Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

In Guatemala, Indigenous groups of farmers are calling for the defeat of a proposed law they say would damage Native seeds and the environment in that Central American country.

Maria Martin reports.

Outside the Guatemalan Congress, Indigenous leaders called a proposed bill known as “La Ley Monsanto” “disrespectful” to Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples.

“Una falta de respeto…”

Monsanto’s Law refers to the corporate agricultural giant whose opponents accuse of wanting to privatize the production and exchange of seeds of such traditional crops as corn and beans with the help of corrupt lawmakers.

“Nos unemos a esta lucha, porwue esta lcuha es una agresion directa a algo sagrado…”

This, they say, disregards the will of Indigenous Guatemalans who several years ago, mobilized to defeat a similar proposal.

”Y ahorita estan cometiendo un gran delito con pueblos originarios con esta ley Monsanto Y AHORA.”

Now, Indigenous leaders like Sylvia Menchu of Santa Catarina Palopó are calling on all Guatemalans to join Maya groups in opposing Monsanto’s Law to protect ancestral legacy, going back thousands of years.

Maternal deaths nationwide have more than doubled from 1999 to 2019 – especially for Black and American Indian and Alaska Native moms.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports on the data.

The overall number of maternal deaths rose from 505 to 1,210.

That’s according to a recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers looked at how many mothers died per 100,000 live births.

Black and American Indian and Alaska Native mothers had the highest rates.

The rate for Black moms rose from about 27% to 55%. The American Indian and Alaska Native rate rose from 14% to about 49%.

Dr. Tina Pattara-Lau works with the Indian Health Service.

She says many factors play into these numbers, like a lack of hospitals in rural areas or increases in mental health problems. But there’s another underlying cause.

“There’s a long history of historical trauma, including elements of systemic racism that can often last generations.”

She says more doctors could build trust with patients by involving community members and cultural practices in the birthing process.

The Avera Research Institute has been awarded $58 million in grant dollars to be distributed over a seven-year period.

C.J. Keene has more.

In particular, the health care network says these dollars will go towards research to benefit the health of mothers and children in Native and rural communities.

Both grants come from the National Institutes of Health.

The first, totaling up to $47 million, is part of the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes research network.

The second $11 million grant aims to reduce pregnancy-related inequities and will create the Maternal American Indian Rural Community Health Research Center.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, will convene a hearing about tribal water issues on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Tribal water experts and stakeholders are expected to testify on challenges, including a lack of access to infrastructure, deferred maintenance of existing infrastructure, inadequate water quality, and lack of funding.

The hearing is also expected to discuss emerging contaminants, technical assistance concerns, and workforce development shortfalls.

Watch the livestream on Sen. Padilla’s Facebook page starting at 2:30 p.m. ET

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

On the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho, wildfire smoke often pollutes the air.

It can also seep into homes, so the tribe is handing out about 250 air cleaners to elders and others with health problems.

Rachel Cohen of the Mountain West News Bureau has more in part two of her report.

On a recent Thursday, Johna Boulafentis of the tribe’s air quality department was off to set up one of the air cleaners.

She stopped in at the apartment of elder Florene Davis.

“Did I turn it off? No, you have it on low now.”

Davis is 91. She’s soft spoken but chatty.

She mentors kids and college students in nimipuutímt, the Nez Perce language.

“Go one more and it’ll be really high. You’ll be like a young girl, hair flying through your hair.”

Davis says earlier this summer, she was traveling to a doctor’s appointment in Washington state.

Smoke was drifting down from British Columbia.

“We could feel it, notice the air was a little more heavy.”

Boulafentis shows her how to change the filter inside.

“That’s the main one to check? Yeah, frequently.”

This Nez Perce program is innovative – and aims to protect people from wildfire smoke indoors.

Erin McTigue with the EPA says tribal efforts like this are being replicated elsewhere.

“Some of these reservations are highly impacted by smoke, have lots of forested land that they’re trying to manage, have a lot of vulnerable individuals.”

And moving away is not an option for many tribal members.

“Whether people like it or not, this is this is our home.”

Aaron Miles is director of Natural Resources for the Nez Perce Tribe, which was forcibly removed from most of its homelands.

He says the U.S. government has an obligation to ensure clean air for the Tribe. At the same time… “the tribal government does everything it can to protect our people.”

That includes programs like this one to ensure indoor spaces are healthy.

It’s been smoky a few times since the air purifier has been running in Davis’ living room. She’s noticed its button turned “red” as it detected poor air quality and then started running its fans more intensely.

She’s glad to have it with her, keeping the air clean.

This reporting was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources.

More processing and tribal meat inspection.

That’s what officials who are tasked with getting buffalo into Native communities say are needed in the next farm bill.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Troy Heinert is the executive director of the Intertribal Buffalo Council.

He says tribal entities need to be a part of the farm bill conversation.

“Often times we’re either an after thought or we’re completely neglected in some of those decisions.”

Heinert says that’s shifting.

The former South Dakota Democratic state lawmaker says he’s seeing federal farm bill language getting drafted to help meet needs for buffalo processing.

“Because there’s such a bottleneck in processing anyways. When you start talking tribes, rural nature, and buffalo on top of that, those processing capabilities start dropping even further.”

Heinert says the Intertribal Buffalo Council doles out grants to help with processing.

The group works with 83 tribes across 22 states that manage over 25,000 buffalo.

They expect to have relocated over 5,000 surplus buffalo to tribes in the last three years.

Heinert, who is Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud, says tribes are asking the USDA to work with them on meat inspection as well.

“The tribes in South Dakota — for the most part — are very rural. They’re the high population centers in those areas and yet there’s no processing. There’s definitely no inspectors. So, why shouldn’t we be able to train our own people to inspect tribal meat or tribal produced meat? And then for distribution to either our tribal membership, or put it on the retail market if that’s what the tribe chooses to do. Why would they hold us back economically?”

Many expect the current farm bill to get extended.

South Dakota U.S. Senators hope a new farm bill will get passed by the end of the year.

However, Congress must craft a budget by September 30 to avert a government shutdown.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

When wildfire smoke clouds the air, you might be warned to avoid strenuous activity outside. But as fire seasons get longer and more intense, some air quality experts say that advice isn’t enough to protect your health.

Rachel Cohen of the Mountain West News Bureau reports.

About 15 adults take their seats in a classroom on the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho.

Johna Boulafentis invited them here this Wednesday night for an air quality workshop.

“We’re going to go over some things about indoor air (and) outdoor air.”

Boulafentis works for the tribe’s air quality department.

Pollution on the reservation has come from agricultural burning and a nearby paper mill. But now, wildfire smoke is the main problem.

“This is this is what we’re going to continue to see with climate change is increased and more frequent wildfires, which if you have fire, you have smoke.”

Mansel Nelson is with the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals at Northern Arizona University.

He’s critical of the longstanding public health guidance for avoiding wildfire smoke.

“The general advice to go indoors always makes me cringe.”

Why? Because the smoke doesn’t stay outside.

“In many cases indoor environments are almost as bad as outdoor and can even be worse.”

Boulefantis hopes to change that. So tonight on the reservation, she’s offering a lesson on air filtration – and eliciting some laughs along the way.

“Okay, why we’re all here today..”

She’s also giving away free portable air cleaners to tribal members.

Recipients include families with young children who have asthma and tribal elders – those who have higher health risks from smoke.

“Say hello to the Winix D360. This is the sweet baby.”

The cleaners stand about 2 feet tall and filter out more than 99% of smoke particles.

Boulafentis ordered 242 of them using funds from a state emergency preparedness grant.

“I want to come try it.”

People in the class talk about where they’ll put the cleaner in their house.

Outside, they pick up their own filters from the back of a minivan to take home.

The next week, the air quality program will host another class on the opposite side of the reservation to hand out filters to more tribal members.

In the next part of this story, we’ll visit with an elder as she receives one of the air cleaners.

This reporting was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources.

A cash-prize fishing derby has proven to be an effective tactic against invasive bass in southern Oregon.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, it’s all to help safeguard salmon, prized by the Coquille Tribe.

Almost 12,000 fish have been reeled in since last year by anglers, as part of the annual smallmouth bass derby.

The event is hosted by the Port of Coquille River and sponsored by the Coquille Tribe, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and 3J Ranches.

Brenda Meade, chair of the Coquille Indians, says this helps reduce a major scourge in local waterways.

“They are just eating machines on the river, and they’re eating the salmon smolt. Salmon…there would be a huge loss, culturally significant to our ceremonies. To traditional foods. To our way of life.”

Meade says state conservation officials estimated a 99% drop in returning salmon in local waterways over a ten-year period.

The second annual derby started in June and has been extended to October 1.

There are 80 tagged fish that can win anglers prizes, with amounts ranging from $50, up to $10,000.

Tribal leaders were among those to remember the life of former Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) as a funeral mass was held this week in Santa Fe.

Pueblo leaders say Gov. Richardson helped them prosper in many ways as governor and as a member of congress – improving social services, infrastructure, health care and education.

They say he also helped provide incentives for business development and gaming, and ensured religious freedom.

Under his leadership, the state’s Indian Affairs was elevated to a cabinet level department.

He passed away in his sleep in Massachusetts earlier this month at age 75.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The husband of U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) died after a plane crash on Tuesday. He was 57.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, Gene “Buzzy” Peltola is being remembered as both a supportive husband and a leader in his own right.

When Rep. Peltola ran for Congress, her husband “Buzzy” Peltola was often behind the scenes, beaming proudly.

As she took her oath of office to become the first Alaska Native woman to serve in Congress, he stood beside her, wearing a traditional Native kuspuk, holding the Bible.

For many Alaskans, the couple seemed to embody Peltola’s campaign slogan – fish, freedom, and family – an image that shattered when he was flying solo in a small plane that crashed into a mountain near St. Mary’s on the Yukon River, part of a vast region he knew well in more than three decades of work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bethel.

Eventually he became the first Alaska Native to manage the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

Later, he served as the Alaska regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Throughout his public service career, there was a common thread – Peltola’s passion for hunting, fishing, and giving Alaska Natives more say in how fish and wildlife are managed, a passion he shared with LaMont Albertson, one of the founders of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

“It’s just so hard to find the words to describe his intelligence and how intuitive the guy was. He was assertive and he knew how to say the right things at the right time.”

Albertson, who will soon turn 80, has known both Mary and Buzzy Peltola since they were kids, but says he’ll cherish a recent memory forever.

After suffering a stroke, they sent him a care package with subsistence foods to help him recover.

It’s National Suicide Prevention Week, and new data shows that the suicide rate in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past 20 years.

As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports, that’s especially true for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

The analysis was done by Pew Charitable Trusts.

It found that from 2000 to 2020, the national suicide rate grew 30%.

For Native American and Alaska Native women, the rate spiked more than 130%. For men, it jumped over 90%.

Emily Edmunds Haroz is with the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health.

She says a major factor is the historical trauma caused by colonization and the boarding school era.

“If a parent is traumatized because of these experiences and experiences those things and are not allowed to talk about it, and not allowed to cope with it, they then pass along that trauma to their children and sort of this cycle perpetuates itself.”

She says there’s also a lack of funding for mental healthcare services in tribal communities.

If you or someone you know needs help, call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Or contact them via live chat.

Artists Keith BraveHeart and Marty Two Bulls Jr. have been named as the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s 2023-24 artist laureates.

C.J. Keene has more.

In the role, the pair will serve as cultural ambassadors for the tribe, support artistic endeavors on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and enrich their communities through their works.

Two Bulls Jr. and BraveHeart both work as educators in addition to their art – serving as art professors at Oglala Lakota College.

The program runs under the OST Vice President’s Office.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Hundreds of supporters of Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) rallied outside the White House on Tuesday calling on President Joe Biden to grant him clemency.

He’s been in prison for nearly 50 years.

Melinda Tuhus reports.

The day marked Peltier’s 79th birthday.

He’s said to be in poor health and has been imprisoned for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 1975.

Indigenous leaders, allies, and his attorney are calling for Peltier’s freedom, saying there’s no evidence tying him to the crime and that exculpatory evidence was withheld at trial.

Fawn Sharp (Quinault Indian Nation) was among speakers at the rally.

She’s president of the National Congress of American Indians.

“We’re also here with purpose to call out the president of the United States, the only person on the face of this planet that has the sole decision – it is a choice he has to make to release Leonard, our relative. We call on the President of the United States to release our elder!”

The event included the lifting up of an enormous banner with their demand.

The rally was organized by NDN Collective and Amnesty International USA.

Sharp, Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota), president and CEO of NDN Collective, and Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, were arrested outside the White House.

According to NDN Collective, the leaders were among 35 people arrested by U.S. Park Police after the U.S. Secret Service cleared people from the rally on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Peltier is incarcerated in a maximum-security prison in Florida.

Outside the coastal community of Florence, Ore., major renovation and construction work are underway.

The Siuslaw Estuary restoration project will convert nearly 200 acres of old dairy farm land into habitat that will benefit wildlife, especially salmon.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull (Nez Perce) reports, a Native American tribe is among the partners.

On a flat, muddy area of reddish claylike soil, an excavator digs away at what will eventually become a primary channel in what used to be marsh.

Jesse Beers (sha’yuushtl’a uhl quuiich hiich) examines the site for anything ranging from pottery shards to human remains.

He’s the cultural stewardship manager for the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians.

They’re partnering with the Siuslaw Watershed Council and the McKenzie River Trust on this restoration.

Beers says it’s an essential collaboration.

“During the treaty process when our treaty wasn’t ratified, our lands were never legally ceded. So that’s part of the reason we see ourselves as such big stewards of our lands and waters. Because we don’t really have the population or the capacity anymore to manage those lands as we used to, it’s very important for us to work with our partners such as Mackenzie River Trust and Siuslaw Watershed Council holistically to restore these lands and waters.”

The Siuslaw Estuary Restoration Project is slated to take two years at a cost of $10 million.

That’s on top of the purchase of the dairy farm, which was $750,000 funded by a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

Margaret Treadwell is the McKenzie River Trust’s Central Coast Conservation Program Manager.

She says the partnership will make a noticeable difference.

“You will see the river return, particularly at the high tides, up into this area that we’re looking at right now. So the river will be coming back in here bringing saltwater, creating just a nice passage for fish to come up through here and spend their juvenile time.”

When finished, planners say six miles of habitat will provide feeding and rearing grounds for salmon, steelhead, and lamprey, as well as shorebirds.

There will also be a tribal naming ceremony for the area, and a canoe landing is also part of the design.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A nonprofit is shedding more light on the history of Indian boarding schools in the U.S. and Canada.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Will Walkey reports.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition’s new map documents 523 schools – more than 100 above the most recent list by the U.S. Interior Department.

They were run by federal governments or churches with the goal of assimilating Native Americans into white culture.

The students’ hair was cut and they were sometimes beaten for speaking their language.

Samuel Torres is with the coalition focused on boarding school healing that made the map.

“The impetus of boarding schools was always Indigenous erasure, was the removal of Native language, was the removal of the influence of the family, of the home, of the nation.”

More than 150 schools were in the Mountain West, with many in the Four Corners region.

Torres hopes to gather more testimony from survivors in the coming months.

“We’re going to need this moment of accountability in order to be able to chart a path ahead towards healing, towards justice.”

Torres says the map will be updated later this year to include more archival records.

The knowledge work and art of Indigenous healers and medicine people in Alaska is being featured at the Anchorage Museum.

“Good Medicine” is a multidisciplinary exhibit.

Alaska Public Media’s Rachel Cassandra has more.

“Good Medicine” features paintings, illustrations, a women’s house, and a men’s house.

Those houses are traditionally used for healing, teaching, and meetings.

Meda DeWitt’s Lingít names are Khaat kłaat and Tśa Tsée Naakw.

She’s a healer and the curator.

DeWitt says the show is both about healing and is healing in itself.

She says it holds space for traditional healers to be seen and to speak.

That’s in contrast to colonization’s attempts at erasure of Alaska Native culture.

She says healers and spiritual leaders were targeted during colonization because of how they protected people.

“Many folks were sent to insane asylums, or penitentiaries. Or they were just taken out into the woods and, you know, just went missing, never came back or out into the ocean.”

For decades, Alaska Native people were forbidden from practicing traditional healing, so she says people are choosing ways to adapt practices.

“We have to first fully articulate who we were pre contact… to understand how to adapt it so that we are… 21st century Indigenous people on our own terms.”

Ultimately, DeWitt says that acknowledging the trauma of colonization is part of cultural healing.

“Let’s not… whitewash history, let’s… work as a community together to seek healing and repair… so that way, our future generations don’t have to carry on that burden any longer.”

The exhibit “Good Medicine” will be up through the spring.

The Indigenous led organization NDN Collective, and the human rights group Amnesty International USA, are holding a rally at the White House Tuesday.

Indigenous people and their allies are asking President Joe Biden to free Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa).

The event is being held on Peltier’s 79th birthday.

For nearly five decades, Peltier has been imprisoned in the U.S. for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Peltier has maintained his innocence.

A march and action are taking place in Washington, D.C., as well as a group of speakers, including tribal leaders, advocates, a U.S. lawmaker, and a former federal judge who is counsel to Peltier.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Montana Arts Council recently announced the state’s new poet laureate.

Yellowstone Public Radio’s Orlinda Worthington introduces us to Chris Latray, who is the state’s eleventh poet laureate and a member of a Montana tribe.

“That is hello, all of my relatives, we are all related. And that is where my inspiration comes from. The relationship we have with everything around us, human and non-human, absolutely that is it.”

Chris La Tray is a member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa.

He says his priority as poet laureate will be getting to small, rural communities that may be overlooked when it comes to writing and poetry.

“If I had to focus on one thing, it’s to get the word to these young people that you can choose a path like mine and be successful in ways different from maybe how people tell you need to proceed.”

He says, like many of us, he grew up with the idea that poetry is just a bunch of fancy words; a misconception he hopes to change.

“You know,  when I speak to kids I tell them that their story is 100% unique and there is nobody who is experiencing the world the way they are and the importance of them sharing that story through any kinds of words on the page or orally, that is important. And however you choose to frame that with words is poetry. Your life is poetry.”

You can hear a longer conversation with La Tray on Yellowstone Public Radio’s program “Resounds” .

The Barbie doll has been getting much attention with the release this summer of the Barbie movie.

In Alaska, mother Angela Gonzalez and daughter Ermelina of Anchorage, posted their doll titled “Fish Camp Barbie” on social media, which features an Athabascan Barbie doll dressed in traditional clothing.

It’s gained thousands of views.

KNOM’s Ava White reports.

The iconic slogan of Barbie, “you can be anything,” is brought to life in a culturally rich way.

In this scene, a Barbie doll proudly wears a vibrant hot pink kuspuk, complemented by a beaded necklace, stylish moosehide cuffs, and headband.

Positioned on a nearby table is a fish made from salmon skin, aligned with beadwork.

Barbie is holding an Ulu, ready to skillfully prepare the fish.

All clothing was handmade by Ermelina Gonzalez.

Angela Gonzalez’ family’s fish camp was located along the Koyukuk River, where her family frequented when she was a young girl.

She has played with Barbies since she was a little kid and says her grandmother used to make accessories for her dolls.

“All the dolls would have their little ulus, and we would have a little fish camp scene with fish racks and leaves. Leaves from willows would be our little fish.”

Angela Gonzalez explains the importance of sharing culture towards younger generations and why it’s important for Alaska Native children to feel equally represented.

“I think that it’s just good that they will be able to see themselves represented, even though it’s not for the mass market or anything like that. They can be inspired to create what they want to create, you know, if they have a different way of life, maybe they can make a fishnet or a dip net, you know, just something that that can inspire them to be able to feel like they have permission to customize something that will represent themselves.”

Barbie has a reputation for embracing numerous roles, ranging from a CEO to a gymnast, a construction worker, and now, a skilled fisherwoman at a subsistence camp.

Through the innovative creation of their own Barbie scenes, Angela and Ermelina Gonzalez have succeeded in fashioning a compelling narrative focused on culture.

Their efforts serve as an inspiring testament for young girls across various Alaska Native cultures, conveying the powerful message that they too can embody the spirit of Barbie in their unique ways.

Ermelina Gonzalez is an intern at KNBA, Koahnic’s flagship station in Anchorage.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

It was announced yesterday that the Interior Department will cancel its remaining oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

This will prevent drilling in 13 acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The Biden Administration declared the ANWR lease sale, which was held in 2021 during the final days of President Trump’s administration, violated federal law.

The Interior Department also added protections by putting a stop to offshore drilling in the federal waters of the Beaufort Sea earlier this year, almost a year before the administration approved ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion oil development project Willow in the reserve.

Guatemala’s much-criticized attorney general met with the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) this week about her justice department’s role in the country’s turbulent election process.

Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders carried out traditional ceremonies to censure the attorney general and others they accuse of corruption.

Maria Martin reports.

After her meeting with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Guatemala’s Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras said there’s a campaign to discredit her and her justice department for investigating valid legal complaints.

She rejected the accusation that her investigation of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo’s Semilla party is an attempt at a legal coup. 

Meanwhile, Indigenous groups are stepping up actions asking for Porras’ resignation.

On Tuesday, Maya ancestral authorities performed a traditional ceremony outside the presidential palace, asking for punishment for corrupt government officials.

There’s a new marker along Anchorage’s Coastal Trail.

It says Nuch’ishtunt, which means “the place protected from the wind” in Dena’ina Athabascan.

The sign is part of the Indigenous Place Names Project and is a reminder that Dena’ina people were and continue to be part of Anchorage.

Jeremy Hsieh reports from Alaska Public Media in Anchorage.

At a ceremony celebrating the new signpost, Aaron Leggett shares an anecdote about meeting other young Alaska Natives when he was 19 working at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

“And I told them that I was Dena’ina. They said, ‘Well, what’s that?’ Then they said, ‘Well, where’s your village?’ I said, ‘We’re from here.’ They said, ‘No, where’s your Native village?’ I said, ‘We’re from here.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, Eklutna is 26 miles from downtown Anchorage.’ And some of them who had grown up in Anchorage said, ‘Well, I didn’t know Native people lived here.”

He says he realized Dena’ina were largely invisible and he wanted to work on reclaiming who Dena’ina are as a people.

That was more than 20 years ago.

Now, Leggett is the president of the Native Village of Eklutna and a curator with the Anchorage Museum.

He’s been working on the Indigenous Place Names Project since its inception in 2018.

The “Nuch’ishtunt” sign is the effort’s fourth installment.

Dena’ina people used to set up seasonal salmon fishing camps near this point, up until federal officials banned commercial fishing here in the 1950s.

“Indigenous place making deepens the connection we have to place.”

Beth Nordlund is the executive director of the Anchorage Park Foundation, another organization working on the project.

“This is bigger than signs. It’s a movement.”

Project supporters eventually want to put up 32 of these sculpture signs in high visibility areas around Anchorage and Eklutna.

They each feature iron artwork representing a fire bag, a pouch used to carry materials for starting a fire.

It’s also a symbol of living outdoors and sharing.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

This is a critical week in Guatemala’s fragile democracy as that country’s outgoing president and its beleaguered president-elect meet to talk about the transition of power.

With the eyes of the world on the central American country of Guatemala, many of its millions of Indigenous citizens are getting ready to take action against what they call a coup attempt by a corrupt justice official, as Maria Martin reports from Guatemala.

 Outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei says he wants a transparent and efficient government transition,  but the reformist President-elect Bernardo Arévalo said in a televised interview right before the start of transition talks, that  there’s a contradiction between  protocol and President Giammattei’s failure to condemn his justice department’s attempts to disqualify Arévalo’s Semilla (Seed Party). 

 “I would hope the president would come out strongly against these spurious legal actions.”

Meanwhile, pro-democracy protests continue in Guatemala city and throughout the country, calling for an end to government interference with the election process and what protesters think is an attempt to block the country’s newly-elected president-elect from taking power despite the transition talks.

“This is just the start until the new president takes power on January 14.”

Virgilio Gerónimo Bernal Guzmán, the Indigenous mayor of Nebaj, Quiché, joined other ancestral authorities in Maya communities to call on the country’s attorney general and her “cronies” to resign, as he says they’re attempting a coup to thwart the constitutional order.

If they don’t stop these illegal actions, he says, Indigenous groups will  step up their protests.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $2.5 million in grants to three Alaska Native Corporations.

They’re part of a $20 million dollar appropriation from Congress to clean up contaminated lands that were conveyed to Native corporations under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The announcement came when EPA Administrator Michael Regan made the final stop of his Alaska tour last week in Fairbanks.

Administrator Regan says this first round of funding barely addresses the problem.

“Just the breadth of contaminated lands, contaminated conveyed lands is astounding. And so, in addition to this $20 million we had a lot of discussions with local leaders about how we could devise strategies to acquire resources from other programs.”

Administrator Regan also visited Utqiagvik last week, where the Ukpeaġvik Inupiat Corporation (UIC) is based.

It will receive $600,000 to remove asbestos and other contaminants from the old U.S. Navy Arctic Research Center, as well as clean-up an oil spill.   

Pearl Brower, president of UIC, says this site is just a small portion of lands in the region that need clean-up, but called it a good first step. 

She says she looks forward to a time when her children and grandchildren can subsist off of clean land and water.    

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who championed the legislation, is also working to find other sources of federal money to clean-up more Native Corporation lands, which she calls an “injustice perpetrated by the federal government”.

“It thwarts their ability to fulfill the promise of ANCSA, (which) was that they would be able to utilize their lands for the betterment of their people. But when your lands are contaminated and you can’t access them for development, much less berry picking. That’s not keeping our promise.” 

The Tyonek and Ounalashka Corporations will each receive $1 million in funding.  

Tyonek will use the money to inventory and clean-up contaminants on the Iniskin Peninsula. 

The Ounalashka Corporation will target pollution from World War II, removing soil contaminated with PCB’s as well as sampling soil and water at a warehouse in Dutch Harbor.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Michael Regan (@epamichaelregan)

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.