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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.

 

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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.

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.”

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”.

 

 

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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.

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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 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.

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.

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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.

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.

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The Oklahoma House voted Monday to override Gov. Kevin Stitt (Cherokee/R-OK)’s veto of a bill that extends tribal-state compacts involving tobacco revenue sharing.

The Associated Press reports the vote took place during a special session and met two-thirds vote needed to override.

In a statement, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the vote was for cooperation and collaboration over conflict.

Chief Hoskin says tribal compacts inject millions of dollars into Oklahoma’s economy and local businesses.

After the Senate’s vote last week to override the governor’s veto, Gov. Stitt called the move illegitimate.

In a statement, Gov. Stitt said he was trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation and was working to ensure the compacts are best for all Oklahomans.

Gov. Stitt has announced he’s filing a lawsuit, while tribal leaders are praising the legislature and say they’re ready to move forward and continue working with the state.

In hopes of having a stronger voice in Washington D.C., a group of 12 regional Alaska Native corporations have created a new position. Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

They’ve hired TJ Presley as their first government affairs director.

He says this new job reflects a growing need to educate federal policy makers about Native corporations, which were created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.

Presley works for the ANCSA Regional Association, formed to give Native corporations more political clout, as well as promote their efforts to develop natural resources and win contracts from the federal government.

“You’re getting five minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. There’s a very brief window to make our case, and anything I can do to help make our case quicker and stronger is pretty much the mandate for the job.”

Presley says Native corporations are among Alaska’s biggest companies and have an array of business interests in Washington D.C. that affect more than just their shareholders.

“Alaska Native companies employ not just Alaska Native people, but they employ lots and lots of non-Native Alaskans too. So, they also underpin the very fabric of Alaska’s economy too.”

Alaska has 12 regional corporations and more than 200 village corporations that were created to settle Native land claims in Alaska.

Indigenous advocates are among the first cohort of 100 “changemakers” for the Obama Foundation’s Leaders USA Program.

The inaugural cohort was announced Tuesday.

Tasha Fridia and State Rep. Christina Haswood (Navajo/D-KS) are some of the Indigenous leaders from South Dakota and Kansas.

Fridia is the national director of tribal programs for the mentorship organization – Friends of the Children. She’s an enrolled member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and is Kiowa, Caddo, and Lakota.

Rep. Haswood is the ranking minority member on the state tribal relations committee and is known for her advocacy on Native issues.

In a statement, President Barack Obama said he’s inspired by the group of young leaders working on the most pressing issues facing our world.

According to the foundation, the cohort was chosen from applicants of leaders who are driving change across geographies, sectors, and issues, and who are ready to expand their impact.

The leaders were picked from across the country including five tribal nations.

The Taku River Tlingit First Nation announced Tuesday it’s reclaimed the names of 13 places in its traditional territory in British Columbia.

The names are in the Tlingit language and are elements in stories.

The First Nation says reclaiming place names helps the communities establish a harmonious connection with the land, allows for a deeper understanding, and encourages the practice of referring to them by their original name.

The places include mountains, creeks, islands, rivers, and a hot spring.

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National Native organizations are celebrating the passage of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act Reauthorization (NAHASDA).

It was included as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, which was passed by the U.S. Senate last week by a vote of 86–11.

NAHASDA helps provide affordable housing to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.

It has not been reauthorized since 2013.

In a statement, National American Indian Housing Council Executive Director Chelsea Fish said NAHASDA has been a successful and supportive program since its inception, and allows tribes to create their own housing plan.

National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr. in a statement called it a victory for Indian Country and said now the focus is on the House for its full implementation to help improve living conditions across Indian Country.

The amendment would reauthorize NAHASDA for seven years.

Among provisions, it would provide greater local control over NAHASDA programs, streamline environmental reviews for tribal housing projects, and incentivize private partnerships.

U.S. Reps. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) and Pete Stauber (R-MN) have introduced legislation they say will end 50 years of unfulfilled promises – the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act.

The legislation would allow the communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee to form urban corporations and receive land entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, also known as ANCSA.

It would amend ANCSA to provide the five communities with the right to form corporations and receive more than 23,000 acres, or one township of federal land, which was granted to other Southeast Native communities more than 50 years ago.

A version is in the Senate.

In a statement, the Representatives called it an unjust error and said it’s long overdue to correct it.

ANCSA divided 44 million acres of land among more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims in Alaska, but did not include the five Southeast communities.

A community college in Winnebago, Neb., Little Priest Tribal College, celebrates its 25th anniversary this September.

Deborah Van Fleet has more about the school.

Little Priest President Manoj Patil says a common misconception is that only Native Americans can enroll, but the student body has been roughly 78% Native American and 22% non-Native students in recent years.

He says they’re looking forward to the groundbreaking for a major new science building in the next several weeks.

“We got a $1.2 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant two years back, and that’s how we started the chemistry and the biology program, and that is now leading to the construction of a $6 million, 12,000-square-foot, brand new state-of-the-art building.”

Little Priest offers an associate of arts degree in three areas, an associate of applied science in two including diversified ag and cannabis studies, and an associate of science in five.

It also offers a certificate program in certified nursing assistant.

Tuition has been free since the summer of 2020.

The college is part of the Nebraska Transfer Initiative, and also has transfer agreements with private Nebraska colleges and universities.

Patil says HoChunk language and cultural preservation is a major focus at Little Priest.

Camden Cleveland graduated from Little Priest Tribal College with honors and as valedictorian in 2021.

He has since earned a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State College, where his coursework was free because of the agreement between the colleges.

Cleveland says the diversity at Little Priest helped prepare him for what he found at Wayne State.

“You’ve got kids from all over the country at Wayne State, and with help from the staff at Little Priest Tribal College, that kind of just made me understand where they’re coming from, too.”

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The Biden Administration has carved out $120 million for tribal communities across the nation to adapt to climate change.

It’s part of $440 million set aside for tribes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and other federal spending.

The administration says it’s the largest amount of climate change funding for tribes in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

But as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, that money won’t go very far.

As director of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Climate Change Initiative, Jackie Schaeffer (Iñupiaq) travels to places like Kivalina, which are being swallowed-up by the ocean.

As the U.S. Mint continues its American Women Quarters Program, one of the new faces to enter circulation has Indigenous roots.

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

Zitkala-Ša, a Yankton Sioux political activist, writer, and musician, is one of five historic women to be immortalized in coinage.

Previously, women like Maya Angelou and Eleanor Roosevelt have been part of this program.

The likeness of Zitkala-Ša, who wrote the first American Indian opera in 1913, will be minted on 600 million quarters for ten weeks in 2024 before being discontinued.

Joining her in this year’s set – designed to highlight women who may not be in history books – are Pauli Murray, Patsy Mink, Mary Edwards Walker, and Celia Cruz.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced Thursday it will reintroduce bison on its tribal lands in Shakopee, Minn.

Dakota people consider bison a relative and the tribe has been planning to bring them back to tribal lands.

This fall, the tribe plans to welcome a small herd of up to 15 bison from Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota.

Chairman Keith Anderson says the tribe has restored and revitalized its relationship with plants over the decades, and now has the opportunity to revitalize the relationship with bison, which will allow the tribe to bring back traditional ceremonies, food, and medicine to his people.

The tribe’s land and natural resources department is overseeing the process and learning from other tribe and organizations, which have successfully reintroduced bison.

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From homework to job applications, the value of high-speed internet access has only become more prevalent in the 21st century.

Now, the Biden-Harris Administration is looking to plug some of the nation’s biggest coverage gaps.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene reports.

With rural and remote Americans often behind the technological curve, and the geographic reality of Native American reservations, high-speed internet has been slow to reach every corner of the country.

PaaWee Rivera (Pueblo of Pojoaque) is the director of tribal affairs for the Biden Administration.

He explains the Presidents’ rationale in pushing for the near billion-dollar investment.

“Access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity to fully participate in today’s society. This second round of funding from the tribal broadband connectivity program will make approximately $980 million available for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities for deployment of internet infrastructure on tribal lands.”

Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson says tribal entities have until January to apply for funding.

“These funds will support high-speed infrastructure deployment as well as use in adoption activities. Those activities will include affordable broadband programs, distance learning, telehealth, digital inclusion programs, and broadband adoption.”

Asst. Sec. Davidson was asked about the financial weight of bringing fiber to some of the least-connected areas of the nation.

He says while bearing costs in mind, their goal is to connect everyone in America with high-speed internet.

“In part because of the challenges that are faced by remoteness, rugged terrain, low population densities, that’s very much part of what drives the cost of these programs, and we believe that’s why Congress made sure to make these special allocations. The fact is we know when we push out fiber into some of these communities for example, it provides the infrastructure that will be used for other programs in the future.”

Projections say this investment could bring new connections to nearly 150,000 households on tribal lands.

Officials don’t yet have a breakdown of state-by-state data.

Indigenous chefs are racking up prestigious awards for their cooking.

But this wasn’t always the case – and there’s still room to grow.

Now, these chefs are working to share their cuisine while highlighting their history.

KUNC’s Emma VandenEinde reports.

Chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) says the absence of Native restaurants resulted from many wrongdoings by the federal government.

Bison were killed at alarming rates.

Federal boarding schools stripped Indigenous peoples of their culture and forcing them onto resource-poor reservations put them in a systemic trap. 

He says they haven’t had time to heal yet, let alone evolve.

“The more you dig into it, the more inequality you see in the more racist structures that you can see that are still built into the system.”

Chef Andrea Murdoch (Indigenous Andean) wants to shed light on this through her cooking.

She’s made food for several fundraising dinners that focus on issues like missing and murdered Indigenous relatives and Indian boarding school trauma.

“Yes, I’m a chef, but I’m using that platform to bring awareness to cultural issues.”

This summer, she helped with Denver EATSS, hosted by the American Indian College Fund.

It raises tens of millions of dollars each year for Indigenous students to attend tribal colleges.

Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota), the college fund’s CEO, loves hosting the event.

“Events like this for me are that opportunity for us to showcase the kinds of things that we as Native people contribute to society.”

The dinner portion featured Indigenous chefs preparing dishes with pre-colonial ingredients, like a hen of the woods mushroom soup or a three sisters hors d’oeuvre. 

Ben Jacobs (Osage), the co-founder and chef of Tocabe American Indian Eatery in Denver, also cooked for the event.

With each dish, he tries to tell a story and make food for people, not for a profit.

“The point is being able to provide people food that’s meaningful and not worry about, ‘At the end of the day, I’m only here to make money,’ because we’re not. We’re here to make impact.”

Murdoch wants to do the same. By cooking at events like this, she hopes to uplift the cuisine and causes of her community while inviting others into the discovery.

“Food is a common necessity, one of the few common necessities that everybody needs, no matter what. Like, we need it for survival. So why not have a conversation about where your food came from?”

Listen to part one of Emma’s report

 

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