Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Indigenous people in Winnipeg are continuing to raise concerns and call on officials to search landfills for their missing and murdered relatives.

Among the Indigenous women they want found and brought home are Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26.

Police believe the women are victims of an alleged serial killer and that their remains could be in a landfill.

Two camps have been set up in efforts to keep pressure on officials and draw awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Two Spirit, and Gender-Diverse People.

Firekeeper Shining Gold Star at Camp Marcedes. (Photo: Antonia Gonzales)

On an August morning, firekeeper Shining Gold Star, who lives in Winnipeg, talks about Camp Marcedes, named after Marcedes Myran.

He’s been there since it was first set up in July in the city, next to the Canadian Museum For Human Rights.

“It’s to honor the missing and murdered especially the landfill, its focus is on search the landfill.”

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

Gold Star walks around the camp where there are a handful of tents and a camp kitchen.

Signs are posted all around – some read “we are not garbage,” “search the landfills,” and “no more stolen sisters.”

There are red handprints and art drawn on sidewalks and benches along walking paths near a river and park.

There are also a number of empty red dresses displayed, symbolizing those who’ve gone missing and murdered.

“The government does not want to look, not only are they in there, there are other people in there and they’ll have to explain things… I’ve had people come up to me with shovels from every community – black, white and blue – and they all say the same thing, we’ll do it.”

A more than 30 minute drive from Camp Marcedes is the city operated Brady landfill where distress flags fly at Camp Morgan, named after Morgan Harris.

There are also red dresses positioned around the camp, tents, a wigwam, and teepees.

Some people say they’ve been in the area since December while others like Ida Manuel, from British Columbia, felt compelled to come here this summer.

A red dress displayed at Camp Morgan. (Photo: Antonia Gonzales)

“My heart, going out to the families affected and I just had to answer that call. How could you, how could you be human any other way?”

Remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, another victim, were found at Brady last year.

A blockade at the road leading up to the landfill had previously been set up, but was dismantled.

Now, dumping continues.

“For us to stand and say we are not trash and still not be heard. You know, it really needs to be connected – Canada’s lack of respect… with colonialism set out to do to Indigenous.”

Ida Manuel at Camp Morgan. (Photo: Antonia Gonzales)

The other landfill, Prairie Green, is privately operated outside of Winnipeg.

The Manitoba government is citing costs, and health and safety concerns for not conducting a search at Prairie Green for Harris and Myran.

Advocates say they’re prepared to camp through the winter.

They’re also hoping new leadership of the province will be elected in October to offer assistance.

Last year, Jeremy Skibicki, 35 at the time, was charged for the murder of the three women and a fourth unidentified woman.

The Winnipeg Police Service are asking anyone with information about this investigation to contact the Homicide Unit at 204-986-6508.

NNN stringer Rhonda LeValdo contributed to this story. Photos taken at both camps and the Prairie Green landfill featured in slideshow:

Native Hawaiian organizations are accepting donations to help those being impacted by devastating wildfires on Maui.

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement says last week it partnered with another organization on a fundraising drive.

They started with $100,000 in matching funds, which and has since grown to more than $1.5 million.

The Native Hawaiian community is not only losing possessions, but also historic and cultural sites have been destroyed.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Members of the Native American Journalists Association voted to change the organization’s name to the Indigenous Journalists Association.

The name change received a vote of 89 to 55.

Members had various opinions on whether or not to change the name.

Longtime member and KYNR radio host Roy Dick from the Yakama Nation in Washington was against the name change.

“To me, they’re trying to make it international. We’re used to what we worked for. Like myself, I’m a radio man. Everyone turns the radio on to see what I have to say, and I tell them I’m a part of NAJA. They ask me, ‘What’s NAJA?’ I say ‘Native American journalist’, and that includes radio, TV, and print. And to me that identifies us as a special group of people.”

Others, like first-year member Darla Ponace, intern from Eagle Feather News from Saskatchewan, voted to change the name.

“It thought that Indigenous was more, it included more Indigenous people from Canada, the U.S., across the ocean, so I thought it made it seem more inclusive for other indigenous people. That’s why I voted to change the name. Not to step on anyone’s heels or toes.”

The vote took place as members from the U.S. and Canada celebrated 40 years of the organization in Winnipeg last week.

Coquille Tribal members paddle through the Ni-les’tun Marsh in a ceremonial canoe. (Courtesy Roy W. Lowe / U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

The University of Oregon and the Coquille Indian Tribe are partnering up on research to reduce carbon emissions.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

The UO has a five-year, $3 million grant to study ways to cut climate-changing carbon.

It’ll incorporate environmental findings, artificial intelligence, and Indigenous knowledge to help address challenges to the environment.

Jason Younker is Chief of the Coquille Tribe, as well as UO assistant vice president and an advisor on government-to-government relations for the administration.

He says it’s important for traditional ecological knowledge to be included.

“Our whole world is warming up. That’s affecting the water, it’s affecting the salmon, it’s affecting everything. And what can a small little tribe on the southern Oregon coast do to help be an example for other people?”

The National Science Foundation-funded study aims to involve more Indigenous perspectives and offers a range of carbon-cutting actions that communities can choose to carry out.

Advocates urged President Joe Biden to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and stop endorsing what they say are false climate solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) during a recent visit to New Mexico.

Members of the New Mexico No False Solutions coalition (NMNFS) unfurled banners that said, “Keep [it] in the Ground, and Invest in Renewables,” along Interstate 25 during the President’s stop in Belen, N.M.

Under President Biden, the Department of Energy is promoting hydrogen across the country.

New Mexico, along with other states, is seeking federal funding to build out large-scale hydrogen projects.

In June, NMNFS sent a letter to the Department of Energy urging it to reject New Mexico’s application for federal hydrogen funding, highlighting climate, environmental justice, health, and safety concerns.

NMNFS member Sofia Martinez warned that a hydrogen economy will lock in dirty fossil fuels in the state at a time when New Mexico needs to rapidly transition away from oil and gas.

“First it was nuclear, and now hydrogen is coming into New Mexico. We are tired of being the testing grounds and sacrifice zones for untested sources of energy.”

According to the group, climate-fueled disasters have had massive human and financial costs.

The group says last year alone, communities in the U.S. experienced 18 separate weather and climate disasters, causing almost $170 billion in damages and at almost 500 direct or indirect fatalities.

About 95% of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The wheels of the legal system continue to grind in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the state of Alaska, challenging whether the federal government can designate new parcels of land as Indian Country.   

Last week, Attorney General Treg Taylor (R-AK) asked the U.S. District Court of Alaska for a summary judgment in its lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tlingit and Haida, the regional tribal government for Southeast Alaska.  

In January, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) granted Tlingit and Haida’s request to take a small parcel of land in downtown Juneau into trust.   

A.G. Taylor says Asst. Sec. Newland didn’t have the authority to do that because the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act doesn’t allow new trust land to be created in Alaska.

The settlement created Native Corporations that were given cash and legal title to 44 million acres of land.  

And although the piece of land in question is tiny – less than 800 square feet – the state says if it remains in trust, it creates the equivalent of a reservation, which the Claims Act sought to prevent – a huge issue in a state with more than 200 tribes.  Two other tribes, Ninilchik and Fort Yukon, have land-into-trust requests pending, as well as Tlingit and Haida.  

The state’s request for a summary judgement is a pretrial motion, in which the judge can decide some issues and set others aside for later.

For now, both parties are submitting written arguments to the court.

A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law says there may be oral arguments at some point.       

Tlingit and Haida says putting land into trust gives it economic benefits and access to federal and tribal programs 

Courtesy School for Advanced Research

Earlier this month, the School for Advanced Research was awarded two grants from the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) for initiatives by SAR’s Indian Arts Research Center (IARC). 

SAR received a grant of almost $50,000 for the IARC’s project to improve the stewardship of its collection of over 12,000 items of Indigenous Southwest art and history. 

SAR also received an IMLS National Leadership Grant for Museums of approximately $175,000 for the IARC’s creation of the Indigenous Collections Care Guide.

The guide will provide museums with a framework to re-center collections stewardship practices around the needs and knowledge of Indigenous community members.

At the conclusion of the project, 175 tribal community representatives and museum professionals will have had a voice in the development of the guide, which will be made freely available for tribal community representatives and museums of all sizes.

Courtesy Bishop Paiute Tribe / Facebook

The Bishop Paiute Tribe, which is located at the foot of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in Bishop, Calif. and is the fifth largest tribe in California, is celebrating a newly installed 49 kW DC system as part of the tribe’s overall sustainable energy plan.

It seeks to improve energy efficiency for reservation residents through the addition of renewable energy resources.

The project was installed in part with funding from the California Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) Program at Coyote Mountain Apartments, an affordable housing and sober living facility.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held August 9.  

The project is the first SOMAH Program incentivized installation to be completed within a tribal reservation in the state.

The more than $180,000 system is projected to save the 24 households almost $500,000 on their energy bills over the lifetime of the system.  

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Commissioner John Reynolds shared his enthusiasm about the completed project.

“I congratulate the Bishop Paiute Tribe and GRID for completing the first tribal solar project under the SOMAH Program. This is exactly the kind of community-based and community-led solar project we need more of, and as the Public Utilities Commission considers ways to improve the SOMAH Program in the future, I hope we hear from tribes and organizations like the ones here today about what we can do to make sure solar reaches everyone.”

The solar project is a partnership between the Bishop Paiute Tribe Community Development Department and GRID Alternatives’ Inland Empire office.  

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Gov. Max A. Zuni of Izleta Pueblo in New Mexico has issued a call for action after a recent fire at a plastic storage facility near the tribal community this last weekend.

In a letter sent out to more than 16 surrounding communities, he said, “When the area was first planned, it was billed for housing, retail, and office space. Now, however, it houses industrial facilities, which impacts all of our neighbors, including the pueblo of Isleta.”

The Tribal community is located near Albuquerque.   

Gov. Zuni says the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program and the Isleta Fire Department issued health advisories Sunday warning residents to remain indoors through Monday morning to avoid the hazardous pollution.

Gov. Zuni said the fire threatened the community’s health during a heat wave, leaving residents to decide whether to use their evaporative air conditioners and expose their homes to hazardous pollutants, or to suffer through the extreme temperatures.

The Pueblo is calling on local governments to take action and collaborate with the Pueblo.

The Pueblo is concerned about health impacts to people and the environment.  

The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) is fishing for photos to share at its convention this October and offering prizes for the ones which best reflect this year’s theme, “Our Ways of Life.”

The contest opened at the beginning of the month, and Ben Mallott, AFN’s Vice President of External Affairs, says there’s already been quite a catch.“

Mallott says the contest will help to generate interest in the convention but also has another important purpose.

“We tend to use the photos that we get throughout our convention materials. Look at our app, look at our convention guide. Hopefully we could use photos that show our ways of lives throughout all of our materials.”

Mallott says the more photos the better, so they can be used after the convention to help AFN continue to advocate for Native causes.

“AFN works in so many different arenas and so many different policy areas that sometimes having the right picture. It really brings it home.” 

AFN wants photographs that capture Alaska landscapes, hunting, fishing, families, elders, youth, regalia, and other daily activities or special events. 

So far, many of the photos capture children and elders taking part in subsistence activities.

Mallott says one his personal favorites is a snapshot of a little boy, posing alongside a freshly caught fish, making a “fish face.”  

The first prize is two roundtrip Alaska Airlines tickets, with $500 in cash for second place and $250 dollars for third.

The Alaska Travel Industry Association has created a new seat on its board, set aside for tribal representation.   

The head of the association, Jillian Simpson, says it’s not only the right thing to do, but good for business.

“I think people want to have an authentic experience, when they travel someplace. And Alaska is the only place in the world that has the living cultures of Alaska Native people.”

Camille Ferguson, a Lingít from Sitka, currently holds one of the ATIA’s 24 board seats.

She says it’s important that tourism marketing is culturally authentic, and a tribal representative would have the most expertise in that area.

“Authenticity from imagery content and video. It’s so important to have somebody who is at the table to help them.”

Ferguson worked for the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association based in New Mexico, where she saw how tribal representation helped the travel industry develop culturally sensitive practices.  

She says not all states collaborate with tribes, but should, not just for diversity’s sake, but to improve the overall tourism experience.  

She says until recently, the Cruise industry defined the portrayal of Southeast Alaska – limiting its focus to Alaska Natives to only Ketchikan, Russian history in Sitka, and glaciers in Juneau.

Ferguson says Alaska’s travel industry is finally coming around to recognizing the untapped potential of cultural tourism.  

The tribal seat on the ATIA board is open to members of a federally recognized tribe or an Alaska Native corporation shareholder, and should bring more involvement from tribal travel and tourism leaders.

Board elections are in September.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

President Joe Biden has designated the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

President Biden signed a proclamation Tuesday during a visit to Arizona.

In remarks at Red Butte, a sacred Havasupai site at the southern part of the monument, President Biden said the action honors tribal nations; protects sacred places, wildlife, and water; and conserves public lands.

He reiterated his commitment to tribes.

“I made a commitment as president to prioritize (and) respect tribal sovereignty (and) self-determination; to honor the solid promise the U.S. government made to tribal nations; (and) to fulfill trust and treaty obligations. I pledge to keep using all the available authority to protect scared lands. My administration has worked alongside tribal leaders, many of you here today to keep that promise.”

President Biden says this marks the fifth new national monument he’s created and will conserve nearly one million acres of greater Grand Canyon landscape.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and a number of tribal leaders were at the signing ceremony.

Courtesy Alutiiq Museum

Kodiak, Alaska’s Alutiiq Museum is publishing a coffee table book that highlights contemporary Native art.

As KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, museum staff say the book will include more than 200 pieces and feature dozens of Indigenous artists.

The Alutiiq Museum received a grant for nearly $150,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to develop a book of modern Native art.

Amy Steffian is the chief curator of the Alutiiq Museum.

She says the goal is to show that Alutiiq tradition is a living culture, expressed in many different ways.

“The book looks at the contemporary art collections from the Kodiak History Museum and the Alutiiq Museum – we’re going to combine our collections to show artwork that’s been made since about the mid 1980s. That’s about when the heritage movement started, and that’s when there’s an explosion in contemporary art production.”

The hardcover book will have images of artifacts and feature essays about the art and biographies for artists.

Museum staff plan for it to be a coffee table-style book up to 300 pages thick.

The book will feature artists from Kodiak and others with Alutiiq roots.

She says they will feature both traditional pieces like baleen carvings and masks, as well as western pieces made by Indigenous artists.

“They’re quite diverse – they range from everything from skin sewing and things like weaving and carvings to more western art forms like oil paintings, for example.”

Some of the grant funding will go towards a first printing of 1,000 copies to be distributed around Kodiak for free.

Steffian says the ultimate goal is to share the book with as many people as possible.

“Our partner at the Kodiak History Museum will have a number of copies to share, we’ll give them to Tribes and corporations and schools. We also then will have a number of copies available for free public distribution if people want to come to the museum and pick one up.”

Steffian says they’ll likely print more copies to sell at their store after the first thousand are gone.

The museum will also have an e-book on their website for the public to access for free.

The grant gives the museum a deadline to complete the project within three years, but staff hope to publish in the next two.

The Native American Journalists Association is celebrating 40 years.

The organization is hosting journalists in Canada.

Among agenda items, members will vote on whether or not to change the organization’s name to the “Indigenous Journalists Association” and hold a listening session for Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ members and community.

The conference begins Thursday in Winnipeg.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Alaska’s congressional delegation has re-introduced legislation that would make the five so-called “landless” communities of Southeast Alaska landless no more.

The communities have long argued being left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is an injustice, but inclusion has remained elusive. KSTK’s Sage Smiley has more.

It’s been more than half a century since Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

It put millions of acres of land in the control of more than 200 newly formed local and regional Alaska Native corporations. But five Southeast Alaska Native communities were left out.

“We were literally involved from the very, very beginning, going back to the very first part of land claims.”

Tashee Richard Rinehart is Lingít – Kiks.ádi from Wrangell, which is one of the five communities excluded from ANCSA.

“And to be left out was a surprise to us.”

Alaska’s congressional delegation has been trying to change that by submitting and re-submitting bills over the past two decades. The bills are aimed at amending the 1971 legislation to include Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan, Haines, and Tenakee Springs.

Sam Erickson is press secretary for U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK), Alaska’s sole representative in Congress.

Rep. Peltola filed a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in late July.

It is functionally the same as many others proposed in the past by Alaska legislators.

“Because they’re left out, you know, these communities never got the opportunities for economic development and cultural preservation that the other communities did.”

It’s a matter of longstanding discussion why the five communities were excluded from the initial 1971 law.

A report by University of Alaska in the mid 1990s found no clear reason why the communities were excluded, other than Congressional intent.

Not only does Wrangell’s exclusion from ANCSA keep it from receiving a township of land, it also means community members have been barred from forming a local corporation.

Alaska Native corporations are a huge chunk of the state’s economy and the largest type of private employer in the state.

Aaltséen Esther Reese is the tribal administrator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA), Wrangell’s federally-recognized tribal government.

“This was our land since time immemorial. And it is recognizing that and giving our tribal citizens, you know, some of our land back that we had stewarded for tens of thousands of years. So on a philosophical level, I think that’s very important.”

Alaska’s delegation has introduced a handful of other bills aimed at amending ANCSA this term as well – in all, the law has been amended over 100 times.

The nine federally-recognized tribes in Oregon and state agencies that regulate water are working towards a mutual partnership.

This follows the release of a nearly 300-page report detailing tribes’ concerns and issues with water quality and access.

KLCC’s Brian Bull (Nez Perce) reports.

The Tribal Water Task Force’s report is the culmination of several government-to-government meetings enacted by then-Gov. Kate Brown (D-OR) in 2022.

Doug Woodcock is the Acting Director for the Oregon Water Resources Department.

“The tribes have expressed frustration that when they have a matter of urgency that they want to talk to the state about, they’re not sure which agency they need to go to. So as a matter of efficiency, this education between us provides that avenue of, “Who is it that they ought to be talking to, around different issues?”

Examples include safe water habitat for salmon, a regular staple for many tribes, and clean and consistent water for communities.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has contended with water shutoffs and boil notices for years.

Woodstock says, later this year, the Tribal Water Task Force will explore forming a working group between tribes and agencies to improve communication.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Results of a new statewide poll in Arizona show high levels of support for a national monument proposal near Grand Canyon National Park.

As Arizona Public Radio’s KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius reports, it comes as advocates have increased their calls for President Joe Biden to make the designation under the Antiquities Act.

The survey showed 75% of Arizona voters favor added federal protections on more than a million acres of the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.

It includes majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents and the numbers are mostly unchanged from a similar poll taken last year.

Carletta Tilousi is a member of the Havasupai Tribe and coordinator of the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition.

“Water is very important for everyone, not just Havasupai, but everyone that lives in this region deserves the right to clean water and clean air. I’m very encouraged to see this in my lifetime.”

The survey also showed large numbers of Arizonans support water conservation and want to protect the Grand Canyon specifically from uranium mining.

The monument proposal is being driven by tribes like the Havasupai and Hopi who say it would protect threatened sacred sites and water resources. But the uranium industry says modern extraction methods are safe and oppose the monument push along with some area ranchers who worry it could impact their livelihoods.

A 2012 federal moratorium on new uranium claims near the Grand Canyon has prevented an expansion of mining in the area. The monument proposal would make the ban permanent.

Currently there’s only one active uranium mine near the park and it has yet to produce ore.

This week, President Biden is scheduled to travel to Arizona and visit the Grand Canyon.

Advocates are hoping the president will designate the area as a national monument during his trip to the state.

Sunday’s Road To Healing tour stop in Riverside, Calif. (Courtesy Sec. Deb Haaland / Facebook)

Survivors of Indian boarding schools and their descendants in California testified about their experiences and the impacts before U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) Sunday, as part of her “Road to Healing” cross country tour.

Christina Aanestad reports.

Trigger warning: This story contains testimony of child sexual abuse

For many survivors and their descendants, the horrors of U.S. Government run boarding schools for native American children was another form of genocide.

“I saw my first suicide at 12 years old”

Ahtta is a member of the Cahto or Koi-yon Tribe in Laytonville, Calif.

She was forced to attend the Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nev., one of more than 400 boarding schools for Indigenous children that operated in 37 states.

“We knew the buildings where they were raping the little boys, we knew the buildings where they were raping the little kids, the little girls. We seen the unwanted pregnancies-by the raped child… wom… girls, they were 12, 13 years old.”

Some of the descendants of boarding school survivors took issue with the Department of Interior for not recognizing their tribes.

Federal recognition provides financial resources and other support.

About 45 tribes in California are unrecognized-most remain landless.

“They were Indian enough to be sent over to those Indian schools at the time”

Jack Potter Jr. is tribal chair of the Redding Rancheria, part Miwok and part Wintu, a federally unrecognized tribe.

“If there was some remedy that could fix those things, because in the past we were all Indian people and we’re still Indian people.”

This Not Invisible Act hearing in Minneapolis, Minn. was one of seven in-person events this year.

The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Justice have concluded public hearings addressing missing and murdered Indigenous people and human trafficking.

The final Not Invisible Act hearing was held last week.

Seven hearings were held across the country, and some virtually, to gather information from the public, advocates, law enforcement, survivors, and family members.

Written testimony can still be submitted to the Interior Department by Thursday, August 10, 2023 via NIAC@ios.doi.gov with the subject line “NIAC Testimony”.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The US Interior Secretary’s year-long listening tour, to learn more about the federal Indian boarding school experience, moves to California.

As part of their “Road to Healing” journey, Sec. Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) will visit Riverside on Friday and Rohnert Park on Sunday.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

Asst. Sec. Newland says he’s been to a lot of these sessions, but always learns something new from boarding school survivors and their families.

“Many of them are elders now and, and I try to, as they’re speaking about their experiences, picture them as little kids when these things were done to them. And it really humanizes this story in a way that’s painful but necessary.”

The listening sessions are an outgrowth of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to look at the troubled legacy of policies that tried to systematically assimilate children by altering their identities in a militaristic way.

“It’s more than statistics. It’s more than a policy. It’s more than a law or a supreme court case. At the end of the day, these were kids in these boarding schools.”

The sessions will not only document the physical and emotional abuse they endured but also attempt to start a healing process.

Trauma-informed support will be available at each gathering.

Another goal of the “Road to Healing” tour is to develop new programs to revitalize tribal languages and culture, to counteract nearly two centuries of policies aimed at their destruction.

Blackfeet educator and leader Earl Barlow died last week at the age of 96.

Montana Public Radio’s Austin Amestoy has this remembrance.

Barlow became known as the “Father of Indian Education” in Montana for his efforts to recognize the tribes during the state’s 1972 constitutional convention.

In a 2007 interview with the Regional Learning Project, Barlow recounted part of his address to the convention’s delegates after he read a newspaper article that contained racist stereotypes about Native Americans.

“Is bigotry in the state of Montana a real concern? If it is, then you, the delegates, have a golden opportunity to strike a blow for tolerance by incorporating into this constitution words to that effect.”

Despite there being no Native American delegates, Barlow’s advocacy led to the constitutional creation of the Indian Education for All program.

Barlow was born in 1927 and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation.

After serving in World War II, he returned to Montana and began a long career in education.

In 1970, he became the first American Indian to serve as Supervisor of Indian Education within Montana’s Office of Public Instruction.

State Sen. Susan Webber (Blackfeet/D-MT 8) attended Browning High School when Barlow was its superintendent.

She said Barlow broke down barriers for Indigenous people in Montana and encouraged Native American girls to pursue their dreams in a time when that sentiment wasn’t popular.

“They never said that you could be a Montana state senator. That came a long way — and he was the first to show us the way.”

Each June 2 since 2019, the state of Montana has recognized Earl Barlow Day in honor of his lifetime commitment to Indian education and Indigenous rights.

The Cherokee Nation has partnered with the University of Tulsa’s Oklahoma Center for the Humanities to share the story of Cherokee Freedmen and explore the tribe’s history with Black slavery.

“We Are Cherokee: Cherokee Freedmen and the Right to Citizenship” details the fight Cherokee Freedmen went through to get back their Cherokee Nation citizenship.

This exhibition opens Friday and will be on display through September 23.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren is advocating for the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians and for increased funding.

He recently testified before the U.S. Joint Economic Committee in Washington, D.C.

The Navajo Nation has the largest reservation in the U.S., located in the Four Corners region, and is one of the largest tribes with more than 400,000 citizens.

President Nygren says his community has a burdensome legacy of health disparities, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, which he says are linked to colonization, forced assimilation, and displacement.

“Historically our communities thrived on farming, herding and hunting and gathering. These traditional practices provided us with nutritious food that sustained us for generations. However, this way of life has been systematically eroded over time as processed foods high in fat, sugar and salt have replaced all our traditional food sources, this compounded by poverty, unemployment, and lack of transportation has amplified the health disparities we face today.”

President Nygren says the special diabetes program, established more than 25 years ago, has helped the Navajo Nation, but diabetes remains a persistent public health problem.

“The special diabetes program is the gold standard when it comes to diabetes treatment and broadly considered one of the most effective program created. We encourage you to consider human faces behind the statistics, our elders, our child, our family look to you and hope that their government will continue to support them in their fight against this devastating disease.”

Nygren says he supports efforts to reauthorize the program for two-years at $170 million per year.

The committee also heard from witnesses who testified about the economic costs of the disease in the U.S., the role of health and nutrition programs in prevention and treatment, and the role of pharmaceutical interventions.

The remains and funerary objects returned to the Oneida Indian Nation by the Rochester Museum and Science Center. (Courtesy Oneida Indian Nation)

The Oneida Indian Nation and the Rochester Museum and Science Center held a ceremony Wednesday in Rochester, New York, to repatriate remains from the museum to the Oneida Nation.

During the ceremony, the museum apologized for the acquisition of the remains and cultural artifacts.

Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter says the repatriation is more than a return, it’s an acknowledgement of them as real people who lived and deserve dignity in life and death.

He says it’s also a chance to recognize failures and for institutions to take accountability and make amends.

The museum’s president Hillary Olson says it was a significant occasion, as museums recognize the trauma they’ve caused, including excavation, collection, study and display of Native Americans and their belongings.   Olson says museums can acknowledge the unjust legacy of the past and take steps toward repairing harms.

19 remains were repatriated. They are from various times in history between 200 to 3,000 years ago. The museum says they were excavated, donated or purchased decades ago, and had since remained there.

In 2000, 25 remains from the museum were returned to the Oneida Nation.

There are 55 active wildfires in Saskatchewan. One of them has forced vulnerable residents of the Fond du Lac Denesuline Nation to flee the community because of the smoke. (Courtesy Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency)

The Fond du Lac Denesuline Nation in northern Saskatchewan has moved 300 members out of the community due to wildfire smoke, the Canadian Press reports.

Those evacuated are people with compromised health issues.

Indigenous Services Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, and Prince Albert Grand Council are offering support.

Clean air shelters and air purifiers are being made available to residents still in the community.

A wildfire is burning near the community and is listed as not contained.

Officials say once conditions become safe, they’ll start the process to bring those evacuated back home.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Oneida Nation in New York and the Rochester Museum and Science Center are holding a ceremony Wednesday to repatriate the remains of 19 Oneida ancestors.

The remains from the museum’s collections are believed to have been interred during various periods between 200 and 3,000 years ago.

The remains and funerary objects were removed from at least six burial sites in New York state.

According to the museum, they were acquired through excavation, donation, and purchases in the late 1920s and the late 70s.

Wednesday’s repatriation follows the return of 25 remains in 2000.

Tribal leaders and museum officials are expected to take part in the repatriation ceremony in Rochester.

Courtesy Oregon State University

A five-year, $50 million grant project aims to reduce the carbon footprint of potato farming across the Pacific Northwest.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, regional tribes are partners.

Oregon State University is using the grant to explore practices to improve soil health and crop outcomes.

Jeffrey Steiner of OSU’s Global Hemp Innovation Center is the project leader.

“It may incorporate things like cover crops, less disturbance practices such as no till or reduced tillage practices. It may mean incorporating nutrient management or nutrient monitoring.”

One of the project partners is the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho.

Shelby Leighton, its business operations manager, says they’re looking forward to learning more.

“We will see how we can implement these climate smart practices and make sure our agricultural practices you know, prioritize soil health and increase crop production, kind of do things for the environment.”

Other tribal partners are the Yakama and Colville Tribes.

The USDA says Oregon, Washington, and Idaho grow 62% of the nation’s potatoes, which have an annual value of $2.2 billion.

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced Tuesday funding opportunities for federally recognized tribes for projects to expand the reach and impact of the federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

The initiative, launched by the Department of the Interior, is investigating U.S. Indian boarding schools and collecting testimony.

The endowment is offering $30,000 grants for research, community engagement, tribal history collection, public programs, and educational projects on the impacts of Indian boarding school policies on tribal communities.

NEH chair Shelly Lowe says the boarding school system left deep and lasting scars, and NEH hopes, through the grants, opportunities will be created for healing.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through December 1.

Nonprofits, and state and local government organizations that work with tribal communities may also be eligible for funding.

Learn more about the grants

The Ontario Native Women’s Association held a virtual event this week to help raise awareness about human trafficking, as the United Nations recognized World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

This year, the ONWA is launching an affirmation deck for community members and survivors of human trafficking.

Amy Short is the association’s mental health and addictions anti-human trafficking liaison.

“For years of supporting Indigenous women and communities in combating sexual exploitation, we’ve come to understand that one of the most effective preventive methods is to empower individuals through strength based approach that affirms their own sacredness.”

Short says the affirmation deck is one tool that can be used in personal and communal practice to switch the narrative of Indigenous women as victims to survivors, knowledge keepers, healers, and leaders.

The deck will feature daily affirmations, journal prompts, quotes, and activities for users.

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