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Organized Indigenous groups in Guatemala have declared victory after calling for a national work stoppage and blocking highways for two days to protest government regulations they say would cripple small farmers and poor people.

Maria Martin reports.

The protests were organized by the Indigenous group called 48 Cantones (48 villages) in the province of Totonocapan.

Other Maya organizations joined, stopping traffic at major crossroads and ports, and threatening to block Guatemala’s international airport.

The protests were sparked by a proposed law and one already in effect, which would increase taxes on small farmers – forcing them to raise the cost of staples they sell at markets.

The protests were so successful that government officials called for a dialogue.

The outcome of this was a withdrawal of the offending measures.

Indigenous leaders in Guatemala say this shows what a united front can accomplish.

President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced a forthcoming deal to “reduce and mitigate” the impact of pollution flowing into Montana and Idaho from Canadian coal mines.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has more.

On Friday, Biden and Trudeau announced in a joint statement that an agreement to reduce and mitigate selenium pollution flowing from British Columbia coal mines in the Elk River Valley could be struck sometime this summer, though no details beyond that were released.

Selenium at high concentrations can harm fish populations.

Montana, Idaho, and U.S. environmental officials have approved a lower standard for Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River to protect fish, but British Columbia has not changed its regulation.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, and the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia are pushing the U.S. and Canada to set up a tribally led watershed board in order to address the issue.

The tribes in a press release said they will reiterate that request during a visit to Washington D.C. this week.

A Cup’ik elder, who has been one of the driving forces in the revival of Native drumming and dancing in Southwest Alaska, was honored at the Cama-i Dance Festival in Bethel last weekend.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more.

Before John Pingayak received the award, which named him a “Living Treasure,” about two dozen of his children and grandchildren joined him on the stage to sing, dance, and drum.

At 74, John Pingayak is as passionate as ever.

As a boy, he was schooled by his grandfather, Joe Friday, who passed on his songs and traditions, despite pressure from churches to end the practice.

Pingayak said they convinced people dancing was wrong – and failed to understand that it was the Native way of making prayer.

Pingayak told the crowd it’s up to them to break free from what he called “the big lie”.

“Each and every one of you, listen to me. I’m set free, because of what I’ve done, teaching all the youngsters.”

Pingayak, who is from Chevak, says this award is not just for the work he does in his community, but for all those who make the effort to pass on their Native traditions.

He says, if you have cultural knowledge, it’s your duty to share it.

“That’s the way my elders were. They said, ‘This is not mine to keep. It’s for me to pass it on to the new generation.'”

Pingayak led one of the most moving events at the Cama-i Festival, the “Heart of the Drum”, a healing ceremony in which drummers from every dance group formed a processional and stationed themselves throughout the crowd – playing
quietly at first, then building to a crescendo.

Pingayak said he sang a very ancient song that celebrates unity, to remind people that they have the power to take back their culture.

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The former chairman of the Blackfeet Nation has resigned from his post on the tribal council following his arrest last week.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.

Blackfeet Tribal Business Council members last week announced that board member Tim Davis was arrested for disorderly conduct and threatening a public official.

The allegations are related to legal charges family members face for selling and possessing drugs, including fentanyl, at Davis’ house last year.

The council was scheduled to hold an expulsion hearing for Davis this week, but he resigned before the hearing, according to a press release from the council.

Nearly a year ago, police arrested nine people at the home of then-tribal chair Davis on drug-related charges.

Shortly after, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council unanimously voted to remove Davis as chairman, but he continued to serve on the council. Davis denied that he knew anything about the drugs at his home.

According to the release announcing Davis’ resignation, he said “I understand the importance and high standard of conduct that each member of the Blackfeet Tribal Council must conduct oneself, which is why I am resigning.”

The Blackfeet Nation will hold a special election on April 25 to fill Davis’ seat through the end of his term in July.

Leaders of the Wabanaki Nations are calling on Maine lawmakers to recognize tribal sovereignty and help ensure a better economic future for their youth.

The first “State of the Tribes” address in two decades was recently delivered focusing on self-determination and economic collaboration with the state.

Kathryn Carley has more.

Research shows the five Wabanaki tribes could be an economic engine for large parts of rural Maine, but restrictions set in the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 ensure the tribes are governed under state law.

The tribes are also not guaranteed access to federal programs like the other 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.

Mi’kmaq Tribe Vice Chief Richard Silliboy says self-governance would bring jobs and growth to one of the nation’s poorest areas.

“This wouldn’t just benefit the Native Americans. This would benefit the surrounding communities. This would benefit the state of Maine as a whole.”

Silliboy says Wabanaki tribes would benefit from available federal dollars, helping them to create local farming and mill jobs, or extend hours at a fishery that once fed diners in Portland.

A growing bipartisan effort is backing legislation that could avoid a veto by Governor Janet Mills, who has long opposed tribal sovereignty over concerns for land use and potential litigation.

In its recent report, a Guatemalan human rights monitoring group says attacks against human rights defenders, including Indigenous leaders throughout the country are on the rise.

Maria Martin reports.

The Union for the Protection of Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders (UFEDEGUA) says in 2022, they documented over 3,500 attacks.

These ranged from the criminalizing of independent judges and prosecutors to threats and arrests of Indigenous leaders opposing mining and palm oil projects, to organized smear campaigns on social media.

UFEDEGUA says vengeance against its political and economic enemies has become Guatemala’s public policy.

“Vengeance is definitely a strong word” says Brenda Guillen of UDEFEGUA, “but when you analyze what’s happening, we see retaliation using the system against Indigenous and other human rights defenders.”

The government has not yet responded to the report.

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In the 1970s, in Cook Inlet in the Anchorage area, thousands of beluga whales could be seen – so many whales, that you could feasibly walk across their backs without falling into the water.

That’s according to Mandy Migura, an author of a map studying the challenges Cook Inlet whales face today.

Four decades later, Migura says you’d be lucky to see seven whales at a time, as Hannah Bisset from our flagship station KNBA reports.

The population stands at around 280 as of 2018, according to the Marine Mammal Commission.

“We’ve lost over a thousand belugas in this population… that’s a huge, significant loss.”

Migura is the author of the project, which is focused on pinpointing the reasons why this might be happening to the belugas.

According to Migura, the population decline is due to several factors that can be categorized as point-source pollution and non-point-source pollution.

Point-source polluters have a permit and pollution comes from a known source.

“That would be things such as wastewater treatment facilities, stormwater drains, seafood discharges.”

Non-point-source polluters don’t have a single point of the entrance like point-source polluters.

“Examples of that would be runoff from roads or on the airport or when it rains or when the snow melts, that all just kind of runs into the inlet.”

These threats are building up for the whales, causing issues like food insecurity, compromised immunity, and noise distractions that serve as a death by a thousand cuts.

According to Migura, over long-term exposure, these factors will continue to decrease the population we see today.

Catching up with U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK), who was sworn into office in January.

She’s the first-ever Alaska Native person to represent the state in Congress.

Rep. Peltola was recently at the U.S. Capitol for the annual Alaska Week.

She says she was able to discuss many important matters, including key Alaska Federation of Natives issues.

“We talked about a lot of high-level things. AFN is so good at helping frame our priorities as the largest statewide native political organization, they’re really good at looking at things kind of zooming out, looking at things not beyond just details and beyond just regional issues. They’re really looking at Alaska in terms of our place globally.”

Rep. Peltola is addressing a number of priorities for her home state such as fishing, Medicare and Medicaid, and marginalized groups in Alaska.

Activists from the Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness and the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness discussed the current housing crisis and state of homelessness in Alaska with the office of Rep. Peltola during Alaska Week.

“I think we need to be thinking about veterans, thinking about elders, really thinking about our young people. We need to be looking for solutions on our homeless. 40% of people living in Alaska who do not have a house are children. As an elected person, it really does impact everybody, and I want to be one of the people at the table coming up with solutions.”

Rep. Peltola’s next goal is to continue prioritizing protecting fish and reducing bycatch by tracking National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expected revisions to some of national standards which govern allocation and fishery dependent community participation.

Alaska Native artist Crystal Worl’s work will soon be on a postage stamp, as KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is officially launching a set of four stamps called “The Art of the Skateboard.”

Worl’s illustration showcases the Northwest Coast Formline style of design, which she is known for.

Worl, who’s Lingít and Athabascan, used blue and indigo colors to depict a salmon, which she says is important to Alaska Natives, because it’s fed them for thousands of years.

Worl is not the first Alaska Native to have her art featured on a stamp.

Her brother Rico designed a raven stamp for USPS two years ago.

The two are business partners who sell their designs on t-shirts, jewelry, playing cards, and even snowboards.

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Montana’s days of partisan balance in interim committees could soon come to an end.

While the GOP wants more power between legislative sessions, there was wide support to leave one committee — that’s the liaison between the state and tribal nations  — unchanged.

Montana Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin has more.

Senate Bill 176, which has already passed through the Senate, would restructure interim committees to have more members from the majority party.

It passed an initial House vote closely along party lines Tuesday.

Representative Amy Regier from Kalispell, says this change better reflects the makeup of the legislature, and the GOP’s supermajority.

A 50/50 makeup of interim committees does not reflect the will of the voters. Senate Bill 176 would correct that.

Before the House voted in support of the policy it amended it with a carveout to keep equal bipartisan balance on the State-Tribal Relations Interim committee.

State Rep. Tyson Running Wolf (Blackfeet Nation/D-MT) said that since the majority of the state’s American Indian Caucus members are Democrats, changing that committee’s structure would negatively affect tribal representation.

Fewer tribal members on State Tribal, would decrease the understanding of these the unique differences in it can sometimes bring policy that is not in the best interest of the tribes

Six tribal lawmakers sat on this ten person committee last interim to study issues like Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons and tribal economic development.

The amendment passed with strong bipartisan support in the House on Tuesday.

Having passed its final vote in the House, the bill will be returned to the Senate for approval on the amendment.

A lawsuit is taking the state of Alaska to task for failed salmon runs in Western Alaska, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

It claims that the state has not only mismanaged the fisheries but also violated the state constitution.

As reported in the Alaska Beacon, the case was heard on Monday in a courtroom in Bethel, one of many communities hit hard by the salmon crisis on the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers, where runs have been so weak, traditional Native subsistence harvests have been restricted or banned.  The state’s management of the salmon runs has pitted different regions of the state — and different Alaska Native groups — against each other.

Joe Geldhof, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, argued that the state has failed to follow the constitution’s principle of “sustained yield,” which requires a balance between harvesting fish and maintaining their numbers.

Geldhof’s case is one of the first to challenge the state in court over the salmon disasters.

Western Alaska fishermen have pushed state managers to restrict fishing on the Alaska Peninsula, to protect salmon that are being caught incidentally, as fishermen target other species of fish.

The state asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

It argued that it should be thrown out, because it doesn’t challenge any specific management decisions. It said citing poor salmon runs isn’t enough to build a case against the state.

The judge could take six months to decide if the case will go forward.

Fans crowded into the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage this week to cheer on their favorite teams during state basketball championship games. KNBA’s Jill Fratis has more.

This year, a unique partnership is bringing together basketball and Native art.

Artists are set up on the third floor of the center for the inaugural Alaska Native Art Market.

Fannie Perry is a Yup’ik artist whose table was full of crocheted hats, and seal and otter fur slippers.

Perry says it’s important for Alaska Native artists to be successful selling their work because, for many, their livelihood depends on it.

For Perry, returning to the arena is like coming back to her old stomping grounds.

“I’m a huge basketball fan, I love basketball. 20 plus years ago, my team was actually down the court, and so I love things like this, I love seeing all the people coming together and enjoying themselves.

The Alaska School Activities Association teamed up with the Alaska Native Heritage Center for the art market.

Video of Yup’ik artist Fannie Perry (by Antonia Gonzales):

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A Guatemalan Indigenous environmental activist says there was an attempt on his life this week – as a bus ran into the car in which he was driving on a highway in northern Guatemala.

Maria Martin reports Bernardo Caal Xol (Maya Q’eqchi) has been criminalized for many years as a result of his work trying to save a Guatemalan river.

The 51-year-old teacher, union activist, and environmental leader from the Northern Guatemalan province of Alta Verapaz was released from prison last year after serving four years on charges Amnesty International says are spurious and retaliatory.

The human rights organization has declared Caal a “prisoner of conscience”, saying he’s been criminalized for his work opposing a hydroelectric project on the Cahabon River, which the Q’eqchi Maya consider sacred.

On Monday, Caal reported on a Facebook video that his car had been deliberated hit from behind after he’d left court for a mandatory appearance in the city of Coban.

He complained of back and rest pain, standing alongside his almost totally destroyed vehicle.

He says he fears for his life and is asking Guatemalan authorities to investigate the incident.

But some analysts doubt that Bernardo Caal Xol will get justice from the same system that’s worked to criminalize him and other Guatemalan Indigenous activists for years.

A bill in the Washington legislature seeks to make it easier for people who commit crimes on Native American reservations to face justice.

Steve Jackson reports.

The bill had a hearing in the Senate Law and Justice Committee this week.

Watch the March 20 hearing

Swinomish tribal prosecutor Melissa Simonson says in many cases it can be very difficult to get those charged with a crime committed on a reservation back to face trial if they flee.

“In the judicial system, if a tribal court issues a warrant, for serious crimes – assaults against children, domestic violence, sexual assaults, stalking – and that individual leaves the reservation, there is no access to justice. The warrant cannot be collected on by any Washington State officer.”

This measure would allow a tribal prosecutor to go to the state Attorney General’s office or the local prosecutor’s office to seek a warrant.

Some who testified spoke of current agreement between tribes and individual counties to bring people to justice.

Russel Brown of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys expressed some concerns with the way the bill is currently written.

He said there might be a better way to achieve the goal with less complexity.

“Each tribe could enter into an agreement with the governor of Washington. There wouldn’t need to be simple agreements with all the counties, you wouldn’t need 39 counties agreeing with 29 tribes, you would have one state compact that the tribes could enter in to.”

The bill passed the House March 1.

Photo: Workerbee via Wiki CC

Former president of the Navajo Nation Ben Shelly passed away from a long-term illness on Wednesday at the age of 75.

Shelly served as a member of the Navajo Nation Council for more than a decade beginning in the early 1990s before being elected as vice president in 2007.

He went on to becoming president of the tribe through 2015. He also served as a county commissioner.

Shelly is being remembered for his longtime leadership, and is credited for establishing the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which was created to achieve greater sovereignty over the tribe’s natural resources.

A private service is being held, but the tribe is working on a public memorial.

Flags on the Navajo Nation are being flown at half-staff in Shelly’s honor.

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated Avi Kwa Ame, a sacred site in Nevada, as a national monument.

Its name means “Spirit Mountain” and is a sacred landscape to Indigenous people in Nevada and number of tribes.

President Biden designated it as a Traditional Cultural Property on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its religious and cultural importance.

“Breathtaking deserts, valleys, mountain ranges. Rich in biodiversity, sacred lands, that are central to the creation story of so many tribes who have been here since the time of memorial. Look, it’s a place of reverence, it’s a place of spirituality, and it’s a place of healing. And now it will be recognized for the significance it holds, and be preserved forever.”

More than 500,000 acres of land will now be safeguarded as a national monument.

Tribes across the country celebrated the news including Chairman Timothy Williams from the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, who introduced the President and thanked the White house for the designation.

President Biden also on Tuesday awarded National Humanities Medals.

A Native organization and a Native woman were among those honored.

Matt Laslo has more from Washington.

As Henrietta Mann likes to tell it, when she was working on her master’s thesis she “wanted to write about Indians…[but] was told, ‘no, you can’t.’”

That’s because her advisor knew there were no Native American scholars to grade her.

She made sure to change that, including for future generations.

Likely why the White House audience lavished the 88-year-old with a sustained ovation.

In 1986, the Bureau of Indian Affairs tapped Henrietta Mann to be “the first Indian woman to direct Indian education programs”.

She’s taught at University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, but for 28 years she was a Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana.

She’s also the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University in Bozeman.

“A teacher, a scholar, and a leader. She’s dedicated her career to Native American education and to establishing the field of Native American studies,” President Biden said during the ceremony.

“Thanks in large part to her, Native American [sic: studies] is now taught at universities across the country, strengthening our nation to nation bonds for generations to come.”

While Mann was pivotal in enshrining Native American history’s place in academia, our sister public radio program “Native America Calling” was honored for starting and sustaining a dialogue with often overlooked voices from across Indian Country.

President Biden says the program has helped bring Indian Country to life for millions, even as it’s also served as a digital gathering place for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

“Every day from a studio in New Mexico, Native America Calling airs a podcast—a live radio show, exploring everything from the legacy of Native newspapers to Native cuisine to Native American solidarity with Ukraine, capturing the vastness of the Native American life and its profoundly impact on the country.”

The one-of-a-kind Native program started broadcasting to 14 stations in the 1990s.

It’s now on 139 stations, including many large, non-Native outlets.

President Biden also bestowed medals on the likes of musician Bruce Springsteen, fashion designer Vera Wang, actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and singer Gladys Knight.

Disclaimer: Native America Calling is owned by Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, which also owns National Native News.

U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 2019. Photo: Indianz.Com

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will have a roundtable discussion regarding the “Native Priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill Reauthorization” in Washington D.C.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), the committee’s chairman, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), vice chair of the committee, will lead the discussion.

A number of representatives from tribal food and agricultural programs are expected to testify.

Tribal leaders from across the country are advocating for the passage of the Farm Bill which they say helps fund many important programs in Indian Country.

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The Navajo Nation went before the United States Supreme Court on Monday to argue it has a right to Colorado River water dating back to an 1868 treaty.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

There’s no running water on more than 30% of the Navajo Nation and households on the reservation that do have running water only have access to about one tenth of the water average U.S. households use.

Why?

“Broken promises,” reads the tribe’s brief before the Supreme Court.

After more than two decades of a drought in the southwest, tribes have been demanding a seat a the table.

“More tribes are actively pursuing their water rights. Yeah, it’s a big deal. It’s daunting.”

That’s Mark Macarro, tribal chair of the Pechanga Band of Indians in southern California and first vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.

“A lot of tribes have a right to water. That’s the whole premise of federal Indian water law.

When a homeland was created there’s an implied right to water comes with it. But beyond that, how much?”

The case could have far reaching impacts for tribes across the west, because two decades of drought have had lasting impacts, including on bringing reservoirs like Lake Powell to historic lows.

Christina Aspaas is Navajo from New Mexico.

“Look at Lake Powell now. That is so down, and a lot of that water also ran down the Little Colorado River, and that was also to our hydro plant and nobody talks to us. They make these plans up here with these industries, and nobody came to us to ask.”

The Biden White House is aligned with Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and some California water districts in opposing the Navajo Nation’s water claims.

2023 Round Dance at the American Indian Center in Chicago (Photo courtesy: AIC Facebook)

An Indigenous professor is conducting a survey to learn more about the millions of American Indian and Alaska Native people living in urban areas.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports.

The nationally-reaching survey asks questions like if they live in an apartment or a house. It also asks about the conditions of their housing and their experience finding housing.

Sofia Locklear is a professor at Western University in Canada and she’s from the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina.

She launched the survey two months ago, and since then, she’s received nearly 800 responses from Indigenous people.

“That signals that, like people want to talk about this. You know, I’m getting emails, people saying, I really want to tell you my story about trying to find housing.”

There are no concrete results yet. But Locklear says responses reflect the country’s colonialism and racism towards Indigenous people.

“Everybody I’ve talked to sure has so far had some hard things happen in their experiences of finding housing, but they also are really brilliant at navigating that.”

Her goal is to use this data to inform policy and allocate funds to AIAN people.

Congratulations to our sister program Native America Calling, which is owned by our Alaska-based company Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.

The one-hour live call-in talk show, which connects listeners from across the country to Indigenous issues, has been awarded a National Humanities Medal.

President Joe Biden will present our President and CEO Jaclyn Sallee with the medal during a White House ceremony on Tuesday.

Watch the ceremony live: 

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Food shortages, along with higher costs, were among the challenges experienced in Rural Alaska during the pandemic, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more.

But Old Harbor on Kodiak Island had its community bison herd and gardens, as a fall back — part of longtime efforts to bring down the high cost of food to a village, accessible only by boat and airplane.

The Old Harbor Alliance — a group which includes the tribe, the city and the village’s Native corporation — bought about 40 bison in 2017 and barged them to an island across from Old Harbor.

Since then, a lot has happened. The Alliance built a processing plant to butcher surplus bison, which have filled up freezers with meat, distributed to community members at no cost, with priority going to elders.

Melissa Berns-Svoboda who manages the herd, says it’s taught Old Harbor an important lesson.

“Anything’s possible. I mean, this was kind of a pie in the sky dream that I’ve heard our leadership talking about since the early 2000, and they kept on pushing for it and we made it happen.”

The Alliance took a big step in 2020, when it added three bulls from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana to improve the herd’s genetic diversity.

The bison, which were surplus animals from Yellowstone National Park, had to travel in trucks, airplanes and barges to reach their final destination. But today, seemed to have adapted to their new home.

“They’ve got their little harems and they’ve been there for about three years. So we definitely have their offspring out on the landscape already.”

As the herd continues to grow and thrive, the bison have also fed the community’s spirit with hunts that bring families together.

Permits have also been given to those who have moved away.

“It’s kind of a way to reconnect people to their roots and provide for them at the same time.”

Berns-Svoboda says a lot of the credit for the bison herd’s success goes to the InterTribal Buffalo Council, which has provided both expertise and opportunities to build the herd.

The Old Harbor Alliance recently added about sixty animals to its herd, barged in from another part of Kodiak Island.

The long-range goal is to use the surplus bison to grow the community’s cash economy – through visitor hunting permits and the sale of the meat.

Any profits will be used to support the meat processing plant and community gardens, as well as cultural programs, which teach children about their Alutiiq language and heritage.

The herd now has more than 160 bison, four times what it was when the program began six years ago.

A Michigan tribe has been awarded a $100,000 federal grant to study creating its own power utility.

Mark Richardson has more.

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians will use Tribal Energy Capacity Grant funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to perform a Tribal Utility Authority feasibility study.

Eugene Magnuson is the executive director of the tribe’s economic development arm, Little River Holdings.

He says the tribe sees operating a power utility as a way to exercise its independence, diversify its holdings, control its energy future and reduce costs.

“Energy sovereignty, I think, is the next arena that tribes are starting to look at, and one of the ways is going through solar, wind and all those technologies that are available for tribes to get into.”

There are currently more than 30 Tribal Utility Authorities across the country, including the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan.

The Little River Band was among 18 tribal entities funded during the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ January round of grant awards.

The tribe is located in Manisee County in the northwestern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula.

The tribe’s main income enterprise is the Little River Casino Resort north of the reservation.

Magnuson says electricity to operate a casino can be costly.

“The Tribal Utility Entity was created to actually peel power off the grid. And because of the tribal sovereignty, we could procure the electricity off of the grid at wholesale.”

Magnuson says tribal leaders have not set a deadline to complete the study.

Sign at Oak Flat Campground

A group of Apache people and their allies are headed back to federal court in efforts to protect the sacred site Oak Flat in Arizona from mining.

On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit will hear arguments again in Apache Stronghold v. United States after the court decided last fall to hear the case in front of a full panel of 11 judges.

The hearing is taking place in Pasadena, CA.

Watch the hearing live via the court’s YouTube channel

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A tribal leader in Washington state is raising concerns about oil spills after a train derailment along a bay on the Swinomish Reservation this week.

Crews on Thursday were cleaning up oil spilled on land from the BNSF train.

The Washington Department of Ecology first reported about 5,000 gallons of diesel leaked.

Federal officials estimate about 2,500.

Chairman Tom Wooten of the nearby Samish Nation released a statement saying safety is a priority and thankfully no one was injured.

But Wooten says the spill signals a larger infrastructure issue, adding there needs to be a priority on evaluating infrastructure hauling hazardous materials.

He says there also needs to be a weaning away from fossil fuels for preservation of Native lands.

In a statement to KOMO News, Swinomish Chairman Steve Edwards said he was grateful to first responders and various agencies working on the spill.

Edwards says they’ll continue to do everything they can to protect the waters and natural resources, and ensure public safety.

The Swinomish Nation has sued the BNSF Railway in the past over oil train shipments.

The derailment is under investigation.

(Photo: Paul Cross / USGS)

Federal officials will spend $25 million to restore and conserve bison herds on tribal lands.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Will Walkey has more.

Tens of millions of bison once roamed North America. But the species was hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s.

Today, wild bison number in the tens of thousands nationwide, including about 20,000 managed by tribes.

Jason Baldes works for the National Wildlife Federation and lives on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

He says this recent announcement is a step in the right direction.

“They’re a keystone species, so that should be reason enough to restore them to the landscape because it benefits the grasses, the birds, the insects.”

He says herds also provide food and maintain the cultural identity of tribes.

The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and will go towards building new herds and transferring more bison from federal to tribal lands.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland says officials also need to tap into Indigenous knowledge more to keep preserving one of the most iconic animals in the American West.

A new book explores the legal history of the Oneida Nation’s fight to protect its sovereignty.

Lina Tran of station WUWM reports.

For years, the Oneida Nation faced challenges to its sovereignty from Hobart, a village on the eastern half of the reservation, just outside Green Bay, WI.

Disputes ranged from garbage collection to police jurisdiction and roads.

“They constantly and regularly tried to tell the Oneida Nation how it should be going about its business.”

Rebecca Webster is an Oneida citizen who served on the tribe’s legal team. Now, she’s an assistant professor in American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Webster shares the history of these legal battles in her book In Defense of Sovereignty.

The biggest clash involved Hobart’s attempt to force the tribe to obtain permits for its Big Apple Fest.

“Hobart’s main arguments throughout all of this litigation is, they’re really challenging that the Oneida Nation isn’t a legitimate government.”

Ultimately, the tribe prevailed, when a federal appeals court ruled in its favor in July 2020.

Webster says Hobart’s tactics were part of a wider effort to upend tribal sovereignty, from the anti-Indigenous group Citizens for Equal Rights Alliance.

“This isn’t just happening here in Oneida, this is happening in other places. We need to continue that network of tribes talking to each other. Because we know this is something we just, we need to stay on top of, and we need to stay vigilant.”

Webster hopes her book sheds light on the issue for other tribes.

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Authorities say they’re investigating an attack on an Indigenous community that left five dead and at least three wounded in Nicaragua.

The incident is the latest in a series of ongoing attacks on Indigenous communities in the north and east of that Central American country, as settlers, and mining and timber interests want to move into Indigenous lands.

Maria Martin reports.

This latest attack took place in the Indigenous community of Wilu in the Bosawas Nature Preserve in northern Nicaragua.

Local Native authorities report “all of the houses in the Wilu community have been burned, and families have been left without shelter, food, and clothing.”

Indigenous Forest Rangers who guard the protected area say the bloody attack was carried out by some “70 armed non-Indigenous settlers.”

The attackers are believed to be mostly former soldiers, also responsible for previous acts of violence against Mayangna and Miskito communities in Nicaragua, as they seek land for ranching, farming, mining, and the timber industry.

The government of Daniel Ortega has been criticized for not taking strong enough action on the perpetrators.

The government denies that accusation, pointing to the arrest in January of 24 settlers involved in a previous attack on a Nicaraguan Indigenous community.

Mussel sampling in Unalaska, AK. (Photo credit: Lisa Tran / Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska)

The Qawalangin Tribe in Alaska’s Aleutian islands is calling on locals to help with a climate vulnerability report.

Sofia Stuart-Rasi has more.

As Unalaska Island tries to adapt to the changing climate, the Qawalangin Tribe is looking for residents with knowledge of the berry seasons, bird populations, and more.

The tribe is working on an assessment of Unalaska’s climate vulnerability.

Resilience Coordinator Shayla Shaishnikoff says participants – who’ll be called community knowledge holders – do not need formal scientific training to serve on the assessment committee.

“We are the ones who know this land, we are the ones who know our oceans, and so you guys know better than any scientist based out of Anchorage or Homer about what’s going on here on the ground.”

Participants will be paid to provide information on topics including when seabirds show up, how long berrypicking season lasts, and other environmental issues that may demand planning and adaptation.

Shaishnikoff says this guidance will equip local decision makers to better identify threats and challenges driven by climate change.

Six committee members will meet quarterly throughout 2023. Shaishnikoff says meetings will focus on the concept of guustilix^.

“Guustilix^ is the Unagan form of visiting and essentially what that entails is when you get together with your friends, your family, colleagues, anybody; you sit down over coffee or tea, maybe some fish dip or snacks … and really just create a space for where there’s trust and where we’re going to have an organic conversation of knowledge sharing — and really, just sitting in a safe, comfortable space.”

2023 Round Dance at the American Indian Center in Chicago (Photo courtesy: AIC Facebook)

A professor is conducting a survey to learn more about the millions of American Indian and Alaska Native people living in urban areas.

Emma VandenEinde of the Mountain West News Bureau reports.

The survey asks if they live in an apartment or a house, conditions, and experiences finding housing.

Sofia Locklear is a professor at Western University in Canada and she’s from the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina.

She launched the survey two months ago and has received nearly 800 responses.

“That signals that, like people want to talk about this. You know, I’m getting emails, people saying, I really want to tell you my story about trying to find housing.”

Her goal is to use this data to inform policy and allocate funds to American Indian and Alaska Native people.

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