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A bill to set up a task force to study Indian Child Welfare in South Dakota has been approved by the state House Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 191 provides for 17 representatives from tribes and state agencies to hold at least eight meetings before November 2024.

Their mission is to look for best practices in strengthening Native families so that children can remain in their homes.

Victoria Wicks has more.

State Sen. Red Dawn Foster (D-SD/Oglala Sioux and Navajo) told the House committee that Native people make up 12% of South Dakota’s population, but more than 60% of the children in custody of the state Department of Social Services.

She said the task force will try to figure out what underlies that inequity and how to fix it.

“Looking at and identifying root causes in where we can put the time [and] resources to address those so that the children don’t end up in DSS.”

She said one key step is to address poverty wherever the child lives.

“If a child is removed, that the adoptive families are receiving the support that they need to care for the children.”

Foster noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments on the constitutionality of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, and if that federal law is weakened, South Dakota needs to join several other states in developing laws to fill the gap.

State Rep. Rebecca Reimer (R-SD) questioned if poverty is the only factor in Native children’s welfare.

“I would think there would be multiple conditions or reasons if you would say that they would be removed.”

Foster said tribes face housing shortages, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and a high prison population, but much of it stems from poverty.

“So looking at all the contributing factors that come along with poverty—Natives are disproportionately affected by that.”

Reimer objected to the bill as having a goal larger than it would be able to meet, but ultimately she voted in favor of it.

Senate Bill 191 now goes to the House floor, and if it passes there, to the governor’s desk.

This week, Alaska leaders are in Washington D.C. to lobby for the Willow oil and gas development project, including a number of Alaska Native organizations, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

This comes as the Biden administration is poised to make a record of decision on the $8 billion prospect, that would be developed by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.

Nagruk Harcharek is president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, which represents about two dozen North Slope organizations.

Harchareck says the Willow project is key to the region’s self-determination.

“So that we’re forging that path and we’re not having it forged for us, because without the development, without the economy, we’re relying on the state and federal government for what we can and cannot do.”

The Biden Administration has sent out mixed messages about Willow, with the Bureau of Land Management, signaling it would approve the project with limits on drilling, while the Interior Department has raised concerns about environmental and subsistence impacts.

Environmental groups have said it would escalate climate change, while Nuiqsut, the North Slope community closest to Willow, has raised objections.

There are worries the development would affect migrating caribou and cause health problems.

The Alaska Senate has passed a resolution in support of the Willow project. The House passed a similar measure.

Those resolutions will be presented to the Alaska Congressional Delegation in a show of support.

Full disclosure: ConocoPhillips is an underwriter of KNBA.

A participant in the Greater Than Fear Rally & March in Rochester, MN, held in response to President Donald Trump’s Rally at the Mayo Civic Center nearby. (Photo: Lorie Shaull)

The Interior and Justice Departments announced Tuesday field hearings will begin this spring to implement the Not Invisible Act to address missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The Not Invisible Act Commission is developing recommendations.

Members of the commission include tribal leaders, federal partners, service providers, family members of missing and murdered individuals, and survivors.

Public field hearings begin in April and will be held in Oklahoma and Alaska. They’ll continue through July, in Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, California, and Montana.

A virtual hearing will also be held later this summer.

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After a year’s long battle, Congress updated and enhanced the federal Violence Against Women Act, but many tribes are still wondering if they’ll see funding for its new provisions.

Matt Laslo has the story from Washington.

Under the updated Violence Against Women Act that President Joe Biden signed into law last year, tribes are finally allowed to prosecute non-Natives who abuse Native women in Indian Country.

But many tribes are asking, where’s the money?

Frank Star Comes Out is president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

“We lack law enforcement resources on our reservation due to a lack of funding.”

Star Comes Out says even though they changed the law, the government hasn’t distributed the money to implement it

“Well, we haven’t seen anything yet. Not that I know of.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wants to change that.

She’s pushing the Honoring Promises to Native Nation’s Act.

The bill has five titles aimed at what Warren says are “five broken promises” made by the U.S. government.

“Throughout the bill, we prioritized full funding for federal native programs. No more shortfalls. And the bill ensures that the funding going to Indian Country is mandatory. Fulfilling trust and treaty obligations is not optional.”

The first title of Sen. Warren’s measure is focused on criminal justice and public safety, and it’s mirrored off the special tribal jurisdiction included in the new Violence Against Women Act.

Part of that section would fund tribal justice systems, if tribes want them.

It also would increase funding for sexual assault victims in Indian Country.

Sen. Warren says it’s long overdue.

“Although this bill won’t become law immediately, I think it’s crucial for Congress to have legislation that says, unequivocally, the United States has broken its promises and the United States must start making good on them.”

Warren plans to introduce her Honoring Promises to Native Nation’s Act in the coming months.

Matriarchs of the Occupation of Wounded Knee were honored during events marking the 50^th anniversary of the occupation.

Monday marked 50 years since the beginning of a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota by members of the American Indian Movement to draw attention to broken government promises and the fight for American Indian rights.

Listen to Native America Calling’s special program on Wounded Knee @ 50

Some of the women who were there shared memories during a panel discussion over the weekend, which was live-streamed and hosted by the Warrior Women Project.

Madonna Thunder Hawk says she was in her 30s during that time and recalls how the event put Native issues in the spotlight.

Oglala women Ellen Moves Camp, Gladys Bissonette, and Lou Beane strategize with Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC) lawyers on March 25, 1973. (Photo: Unknown)

“Every, every one of our nations was represented. I felt we’re not alone. It was locally, nationally, and internationally, because after Wounded Knee that’s what the elders told us we got the world attention and we need to go further.”

Thunder Hawk, who says she’s now an elder, has continued her advocacy, including her time at Standing Rock opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“When I became an elder I saw that was the responsibility to show up and you don’t have to say anything, you don’t have to be on the mic, you just show up and those young people know you have their back.”

The event honoring women was held on the Pine Ridge Reservation and provided an opportunity for story sharing, and featured an oral history exhibit with Wounded Knee matriarchs.

Hear ten stories from the Matriarchs of the Occupation at Wounded Knee courtesy of The Warrior Women Project

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A First Nation in British Columbia says it’s found what are believed to be children’s remains at a suspected grave site of a former residential school.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the discovery comes after an 18-month effort to find potential graves.

The Vancouver Island First Nation says it’s found 17 suspected unmarked graves at the site of the former Alberni Indian Residential School.

The work included interviews with survivors, historical records, and other documents.

Although seventeen suspected graves were found records show that 67 students died at the school.

Children from as many as 70 First Nations attended the Alberni Residential School during its operation from 1900 to 1973.

Ground penetrating radar was also used to look for possible graves at the site.

Sheri Meading is the lead researcher. She says survivors told them where to look and they knew multiple locations.

“Many spoke about forced abortions. Multiple different burial locations without grave markers. Finding skulls and human skeletal remains in and around the residence grounds of students.”

Meading says many of the children died from medical conditions.

Band officials say any investigations would be conducted independently with the consent of the Tseshaht First Nation.

The elected chief councilor also wants the Canadian government to review the Royal Canadian Mounted Police role at the school.

From 1942 to 1952, children at the Alberni school were subjected to nutrition experiments without the consent of their parents.

The Central American country of Guatemala recently commemorated its national day to remember victims of the country’s armed conflict – a bloody civil war that lasted 36 years and killed more than 200,000 Guatemalans – the majority of them Indigenous Maya.

On that day, victims’ groups filed legal action to stop the daughter of a former dictator from running for president.

Maria Martin reports.

Standing in front of Guatemala’s Supreme Court, hundreds of Indigenous protesters carried crosses bearing the names of dead family members, as they filed a suit to keep conservative, pro-military candidate Zury Ríos off the presidential ballot.

Attorney for the victims’ groups Juan Marcos says Guatemala’s constitution prohibits the candidacies of family members of those promoting military coups.

In 1982, Zury Ríos’ father, General Efraín Ríos Montt, gained power in a military overthrow and hundreds of massacres took place during his rule.

In 1993, he was convinced of genocide of the Ixil Maya, though the ruling was overturned on a technicality.

Attorney Marcos also says Zury Ríos and her party continue efforts against victims, such as proposing an amnesty law for war criminals.

Meanwhile, Ríos maintains she has every right to run and she’s a leading candidate for the June 25 election.

A part of Alaska history has passed, along with Elizabeth Kudrin, who was remembered at a memorial service in Anchorage on Saturday, February 25, as a “great survivor.”

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, few Alaskans know her story, and even fewer Americans.

Kudrin was one of two remaining survivors from Attu, a remote Aleutian Island captured by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

She was just a baby when she and the rest of her village were taken to Japan as prisoners of war.

About half of them died during captivity.

Kudrin’s husband George says her death marks the end of an era.

“She was probably, the matriarch of matriarchs, the last mom from Attu.”

Kudrin says his wife never talked about the war. It was just too difficult.

In his book, Attu Boy, Elizabeth’s late brother Nick Golodoff described the hunger and starvation in Japan – how, by the end of the war, their daily ration was only a quarter of a bowl of watered-down rice.

Elizabeth Golodoff Kudrin and her brother Gregory Golodoff, photographed on Atka Island, sometime between 1946-1947. (Photo courtesy: National Park Service / University of Washington Press / Ethel Ross Oliver)

Rachel Mason, a National Park Service historian, says the people of Attu were taken to Japan in September, after summer fishing.

She says the timing turned out to be key to their survival.

“The Japanese told the Attuans to pack as much as they could of their subsistence foods, and so they brought dried fish. And that I think saved them because at least until their fish ran out, they ate fairly well in Japan.”

The Attuans, who did survive, were never allowed to return home to Attu, which remains uninhabited today.

The federal government resettled Elizabeth Kudrin’s family in the neighboring island of Atka.

Her husband George says Atkans were puzzled to hear Elizabeth sing in a mysterious language.

“She used to sing Japanese. She used to go under the table and sing Japanese. She doesn’t remember that though.”

Although his wife kept silent about the trauma her family experienced in the war, including the loss of her father who died in Japan, George Kudrin says he knew she was haunted by the experience, yet marveled at how she always found time to be kind and compassionate.

He sums up his wife’s legacy in two words in Unangam Tunuu, Elizabeth’s first language.

“(Speaking in Unangam Tunuu) Ayagam Kayutuu. Strong woman. And she just loved you.”

Elizabeth Kudrin died just a few days after her 82nd birthday on Sunday, February 19.

She was born in 1941, the same year Japanese fighter planes bombed Pearl Harbor.

Her brother Gregory Golodoff is now the last remaining survivor of Attu.

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National Congress of American Indians president Fawn Sharp (Quinault) touched on climate change in her annual State of Indian Nations this week, but some attendees at the speech say their nations are being impacted by job losses as the country transitions away from fossil fuels.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

President Sharp recently traveled to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

She says many nations are now taking note of how Indigenous people have traditionally lived in unity with their land.

“When politicians forget that we have political power, we remind them. When companies forget that we have economic and social power, we remind them. And we are using that power to make incredible progress for the earth and all things living.”

Christina Aspaas is Navajo from New Mexico and a school board president.

She says the closure of a coal mine and coal fired power plant on their reservation is devastating the economy of her tribe, which is even seen at her school.

“That has impacted us greatly. As of this year, we’ve lost 1,300 students. So there goes our student count. Teacher retention—it just cascades. The impact cascades all the way down.”

The Biden Administration is hoping to replace many of those traditional fossil fuel jobs with clean energy ones.

Even so, President Sharp says this period of energy transition doesn’t have to be either/or.

She says tribal nations are showing other nations and industries how to live today while being stewards of tomorrow.

“Finally, traditional ecological knowledge is being taken seriously as an equal and indispensable partner to western science. It simply isn’t possible to achieve sustainability or prevent wildfires or restore balance to nature without the practices that tribal nations have perfected for generations and for centuries.”

A borough in Alaska is reconsidering the boundaries of a planning group in response to push back from the remote Alaska Native community of Tyonek.

KDLL’s Riley Board reports.

The borough’s assembly spent more than an hour debating the issue Tuesday night before pushing a decision to its next meeting.

Representatives from Tyonek have been speaking out against their inclusion in a planning commission based on the other side of Cook Inlet in the community of Nikiski, which is connected by roads to the borough’s population center.

The commission makes recommendations about land use and planning to the borough.

As it stands, its authority extends more than three-point-five million acres. But all the commissioners live in Nikiski, and Tyonek residents say they want to be removed from the map.

“The west side is not and never will be a part of the community of Nikiski.”

That’s Tyonek Native Corporation’s Chief Administrative Officer Connie Downing.

She rejected claims from Nikiski residents that Tyonek is a part of their community, and says differences in culture and resources between the two make them distinct.

Downing and more than 50 other Tyonek residents and Alaska Native corporations advocated for a plan to shrink the commission to just the east side.

The assembly eventually seemed to come to terms with at least removing Tyonek from the map, but decided to postpone the issue to work on finding a compromise.

They’ll reconsider in March.

The Junior Native Youth Olympics for student-athletes grades first to sixth is having its first in-person competition since 2020 this week in Anchorage, as
Hannah Bissett reports from our flagship station KNBA.

The games are a collection of nine events, which were originally used to maintain fitness for subsistence practices in Alaska and throughout other northern areas in the world.

Adele Villa (Inuk) is Native Youth Olympics coordinator for the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, which hosts the games.

“Our Alaska Native youth games really create that connectedness – especially to their culture it’s very important to our people.”

This year, the competition is more anticipated than before since the last games were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Native Youth Olympics is celebrating more than 50 years as a format for children and teenagers to celebrate culture, gain self-confidence, and gain physical strength.

Each spring, older students in grades seventh to 12th compete in the statewide Senior Games.

The junior games take place at the University of Alaska Anchorage February 24-26.

WEB EXCLUSIVE STORY

The Alaska Snow Sculpting Competition, part of Fur Rondy activities, is underway in downtown Anchorage, AK.

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA spoke with some competitors Friday morning as they crafted their works of art.

Twenty-four contestants in all are working tirelessly.

Many have been at it for the last week, carving a block of solid snow 8 feet x 8 feet x 8 feet into art, including taking the forms of animals and fruit.

There are five divisions in the competition – individual, family, schools, corporate, and three-person teams.

Contestants shave and carve away at the blocks in hopes of walking away with an award for their hard work.

Colin Reedy is a teacher with the Adult Transition Program (ACT), which helps students ages 18-22 transition after high school.

Reedy has been taking part in the snow sculpture competition going on seven years now.

He says he usually works with a group of 12 students each year.

“We spend the whole week doing this. Probably about five or six hours a day. A lot of times we will have lunch here.”

One of Reedy’s students is Louie Movea. This is his second year competing.

Last year, they made a snow castle.

Movea says he enjoys partaking in the annual activities.

“I like making ice sculptures, I like being around people.”

Reedy and his class are part of the school division.

“There’s usually about three schools in the school division and we typically get third place, it’s about having fun and taking part in Fur Rondy.”

This year, the ACT class is making a spaceship with aliens surrounding the ship says Reedy.

“I always come up with the plan for the snow sculpture. Every year, I try to come up with something different. We’ve done a water fountain one year, we’ve done a Fabergé egg, we’ve done a bird house, a log cabin, a giant teddy bear. So we’re looking for simple things that we can handle. But also, things that have four sides so all students can work around the sculpture.”

Across from the ACT students’ sculpture is the Service High Partners Club.

They were working diligently on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sculpture, with orange, green, and purple spray paint decorating the entire piece.

The Partners Club is a Special Olympics Alaska school-based club for students with and without intellectual disabilities.

Louis Donaldson says he has been a part of the Rondy competition for over 16 years.

“We usually don’t take first place in the school division, but every year we usually win the public choice award. Everybody walks around and there’s numbers on the placards so everyone can vote on what their favorite sculpture is, and every year we usually take that award.”

18-year-old McKenzee Peters, a student at a vocational school, is volunteering with the Partners Club.

She enjoys working with the students so much so, that she wants to continue on a career path as an educator.

“I want to be a paraprofessional now. I’ve worked with them last year and this year and it’s changed my perspective of what I want to be when I’m older.”

Both schools were enjoying taking part in friendly competition, and hope the judges and visitors will appreciate their hard work and dedication.

Voting will take place Sunday from 10am-11:30am with awards being handed out at noon.

The snow sculpture competition is part of the annual Fur Rendezvous Festival held in Anchorage in late February.

It marks the end of a long winter and the return of spring.

Watch ACT Program teacher Colin Reedy talk about picking a snow sculpture theme.

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Activists are stepping up the legal struggle to get an Indigenous presidential candidate on the ballot in Guatemala.

Supporters of Maya candidate Thelma Cabrera are blocking highways and crossroads throughout the country as a way to get their voices heard, while the business community opposes the blockades and electoral authorities say the candidates did not file the correct paperwork.

Maria Martin reports.

Members of the Guatemalan peasant organization called Codeca blocked fifteen roadways to demand electoral authorities allow Maya Mam candidate Thelma Cabrera to run for president, along with her running mate, human rights lawyer Jordan Rodas.

Analysts say this reform ticket poses a threat to the conservative status quo.

Thus, the electoral tribunal and the courts controlled by the ruling party won’t allow these candidates of the left-wing Movement for the Liberation of Peoples to run.

Cabrera and Rodas are appealing to international bodies and the Constitutional court, but for some supporters, road blockades are a more immediate way to gain public attention in a country in which opposition voices are increasingly silenced.

This week, for the first time since 2020, the annual State of Indian Nations address was delivered in person in the nation’s capital.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington that Native youth were featured in the address and ensuing meetings.

While everyone’s cheering the end of COVID-19 lockdowns, pandemic wounds and losses are still fresh to many of us, especially young people.

That’s evident at the National Congress of American Indians’ Executive Council Winter Session.

NCAI Youth Commission co-president Caleb Dash (Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community citizen), reminded attendees of the heavy burden his generation bore.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, I remember going to check on my relatives, my elders, and my friends…the struggle that our people went through during that time was brutal. I myself lost several relatives that time. My cousins began being more depressed and lonely than ever. But now, we need to reconnect. We need to bring the people in our communities back together again.”

The past is present though.

In her congressional response, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) praised Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) for her federal Indian boarding school initiative. But she says it’s time for Congress to approve a commission to explore the scope of the horrors.

“Even as native children face new threats, the United States still has not reckoned with its shameful history of cultural genocide and assimilation practices through its Indian boarding school policies.”

Today’s native youth know their history and also seem to be finding their voices.

The Youth Commission’s other co-president is Yanenowi Logan (Deer Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians), who’s studying environmental sustainability at Cornell.

She urged her elders to truly hear today’s youth.

“We ask that tribal leaders and supporters from around the country listen and embrace our stories, engage in action driven dialogue and lend us the support and resources that we demand…The youth of Indian country are drafting a new narrative.”

This week, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma announced its registration department enrolled its 450,000th tribal citizen.

According to the Cherokee Nation, it now stands as the largest federally recognized tribe in the U.S., processing a record number of citizen applications during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Navajo Nation, located in the Four Corners region, reported nearly 400,000 enrolled citizens when the tribe was issuing hardship checks during the pandemic.

The Navajo Nation did not respond to National Native News by deadline about its current enrollment numbers.

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The annual State of Indian Nations address was delivered Tuesday in Washington.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington on the address by Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives have made massive strides in Washington in recent decades, but the past year was especially fruitful.

Tribal leaders secured dedicated funding for the Indian Health Services and President Joe Biden signed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that enables tribes to prosecute non-Natives who abuse women in Indian Country.

President Sharp says there’s a lot to be proud of.

“Today, the state of Indian nation’s is strong, because our ancestors worked hard to make it so. If we continue to work together we can make their legacy, our tribal nations, everlasting and eternal.”

Native leaders also secured long overdue investments in high-speed internet, climate change, and clean water resources.

After close to 80 years with a presence in Washington, the National Congress of American Indians is now a force in the nation’s capital.

President Sharp says the historic number of Native leaders in Congress and in the federal government is having an impact.

“We don’t just have a seat at the table, we have influence and we have representation all across the federal government, all across the United States, and around the World.”

Still, inequities abound.

There continues to be a housing crisis across Indian Country, many states continue trying to disenfranchise Native voters, and tribal sovereignty is under assault at the Supreme Court.

President Sharp says now is a time for tribes to unite.

“When any tribe, any single person in Indian Country, faces a challenge, we need all of Indian Country to just show up.”

This is President Sharp’s last year as president of NCAI, but she’s not sitting on the sidelines.

She urged attendees to continue fighting for Indian Country especially when Congress takes up the nation’s sweeping farm bill, which funds many anti-hunger programs among other items vital to Indian Country.

Actress Irene Bedard (Inupiaq, Yup’ik, and Métis-Cree) is helping tell a story about the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the new narrative feature film “On Sacred Ground.”

Jill Fratis from our flagship station KNBA has more.

Producers of “On Sacred Ground” say it’s based on true events that happened in 2016 during construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the opposition camps near the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

The film follows a non-Native writer and military veteran, and an oil company executive.

They find themselves on opposite sides.

Irene Bedard plays Mary Singing Crow in the film.

She says her character helps non-Native people understand Indigenous perspectives and way of life, and why it was so important they were fighting for the protection of land and water against the oil pipeline.

“My character was that woman that brought them in and stand that cultural aspect and why this was a prayerful peaceful protest of being water protectors and what that meant. And also, that provider of those extra understandings of how we all work together in unity and how we are all greater than something in ourselves especially as tribal peoples.” 

Bedard has been in the film and television business since the 1990s.

She says there were times she was the only Indigenous person in these spaces.

But says today there’s more Indigenous representation in the industry pointing to television shows like “Reservation Dogs” and “Alaska Daily”, where Indigenous people are writers, producers, actors, and more.

Bedard says there’s still a long way to go, but she’s glad to be part of it.

“How we are now flowering and growing, With everything to reservation dogs. There’s just so much content coming out right now, and people, as I’ve been saying for decades are hungry for our stories. And it’s showing. Now that people are understanding that, and we’re having those opportunities to express ourselves and for our voices to be heard.” 

Bedard is well-known for many roles in “Smoke Signals” and Disney’s “Pocahontas.”

Watch out for her in the upcoming mini-series “The Green Veil” about Indian boarding schools. 

“On Sacred Ground” was recently released in select theaters.

Watch Irene Bedard talk about the importance of Indigenous representation in the film and television industry:

Watch the “On Sacred Ground” Trailer:

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Leaders of the National Congress of American Indians Youth Commission opened up the State of Indian Nations with a youth commission speech Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

NCAI Youth Commission Co-President Caleb Dash called on tribes to work together to tackle the many issues they face including violence against women, Indian child welfare, and water rights.

“Our young people, our elders, our mother and our fathers are all facing the same issues and I believe the only way to solve these issues is through unity.”

The youth speech was made before NCAI President Fawn Sharp took the stage to deliver the State of Indian Nations address.

Sharp called on tribal leaders to show up saying 80 years ago when NCAI was founded there was no seat at the table for tribes, but they forged ahead.

“Today after nearly 80 years, on the front lines of policy making standing side by side with our partners we don’t just have a seat at the table we have influence, we have representation all across the federal government, all across the United States and around the world.”

Sharp touch on some of the accomplishes in the last year from securing advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service to the reauthorization and expansion of tribal provision in the Violence Against Women Act.

She also laid out a number of priorities for this year including advocating for food policy, tax issues, and land and water rights.

Tribal leaders from across the country attended the event, which was held in person for the first time since 2020 due to COVID-19.

Listen to NCAI President Fawn Sharp’s full State of Indian Nations Address as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Congressional Response:

Photo: Niki Clearly / The Tulalip Tribes

The Tulalip Tribes and the public benefit corporation Pallet recently held a ribbon cutting and blessing ceremony for a new village of temporary shelters on the tribes’ reservation in the state of Washington.

Jill Fratis has more.

The temporary village includes 25 insulated shelters, each have a bed, heating unit, and lockable door.

The village will provide services to residents including access to the tribes’ recovery program, new medical-assisted treatment center and mental health support.

There’s also a recovery support center that includes showers, laundry, and more.

The project is a collaboration between the Tulalip Tribes and Pallet.

Rochelle Lubbers is the chief administrative officer for the Tulalip Tribes.

She says the project start to finish was a fast one.

“The project was approved by our directors in October of 2022, and 126 days later, we did a ribbon cutting, so it’s been a fast and furious project to provide this housing option for our tribal members as a low barrier housing option which we didn’t have any of.”

Lubbers says the tribes teamed up with Pallet to help work to end unsheltered homelessness among tribal citizens.

“We found that approximately half of the people in the tent communities were tribal members and the other half being either Natives from other tribes or non-Natives, and so we have a strategy to provide supportive care at this time to our tribal members and do referral systems for people who are on the reservation or not to tribal members and our outreach teams work with this population but pallet is specifically identified as a solution for tribal members at this time.”

Amy King is the CEO of Pallet and started the public benefit corporation with her husband seen years ago.

She says they were excited to partner with the Tulalip Tribes.

“I have a number of native friends and colleagues I’ve walked along side for many years, so this is a nice coming home, and an exciting opportunity to be partners.”

This is Pallett’s 100th build and one of only a few of Pallet’s projects on tribal land.

The Tribes and Pallett say homelessness is more common among Native people due to intergenerational factors like overcrowding and lack of housing.

And they say while Native Americans account for approximately 1.5% of North America’s population, they make up more than 10% of the homeless population nationally.

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The Alaska Native community of Tyonek is pushing back on its inclusion in a local planning group that helps make decisions about land management, but which they say formed without their input.

Riley Board with KDLL reports.

Tyonek is a remote, predominantly Native community on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, across the water from the state’s population centers of Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.

While the community falls under the purview of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, it’s culturally and geographically distant from the borough’s other communities.

That’s one of the reasons residents are objecting to their inclusion in a new planning commission based on the other side of the inlet, in the predominantly non-Native community of Nikiski.

“When somebody talks about that few of people determining that they’ll have a huge voice in land planning for three million acres on the other side of the inlet, that seems inappropriate.”

That’s Stephen Peskosky, CEO of the Tyonek Native Corporation.

He says the planning commission does not represent the residents of Tyonek and was formed without its knowledge, by residents in Nikiski who wanted more of a voice in land management and permitting decisions.

Proponents described Tyonek as “Nikiski’s backyard,” where its residents hunt and vacation.

Peskosky says that notion is offensive.

“The villagers from Tyonek and some of our shareholders, they were highly offended by that, because they don’t see it as a vacation land, they see it as a land where they do their subsistence living and where they’ve been living for hundreds of years.

It’s not a vacation land in their eyes, it’s their home.”

Some members of the borough’s governing body were sympathetic to Tyonek’s concerns. But ultimately, the assembly was split on whether to remove the community from the planning commission’s boundaries.

The assembly will reconsider the plan at a meeting Tuesday, where Peskosky says Tyonek residents are planning to turn out and testify.

Dozens of Tyonek residents and several Native entities have already submitted letters in support.

Dr. Buu Nygren has passed the first 30 days as president of the Navajo Nation, one of the largest tribes in the United States.

President Nygren says he’s already fulfilled one of his campaign promises by lifting COVID-19 restrictions – fully opening the Navajo Nation.

The tribe was still under COVID-19 mandates as he took office in January.

“One of the first things we did do was make sure we lift the mask mandate. I felt like it was about time. All the surrounding communities have reopened, all the surrounding cities have reopened, and we just took precaution and made it optional for people to wear masks.”

President Nygren says he’s met with the governors of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah – the Navajo Nation is located in the three states.

He’s also met with U.S. lawmakers and made his first official visit to Washington, D.C., where he attended President Joe Biden’s State of the Union.

Those helping him lead the Navajo Nation in his administration are a number of Navajo women, including his vice president, veterans affairs director and chief legal counsel.

Vice President Richelle Montoya made history in January becoming the first Navajo woman to serve in the position.

“I think it’s just my belief in just making sure the best people are in place and in this moment in time those types of people are in those positions.”

The Navajo Nation Council this year, inaugurated a historic number of women, nine of the 24 delegates.

Nygren says he’s working closely with the council to address many of the issues facing the tribe from making sure federal COVID-19 recovery funds are spent to tackling infrastructure needs.

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International human rights groups are concerned about growing violence against Indigenous environmental defenders in Honduras – where four killings have taken place since the start of this year.

Many people are comparing the wave of killings of Indigenous environmental activists to the infamous 2016 assassination of Goldman Environmental Prize winner Berta Caceres.

Maria Martin reports.

On the Caribbean Coast, members of Honduras’ Garifuna ethnic community of Black and Indigenous origin say it’s strange that rights activist Ricardo Arnaul Montero was declared drowned with no autopsy.

Montero had been receiving death threats for months related to a long-running land dispute in his Triunfo De La Cruz community.

This incident comes on the heels of the killings of other Indigenous Honduran environmental activists, like Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla, whom founded the Guapinol water defenders movement and fought against river contamination by a controversial open-pit iron oxide mine.

They were killed in January in broad daylight.

Police say they died in a robbery attempt, but their families are pressuring the government of President Xiomara Castro for an independent investigation.

Supporters like attorney Yolanda Gonzalez of El Progreso say local authorities have criminalized these environmental defenders for too long to be objective.

Gonzalez says one of President Xiomara Castro’s promises when she took office a year ago was to defend Honduras’ highly at-risk environmental activists.

But so far, she says there’s little political will and nothing’s been done.

The Department of the Interior recently announced additional Biden administration appointees who will join the agency, including Lynn Trujillo.

She’ll serve as senior counselor to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo).

Trujillo is from Sandia Pueblo, and is also Acoma and Taos Pueblo.

She most recently served as cabinet secretary for the Department of Indian Affairs in New Mexico.

After taking her position as cabinet secretary in 2019, Trujillo talked about the importance of Native women in leadership roles, and working with then-Rep. Haaland on the campaign trail.

“I hope that we inspire other women to envision themselves in these roles. I would have never foreseen myself in this position, but I’m here now and I know now all my life experiences in terms of my career, but also who I am as a Pueblo woman has prepared me for this.”

As Indian Affairs cabinet secretary, Trujillo worked closely with tribes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also made it a priority to address missing and murdered Indigenous people, which included working closely with a task force, and focused on Native youth issues with an Indigenous youth council.

Sec. Haaland is also a Pueblo woman from Laguna.

She made history becoming the first Native American cabinet secretary of the Interior, and also as a Native American woman elected to Congress.

The Biden administration’s newly-created job of Arctic Ambassador goes to an Alaskan, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

Michael Sfraga currently chairs the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, a President Joe Biden appointment in 2021.

Sfraga, who is considered an expert on Arctic geography and policy, has been a longtime advocate of using Indigenous knowledge to better understand the science of the Arctic.

He has served in a number of national leadership roles that involve the Arctic and helped to found the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Sfraga was also a Vice Chancellor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a faculty member.

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