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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.

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.”

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.

 

 

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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U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says she considers tribal governments “huge allies” in the Biden Administration’s efforts to develop cleaner forms of energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports on her visit to a Forest County Potawatomi property in Milwaukee.

The Energy Secretary viewed a solar farm, an energy efficient data center the Forest County Potawatomi opened a decade ago.

She also heard about efforts to renovate older buildings to reduce their carbon footprint. Then, Sec. Granholm spoke to a group of children, and tribal leaders.

“So appreciate the emphasis on being one with this planet. With our land, our water and our air. I think that gives us a strength, and a feeling like we must, that we have an obligation, to leave our campsite cleaner than when we found it.”

Sec. Granholm told news reporters that she’s trying to help President Biden get to his goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero carbon pollution by 2050.

“The tribal governments across the nation are huge allies for us in making that happen. They’re sovereign governments. They also can take advantage of some of the incentives that have been passed in the Invest in America agenda. It’s very exciting to see they are very focused on energy efficiency –we saw the solar panels—and on generating clean energy. Both sides—there are incentives for, to continue their mission.”

Forest County Potawatomi Vice Chairwoman Heather Van Zile says that in a private meeting with tribal leaders, Sec. Granholm mentioned clean energy tax credits in the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act.

Van Zile says those credits are interesting, and that the tribe has already applied for clean energy and conservation grants.

“It’s a longstanding importance to the tribe. Due to the fact that we, as a people, are all about preserving and protecting our land, our water and our natural resources.”

During Sec. Granholm’s visit to Milwaukee, she also announced the release of $77 million to improve the nation’s electrical grid in seven states.

Tribes in Louisiana, California, and Connecticut will receive about $1.3 million of those funds.

The governments of Canada and Ontario have reached a proposed settlement with 21 First Nations in Ontario.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the deal would be for $10 billion.

The Robins Huron Treaty Litigation Fund represents the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations, mostly in northeastern Ontario along the shores of Lake Huron.

The First Nations went to court more than ten years ago for failing to increase annuities payments as the resource revenue in the treaty territory increased. Instead the parties met at the negotiating table to reach a proposed settlement.

“Tears of joy and my heart is lighter today.”

That’s chief Dean Sayers of the Batchewana First Nation.

He says under an 1850 treaty the collective annuity to the First Nations from resource revenues should have increased as those revenues increased, but they were bumped only once, in 1875, form a $1.70-$4.00 per person and didn’t change since.

Now, the Ontario government and the Canadian government will each pay $5 billion.

Sayers says now the First Nations will decide what’s next, and what to do with the money and for that they will engage members of the First Nations.

“There will be community meetings. There will be individual interviews, questionnaires in regard to how we might forward with regards to the annuity.”

The new money from resource sharing and annuities will be negotiated after the compensation agreement is finalized.

Other chiefs call the proposed deal a major milestone and a chance to renew the treaty relationship.

Marc Miller, the Crown Indigenous Relations Minister, says the proposed settlement is long overdue.

When the settlement is approved, each of the 21 First Nations will get a share based on a distribution agreement.

That agreement will not be final until approved by all parties and by the courts.

The Alaskan aviation community is still reeling from the death of Jim Tweto, a bush pilot who went down in his Cessna 180 near Shaktoolik on Friday.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more.

He was flying with a hunting guide, who also died in the crash.

Tweto grew up in Minnesota and met his wife Ferno (Inupiaq) in Unalakleet, a community on the Bering Sea Coast where they ran a family airline.

Tweto, Ferno, and two of their three daughters, Ariel and Ayla, won the hearts of viewers all over the country, when they starred in a Discovery Channel series Flying Wild Alaska.

The series ran for two years from 2011-2012.

Ariel Tweto continues to work in show business and has been featured in a number of television projects.

She shared the news about her father’s death on an Instagram post on Friday.

She wrote, “My dad and a wonderful hunting guide and friend of our family passed away this afternoon in his 180. He died doing what he truly loved…. I don’t think anything could hurt this bad.”

Jim Tweto was 68.

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A First Nation in Manitoba has proposed a $5 billion dollar class action lawsuit against the Canadian government.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the lawsuit claims the government has failed to address the housing crisis on Canada’s reserves.

The St. Theresa Point First Nation in northern Manitoba wants the compensation and an order that Ottawa comply with its obligation to provide adequate housing in First Nations communities.

The northern community of just over 5,000 is accessible by plane or by ice road for six weeks each year.

Chief Elvin Flett says what’s happening in his reserve is about broken promises and treaties and the promises made to his people.

“Most homes on reserves are falling apart. And many are infested with mold and other toxins. Our lack of housing on reserve forces generation after generation to cram together under the same roof.”

Flett says in his community there are more than 460 families that need homes.

He says of the nearly 650 houses about 25% should be condemned because of severe decay and rotting, others need major repairs.

He says it’s no uncommon for families of 12 to live in one home.

In one house, there are 32 people living in four bedrooms, they sleep in shifts.

Flett adds that the deplorable housing has mental and physical repercussions with many living with ailments linked to toxins in the homes.

Many children and teens don’t have access to personal space.

The proposed class action is aimed at the most extreme housing emergencies in First Nations.

Flett is inviting other bands to join the lawsuit against the Canadian government.

The claim alleges that Canada has deliberately underfunded housing on reserves while at the same time imposed restrictions on their ability to provide housing for themselves.

The class action has not yet been certified by a judge.

Dozens of people recently marched on northwest Montana’s Flathead Reservation for Mika Josephine Westwolf, who was hit and killed by a vehicle along U.S. Highway 93 earlier this year.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports the walk was part of a weeklong effort to bring awareness to the case and others like it.

Over three days of events, people from across the Flathead Reservation walked near U.S 93 wearing red shirts, the official color representing the disproportionate number of Indigenous people that go missing or are murdered.

Westwolf’s mother Carissa Heavy Runner says the Montana Highway Patrol, which is investigating her daughter’s death, hasn’t explained why they haven’t charged the suspect in the case.

“Nothing much has changed sadly. I’m hoping with this walk and the recent articles, that’s going to change because it’s now over two months.”

The Montana Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to Montana Public Radio’s request for details about their investigation into the incident.

Heavy Runner says her daughter’s case follows a familiar trend of law enforcement agencies struggling to solve missing persons or murder cases on reservations.

She blames jurisdictional issue confusion over which agency is responsible for investigating crimes.

Advocates have long said that confusion leads to cases falling through the cracks.

Heavy Runner told a crowd gathered in Pablo that has to change as she worries about the younger generation continuing to struggle with this issue.

“I don’t want them to have fear of growing up, having to look over their shoulder or have to go through their classmates, older cousins go missing or murdered.”

Heavy Runner, who lives on the Blackfeet Reservation, called on Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal leaders and the Blackfeet tribal council to push for change at the federal level.

She wants funding for special investigative teams dedicated to solving cases on reservations across the country.

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When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act yesterday, there was a collective sigh of relief among Alaska Native leaders.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, they had feared the worst.

The Alaska Federation of Natives has been involved in the fight to protect ICWA for years.

“This is something we care deeply about.”

The president of AFN, Julie Kitka, says a lot was at stake, far beyond the right of tribes to oversee adoptions.

“A lot of threads of Federal Indian law, the authority for the Congress to deal with Alaska Natives, Native Americans derives from that.”

Kitka says had efforts to overturn ICWA succeeded, tribal sovereignty could have seen widespread erosion.

Brian Ridley is head of the Tanana Chiefs Conference in Interior Alaska.

“Today’s decision represents a huge win for tribes throughout the nation and reaffirms tribal sovereignty.”

Ridley says ICWA has been a success story for tribes, that’s helped to keep children, families, and tribes together, along with their culture and traditions.

“All the years of work that we’ve done to get to this point in trying to protect our Native kids and keep them with our Native families.”

But during a U.S. Supreme Court hearing last year, Matthew McGill, the attorney representing a white family, fighting to adopt a Native child, argued that ICWA had discriminated against them – and put the interests of the tribe, over the needs of the child.

Matthew McGill/Attorney for the Brackeens: “That means each year hundreds, if not thousands of Indian Children are placed in non-Indian foster homes. And sometimes there, they bond with those families.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion.

She cited more than a century of precedent and the plaintiff’s lack of standing on the issues.

Richard Peterson, President of Tlingit and Haida, the largest tribal group in Alaska, says the lawsuit had one benefit, it brought more than 500 tribes together to fight for ICWA.

“In a time where we don’t all agree on different things, I mean it really unified us.”

And the tribes prevailed.

“It’s always scary when you go to court, but we keep winning, because we’re on the right side.”

Peterson says the unity achieved to fight for ICWA will still be needed.

He believes the threats to tribal sovereignty are far from over.

Native state lawmakers in South Dakota are praising the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act.

They say now is the time to push for better outcomes for Native kids in the state.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Under ICWA, Native children removed from their homes are placed with relatives, tribal members, or other Native families.

The Supreme Court is upholding the law, which says state must work to keep children close to their culture.

“Yeah, I’m super happy.”

State Rep. Tamara St. John (Dakota/R-SD) is from Sisseton. She’s chair of the state tribal relations committee.

She wants to sit down with DSS and tribal partners about where to go next.

“Identify any gaps or what we can do to strengthen current policies and how the state and tribal partners are working with the federal law.”

Native American children make up about 60% of kids in the welfare system. That’s according to State Rep. Peri Pourier (Lakota/D-SD), who represents the district that covers the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Rep. Pourier says this is a big moment for Indian country.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is a resounding recognition of the inherent rights of tribal nations to protect their children and the imperative of preserving our cultural identity, political statues as tribal citizens.”

Rep. Pourier says there’s work still to do.

Last session, Rep. Pourier and other native lawmakers sought to establish a task force to look closer at the issue.

That bill, and another that would codify ICWA, failed.

Stephanie Amiotte is the legal director for the ACLU South Dakota.

She says while the ruling is a victory for tribal sovereignty, the state should pass its own ICWA legislation.

“We think that the legislature should definitely look at that again and this time they should pass it.”

The state legislature meets at the beginning of each calendar year.

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The Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin Jr. celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act.

“It’s a wonderful day for Indian Country, and it’s a wonderful day for anyone in the country that cares about the rights of Native children.”

The decades old law is intended to keep Native children with Native families.

Some states and individuals were fighting to overturn ICWA, claiming its unconstitutional.

Chief Hoskin says Indian Country was on edge, concerned about losing on any number of grounds including on equal protection.

He says it’s one of the most important parts of the case, the bedrock principle of Indian law, that tribes are sovereign.

“The equal protection attack was to suggest that ICWA was a race-based preference, in addition to that being a potential fatal blow to ICWA, it could have put in doubt a large number of statutes and even previous decisions that stand for the proposition that citizens of Indian nations hold a different status that it’s not a racial classification that the preferences and benefits afforded to tribes and their citizens really are part of respecting tribal sovereignty and again in some measure to achieve some justice for the a group of people in this country that we know have suffered greatly.”

Hoskin says now that the case is decided he hopes Indian Country can move forward to focus on what’s best for children.

He says Cherokee Nation will continue to devote resources to child welfare, but also says this case shows Indian Country is ready for any future challenges.

“We also know another attack could be around the corner whether it’s in the Congress or in the courts. We will be ready and I think the country knows we’re not just going to be pushed over on these cases.”

Tribes across the country and Native organizations were among those to advocate for the Indian Child Welfare Act. In a statement, the National Congress of American Indians said its “overcome with joy that the Supreme Court has upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is widely regarded as the gold standard of child welfare.”

The statement went on to say to fully understand the implications of this decision, they’re conducting a thorough legal review and will later provide in-depth analysis.

And that “ICWA is crucial for the safety and well-being of Native children and families and the future of Native peoples and Tribal Nations.

NCAI called it a positive impact that will felt across generations.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, applauded the decision.

In a statement he said, “the Supreme Court just validated what Indian Country and Tribal advocates have been saying for generations: the Indian Child Welfare Act is the gold standard of child welfare policy.”

87 members of Congress had advocated for ICWA in the case.

Read the decision and stay connected to National Native News and Native America Calling for the latest updates and analysis

A new law aims to silence a controversial siren in western Nevada.

It’s part of the region’s painful legacy of sundown towns.

KUNR’s Maria Palma reports.

In 1921, the town of Minden began sounding an evening siren, warning Indigenous people it was time to leave the city limits – or face violent consequences.

For citizens of the Washoe nation, the sound carries painful memories.

Until 1974, anyone who wasn’t white had to leave Minden and neighboring Gardnerville at the end of every day.

Some Minden residents insist the siren is simply meant as a tribute to first responders.

But a new state law says sirens can only be sounded for an emergency and a couple other exceptions.

Counties could be fined up to $50,000 for every violation – meaning Minden would have to pay $100,000 per day for the two times the siren now sounds.

 

 

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