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The proper repatriation of Native American remains is behind a new facility in Corvallis, Oreg.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, it’s a collaboration between Oregon State University and the nine federally recognized tribes within the state.

Called the “OSU-NAGPRA facility”, the two-buildings are about 2,000 square feet total.

They’re for consultation, records, and storing human remains in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The 1990 federal law mandates the safe return of skeletons, bones, and cultural items to their tribes.

Ashley Russell is director of Natural Resources and Culture for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians.

She credits sensitive discussions among tribes, OSU, and the state in making this facility possible.

“It’s just very important to us as tribes to have that relationship, and it not be like a transactional thing because these are ancestors. They’ve made their journey, they’re on the other side, and you have to be careful when you navigate those sorts of things.”

Other tribal representatives across Oregon have voiced support for the facility, which may be the first built specifically for repatriation purposes.

Oregon’s NAGPRA Director Dawn Marie Alapisco was pleased with the support.

“This isn’t an ending at all, this is a new beginning. This is a change, a shift in how NAGPRA can and should be performed.”

NAGPRA compliance has been a constant sore spot between many tribes and institutions.

Some universities have retained bones and remains in years past, citing “research” needs.

White raven with a black-feathered companion at a dumpster behind the Spenard Road House Restaurant. The Ravens seemed to especially enjoy discarded tater tots and bread crusts. (Photo: Jennifer Olson)

The odds of a white raven being born are one in 30,000.

Despite those improbabilities, a blue-eyed white raven first appeared in the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage last October, where it became an instant media sensation.

The bird was last seen in April, when it took off with its family to return to the wilderness, where ravens nest and raise their young.

There’s no guarantee the white bird will be back, but as KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, there is still hope.

White Raven. White Raven. Wherefore art thou? That question echoes across Spenard, as flocks of ravens made their annual October migration into town, where there are plenty of pizza crusts and French fry droppings to tide them over through the winter.

Jennifer Olson goes out every day looking.

“With my limited storage space. I managed to amass about 6,500 photos.”

Olson says it’s hard to delete a single, one.

“Because each moment is different, each little look of the eye. A little tilt of the head. A turn of the beak, or a moment with another bird. The background. It’s endless”

Olson got some of her best pictures near a trash dumpster behind the Spenard Roadhouse. She’s been there too. But alas, so far, no White Raven.

The very first photo posted on the Anchorage White Raven Spottings Facebook page was on October 24 last year.

But Aaron Towarak (Iñupiat) may have been the first to photograph the bird in Anchorage.

On October 20, he took a photo of White Raven and its black feathered companion on the roof of an old, vacant restaurant.

“In some ways it has its own mysticism.”

Towarak remembers the moment well. He was living in a Spenard Hotel room, waiting to get into alcohol treatment.

“And I was just trying to stay active, because I was going through alcohol withdrawal, so I was walking around on Spenard. And that’s kind of when I saw it. It’s a good place marker for my personal journey.”

He said the sight of the bird inspired him and on October 23, he entered a treatment program in Juneau, and now celebrates one year of sobriety.

Towarak says things would come full circle for him to see the White Raven again. He’s wondered how the bird is doing. But if he doesn’t see it, that’s OK too.

“You kinda wonder where they are, where they go off to, what they do. But then you just realize we don’t have control over nature or maybe even ourselves at times.”

Towarak says that’s one of the big lessons of sobriety, is to learn to acceptance.

“A lot of times we want to impose our will on the world, but it’s kind of about letting go of things in your life that you don’t have control over.”

Towarak has regained control of a lot. He spends time with his children, has a good job, and, after a year of getting around on foot and on a bicycle, bought a new car.

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Photo: Latham Young slaps a highway sign as he rides toward Window Rock on a five-day horseback ride to register new voters on the Navajo Nation. (Richard Alun Davis / KNAU)

Four generations of a Navajo family led a five-day horseback ride last month to the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz. to register new voters ahead of the November election.

It’s the second presidential election that the group known as Protect the Sacred has worked to increase participation on the vast, mostly rural, reservation where residents often face barriers to voting.

KNAU’s Richard Davis joined the group on their final leg of the journey.

Lucinda Young and her son Latham are the first to unload their horses from their trailer alongside Highway 264.

The group has ridden 45 miles through seven Diné communities.

This trail ride continues her family’s legacy of civic engagement.

“My mother used to campaign and donate a sheep, prepare it for meals and serve voters. In remembrance of her, it’s important to continue to carry that tradition to promote voting. Our forefathers, grandmothers, once they were given the ability to vote, they rode to the polls.”

Lucinda’s brother Frank Young trots by on his horse; the ride was his idea ahead of the 2020 election, in which Natives were critical to President Joe Biden’s narrow Arizona victory.

“Our ancestors fought for our sovereignty. We wanna let them know that we’re still here, fighting for something sacred to them. [horse snorts] And through the horse connecting with them, we’re gonna protect that sacred. ”

Frank’s daughter Allie Young runs the non-partisan Protect the Sacred.

During this ride she says they’ve verified or updated the voter registration status of upwards of 400 Diné citizens.

Arizona law requires proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration.

“It is truly disrespectful, a slap in the face to ask Indigenous peoples to prove their citizenship in 2024. In our own ancestral homelands. We were here first, and they’re on the wrong side of history … The native vote is stronger, the momentum’s building.”

As restless horses stomp Allie’s grandfather, champion bull rider Stanley blesses the group before they saddle up to begin their descent alongside the highway into town.

Adults and youth get ready to play double ball during the first annual Indigenous Dakota Games event in Lake Traverse Reservation. (Photo: Dustina Gill / Arts Midwest)

Traditional Native games are being revived in places like South Dakota, where they teach kids a range of lessons from cooperation to Native language.

More from Kathleen Shannon.

Jeremy Red Eagle is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation and is leading a movement to revive traditional games in Native communities.

Sports that come from Native people, including lacrosse and archery, Red Eagle says, teach teamwork, cooperation, respect, and, historically, survival skills.

“Our people lived off of the land. We lived according to natural law. Physically, mentally, emotionally – we had to be strong in all of those areas of our life. And these games were a way of developing that.”

Plains Style games have classifications like “games of chance and intuition” and “games of skill and agility”.

After Native language, identity and teachings were nearly eradicated during colonization, Red Eagle says games offer kids a unique way to reconnect with those aspects of culture.

The games also foster connections between players and their environment, Red Eagle says.

Some games require crafting supplies from natural materials.

“When I work with young people, take them out, have them harvest willows or whatever it is that we’re doing, we’re sharing other teachings that are connected to it through the culture, the language. You’re getting them to be grounded in the land.”

Red Eagle started learning about traditional games after becoming sober. He says unlike some “revolving door” programs he sees on reservations, these games offer life lessons that can help prevent issues like substance use among young people.

Though many of his students are kids, Red Eagle invites people of all ages to participate. He says games help bridge the generational gap.

“When you engage in play, it does something to you emotionally. It keeps you young at heart. I think that just mentally and emotionally for older people to stay engaged in that, it’s healthy for them. ”

 This story is produced with original reporting from LaVerne Whitebear for Arts Midwest

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Photo: Rear Adm. Mark Sucato offers a gift to Joe Zuboff in Angoon on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Clarise Larson/KTOO)

On Oct. 26, 1882, the U.S. Navy bombarded the Lingít village of Angoon, destroying clan houses, food caches, and 40 canoes – and leaving the community for dead.

But the community of Angoon didn’t die – and for decades, they’ve been asking for an apology from the federal government.

This past weekend, close to a century and a half later, they finally got one.

KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey was there and has this story.

142 years ago, Angoon went up in flames.

(Photo: Clarise Larson / KTOO)

X’ash Kugé ka Yaanasax, Barbara Cadiente-Nelson’s grandmother, survived the bombardment as a young woman.

“Can you imagine my grandmother, at 26, having to scramble and run with her family? And the fear, the real fear.”

Six children were killed in the shelling and an unknown number of others died in the following months from exposure and starvation.

Though it’s a long time coming, Cadiente-Nelson said many in the community have mixed emotions about the apology.

“How do you restore a human being, how do you restore a family? How do you restore a community who have been the target of annihilation?”

On Saturday, Lingít people from all over Southeast Alaska and beyond gathered in the Angoon High School gym to receive the apology.

They danced in wearing regalia.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Mark Sucato presented the apology to hundreds in the room and the thousands watching on a livestream.

“The United States Navy … apologizes on behalf of the United States Navy to all the Lingít peoples of Angoon for the pain, suffering and generational trauma inflicted by the bombardment of their village, acknowledges that the Lingít people of Angoon did not deserve nor provoke the bombardment and subsequent destruction of their village by United States Naval forces.”

Shgendootan George grew up with this story.

As a teacher, she would teach her students about the shelling and burning of their village. And George said she was excited to teach this part of the history now, too.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I talk about it and how many times I talk with students about what happens like every time I tear up, it’s gonna be amazing to be able to say the right thing happened, finally.”

(Courtesy Protect Kw’tsán)

A group of Californians are in Colombia this week for the 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity.

Suzanne Potter has more.

Tribes, policymakers, and conservation groups are advocating for national monument status for three sites in the Golden State.

Lena Ortega with the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe wants federal protection for the proposed Kw’tsán National Monument in Imperial County.

“The movement to save the environment isn’t a choice for us. It’s a matter of survival, and our past healings are intertwined with that of Mother Earth. We are the land. The land is us.”

Brandy McDaniels with the Pit River Nation says time is running out for the administration to declare the Sáttítla National Monument in northeastern California.

“With less than three months left in President Biden’s term, now is the time for the president to use his authority by designating Sáttítla as a national monument for all future generations.”

Tribes are also calling for a new Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park.

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Photo: Jim LaBelle, left, and his younger brother Kermit, shortly before they were taken away from their mother in Fairbanks and sent to the Wrangell Institute in Southeast Alaska. (Courtesy Jim LaBelle) 

Alaska Native people are among those reacting to President Joe Biden’s apology for the harm done to generations of Native children who were taken from their homes and forced to attend federal Indian boarding schools.

President Biden delivered the apology at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona last week.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride has more from Alaska.

Among the boarding school survivors in the crowd was Jim LaBelle, an Alaska Native member of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition.

He says, before the speech, the President and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) embraced him and his wife.

“It’s almost indescribable, how to express that feeling of acknowledgement. It was just a very spiritual moment, I think, where he just understood why, why we were there.“

LaBelle says the president’s apology was a powerful gesture, but there are those who never recovered from boarding school trauma – and died young from addiction and suicide.

He says hopes their spirits heard the president’s words.

Benjamin Jacuk is the head Indigenous researcher at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. His grandfather, Mack Dolchok, was a boarding school survivor. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

From 1878 to almost a hundred years later, Alaska had more than a hundred federally funded schools for Native children – a time in which they were punished for speaking their language as well as physically and sexually abused.

“It really is a big deal.”

Benjamin Jacuk watched the livestream of the president’s apology from his office at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, where he’s the head researcher for boarding school history.

“While an apology is welcomed and amazing, the work should never end right here, because this is just the beginning.”

Jacuk says, without truth, there can be no healing. And without action, no meaningful apology.

The Alaska Federation of Natives had praise for the President Biden’s apology, but called for tangible steps towards healing and justice – such as a comprehensive inquiry into the Indian boarding school era and the revitalization of the Native languages and cultures they nearly destroyed.

 

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A U.S. House resolution would have “Columbus Day” replaced by “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” if a California Congresswoman’s proposed legislation becomes law.

Brian Bull reports.

U.S. Rep. Norma Torres’ (D-CA) bill would also make the second Monday of October a federal holiday.

A member of the Congressional Native American Caucus, Rep. Torres says this recognition would celebrate the history, culture, and resilience of the continent’s original inhabitants.

“Native Americans welcomed the Europeans, sharing traditions, sharing food with them. And I think that we should recognize that this was all over their lands, and we should respect them for that.”

Italian-Americans promoted Christopher Columbus as the discoverer of the Americas, as a way to instill pride in their community, and as a counter anti-Italian sentiment in the early 20^th century.

But after historical accounts of the explorer’s abuse and enslavement of Indigenous people came to light, a growing number of states and cities have opted to honor Native Americans.

Torres is the sole member of Congress to introduce this legislation.

86 other U.S. House Representatives are co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Yei Bi Chei  rug. (Courtesy Navajo Nation)

A set of ceremonial Yei Bi Chei masks has been returned to the Navajo Nation.

Richard Begay, manager of the tribe’s heritage and historic preservation department, says the cultural items are now back home.

Begay says the donor did not have a complete history of the masks, but received them from friends.

The 11 masks were returned from the San Francisco Bay area.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren says the items used in ceremonies are vital resources and their return ensures survival of Navajo people and culture.

Begay also says it’s important for the return of cultural items to Navajo people, who view them as integral to their heritage.

According to the tribe, the last known return of Yei Bi Chei masks were in 2014 when the Navajo Nation sent a delegation to France to retrieve seven masks from a Paris auction house.

Additionally, the department says a saddle blanket, traditional basket, and historic rugs were given back to the Navajo Nation from another donor.

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Native people across the country are responding to President Joe Biden’s formal apology Friday for federal Indian boarding school policies.

“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize.”

KUNC’s Emma VandenEinde has reaction from Colorado.

Tribal Chairman Manuel Heart from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado says it’s a great starting point. But he thinks one of the main steps toward healing is revitalizing the Native languages.

“The extermination didn’t work, but the assimilation that they did to these boarding schools to take away the language, it affected three fourths of the tribal nations across this country. So that’s why it’s so important to bring it back.”

Chairman Heart says he and other tribal leaders have already taken some of their own actions, like getting a charter school on their reservation and working on an Ute Mountain Ute dictionary.

He dreams of having a junior college and a trade school, but he says that’s only possible with additional funding and more action at the federal level.

Members of NDN Collective gather atop a light projection that reads, ‘We are the children of survivors’, the day following Biden’s historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the boarding school system developed and operated by the federal government for over 150 years. (Photo: Angel White Eyes / NDN Collective).

In South Dakota, a Native group wants to see action, not just an apology.

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

In an emotional, teary, and challenging discussion, Rapid City-based Indigenous advocacy network NDN Collective hosted a press conference to respond to the president’s apology.

However, the tone of the response was definitive.

“This question is a simple one for me to answer about the apology, because I’ve heard many apologies. So, ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t work for me. It just won’t.”

That’s the voice of 78-year-old Daryl No Heart, a survivor of the Indian boarding school system.

It’s a sentiment reflected throughout the press conference.

NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen says apologies without meaningful change mean little.

“Today’s speech can’t just be a speech from the President about what he’s done for Indian people during this administration. It has to be about what this country is going to continue doing for Indian people moving forward. So, we have some demands for the President of the United States, and to the Department of the Interior at this moment in history.”

Those demands include an audit of still-active schools that trace their roots to the boarding school era, the revocation of Medals of Honor for participants in the Wounded Knee Massacre, and executive clemency for indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, a boarding school survivor often described as a political prisoner. He’s serving a life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Boarding school survivor activist Amy Sazue, with Remembering the Children, says there is yet more work to do.

“While I’m relieved and appreciative of the apology, I’m joining the many voices reminding the government and President that while this is an important and historic first step, it is just that. I will anxiously await the next steps.”

Over the weekend, the Harris-Walz campaign held a rally on the Navajo Nation.

Dignitaries included Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, former Navajo presidents Joe Shirley and Jonathan Nez, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) delivered remarks.

KGLP’s Rachel Kaub reports.

Themed as an “Early Vote Celebration”, Window Rock’s October 26 event ended with Gov. Walz repeating talking points from the Democratic platform, honoring late Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel, Sr., and listing how Vice President Harris and the Biden Administration have served Native people – such as lowering insulin costs, providing funding to Native communities, and addressing missing and murdered Indigenous persons.

Then he noted how important the Native vote is.

“If the Navajo Nation turns out the numbers that we know you can and do … it won’t just be Arizona that goes, it is entirely possible, and I think probable, that we win the whole damn thing.”

Watch the rally

Audio from the Window Rock rally courtesy KGLP

Myron Lizer addressing the 2020 Republican National Convention virtually.

The Navajo Times reports the Trump campaign held a Zoom webinar with Navajo Republicans supporting Donald Trump for president, while the rally for Harris-Walz took place on the Navajo Nation.

President Trump supporters include former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer.

Lizer reportedly campaigned for Trump along with a group of people in Window Rock, as the Harris-Walz event was taking place.

They held signs and flags along roads during the vice-presidential candidate’s visit to the reservation.

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President Joe Biden is traveling to the Gila River Indian Community Friday to formally apologize — on behalf of the United States — to the countless thousands of Native families harmed by America’s historic Indian boarding school policies.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington.  

President Joe Biden is in Arizona to deliver an apology of historic proportions over past U.S. Indian boarding school policies.

“Oh my gosh, I am — I mean, I never thought I would see this in my lifetime.”

That’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American in U.S. history to serve as a cabinet secretary, in an interview with National Native News.

She’s an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna who’s been personally impacted by America’s Indian boarding school policies from 1819 through the seventies.

“Decades ago, when I was sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table and talking to her about boarding schools she didn’t tell me everything, right? I knew there was more to what she was telling me.”

Like countless other Native Americans, Sec. Haaland still feels the impact of those injustices on her ancestors, including that her great-grandfather only had a “horse and wagon”, even as his daughter’s boarding school was some 125 miles away.

“She told me he was able to only visit her twice during the five years that she was there. Her time there, her dad’s time at boarding school, that affected my life, and I didn’t realize how much it affected my life until I got a little bit older.”

That painful family history is partly why, back in 2021, Sec. Haaland launched the administration’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

Part of it was a listening tour across Indian Country, which is culminating with President Biden’s formal apology to Native Americans and Alaska Natives from coast to coast.

“I hope they feel seen. I hope they feel heard by the president of the United States,” Sec. Haaland said. “It is a big deal.”

Sec. Haaland says President Biden’s apology isn’t just about formalities.

“The president also restarted the White House Council on Native American Affairs, he restarted the Tribal Nation Summits — none of those things happened under the previous administration.”

Critics say the apology is political because President Biden is delivering it in the battleground state of Arizona less than two weeks out from the election, but Sec. Haaland brushes those barbs aside.

“No. I mean, they can say what they want. The president’s apology is real and it’s heartfelt and it’s meaningful, and it will mean something to the people there. It will mean something to anyone who listens to it. It’s a wonderful day to be Indigenous, and I’m really proud to be by the president’s side for this most important day.”

Watch President Biden’s remarks starting at 1:30 p.m. ET

Recovery, cleanup and storm damage assessments are underway in Kotzebue, Alaska, after a coastal storm flooded the community this week.

The state has declared a disaster as emergency teams respond.

Reporter Megan Onders spoke with Kotzebue Mayor Derek Haviland-Lie.

“Our actual water and sewer system faired well, everything is still intact. We did have a couple of places around town were there was some damage. There was some leaking, but we were able to shut the water off at that source. We did have one home that the foundation was completely destroyed and the house collapsed.”

And the next steps?

“The borough has taken the lead on anybody that cannot return to their home. They’re finding places for them to be housed. The tribe has taken the lead on donations from various entities outside of Kotzebue with food and water. The city on our side, we’re heading, obviously repairing the roads that were damaged and debris cleanup in the streets. Assessors that are coming in today, that is gonna start going around town and documenting damage.”

Listen to more conversations from Kotzebue residents

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