church USA apologizes for the act of spiritual abuse committed by the Presbyterian Church’s decision of closure, which was sadly aligned with nationwide racism toward Alaska Natives.”

Dr. Soboleff lived to be 102, but never spoke of the deep hurt he experienced.

His son Sasha says the whole family suffered yet never received an apology.

“Hearing the illustrious speakers bring their word graciously, brought tears to my eyes for the first time in 52 years. Gunalchéesh for that.”

Sasha Soboleff offered forgiveness, a blessing he says is necessary to build a better future.

“Lift our eyes so we can grow into this new vessel, this new world that is offered to us today, which comes perhaps once in a lifetime.”

The national church is also offering reparations, which Richard (Chalyee Éesh) Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida, says is equally important.

“And today for the first time in my young 47 years, it is the first time I’ve seen an apology go along with reparation.”

The church has offered $900,000 in reparations to be used for language and cultural revitalization.

Read the Presbyterian Church’s press release

The All Pueblo Council of Governors in New Mexico is condemning violence in the town of Española, where a recent celebration was taking place by Native people and their allies over the pause of the reinstallation of a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan De Oñate.

At the prayer event, a 23-year-old man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat is accused of shooting an Indigenous man.

In a statement Friday, All Pueblo Council of Governors Vice Chairman Jerome Lucero (Zia Pueblo) said, “it’s unfortunate that, during a prayer filled ceremony, an individual was seriously harmed over this issue.”

Lucero goes on to state this shows historical trauma and pain inflicted on Pueblo people by Oñate is still here.

Pueblo people say Oñate represents violence – remembered for his cruelty.

Nathana Bird (Ohkay Owingeh and Kewa Pueblos) was among those at the event who witnessed the shooting.

In an interview with New Mexico PBS, she reflected on the deep historical trauma.

“The genocide, the cultural washing, or the banning of traditional practices was done by folks that were brought to really colonize our communities. And so Oñate was sort of like the lead in that piece, along with other folks that came before him. It was basically to colonize and to convert Native people. A lot of our historical documents really, really state that there was a lot of destruction. There was a lot of violence. There was greed. A lot of our folks were really pushed to convert.”

Pueblo leaders say they’re concerned about the possibility of continued violence against Native people who oppose the statue.

Meanwhile, the alleged shooter, Ryan David Martinez, is charged with first-degree attempted murder, as well as a fourth-degree felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

A fundraiser has been set up for Jacob Johns who was shot in the chest and is recovering.

The online fundraising page says Johns is an Indigenous climate activist, artist, musician, and father.

NNN anchor and New Mexico in Focus correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with two Indigenous community leaders about the shooting and the violent history surrounding colonial monuments like the Oñate statue:

 

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The Interior Department is spending around $40 million in tribal communities to plug old oil and gas wells that have caused serious pollution.

A portion of that spending is going to states in the mountain west region.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau has more.

This first round of grant money will primarily assess the abandoned oil and gas wells.

Some funds will go towards actually plugging them. That’s critical to stop methane leaks and contaminated water from further harming tribal communities.

The Navajo Nation will receive nearly $5 million, and the Southern Ute Tribe will get about $500,000.

Four tribes in Montana will receive more than $4 million total to assess about 330 wells.

This is part of the Interior’s master plan to spend billions on cleaning up legacy pollution on public, private and state lands as well.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) spoke about the investment at an event in Colorado.

“These toxic sites pollute backyards where children play, recreation areas and community spaces. They have also threatened homeowners ability to thrive in the one place where they should be happy and comfortable.”

She says Interior has also created a specialized Orphaned Wells Program office to oversee the projects.

Alaska is home to more than 20 Alaska Native languages, but over the last century, the number of fluent speakers has declined.

One woman in Nome, Alaska is using social media as a tool to teach the Inupiaq language.

KNOM’s Ava White has the story.

Gail Smithhisler runs a Facebook page called “Iñupiaq Word of the Day.”

She posts daily videos of herself teaching the meaning, spelling, and provides a phonetic pronunciation of words and phrases from the language.

The “Iñupiaq Word of the Day” started in 2010 on Facebook featuring community members sharing words and phrases in various Iñupiaq dialects.

Smithhisler grew up hearing Iñupiaq spoken by her grandparents and elders in Nome.

After she began running the page in 2020, she enrolled in UAF’s ‘Introduction to the Iñupiaq Language’ class at Nome’s Northwest Campus.

“I felt soulful and happy. After each class I was very mentally drained from trying to retain all the information, but I was so hungry to learn more. I was like, ‘this is what I needed.”

Smithhisler created a TikTok account in 2020 and has since received tens of thousands of views, and thousands of followers.

She says TikTok is more popular among younger age demographics and bridges the gap in language revitalization.

“The health of our language kind of depends on young people, as well as our older people who are fluent. Because our elders and our older people that are fluent, they’re not going to be around forever.”

Smithhisler draws inspiration from elders, and utilizes their knowledge of pronunciations for her videos.

Minnesota will celebrate Indigenous People’s Day as an official state holiday for the first time this year.

Native News Online reports this comes after state lawmakers passed a bill in February requiring the observation in the state and eliminating Columbus Day.

Indigenous People’s Day has been celebrated for years in the state through a proclamation.

The Native American caucus and the state’s 11 tribes advocated for the state holiday.

On Monday, schools are also required to dedicate at least one hour of education to students about the day’s significance.

 

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This week, Colorado released a report on Indian boarding schools in the state, including the Fort Lewis boarding school near Durango.

The comprehensive review has new information about Native American children who died at some of the schools.

As KSJD/KSUT’s Clark Adomaitis reports, Fort Lewis College has been preparing for the report’s public release.

The historic Fort Lewis operated as a boarding school for Native American students in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The new report details the history of systematic abuse and negligence at the school, and it contains a new estimate that 46 children are buried at the old Fort Lewis Cemetery.

“It was really important for us to make sure that students felt supported in terms of having extended counseling center drop-in hours available.”

Heather Schotton is vice president of diversity affairs at Fort Lewis College.

She says the school understands that the report may be traumatic for the estimated 1,400 Native American students at Fort Lewis.

“Our Native American and Indigenous Studies faculty will be available for students to review it, to explain different components of it, help them to process and understand the report.”

It’s part of the charter mission of Fort Lewis College to heal the damage left behind by the Indian boarding school bearing its name.

The Central American country of Guatemala this week saw massive protests against government actions widely seen as an attempt to undermine the transition of power to the president-elect.

As Maria Martin reports, what’s unique about these mobilizations is they’re being led by the country’s Indigenous citizens.

In more than a dozen key points in the country, crossroads, bridges, ports, and airports, Indigenous Guatemalans, who make up 40% of the population, have come out in massive numbers to protest and block traffic, calling for all Guatemalans to join in a national work stoppage to stop those who want to overturn the results of the August 20 election.

Indigenous Mayor Luz Emilia Hulario: “Democracy has died, but the people of Guatemala are going to revive it.”

Manfredo Marroquín of Transparency International: “This mobilization of rural Indigenous people, it’s very rare in the history of Guatemala.”

Marroquín says these recent mobilizations are totally different from mostly urban protests in the past.

Current democracy actions have originated in the rural areas and are well organized.

Marroquín believes the Indigenous movements are what’s kept a total coup from taking place so far, as the ruling business class fears what more disruption could do to Guatemala’s economy.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has collaborated with AT&T on an internet and digital learning center.

On Friday, they’ll open the Connected Learning Center to assist Native citizens and community members who face connectivity barriers.

It will open with a full-time digital navigator who will help provide one-on-one digital skills training and app and device support.

The learning center will also provide computer and internet access for the public.

The Cherokee Nation, especially in rural communities, estimates that at least 6,000 Cherokee citizens do not have access to the internet or computers at home.

This is the first center on the Cherokee Nation and the 28th Connected Learning Center that AT&T has opened nationwide.

The company plans to launch more than 50 centers across the country by mid-2024.

 

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History was made Tuesday night in the Manitoba provincial election.

The New Democratic Party won a majority.

And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, its leader Wab Kinew becomes the first First Nations premier in the province’s history.

Most news organizations called the election just before midnight – on Tuesday night – declaring the New Democrats would form the next provincial government.

For weeks, opinion polls predicted an NDP win, especially in constituencies in the city of Winnipeg.

Wab Kinew, the NDP leader, becomes the province’s first First Nations premier and second Indigenous premier.

Kinew and his party campaigned on a platform of fixing the health care system, tackling the affordability crisis, and addressing crime.

“To the people of Manitoba, I want to say thank you because at the start of this campaign our team made a decision we chose to believe in you. We chose to believe that given the choice, you the people of Manitoba would embrace a positive campaign focussed on the future, focussed on fixing health care and making the economy more affordable and that you would reject the divisive message sent by our opponents.”

Kinew is a former host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He was first elected in 2016.

The following year, he launched a successful bid for the leadership of the New Democrats.

The leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Heather Stephanson, conceded defeat, and said she had called Kinew to congratulate him.

A conservation group has turned an isolated ranch in north central Washington over to the Colville Tribes.

Spokane Public Radio’s Steve Jackson reports.

The 2,500 acre Antoine Valley Ranch in Okanogan County was purchased by the Western Rivers Conservancy.

After a fundraising campaign, the organization has given the entire property to the Colville Confederated tribes.

Western Rivers spokesman Nelson Mathews says Antoine Creek is an important habitat for wild steelhead.

The tribe will work to restore the creek flow during fish migration time and revive spawning habitats that have been choked for decades.

The ranch controls water rights on the creek via a small dam several miles upstream.

“The Colville tribes, their fisheries department, came up with the unique idea of controlling the timing of the water so they can benefit the migration and spawning of the steelhead.”

A pulse of water would be sent out in the spring. The flow would attract the fish to come up that section of the creek.

Later in the year, when the water starts getting low and warm, cooler water will be released when the smolts are in the stream to help them survive.

The tribe also plans to fence off the creek to keep cattle out, and restore the riparian area and the original creek stream bed.

Healing events are set to begin this weekend through Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Juneau, Alaska.

The events surround the 1963 closure of the Walter Soboleff’s Memorial Presbyterian Church to acknowledge the closure and the hurt the closure brought upon the Juneau Indigenous community.

On Saturday, an unveiling of a sign at the site of the former church will take place.

On Sunday, there will be a church service with an acknowledgement and apology from the Presbyterian Church.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day will include a sharing of history and the presentation of checks in partial payment of reparations.

“The Native church,” as it was known, served the Native community, including with its Tlingit pastor Walter Soboleff, who held his first service in 1940.

The church was ordered to be closed in 1962.

The closure was said to have left Soboleff and the Native community devastated.

The acknowledgement, apology, and reparations include $950,000 for the harm and pain the closure caused.

 

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