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Many Native students go to schools that are old – and falling apart.

One tribe in the Mountain West region has fought hard for better conditions, as KUNR’s Maria Palma reports.

The Owyhee Combined School sits in a remote area straddling the Nevada and Idaho state line.

It serves more than 300 students living on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes.

It was built by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1954. It’s still the only school on the reservation – and it’s showing its age.

“As a school, there are so many safety hazards, so many health hazards.”

That’s vice principal Lynn Manning-John.

She says the building holds great significance for tribal members, but has not been properly maintained.

Two years after the school was built, it was consolidated with Elko County schools. But school officials say Owyhee’s remote location and lack of attention from the school district caused the building to deteriorate.

One problem: a bat colony on the roof.

“And so when they roost and leave their droppings, the droppings drip out of what is now a replaced tile into the bucket. During the times when there’s liquids dripping, we shut down the classroom.”

Manning-John is also concerned about two industrial boilers that are the main heating system.

Classrooms that sit directly above the boiler room get radiant heat.

“So whenever the boiler is on, this room has some chemical smells.”

Manning-John continues down a hallway with a long crack running along the two walls.

Some windows are cracked and the school’s main doors do not close completely.

Diana Cournoyer heads the National Indian Education Association. And she says the problems at Owyhee are not uncommon for schools serving tribal communities.

“It’s actually in rural communities across the nation, it’s on all of our reservations.”

Cournoyer is a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Many school buildings in the Pine Ridge Reservation – covering parts of South Dakota and Nebraska – have similar challenges.

“One school has a lot of out buildings, or mobile home type structures that classrooms exist in. We have tribal schools that are in the state of New Mexico and Arizona, on the Navajo reservation that have leaking roofs.”

Cournoyer says there are several ways to address the issue. But tribes need to empower themselves and state legislators need to understand they’re also responsible for tribal citizens.

Courtesy Z John Williams Memorial School / Facebook

In 2019, the western Alaskan village of Napaskiak hired a muralist to paint its new school.

The relationship has bloomed.

Clayton Connor has been back a half dozen times and stops by whenever he’s in the bush.

And as KYUK’s Sunni Bean reports, Z. John Williams Memorial School is running out of blank walls to paint.

Clayton Conner grew up in L.A., but now says he considers Napaskiak a second home.

He usually comes for weeks at a time, spending hours hanging around the school in paint splattered pants.

Conner- “l’ve almost kind of been adopted by Joe and his family.”

Bavilla-“He’s been at my house a lot, to feed, get some native food in him, then he goes, Oh I better go back to work.”

That’s Joe Bavilla, an administrative assistant at the school. He gave Conner his Yup’ik name: Minguugista (painter).

Today, Conner is back.

This time, he’s finally giving Bavilla a mural in his front office.

Bavilla: “I thought I want a hawk up there. I really do. I want to see a very nice good looking hawk.”

Conner was hired by Napaskiak, after people saw his murals in the nearby village of Quinhagak. But he and Bavilla say Napaskiak wanted something different.

Conner: “Everything is in sepia tone. And they saw it, they liked the artwork, but like…”

Bavilla: “You know, we don’t want to see black and white.”

Conner: “No. We want color, color color.”

Bavilla:  “We want to see a lot of color.”

Conner: “Lots of color. So pcheww- tons and tons and tons.”

Bavilla says the community thought deeply about the designs.

“What do we want in our school? What? What do you want to see in our school?”

They decided to go through the seasons: fishing subsistence smelts, then berry picking, moose hunting, dog mushing, and snow machines.

But, most of all, villagers wanted to honor their elders.

Conner figured he would put a handful on each side of the entry hallway to the school but… “and then I show up, I’m like, Okay, well, how many pictures, how many Elders do you have, do you have pictures of. And we got 54, I’m like, 54!”

Conner says he didn’t mind. He just had to change the composition and got to work.

Now, over the cafeteria the lunch ladies are at fish camp – Clayton worked 3D wooden salmon and nets and driftwood into pieces.

There are replicas of ancient Napaskiak masks over the water fountains that are now in a museum.

Anyone who walks into the school is surrounded by village elders and ancestors.

And they’re painted in all of the colors of a psychedelic rainbow.

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Alaska Pacific University received a nearly $3 million grant from the Department of Labor to improve and diversify rural and tribal healthcare.

According to a study by National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Alaska is projected to have the highest number of nursing vacancies in 2030, with almost a quarter of positions left unfilled.

This is in response to Alaska’s nursing shortage.

The university partnered with organizations in Bethel, a city of 6,000 that’s majority Yup’ik, to offer a Licensed Practical Nursing program.

As KYUK’s Sunni Bean reports – nine students have graduated so far, and more to come.

The new nursing program is rigorous, and many students have to travel for hours on snowmobiles or take multiple flights to get to clinicals and exams.

“They have families, they have lives, they have jobs, they have a lot of things, a lot of responsibility.”

That’s Marianne Murray, Director and Professor of Nursing at Alaska Pacific University.

The majority of nurses in the U.S. are white women. But not in this program.

Diane Droutman, the coordinator of the LPN program, says the scheduling is different too – she and a Bethel-based partner designed a one week on and one week off schedule.

“And she was like, we can do that. And I went, we’re starting the program. We can do whatever we want.”

They also split up the program, so instead of completing a three to four year program in one go, students can start with a six to nine week program. Then they can work. Then, they can go back to get the next degree.

“If there’s one thing I’ve realized, since living in Alaska for the last, what, 12 years now, it’s that you have to pretty much grow your own, especially if you want people to stay.”

Murray says there’s a roadmap to building a homegrown Alaskan nursing corps. That means increasing faculty and partnerships, so they have access to clinical environments to teach students in.

APU also wants to teach cultural safety, a framework developed for health equity for Native people in New Zealand.

“One of the big tenants of the culturally safe health care is removing that power level, like the doctor has all the power. Because the patients know what their life is like they know what they can and can’t do.”

It’s challenging for APU to operate in the bush. At times, they have no water, and internet drops. So, they give thumb drives with slides, hard-copy back up of exams, and now, they’re getting high fidelity simulation mannequins, for which they’re planning to record Elders speaking in Yup’ik, for simulations practicing overcoming language barriers.

The Little Free Library, which provides library boxes and books to communities, is working to expand its Indigenous Library Program.

Talia Miracle (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska), Little Free Library Program Manager, is leading the initiative.

She says the program grants library boxes and books to Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada.

“In some of these areas book access is really limited. The goal of the program is to provide more book access to strengthen the communities and inspire readers and to support positive literacy outcomes.”

The libraries and books are granted through an application process.

Those accepted in the program receive a library box to build or a fully assembled one, and a bundle of books.

“We start off the library with 50 books. 25 of those are written by BIPOC authors and the other 25 are written by Indigenous authors or they center the Indigenous experience. We bring really high-quality books into the community through this program.”

Miracle says not only is it important for Indigenous communities to have books they can relate to, but also to offer different levels of books for readers.

“I think it’s also important for kids to see their parents reading so we provide multiage books. We just know having books in the home supports literacy outcomes.”

Applications can be found online at littlefreelibrary.org.

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With a new decision from the Supreme Court, colleges nationwide can no longer consider a student’s race during the admissions process.

After decades of affirmative action, what comes next for Native students?

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene checks in.

The 6–3 ruling will have sweeping implications at campuses across the nation – from Harvard and Stanford to South Dakota’s own institutions.

Samantha Chapman is an advocacy manager with the ACLU of South Dakota.

She says they anticipated this ruling.

“It doesn’t make it any less devastating for students across America – here in South Dakota particularly our Native students. The movement against affirmative action is part of a larger effort to rewrite our nation’s history and have this small group of people dictate what this country looks like and how we talk about who we are – from this ruling here about affirmative action to erasing the existence of LGBTQ and two spirit people on campus through acknowledgement of their pronouns.”

She says this ruling could open the door for similar situations.

“I would assume that based on the same legal framework we could expect a similar result if a case came to the Supreme Court regarding corporate affirmative action practices.”

Chapman says the ACLU of South Dakota hasn’t raised the white flag yet.

“On Twitter I’ve seen some lawmakers already stating they will bring bills next legislative session to ban affirmative action outright here in our state. I just want them to know if there is any attempt to ban race-conscious academic admissions we will be there to oppose it and remind them race-conscious admission process is an extension of a universities academic freedom to assemble a student body across all races and ethnicities.”

In response to the decision, President Joe Biden has directed the Department of Education to analyze practices to create more inclusive and diverse student bodies.

Four national Native organizations, which provide scholarships, are raising concerns about the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.

In a joint statement Thursday, the American Indian College Fund, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the Cobell Scholarship Program, and the Native Forward Scholars Fund said they’re disheartened by the ruling.

They say for decades, affirmative action has provided worthy for American Indian and Alaska Native students with the opportunity for affordable higher education.

They’re expressing to Native students not to let the decision discourage their higher education goals.

The organizations are calling on higher education institutions, policymakers, advocates, and students to ensure higher education is accessible for all, and that Native cultures and contributions are embraced.

The Blackfeet Nation celebrated the release of a herd of buffalo into the wild near Babb on June 26, 2023. (Photo: Lauren Monroe Jr. / Blackfeet Tribal Business Council)

This week, the Blackfeet Nation released roughly two dozen free-roaming wild buffalo onto tribal lands bordering Glacier National Park.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports it is the first time the landscape has seen buffalo in over a century.

The bison were released on tribal lands near Chief Mountain, which borders the national park.

Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Vice Chairman Lauren Monroe Jr. says it’s an act of tribal sovereignty and rights historical wrongs.

“Saying the Blackfeet are in charge here, we’re in charge of our homelands, this is what we’re going to do, this is how we’re going to do it. And we don’t have to ask permission to be Blackfeet anymore.”

The federal government led a campaign in the 1800s to wipe buffalo from the landscape.

The intent was to gain leverage over tribal nations by pushing them into hunger.

Monroe says the tribe plans to monitor how the herd reproduces and the impact the keystone species’ return has on other wildlife.

The tribe hopes the herd will eventually grow large enough for tribal hunts but will also be an economic boon for tourists eager to catch a glimpse of buffalo not seen on these lands for 100 years.

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In an effort to combat high rates of violence, murder, and the disappearance of Native people, a three-day listening session began Wednesday in Albuquerque, N.M..

KUNM’s Alice Fordham reports the hearing is part of a nationwide effort to collect testimony.

It’s the latest of several hearings by the U.S. Interior Department held in areas with high Indigenous populations.

The process was laid out in a law called the Not Invisible Act, which was proposed in 2019 by current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) when she was in Congress.

“A real solution will never be found without the voices of Indigenous survivors, which is what is so special about this bill.”

Now, a body called the Not Invisible Commission, including advocates, tribal leaders and law enforcement, is traveling the country holding discussions and collecting testimony.

At Wednesday’s event, panelists discussed the difficulty of recruiting police, especially in tribal areas. And commission members raised their frustrations at inconsistencies in help from law enforcement from tribal police to the FBI.

The sister of Commissioner Patricia Whitefoot (member of Yakama Nation) went missing decades ago.

“There was a lack of any consistent and meaningful communication with myself and my family of my sister missing for that long. And, and it’s it’s difficult to say how angry you are about all of that, and the anger that family members may carry.”

Alex Uballez, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced the creation of a new Department of Justice program assigning ten attorneys and coordinators in five regions to help combat the violence and disappearances.

On Thursday and Friday, the commission will hear from relatives of the disappeared.

Two more hearings are planned this summer and the commission is expected to submit recommendations to combat the crisis in the fall.

Canada’s top Native leader has been ousted as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the decision came after an investigation into her leadership.

It was the second time Roseanne Archibald (Taykwa Tagamou Nation) faced questions about her leadership.

She was suspended a year ago by the AFN’s executive committee and national board of directors. But was reinstated pending a third party investigation.

Following that third party probe, AFN members voted 71% in favor of removing Archibald her job effective immediately.

Paul Prosper (Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation) is a regional chief with the AFN.

“She breached her obligations to the company, contrary to her oath of office, to our code of conduct and to our whistle blower policy.”

The decision comes after the investigation ended into complaints made against Archibald last year.

In a draft resolution, investigators found that she harassed two complainants and retaliated against all five complainants for coming forward with their disputes.

She was also found to be in breach of the assembly’s confidentiality agreement.

Archibald became the first woman to lead the largest First Nations organization in 2021.

She has maintained her innocence. She has also called for an audit and independent investigation into the AFN over corruption and toxicity within the organization.

The interim national chief will step into her role until an election is held for a new chief in December.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday it will make $75 million available for tribal communities through the Indian Community Development Block Grant Program.

Grants can help fund infrastructure, public services, economic development, and more.

Applications can be submitted through September.

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Wisconsin and Michigan reported some of the worst air quality readings in the world Tuesday due to wildfire smoke from Canada.

WXPR’s Katie Thoresen spoke with one of the tribal-owned air monitoring stations in the northern Wisconsin region about their work.

Part of Natalene Cummings’ job as the Forest County Potawatomi Air Quality Program Manager is making sure people know when the air quality worsens.

She issues orders to raise a couple of flags throughout the reservation indicating the air quality.

The color matches the national Air Quality Index which ranges from green for good to mauve or maroon for hazardous.

Cummings has done this work for nearly 20 years, but it wasn’t until recently that she’s seen some of the worst air quality.

“Just in the last three years that has just jumped up. This year, I don’t know how many I’ve issued. Two years ago, when there was the Canadian and northern Minnesota fires that’s the first time since I’ve been here, since we’ve been monitoring that we went purple, even when mauve which is the highest level.”

Forest County Potawatomi is one of seven tribal reservations in the country to hold the same air quality designation as National Parks and wilderness areas.

The station monitors for particulate matter, ozone pollution, and sulfur dioxide in the air as well as a visibility monitor.

“That is the data that’s used then for the AirNow site which gives you what the current air quality is. They also use modeling then to do forecasting.”

Cummings urges people to take air quality reports seriously, especially for things like wildfire smoke.

Breathing in smoke particles and gas can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular issues.

A Cook Inlet beluga calf (gray color) swimming with three larger beluga whales (white). (Photo: Paul Wade / NOAA Fisheries)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released an updated population estimate for Cook Inlet beluga whales in Alaska.

In 2018, the best estimate stood at 279 whales, but it has now risen to 331.

However, this development comes after a staggering decline of more than 75% from their historical population of 1,300 in 1979.

Hannah Bissett from our flagship station KNBA has more.

The population estimate for Cook Inlet beluga whales has been delayed since 2018 due to challenges such as the pandemic and weather restrictions. It has been conducted this year, providing important information about the current status of this endangered species.

The population estimate pool has been raised by about 100 whales.

According to NOAA biologist Paul Wade, the new development shows that the population is finally stable.

“However, when we look back over the ten-year window, cause ten years gives us enough data points to make a conclusive statement…it looks like it actually was declining then increased and then overall that even outs to being stable.”

According to the latest population survey conducted by NOAA, the new estimate indicates an improved count.

This change could be impacted by several factors, including, but not limited to, points of pollution and decreased noise pollution. The actual cause of the median increase is still being studied, as to get an accurate idea, you would need multiple years to showcase the incline.

Ragen Davey is a chemist dedicated to advancing research and resources to enhance our understanding of Cook Inlet belugas.

Davey emphasizes that a decade ago, a list of contaminants in Cook Inlet was identified. There are hundreds of mixing zones that are approved for the Cook Inlet. However, the tests carried out in the mixing zones do not yield definitive results regarding every impurity found in the area.

“What I think what would be great is if they did had to test every contaminant because then you can directly relate it to a source but that’s not how it goes. They do issue and report what’s over the limit but they don’t have to test for everything.”

The incline in the median still needs to be thoroughly dissected to get a completed picture of how the belugas are truly doing.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a case involving the tribe’s rights to the Colorado River.

Navajo leaders say the decision has significant implications for tribal sovereignty and the ability for the tribe to prosper and grow economically with the use of water.

KUNC’s Luke Runyon reports.

The tribe claimed it was the federal government’s legal duty to help them figure out their future water needs, and develop a plan to use the river. But in a 5 to 4 decision, the justices said an 1868 treaty included no such promises.

University of Utah law professor and a citizen of the Navajo Nation Heather Tanana says the decision means the burden will remain on tribes to secure their water.

“The help and assistance and I think the federal responsibility to help and assist would have gone a long way to filling that water gap.”

More than a third of Navajo Nation residents lack clean water access in their homes.

Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada urged the court to side with them, and said the case threatened to upend the way the Colorado River is managed.

(Photo: Bazhnibah Kawano / Navajo Nation Pride)

A Navajo council delegate is sponsoring legislation to recognize all marriages within the Navajo Nation.

During pride events last week, delegate Seth Damon signed and sponsored the legislation to amend Navajo Code so that same-sex marriages are recognized by the tribe.

In 2005, the council enacted a resolution, which prohibits same-sex marriages.

Damon was joined at the signing ceremony in Window Rock, Ariz., by delegate Eugene Tso who had introduced a similar bill last year.

That bill was never heard due to deadlines and the council’s adjournment.

The council had passed a resolution to establish pride week to be held every third week in June.

The resolution seeks to “protect Navajo citizens from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status.”

Standing Rock, Fort Yates, N.D. (Courtesy @evergreenskateparks)

Jeff Ament of the rock band “Pearl Jam” and his company Montana Pool Service along with Nike have built more than 30 skate parks in Montana and surrounding states.

And as Jill Fratis reports, the newest one is opening Tuesday on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Ament teamed up with the Standing Rock Tribal Community and Evergreen Skate Parks to create a skate park on Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

Ament chose Standing Rock as his next location saying it’s been a goal for a long time.

“With all of the history there in the last few years, we started talking to people, we started talking to some of the kids at Fort Yates middle school. It felt like most of the other projects, we just follow the energy, and we were really feeling a lot of energy there.”

Ament’s longtime love for skateboarding started when he was a child on a family trip.

“I had a cousin that was a year older than me who had a skateboard. On that trip, that’s all we did was skate, and he gave me a skateboarder magazine, and I read it on the way home and I was like completely infatuated with everything that was in the magazine. It was something that nobody else was doing at that time.”

Ament says these skateboard parks have been a saving grace to many rural Indigenous communities, mainly the youth.

“The main thing is we’ve wanted to go to the most isolated areas and help the people in the most isolated spots and it just so happens that the most isolated areas in the country are usually native, these reservations. I just always think, what if this would have happened when I was a kid. What if somebody would have just built a skatepark, or just done something nice for our community that would have been for the kids. I think if we take care of our young people, then the future takes care of itself. We really need to create positive healthy outlets, I just think skateboarding is one of those things It’s creative, it’s art, it’s sport, it’s peer group stuff. I think its competitive in a really healthy way. I’m excited that I can be a part of it.”

The event will include an opening ceremony, skate clinic, a meal, T-shirts, and more.

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One of the biggest casino resorts in North America has officially opened in Toronto, Canada’s biggest city.

And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, while some may be thrilled by the resort, it’s not sitting well with at least one first nation in Ontario.

 The Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto boasts 4,800 slot machines, nearly 150 live table games and sports betting kiosks.

In addition there’s a 400-room hotel and in coming months, it will open a 5,000 person entertainment venue that could host live music and sports events.

The cost for all of this: $1 billion dollars.

However, the problem according to Kelly LaRocca, chief of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation northeast of Toronto, is that it will drain critical funding away from her band’s casino.

In 2016 the band signed a revenue sharing agreement with the Ontario government. Since that deal was signed, two smaller casinos opened – and now the mega facility in Toronto – and La Rocca says that’s a deal breaker.

 “The Ford government broke their word to our community. Honor your commitment, honor your word.”

LaRocca says her band’s casino has brought clean drinking water and enhanced health care and education. All that is now at risk.   

Other indigenous communities that operate casinos are also concerned and see the mega casino as an existential threat.

The band is set to enter mediation with the province, and if that doesn’t work, it could come down to legal action.

A lithium mine company has filed a lawsuit against Native Americans organizing to stop construction of the Thacker Pass Mine in Nevada.

The mine would supply a core material needed to power a new fleet of electric vehicles in the U.S., but Native American activists say it will pollute the land and nearby communities. Christina Aanestad reports.

A Montana Pool Service skatepark, like this one in Lewiston, MT, will open at Standing Rock. (Courtesy Montana Pool Service)

The grand opening of a new skatepark will take place on the land of Standing Rock tomorrow from 2-5 p.m.

The event will include an opening ceremony, skate clinic, a meal, T-shirts, and more.

The gift to the Standing Rock community was made possible by Jeff Ament’s organization Montana Pool Service and Nike.

To date, his charitable foundation has built more than 30 world-class skateparks in rural, isolated communities in Montana, and surrounding states including across Indian Country.

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From heavy metal to a blacklight pow-wow, a culmination of artists came from across the region last weekend for an Indigenous Comic Con festival. They reflected on Indigenous history and celebrated their culture. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Emma VandenEinde brings us part two of her story.

The áyACon event also featured creatives like Shaun Beyale. The Diné multimedia artist worked on a few pages in Marvel’s Heritage Voices comic book.

“I grew up on Marvel Comics, so, you know, for them to come and reach out to me, you know, that made that little rez boy in me happy because, you know, I never thought that would be something possible.”

He believes Indigenous artists can embrace the contemporary without forgetting their ancestral roots.

“We do live in modern society, but at the same time, you know, we do hold on to our culture.”

Danielle Boyer (enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), a 22-year-old engineer, also presented at the Con.

She made a talking and singing robot that looks like a tiny minion with cat ears.

Boyer says it also helps preserve native languages, like Ojibwemowin.

“It’d say a phrase like ‘Buju. Hello, Say it back.’ And so it encourages the child to respond to the prompt.”

She also started the STEAM Connection, a nonprofit focused on bringing robotic education and building materials to Indigenous youth for free.

That idea came out of the discrimination she faced in trying to join robotics clubs.

She hopes Indigenous youth will pursue their interests — even when these industries are predominantly white.

“We’ve always been scientists, we’ve always been inventors, we’ve always been creating really awesome things…spaces like this comic con uplift that, uplift our voice, uplift the ability for us to decide what we want to pursue.”

That’s the main reason Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand wanted to create this Con.

She said that when she invited some friends to present their anime work, they questioned if anyone would like it. 

“And I was like, why would you question whether you belonged somewhere because you had something that was likable for the rest of the general public and assumed that it wouldn’t be likable for Native people?”

She hopes the Con allowed people to bond through shared connections and see that Native people are artists and fans of pop culture like everyone else.

“You can celebrate over fandoms and everybody can be nerds together and kind of celebrate that way.”

Organizers hope to expand AyáCon for its second year and partner with similar Indigenous events in the future.

The Cherokee Nation Election Commission certified Monday the 2023 General Election with Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner taking more than 62% of votes to win re-election and serve another four-year term.

Hoskin Jr., 48, is the 18^th constitutionally elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

The 2023 Cherokee Nation General Election had 17,139 votes, up from 13,795 votes in 2019.

Of the eight Tribal Council races on the ballot, current District 6 Tribal Councilor Daryl Legg, District 12 Tribal Councilor Dora Patzkowski, District 13 Tribal Councilor Joe Deere, and At-Large Tribal Councilor Julia Coates were certified as winning reelection.

Other results include newcomer Kevin Easley Jr. winning the District 14 race.

The District 1, District 3, and 8 races will go to a run-off election on Saturday, July 8.

The University of Alaska Southeast congratulates faculty Dr. X’unei Lance Twitchell and Shu Guyna Donna May Roberts for their recent awards presented at the Sealaska Heritage Institute 2023 Culturally Responsive Education Conference.

Dr. X’unei Lance Twitchell of Juneau, UAS professor of Alaska Native Languages, was recognized with the Distinguished Leadership Award for his tireless work “to revitalize the Tlingit language” and being “instrumental in teaching the language and in developing materials to learn Lingít.”

UAS professor of Tsimshian language Shu Guyna Donna Roberts was one of seven Distinguished Educator Awardees, recognized for her “promotion and teaching of the Tsimshian language, having produced dictionaries and other resources,” according to the SHI press release.

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The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced seven states, three tribal nations, and the District of Columbia were selected as the second cohort to receive more than $77 million in Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants.

Supported by the Infrastructure Law, the grants are intended to help modernize the electric grid to reduce impacts of extreme weather and natural disasters while also ensuring power sector reliability.

According to the agency, the funding helps deliver on the Biden administration’s goal of ensuring all communities have access to affordable, reliable, 100% clean electricity. 

The tribes awarded funding for fiscal years 2022-23 are the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California.

Many creatives recently took part in an Indigenous Comic Con festival in Denver.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Emma VandenEinde tells us about part of the event – a heavy metal concert.

As the opening guitar riffs rang out at the Levitt Pavilion just outside Denver, eager heavy metal fans lined the barrier, cheering on the Arizona band Merciless Indian Savages as they kicked off a new Indigenous comic and arts festival.

The bands performing at the Rez Metal concert were among the many artists participating in áyA Con, an event designed to celebrate indigeneity and showcase Indigenous creators, similar to the Indigenous Pop Culture Expo, or IndigiPop X.

The word “áyA” is from the Lakota language, meaning “to change, to become.”

The goal is to expand the notion of what art from Indigenous communities looks like, according to Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, the director and co-founder of the three-day event.

“We have powwow dancing and we have a lot of our culture presenting, but we have toys up there (motioning to the McNichols Civic Center, which hosted the event). We’ve got comic books, there’s anime stuff, there’s horror stuff. It’s really broadened.”

Performances ranged from stand-up comedy to poetry to heavy metal.

Corey Ashley, the vocalist for Merciless Indian Savages: “People think it’s nonsense, but we’re spitting some knowledge that people are unaware of. Metal’s the perfect canvas to do that…Natives love metal and we’re no exception to that.”

Along with lyrics about addiction and death, their songs often reference cultural genocide and traumas inflicted upon Indigenous people. One of the songs is titled “Kill Man, Save The Indian,” which references the “White man came across the sea” lyric from Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills,” a song about killing Natives.

“So originally everybody knows, obviously, ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,’ But we’re like, you know, f*** that. We want to empower our people and we want to denounce this way of saying it.”

Other bands that played Friday night explored similar themes.

The all-female group Suspended, from Albuquerque, N.M., played an instrumental track titled “Murdered and Missing,” after the thousands of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Amanda Castillo, a guitarist and vocalist with Suspended: “I had tried to write lyrics several times, but I think it ended up just being an instrumental because I think the music just really speaks for itself.”

Ruben Dawahoya, Merciless Indian Savages’s bass player, said he wants to show that Indigenous people belong in the heavy metal space, too.

“We’re just turning the tides, basically, on everybody else, saying that we can evolve and we can do the things that everybody else can,” he said.

That message reached audience members like Chelsea Kaiah, who was head-banging in the front row.

“I think Denver and Colorado in general have a very romanticized version of what Indigenous people look like and how we are and what alternative cultures we participate in,” Kaiah said. “Supporting organizations like this is super important because they’re seeing us for us and what we love and what we support, and the amazing people that create the bands that we listen to.”

After Friday’s concert, the áyA Con event continued into the weekend with several panels and vendors spanning two buildings, with vendors selling things ranging from body care products to theater masks.

Some of the performers hew to more traditional Native American art, including dancer Rhyia JoyHeart who is Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone and part of the group United Indigenous Dancers. She performed the Jingle Dress Dance. It’s based on a story where an Indigenous girl fell ill and her relative had a dream about four women that gave instructions on how to make a healing dress.

“[The relative] brought it to their people in a drum ceremony, and they expressed how the dance was, how the dress was to be made, and how it was supposed to be danced,” she said. “Once [the four women] were dancing, the young girl went from laying to sitting to standing to then joining the circle with the women.”

JoyHeart said she’s proud to express her Native traditions and identity through dance.

“There’s so much – so much – beauty in our people,” she said. “We might not be rich in money and wealth, but we’re definitely rich in culture and love. So to be able to have these platforms is truly an honor.”

The festival also featured creatives like Shaun Beyale, a Diné multimedia artist who contributed to Marvel’s Heritage Voices comic book.

“I grew up on Marvel Comics,” he said. “For them to come and reach out to me, you know, that made that little rez boy in me happy because I never thought that would be something possible.”

He also helped design the Marvel character Spider Weaver, based on a protector in Navajo culture called Na’ashjeii Asdzáá. She wears a turquoise necklace and other pieces of cultural attire along with the famous spider logo. Beyale believes it is possible for Indigenous artists to embrace the contemporary without forgetting their ancestral roots.

“We do live in modern society, but at the same time, you know, we do hold onto our culture and we do appreciate that,” he said. “I was just a rez kid that didn’t have electricity. And I had to draw at night with kerosene lamps. And now here I am, getting to work on video games, comic books, and get to promote my culture.

“I think by harnessing the power of technology, we can still move forward without forgetting who we are.”

Danielle Boyer, a 22-year-old Ojibwe engineer, also presented at the festival. She made a talking and singing robot, called a SkoBot, that looks like a tiny, colorful minion with cat ears. It helps preserve four endangered Native languages: Ojibwemowin, Diné Bizaad, Taíno and Apache.

“They are wearable language revitalization robots,” she said. “Basically, they sit on your shoulder, sense motion and help protect endangered Indigenous languages.”

For example, she said, it’d say a phrase like “Boozhoo. Hello,” and ask the child to repeat it back.

She also created the STEAM Connection when she was 18 to help teach Indigenous youth about robotics and provide some building kits for free. It’s served over 800,000 youth so far.

Her idea came out of the discrimination she faced when she tried to join robotics clubs in high school and college. She hopes Indigenous youth will still pursue what they want to pursue, even when these spaces are predominantly white.

“We’ve always been scientists, we’ve always been inventors, we’ve always been creating really awesome things,” she said. “I want to show our students that opportunities are available and that we can create things for our communities basically built by us, for us. And we can be innovators now and forever.”

That’s the main reason Maldonado-Bad Hand wanted to create the convention – to show that Native art and culture is much more than the stereotypes of feathers and ancestors. She shared how when she invited some of her friends to present their anime work at áyA Con, they questioned if anyone would like it.

“I was like…’Why would you question whether you belonged somewhere because you had something that was likable for the rest of the general public and assumed that it wouldn’t be likable for Native people?’” she said.

She hopes it allows participants to bond through their shared connections and expand perspectives of what Native people engage in and enjoy.

“We really wanted to encourage that connection while also sharing our culture,” she said. “You can celebrate over fandoms and everybody can be nerds together and kind of celebrate that way.”

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region.

The American Association for State and Local History has selected the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma as a recipient of the History in Progress Award and Award of Excellence for  WINIKO: Life of an Object.

The history progress award is in recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.  

The HIP Award is an additional award for excellence for inspirational, exceptional scholarship, or is entrepreneurial in terms of funding, collaborations, creative problem solving, unusual project design or inclusiveness.    

This year, there are 53 national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, and publications. 

The First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City focuses on educating the public about the cultures, diversity, history, and contributions of the 39 Tribal Nations in Oklahoma today.

The 175,000 square foot facility showcases exhibits, live public and education programs, Native inspired cuisine, and a museum store featuring Native arts.

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Alaska Native leaders continue to digest the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the Indian Child Welfare Act last week, which rejected efforts to overturn a law that’s been in place for more than four decades.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

Valerie Davidson is an Alaska Native attorney who has dealt with ICWA for much of her career.

During Gov. Bill Walker (I-AK)’s administration, she served as his commissioner for Health and Social Services and helped negotiate a tribal compact that led to improved services for Alaska Native children in child custody cases.

She’s now president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which also works to protect the health and well-being of Native children.

Davidson applauded the court’s decision for many reasons, but mainly she says, it helps keep decisions about child welfare closer to home.

“It is really an issue of practicality, for example. So, if you have a child who is in a small village with an average population of 300 people, and there is no state agency physically there to be able to do that intervention, but the tribe is there and can intervene immediately, that’s a much better outcome.”

Davidson, who grew up in the Yup’ik communities of Bethel and Aniak, has firsthand knowledge about the challenges of providing services to children in remote areas.

She says tribes can step in within minutes, to assist, where state social workers might have to travel by airplane from Anchorage, which adds another layer of complications. Davidson says response from the state can take hours, weeks, and sometimes months.

“Tribes have had decades of proven track record– of improving programs really through incredible innovation. Those tribal partnerships are happening everywhere.”

Davidson says, had ICWA been overturned, it could have jeopardized programs that have been decades in the making.

Gone Native, a series of animated digital shorts, is using comedy to help education people about Indigenous life.

KNBA’s Hannah Bissett has more.

Gone Native has been in the works for the last five years.

First debuting in film festivals, the inspiration for the short series comes from a surprising place.

Joey Clift (citizen of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe) is a writer.

“A Facebook post a few friends of mine made a few years about the protests against the at the time, unfortunately, named Washington DC NFL team’s name, and somebody commented on the post saying something to the effect of ‘Hey, I just got my DNA test in the mail, and it says I’m 1/100th Indian, and personally, I think the team name is fine, so everyone just lay off!’”

Clift’s the creative writer behind the five episode short series.

He says, after this internet encounter, he wanted to find quick, comedic, and educational material to show to the person, and the most he could see were longer think pieces.

In response to this lack of material, he created his own.

He says that he also took inspiration from his experiences in the workforce, growing up, and listening to other Indigenous people about their experiences.

He says the response to the shorts has been immense, with millions of views over various platforms.

“It’s so validating to see that something I created didn’t just make people laugh, but it is equipping Native kids easy jokes that they can use to diffuse what would otherwise be a bummer, you know, racial microaggression situation.”

Clift wants everyone who listens to the series to learn something new.

According to a recent study from Illuminative, 87% of state history standards across the US for the curriculum of K-12 do not mention Native American history after 1900.

“And I think that that lack of education is what has lead to so many of these weird microaggressions against Native people and Native people in the mainstream because people just don’t know any better.”

The series has seen praise internet-wide, giving Indigenous people short, comedic material to educate peers.

“I hope you watch the series – but I hope you also go to GoneNative.tv and click around, read those links, and get a little more educated about these issues so I don’t have to correct bosses when they call a meeting a powwow ever again.”

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