Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Gila River Indian Community last week.

This was the first-time in the tribe’s history a sitting vice president had been to the community.

Harris expressed the administration’s commitment to Arizona’s 22 federally recognized tribes including Gila River.

“President Joe Biden and I believe the bonds between our nations are sacred. And we believe we have a duty to safeguard and strengthen those bonds. To uphold our trust and treaty obligations to honor tribal sovereignty. And to ensure tribal self-determination. President Biden and I also believe we have a duty to address the deep disparities that persist across Indian country.”

Read her full speech

Harris was also brought up to speed about GRIC’s water pipeline project, which will help ensure communities receive reliable access to clean water and reduce Colorado River usage.

She expressed her concern of climate change affecting Native communities. 

“And in order to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis, we must then rely on the knowledge and experience of the Native communities. And that is why we are investing billions of dollars to help fund Native-led, not Native-consulting, Native-led climate resilient infrastructure projects. Like the projects you are leading here at Gila river.” 

The tribe’s water pipeline project is expected to be completed in 2024.

Last week in California, tribal leaders, law enforcement, and state lawmakers gathered to learn how a new tool – the Feather Alert – will work to help law enforcement quickly notify the public about missing Native Americans.

This tool was authored by State Rep. James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA) in January. 

In April, the Round Valley Indian Tribes declared a State of Emergency after two of their members were found murdered, the Yurok Tribe issued a similar declaration last year. 

In a statement, Rep. Ramos said: “It gets too easy to cite these staggering statistics.”

He’s gratified that the governor approved the bill to help stop violence afflicting California’s Native American communities. 

Ramos went on to say the Feather Alert will aid law enforcement and families in getting the word out quickly when a Native individual is missing or endangered by alerting the public in a broad and effective manner. 

He says creating an alert or advisory system was a top recommendation from tribal leaders last year for dealing with the disproportionate number of missing Native Americans, particularly women and girls.

During the gathering, it was explained how to activate the Feather Alert, and the criteria to be met in order to activate it.

The missing person needs to be an Indigenous person.

The local law enforcement agency also must determine that the person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances and the person is believed to be in danger because of age, health, or mental or physical disability – or is in the company of a potentially dangerous person.

In California, the Feather Alert joins the Amber Alert, which is used when children 17 and younger are missing or abducted; the Blue Alert, an alert that notifies the public when a suspect in the assault or killing of a police officer remains at large and the search is active; and the Silver Alert, which notifies the public of elderly, developmentally, or cognitively-impaired persons that go missing and are determined to be at-risk. 

These other special notifications overseen by the California Highway Police.

The Red Lake Nation in Minnesota is gearing up for the 25th Annual Anishinaabe Spirit Run, formerly called the sobriety run.

This year, the event focuses on healing, wellness, and recovery.

It’s sponsored by the Red Lake Chemical Health Programs.

The Leech Lake chemical dependency unit and the Mash-Ka-Wisen Treatment Center in Sawyer, Minn. will also co-sponsor the event on August 2-5.

The 200-mile journey will begin with an opening ceremony and remarks.

The runners will carry eagle staffs into the sobriety powwow arena at the Mash-Ka-Wisen Treatment Center.

Using the Native American medicine wheel as a guide, this year’s participants will carry a message of running for 25 years to raise awareness of healing, wellness, and recovery.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The South Dakota tribal relations committee discussed the Indian Child Welfare Act at its latest meeting.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Zadya Abbott reports.

The committee’s third meeting comes shortly after the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

The act aims to keep more Native children with their tribes and communities in adoptions and fostering situations.

BJ Jones is the Chief Judge for Sisseton Wahpeton.

He is thinking about what the Supreme Court ruling means for representatives in Pierre.

“There’s a lot of areas in South Dakota that are ripe for some good state legislation. Just because the Supreme Court has ruled that ICWA is constitutional. Which is a great relief, and most tribes believe that to be the case, doesn’t mean there aren’t issues that can be clarified by state statutes.”

Judge Jones says a South Dakota bill could address concerns about legal responsibility between the Department of Social Services and Tribal Courts.

Two bills codifying ICWA into state law were introduced last legislative session, but they were voted down.

Opponents said they wanted to wait for the Supreme Court ruling before enacting anything.

Mickey Divine is the Program Director of Child Protective Programs on the Lake Traverse Reservation and a member of the tribal state coalition.

She told committee members the group plans to push for legislation supporting ICWA.

“I am asking for legislation because we are gonna continue with that state ICWA law. Because those challenges to this, the challenges to our sovereignty are still coming and we need to be prepared. We want to care for our own children. We want to care for our own families here. We live here.”

Fourteen states have passed legislation in support of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

That includes North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wyoming.

Listen to the full committee session

The Bureau of Indian Education recently extended a five-year contract of a program that provides additional mental health resources for tribal youth.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports on how it impacts more than 100 tribal schools in the Mountain West region.

The Behavioral Health and Wellness program allows for both Indigenous students and staff from schools and universities to access resources. That includes telehealth counseling, a 24/7 crisis hotline, and on-site crisis support.

Teresia Paul works for the Bureau and is the program lead.

She said the majority of their clinical team are Indigenous people who know these communities well.

“We’re able to really engage in those types of interventions with people who are from the communities and who know how to do those interventions respectfully. You know, you can’t just tap someone to step into that role. It has to be folks that, you know, have gained that respect.”

The program is crucial for many American Indian and Alaska Native students.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among eight to 24 year-olds in that demographic.

Paul said it’s their duty to protect their most sacred citizens – their kids.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-South Pacific Division and Navajo Nation signed an agreement intended to improve USACE’s support to Navajo Nation at Window Rock, Ariz. this week.

Services and any goods which the Corps may provide to the Navajo Nation under this agreement include full or partial services in the areas of planning, design, engineering, consultation, technical support and training, and construction activities.

According to the Army Corps, the purpose of the agreement is to establish a mutual framework governing the respective responsibilities of the Parties for the provision of goods and services for Navajo Nation projects.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A stretch of highway running through the center of the Blackfeet Nation has been renamed to honor the late Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person.

Montana Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin reports from Browning at the highway’s dedication ceremony.

A group of more than 200 people gathered alongside the section of U.S. Highway 89 that now bears Chief Old Person’s name.

As the new road sign was unveiled, drummers played one of the chief’s favorite songs, used to celebrate a victory.

Several dozen friends and family of Old Person got up to share their favorite memories of the beloved Blackfeet leader, along with members of Congress.

State Sen. Susan Webber (Blackfeet/D-MT 8th) carried the bill to rename this stretch of road.

“And it feels really good, it’s done, we did our best towards our chief, his name will always be here, it’ll always be on the map.”

Old Person led the tribe for 40 years, before he died in 2021.

The renaming ceremony is part of the first day of the Blackfeet Nation’s North American Indian Days, an annual celebration which will run through the weekend.

The rate of Indigenous women that died during or shortly after pregnancy more than doubled in recent decades.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports that’s according to a new study.

The study published in the Journal of the American Medicine Association showed that maternal mortality rates for Native American and Alaska Native women increased by nearly 110% between 1999 and 2019. That was the largest increase among all racial groups.

Deaths among Indigenous women were especially high across the Great Plains.

Northern mountain states like Montana were also found to have high maternal death rates among all races.

Researchers say it’s hard to determine what drove the spike in deaths among Native American pregnant women because death records across the country can vary widely.

Causes of maternal mortality include suicide, substance abuse, excessive bleeding, and infection among many other conditions.

Researchers say racial disparities among pregnant women can in part be attributed to systemic and interpersonal racism.

Guatemala celebrated the holiday known as the Day of the Army this week, while many Indigenous groups marched to commemorate what they called the March of Memory to remember the thousands of largely Indigenous lives lost at the hands of the military forces during that Central American country’s decades long civil conflict.

Maria Martin reports.

Members of the organization Hijos, made up of the children of war victims and their supporters, took to the streets of Guatemala City and carried pictures of their murdered and disappeared loved ones – to honor the thousands of lives lost during the long civil war that began in the wake of a CIA-sponsored military coup in 1954.

The so-called March for Memory has taken place annually since 1999, three years after the signing of peace accords ending the 36 year-old civil conflict in which the government attempted to crush guerilla uprisings to change this deeply unequal society.

The annual commemoration also takes place in opposition to the celebration of the annual holiday known as Army Day – some in the march call that celebration an insult to the victims of the conflict.

It was the military, according to the United Nations, that was responsible for more than 90% of the 200,000 killed and disappeared during one of the longest civil wars in the Americas, in which hundreds of massacres took place and some 400 Indigenous villages were destroyed.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The ousted leader of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations says she wants her job back.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, Roseanne Archibald is calling on her supporters to tell their chiefs and councils to reinstate her.

Archibald was voted out as national chief of the AFN last week.

That came after a year of controversy over her leadership, and in part over allegations related to complaints that AFN staff had filed against her.

She was the first woman to serve in the role of national chief of the organization and was in the job for just over two years.

70% of the chiefs and council members voted her out of the job. But Archibald says the human rights complains and investigation against her was a distraction because she had made allegations of corruption within the AFN and was calling for a forensic audit.

“I want to be reinstated because I have a sacred responsibility I have to fulfill and there has to be ceremony before I begin that journey and at the end. And what the chiefs did on June 28th is they ignored that ceremony, they ignored our sacred ways, and they just went ahead and did one of the most violent acts against an Indigenous, First Nations woman leader ever, in a national kind of way, in a world stage kind of way, and that is not acceptable.”

Archibald is a Cree leader from Ontario, who first entered the political arena in 1989 as a youth activist.

She became her community’s youngest and first female chief a year later. In 2000, she led a blockade and hunger strike against logging on her First Nation’s territory.

In 2021, she became the AFN’s first woman national chief, pledging to clean up the organization.

She is now also the first national chief officially voted out of office.

But chiefs who voted against her said they took the action not because of gender, but because it had everything to do with her actions, competence and performance.

Native people held a march on Fourth of July closing a street in downtown Rapid City, focused on policing of the local Native community.

Now, police are responding as South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene reports.

The protest was organized by Rapid City-based Native advocacy group NDN Collective.

Sunny Red Bear is a local organizer with the group who gave a list of demands at a press conference before the march.

“Number one is ending the killing of Indigenous people by police. Two, an immediate civil rights inquiry into the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriffs Office. Three, release of all body camera footage. Four, the removal of school resource officers. Five, rescind SB4. Six, defund the police and increase community-controlled education programming and funding. And seven, third-party investigations of police and sheriffs’ offices.”

SB4 is a South Dakota law that allows the court system to recommend repeat juvenile offenders to the state Department of Corrections.

In response, RCPD spokesperson Brendyn Medina focused on the scope of these issues.

“We’ve heard their demands loud and clear, and the reality is it’s going to take more agencies than just the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriffs’ Office to come to the table. We’re willing to be at that table moving forward – but it’s going to take more than just us.”

The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office did not return request for comment.

The Alaska Federation of Natives convention will return to Anchorage this fall.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more.

The theme for this year’s gathering is “Our Way of Life”, which will highlight subsistence and the Alaska Native cultural connection to the land.

The keynote speakers include Sophie Minich, President of the Cook Inlet Regional Native Corporation, and this year’s Iditarod champion, Ryan Redington.

AFN president Julie Kitka says Minich was chosen for her years of service to the state and Alaska Native peoples.

Reddington, she says, is an example of how “stick-to-it-ness” and resilience are a part of the Native way of life.

The convention will be held at the Dena’ina Convention Center in downtown Anchorage for three days, starting on October 19.

AFN is the state’s largest convention, drawing delegates and their families from across the state.

Economists say it pumps millions of dollars into the Anchorage economy, as AFN delegates typically extend their stay in Anchorage for a full week to attend Native corporation and tribal meetings, as well as the Elders and Youth Conference, which are scheduled on the shoulders of AFN.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Alaska Natives are among the hardest hit by the state’s housing shortage.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, rural areas struggle the most.

A new housing trust called Housing Alaskans: A Public and Private Partnership (HAPPP) hopes to change this.

Preston Simmons, who chairs the board, says it won’t be easy.

“It was expensive to build up here before, but it’s really expensive now.”

In the last 40 to 50 years. rural communities haven’t seen much new housing.

Simmons say that’s due in large part to building costs that can be several times higher than in urban areas.

Housing shortages are something Faith Tuluk knows all too well.

A few years ago, she left Hooper Bay, a remote community on the Bering Sea coast, for more schooling. But when she finished her studies, she decided against moving her family back home.

“There’d be no way we could get our own place out there.”

Tuluk says the only option was to move in with her mother and the rest of her extended family — a household of ten people packed into a small home — not unusual for Hooper Bay.

So Tuluk signed up for a RurAL CAP self-help building project in south central Alaska — in which her family and eight others, worked together to build nine homes with a lot of the costs covered, in exchange for their labor.

Tuluk says she wishes Hooper Bay could have a similar program.

With HAPPP in the mix, that might be possible someday. It funded nine more self-help homes this year.

“Alaskans have a lot of great ideas and work really hard.”

Simmons says HAPPP hopes to partner with tribes and other organizations to put those ideas to work and support projects like the one it funded in Sitka this year — the Hítx’i Sáani project, which means “Little Houses” in the Lingít language.

When conditions deteriorated at their school, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign at the Nevada legislature. KUNR’s Maria Palma reports.

When the legislative session opened this year, the tribes called for funding to replace Owyhee Combined School, which serves more than 300 students living on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

They highlighted problems like a bat infestation and an old heating system.

For four months, Tribal Chairman Brian Mason encouraged his community to raise their voices and speak out about the bad condition of the school.

It worked.

On June 13, Nevada’s governor signed a bill that earmarks $65 million for a new school.

Sean Davis, a sophomore at the school, traveled six hours to attend the ceremonial signing in Carson City.

“I imagine the new school bigger, better and more up to code. Just a whole better place than what we’ve got now.”

Diana Cournoyer heads the National Indian Education Association. She says this is an example of tribal empowerment.

“Owyhee’s tribal leader advocated with the state. So I think state investment, even though a Tribal School is on a reservation, it is still a school with students that live within that specified state.”

Federal and state funding – as well as philanthropy – are options that tribes can use to improve their schools, she says.

“And I think there needs to be a different way of approaching tribal state partnership, tribal state collaboration, it shouldn’t be competing.”

Chairman Mason says it’s a big win for the tribe, students and future generations.

“With so many things challenging them on the reservation, everything is stacked against them, this is gonna help, this is gonna help, they’ll have a reason to get up and go to school and succeed.

Mason says the tribes already have set aside 80 acres for a new school.

He expects it will take about two years to build.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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.

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.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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.

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.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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