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Tribal college and university students from across the country were honored Tuesday night in Albuquerque by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC).

Students were awarded for their skills in knowledge, sports, and arts after three days of competition in various events at the consortium’s 2023 conference.

37 students traveled to New Mexico from Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota.

Dawn Tobacco Frank is president of Oglala Lakota College.

She says while students enhance their skills at the event, they learn valuable lessons back at school.

“The importance of tribal colleges and universities is to make that broader impact in the communities to really strengthen the culture, the language, to help produce students who graduate in whatever fields the tribal colleges offer in order for them to go back and work to fulfill their own individual goals. A majority of our students want to help return back to the reservation to help or to their homelands to help their people.”

Oglala Lakota College serves the Pine Ridge Reservation, and also has a satellite location in Rapid City, and on the Cheyenne River Reservation offering degrees in business, social work, nursing, and other fields.

Longtime leader of the Navajo Nation Peterson Zah passed away Tuesday in Arizona, the Navajo Times reports.

Zah was chairman of the Navajo council in the 1980s before becoming the first president of the Navajo Nation in 1990 when the tribe shifted its government system.

He’s being remembered for his lifelong advocacy for Navajo people including encouraging young people to finish school and pursue higher education.

Zah was living in Window Rock, AZ on the Navajo Nation with his family.

He reportedly was in the hospital due to complications with cancer.

Zah was 85 years old.

Three Yup’ik mushers from Southwest Alaska are among some of the most experienced racers in this year’s Iditarod, the 1,000-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, the race got underway on Sunday.

Former Iditarod champ Pete Kaiser from Bethel, fresh off his 7th win of the Kuskokwim 300, is one of the racers to watch, as well as two mushers who have had successful past finishes – Ritchie Diehl of Aniak and Michael Williams, Jr. from Akiak.

Williams has returned to the Iditarod after taking a break from the race.

Bev Hoffman, a Yup’ik musher and longtime Kusko 300 organizer, has spent decades working to bring Alaska Native mushers back into the sport. In the early years, the Iditarod had a crowded field of Native mushers, but they were later eclipsed by a well-financed group of career mushers who could afford to train year-round.

Hoffman says it’s rewarding to see three Native mushers, who she watched growing up, rise to the top of the sport.

“I think all their chances are great. Mike was downplaying his own race saying that he didn’t have a lot of training, but he’s done real well in the local races here. Pete and Richie, last year, they did real well — and they have tough dogs and the year Pete won, one was on this route.”

Kaiser won the Iditarod in 2019 and finished 5th last year.

Diehl has run the Iditarod ten times and finished right behind Kaiser last year in 6th place.

This is Mike Williams Jr.’s 8th running of the Iditarod. His best finish was 8th place in 2012. His father, Mike Williams Sr., ran the Iditarod many times to promote sobriety in rural Alaska.

This year’s race has the smallest number of contenders on record, which Hoffman believes improves their chances for success, given their experience in not just the Iditarod, but the Kuskokwim 300, a 300-mile race that follows an old mail trail on the frozen Kuskokwim River.

“Our training is so tough out here. You just get hit with everything, ice overflow and I think that all better prepare these teams from this area.”

Hoffman says many past Iditarod champs came to Bethel to compete to toughen up their teams.

Ryan Reddington (Inupiat) is the fourth competitor in this year’s race.

Their standings can be followed online at iditarod.com.

 

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Organizations supporting Native American’s right to vote are trying to educate people about the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court Election.

WXPR’s Katie Thoresen reports.

Abortion access, voting districts, and voting access are likely to come before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the coming years.

And while those issues impact everyone, they’re more likely to disproportionately effect Native American communities says Native American Rights Fund staff attorney Allison Neswood.

But she stresses that this doesn’t mean that all Native people feel the same way about each issue.

“But it means that they should have the same voice that other Americans or other Wisconsinites have in selecting who makes the decisions on those issues.”

To that end, the Native American Rights Fund and the Wisconsin Native Vote program are working to educate Native Americans on the Supreme Court, what’s at stake, and making sure they know their voting rights.

Neswood is focused on educating people on the judicial system itself, like the oath Wisconsin judges take to administer justice with respect to persons or essentially the concept of justice is blind.

“This is great concept, but it’s not always inline with how communities experience the court system. A couple examples of that, evidence shows that even among people who commit of similar severity people of color are receiving longer sentences, more jail time than white folks.”

Wisconsin Native Vote Manager Dee Sweet wants to make sure Native Americans have all the information they need to make an educated vote.

She says things like minimal or lack of broadband connectivity in rural reservations can be another barrier for Native Americans to exercise their right to vote.

“I’m not saying they’re left out of modern day technology and society they just don’t have the kind of broadband or kind of technology to support that.”

Neither organization endorses candidates.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Election is April 4.

The organizations along with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are hosting a dinner and discussion event at Red Cliff Legendary Waters Casino on March 7.

You can learn more and register at conservationvoice.org.

The U.S. Interior Department recently unveiled plans to bolster the number of wild bison herds across their native grasslands.

Aaron Bolton reports.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the formation of federal working group that will outline how the federal government can help tribes and conservation groups bolster herd numbers and gain training to manage herds.

Holland also announced a $25 million investment to establish new herds, fund tribal bison transfers, and co-management of herds with tribes.

The department currently manages 11,000 bison on public lands across 12 states.

Tribal college and university students from across the country are preparing to take home awards after three days of competing in more than 20 events including archery, speech, chess, and hand games.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Albuquerque, NM this week for the 2023 American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) conference.

Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College student Joanna Cooley (United Houma Nation) spent time Monday presenting her scientific poster to judges, students, and other AIHEC attendees.

Cooley says for the last year and a half she’s been part of a food sovereignty program in Mount Pleasant, MI.

Her poster describes how to decolonize diets and teach people how to preserve food from their gardens.

“We can teach our people to garden, but if they don’t know how to preserve for future use it’s not very good. Along with the gardening, we’re also doing food preservation workshops and classes. We have a full state of the art mobile food preservation kitchen that will be onsite this spring so that community members and students can harvest their vegetables and go straight into the classroom and learn how to preserve them themselves.”

Cooley says she worked on her poster for about four to six weeks.

She hopes not only will the judges appreciate her work, but that the information will be shared with other tribal communities.

Awards will be given out Tuesday night.

There are more than 30 tribal colleges and universities across the U.S.

Check out Joanna Cooley’s scientific poster:

Check out some of the 2023 AIHEC Art Competition:

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Commemorations were held in Honduras over the weekend to mark seven years since the assassination of Goldman Prize-winning environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres.

Maria Martin reports that, though there have been some convictions in her death, her supporters say the intellectual authors of her murder are still at large.

Berta Cáceres had fought for the rights of the Indigenous Lenca people of Honduras.

“It’s no crime to defend our rights as Indigenous people,” Cáceres stated before her death, as she fought to stop a hydroelectric dam project she said would disrupt the water and food supply in Lenca communities.

In Lenca tradition, she said the rivers are the home of the mother spirit and must be protected.

In July of last year, the former head of a Honduran construction company building the controversial dam project Cáceres had opposed was found guilty of collaborating in her 2016 murder.

Roberto Castillo was also alleged to have hired seven hit men previously sentenced for her killing.

But, Berta Cáceres’ family and supporters say the intellectual authors of her murder are some of Honduras’ most untouchable families and remain outside the law, and that seven years after her murder, Honduran environmental activists remain targets.

At least four have been killed this year alone.

A bill that would require Montana to pay for the cost of law enforcement services on the Flathead Reservation recently passed through the state Senate.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.

In the 1960s, Lake County agreed to provide law enforcement services on the behalf of the state across the Flathead Reservation, but county officials earlier this year pulled out of that agreement saying county taxpayers can no longer foot the bill, estimated at $4 million annually.

Senate Bill 127 would require the state to negotiate funding for law enforcement on the reservation with Lake County every other year.

If the parties do not come to an agreement, the state would then be responsible for law enforcement services.

The Legislature did pass a bill last session paving the way for the state to pay Lake County’s law enforcement services, but did not appropriate any funds.

The bill requiring state to fund those services now moves to the House for consideration.

State is due to take over end of May.

The Chickasaw Nation’s cultural center is hosting the Holba’ Pisachi’ Native Film Festival on Saturday in Sulphur, OK to celebrate cultural renaissance through Indigenous cinema.

Fran Parchcorn is the Chickasaw Cultural Center’s executive officer.

“The film festival is important because it allows us to carry on a form of storytelling, which is important in First American traditions. We’re celebrating and uplifting Native filmmakers who are working to preserve our culture. The goal of the Holba’ Pisachi’ (“Showing Pictures”) Native Film Festival is always to promote the art of First American cinema through cultural awareness through mass media.”

Four short documentaries will be showcased: two feature-length documentaries and the headlining film “Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher.”

Panel discussions and question and answer sessions with Indigenous filmmakers will follow the screenings.

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Researchers at Arizona State University are tackling the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the state – they’re trying to figure out why it’s happening and what can be done to stop it.

Alex Gonzalez reports.

Professor Kate Fox directs ASU’s Research on Violent Victimization Lab.

She says the data speaks for itself – the killing of Indigenous females has been increasing over the past 40 years.

Through data obtained through grassroots organizations and law-enforcement agencies, Fox and her team along with the state have determined 160 Indigenous females were known to police to be murdered between 1976 and 2018 in Arizona.

She says that number is expected to be much higher, as many cases go unreported. Fox says only recently has the conversation shifted to look at all indigenous people.

“There is a growing recognition across the nation and across the globe that this is not something that only impacts Indigenous women and girls. It does impact all indigenous peoples.”

In 2019, Arizona passed a law that established a study committee to investigate how serious of a problem this was in Arizona.

Fox says there is still a lot of work to be done and hopes Arizona, as well as other states, continue to investigate.

Fox says many systemic factors rooted in racial injustice, violence and colonization are responsible for the crisis.

The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, AK honors Chris Wooley as its volunteer of the year.

He is being recognized for his research about children who were sent to boarding schools in the Lower 48.

KMXT’s Brian Venua reports.

The Alutiiq Museum’s Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes folks who spend time working on projects with the museum. And this year’s award went to Kodiak resident Chris Wooley for his work on the Carlisle Repatriation Project.  

He says while he’s grateful for the award, he was just one part of the research team.  

“It was mixed emotions, I was really happy, but I wanted to share it with the others in the group that are doing just as much work as I am.”  

The research project is aimed at contacting descendants of Indigenous children taken from Alutiiq lands to a boarding school in Pennsylvania, and repatriating their remains.  

Part of his work with the project included contacting the family of Anastasia Ashouwak, whose remains were brought back to the village Old Harbor for reburial in her family’s plot last year.  

His team is still searching for the descendents of Pariscovia Friendoff, another Native girl taken from nearby Woody Island.

She was taken to the “Outing Program,” where children were sent to be acculturated to western lifestyles.

“We’re trying to kind of track down any reference to Pariscovia, who had spent four years in the Outing Program with families in Pennsylvania. (It’s) not clear if there’s any relatives – it doesn’t sound like there are. But her story is a bit of an enigma.”

Wooley says it’s been more difficult to find records of Pariscovia than it was for Anastasia.

The National Congress of American Indians has acquired rights to the “Crying Indian,” the Keep America Beautiful anti-pollution campaign of the 1970s.

Ownership of the public service announcement has been transferred to NCAI by the non-profit Keep America Beautiful, which decided to official retired it.

The ad featured stereotypical imagery of Native people and misappropriated Native culture.

 

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A bill to create a study committee to improve Native children’s lives was killed in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 191 was approved on the Senate side and then got unanimous approval in the House Judiciary Committee, but two days later it died on the House floor.

Victoria Wicks reports.

Senate Bill 191 required a 17-member committee to meet at least eight times in 18 months with the Legislative Research Council coordinating the effort.

State Rep. Tony Vanhuisen (R-SD) said during House discussion that the bill required too much.

“Nine of the 17 members are from the tribes, just over half. Two from DSS, two from the court system, then just four legislators. So four legislators on a 17-person committee, but we’re paying for it.”

State Rep. Peri Pourier (Oglala Sioux/D-SD) justified including all nine tribal nations inside South Dakota’s borders.

“They have their own independent taxation compact agreements, they have their own agreements with DSS, and they all have their own policies.”

Rep. Pourier said tribal families are in crisis, with Native Americans in the top tier of problems such as incarceration rates, dropout rates, and health issues.

“This is a problem that the tribes cannot solve on their own. They still need the state of South Dakota. And this is not a problem that the state of South Dakota can address on its own. You need the tribes. We need each other.”

Rep. Pourier noted that the commission might find a way to assist Native children and families to prevent those failures, but instead the state spends millions to deal with the negative outcomes.

“We’re allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for new state prisons.”

The bill failed by a vote of 42 to 26.

Also in South Dakota, a law that established a State-Tribal Relations Committee has been amended to reduce the mandatory number of Democrats serving on it.

The House of Representatives voted to pass Senate Bill 69 Wednesday.

Its prime sponsor says the new makeup better reflects the will of South Dakota voters.

The State-Tribal Relations Committee by law consists of ten legislators, with a minimum of four members from the minority party.

Senate Bill 69 drops that minimum number to two.

Republicans currently hold 90% of the seats in the legislature.

State Sen. Lee Schoenbeck (R-SD) introduced the bill at the Senate State Affairs hearing in January.

He said the law no longer reflects the reality of the political situation.

“When they originally passed this, it probably didn’t seem so strange, because there used to be a lot of Democrats in the legislature.”

The committee arose from reconciliation efforts that started with Gov. George Mickelson (R-SD), who died in office in 1993.

Sen. Schoenbeck said tribes benefit from having legislators on the committee who are not Native.

“It doesn’t make much sense to have the tribes come to the committee and tell tribal members, ‘Hey, here’s what’s going on in tribal country.’ It makes a lot more sense to have the tribes come and talk to people that don’t live in tribal country.”

Senate Bill 69 passed through that committee and went on to clear both chambers.

At its last legislative appearance in the House, Rep. Pourier tried to get the chamber to approve an amendment that required appointment of legislators who represent districts containing tribal lands.

“This isn’t about party. This is about the voice of those citizens that are in the tribal nations who elect their leaders.”

That amendment failed and the House approved the bill by a vote of 57-11.5

The Bridging Agency Data Gaps & Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act was introduced in Congress Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (D-WA), and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS).

The bill seeks to strengthen tribal law enforcement and increase public safety in Indian Country.

It includes several provisions to address missing and murdered Indigenous people.

 

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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.

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.

“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.

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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