Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Several religious groups are urging a federal appeals court to protect an Apache sacred site in Arizona from one of the nation’s largest copper mines.

As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, the court will rehear the case in March.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventists, Sikh and Jewish coalitions, and others recently filed what are called friend-of-the-court briefs.

They’re asking the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop a federal land swap that would transfer ownership of portions of Oak Flat east of Phoenix to the international mining company Rio Tinto.

The groups say they if the mine goes forward it would harm the spiritual practices of the Apache people and threaten the religious freedom and civil rights of all faiths.

Oak Flat is located on the Tonto National Forest and is home to key religious ceremonies practiced by the Western Apache.

The group Apache Stronghold is suing the federal government to prevent the land swap.

 

They and other Indigenous organizations argue the mine would destroy the sacred site and end Apache spiritual practices there.

The company says it’s committed to tribal consultation and protecting cultural heritage, and that such input has informed significant changes in the project’s design.

The 9^th Circuit Court will rehear the case in March before a full 11-judge panel.

Alaska Native people are mourning the loss of a North Slope leader, who grew up running sled dog teams to collect firewood along the Arctic coast — and came of age in the time of snow machines, borough governments and Native Corporations, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA News reports.

Oliver Leavitt died Sunday at the age of 79.

Leavitt was also a whaling captain and a cultural beacon for his people, fluent in Inupiaq and known for his ability to build whaling boats without a blueprint.

“Without a piece of paper in your hand, to go from dimensional woods, hard woods, to end up with a whaling boat is a skill.”

Richard Glenn says Leavitt was his mentor at the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, where they served together on the board and in management roles.

Glenn says he admired Leavitt for his ability to fight for his region – and to move comfortably from the boardroom, to the whaling camp, to the halls of Washington D.C.

“He was adept at it.  He made it effortless. He has a diplomat’s skill, but he also has a hard-won, nuts-and-bolts kind of education.”

An education Leavitt used to help turn ASRC into Alaska’s largest private company.

Willie Hensley, a leader in Alaska’s Native land claims fight.

“I’ve known him for 50 years.”

Hensley first met Oliver Leavitt when he got out of the Army. It was then, he says, that Leavitt dedicated himself to a life of public service – working to form a new borough, teaming up with other leaders to turn ASRC into a company that earns billions in revenues every year.

“He was persistent. And in order to do the things he had to do, he had to work hard and practically camped in Washington D.C.”

Hensley says one of Leavitt’s biggest accomplishments was his battle to help the North Slope Borough take over a U.S. Navy gas field, which enabled the Borough to bring heat and power to homes in the region.

A memorial for Leavitt is planned for Monday in Utqiagvik at the Barrow High School.

A new housing development is in the works for the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota.

The Turtle Mountain Housing Authority recently closed with an investor to begin construction on a $19 million affordable housing project.

It will provide 52 apartments for community members.

The new development includes buildings with a mix of studio, one, and two-bedroom units.

State and federal funds helped with the development.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

When a powerful storm damaged homes, boats, and subsistence resources in Alaska in September 2022, the Federal Emergency Management Agency decided to translate information about assistance into two Indigenous languages spoken in the region.

But, as Emily Schwing reports, those translations were useless to Alaska Native people.

Gary Holton spent 20 years documenting Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks’ Alaska Native language Center.

He says what FEMA thought were translations have nothing to do with disaster recovery. 

“The only thing you might gather from that is there are a couple of dates, but you wouldn’t know what those dates are for. So yeah, I would say the only useful bit of information in there might be if there’s a reference to a website or something.” 

FEMA paid a California-based translation service company, Accent on Languages, nearly $30,000 to translate information about how to apply for disaster assistance into both the Central Yup’ik dialect and Iñupiaq. 

At least six different documents that were supposed to be translated, were actually just a mish-mash of phrases and lines lifted directly out of a more than 80-year-old book of Indigenous folklore and language spoken in Far East Russia. 

Tara Sweeney served as the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs under the Trump administration and her great-grandfather created the Iñupiaq alphabet.

“It’s a problem for underrepresented minority communities if this is the type of information that’s being disseminated and people can’t even understand it, services to American citizens are being denied, especially in time of need. That is egregious.” 

These documents were supposed to offer information on how to apply for financial assistance for people whose homes were damaged and who lost subsistence fishing and hunting equipment as well as the foods they’d been storing for winter. 

Sweeney says it’s even worse than that. 

“There’s a lot of that historical trauma of being beaten in schools, because they were speaking their Indigenous languages, which is why there’s a generation of us in Alaska that struggle with fluency.”

After the agency discovered the mistake, FEMA removed the mistranslated documents from its website.

The agency also hired an Alaska-based company to continue the work.

To date, FEMA has paid an average of $8,000 per applicant to people whose applications for relief were approved.

To put that into perspective, the agency paid the original translation service three times that amount.

The remains of a Yakama Nation woman who went missing nearly 40 years ago have been positively identified, King 5 News reports.

Daisy Mae Tallman, known as Daisy Mae Heath, was 29 when she went missing in the late-1980s.

Her remains were found 2008 near White Swan, WA.

A private DNA laboratory recently used advanced testing to identify the remains.

The county coroner says her death remains undetermined.

Lakota actor Mo Brings Plenty is among the presenters for the 80^th Annual Golden Globes Awards taking place in Los Angeles Tuesday night.

Brings Plenty is well-known for his self-titled role in the television series “Yellowstone.”

The Golden Globes recognizes excellence in film and television.

The ceremony will air live on NBC and will stream on Peacock.

 

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

After a powerful typhoon slammed into Alaska’s west coast in September, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, tried to offer information about how to apply for disaster recovery assistance in two Alaska Native languages, but those translations weren’t useful to any Indigenous language speakers in the state.

Emily Schwing reports. 

Dozens of Alaska Native villages along the state’s west coast were hit hard by Typhoon Merbok, so FEMA hired a California-based company to translate press releases and documents about how to apply for disaster recovery funds into Yup’ik.

The agency also asked for Iñupiaq translations.

Tom Kempton is a FEMA spokesman. 

“And it wasn’t until we started doing some of those translations that – I don’t speak, you know, Yup’ik. What we were seeing coming back, I mean, when I first saw the Inupiat ones, I was like, What is this? It was all like hieroglyphic.” 

Indigenous language speakers across Alaska didn’t recognize the languages.

Linguist Gary Holton spent twenty years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Native Language Center. He says someone lifted full phrases from an 80-year-old compilation of folklore and language that was printed in the Soviet Union. 

“I mean imagine if someone, you know, took all of your folktales and then interviewed your great grandmother about her experiences growing up and had all of this information recorded and wrote it down and then scrambled it and stuck it in various different ways and made kind of a collage out of it. It’s, it’s kind of yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s offensive.” 

Tara Sweeney is the former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs under the Trump Administration. She calls the work a waste of federal funds.

“That’s egregious. I’m absolutely speechless. I cannot believe that. A contractor would put something like this together for the federal government and that there is no verification of whether this is accurate. And that the federal government would actually issue this as a work product of their own.”

According to FEMA, the agency paid $27,800 to a company called Accent on Languages for the work that was supposed to help fluent Indigenous speakers apply for financial assistance following Typhoon Merbok.

A Saskatoon woman has decided to have her trail heard by a judge.

Dawn Walker is accused of abducting her child and having their deaths faked. She is charged with public mischief, parental abduction and identity fraud.

Dan Karpenchuk reports.

Walker and her 7-year-old son were reported missing in July, after a search of two weeks they were found safe in Oregon. That after she illegally crossed the border into the U.S.  Authorities there have also brought charges against her.

She was returned to Saskatoon in August, where she has waived her right to jury trial and elected to have her case heard by a judge.

Ari Goldkind is a criminal defense lawyer. He said going before a judge alone is a tactical decision.

“When you have all the things that a jury this woman allegedly did, the list, that may be something the jury may really dislike particularly is there a divorced dad or two on that jury that hears what she did or who has been through a custody battle.”

A U.S. official says Walker also stole the identity of a close friend to open a bank account as part of an abduction plan.

Walker is believed to have been in a custody battle with her son’s father.

Her trial dates will likely be set this week.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Lake County commissioners have officially voted to pull out of an agreement to provide law enforcement services on the Flathead Reservation in northwest Montana.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports, the state will be required to provide those services later this year.

Commissioners unanimously voted to withdraw from the agreement between the state and tribes, known as Public Law 280.

Lake County agreed in the 1960s to provide law enforcement services on behalf of the state across the Flathead Reservation. But county commissioners say tax payers can’t afford to pay for those services, estimated at $4 million annually.

The Legislature passed a bill in 2021 requiring the state to reimburse Lake County for those services, but appropriated $1 for that work. The law also gave the county and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes the ability to withdraw from the agreement.

To make Lake County’s withdrawal of Public Law 280 official, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) will have six months to issue a proclamation acknowledging it. The state would then be charged with providing law enforcement services on the reservation.

CSKT spokesperson Gwen Lankford declined to comment on the county’s withdrawal.

Gov. Gianforte’s office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Rhonda McBride, news director at our flagship station KNBA, reports that it’s been a disappointing week for Alaska Native people waiting to watch U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) take the oath of office for her first full term in Congress.

But until Republicans select a new House Speaker, Rep. Peltola and other House members cannot be sworn in.

Rep. Peltola says the Republican stalemate is a sign of the times, where partisan politics has poisoned government from school boards to city councils.

“I think at the local level they’re not designed to be partisan. But the partisanship has really crept down to every level. And it’s on steroids in Washington D.C.  It’s hard to go to committee hearings and talk about the issue at hand. Because the conversation quickly turns to partisan bickering.”

Rep. Peltola campaigned for her Alaska congressional seat on her abilities to work across the aisle, which she credits to being brought up in the Yup’ik culture, which discourages conflict and encourages cooperation.

Rep. Peltola says she’ll try to hold onto those values, but it won’t be easy.

Jim LaBelle is a retired Alaska Native studies and history professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

“She needs to take advantage of the novelty of her being a Yup’ik woman, using that position to get their attention on strategic issues that she’s working on.”

He believes Rep. Peltola is in a position to set a powerful example for the country.

“One person can make a difference, and sometimes you don’t know who that’s going to be or when that’s going to happen, but when we are rooted in are values and wanting to do good for our fellow man. Yeah, it could be that congruence of time and space that Mary’s at, that could be that one person.”

For now, Rep. Peltola is that one person who is Alaska’s lone vote in the House.

She became the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, after she won a special election last year to fill out the remainder of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-AK)’s term.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed into law bills to restore tribal stewardship of federal lands and ensure federal land management laws respect tribal sovereignty.

The bills collectively place about 3,500 acres of land previously owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management into trust for the benefit of two tribal governments in California – the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Karuk Tribe.

Three bills involving tribal water rights in Arizona were also signed into law.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Another major winter storm has hit South Dakota.

This time targeting East River, snowing in a tribal community.

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

The most recent winter storm brought 27 inches of snow to the community of Lake Andes in Charles Mix County – home of the Yankton Reservation.

Tribal secretary Sam Sully is among those snowed in.

“We had a big storm that took care of all the highways from the communities to the hospitals, so it was pretty tough. Fast as they would plow, some of the roads would be filled back in again. It was just a hell of a night. We do have a few thousand members living in our areas all together, so it does get pretty active.

Sully says 60-70% of the community is Native with separate law enforcements and separate jurisdictions. He said all agencies cooperated to take care of each other.

“I was very glad that we worked together, you can help save the lives of people – not only tribal people but the other people that may need it too.”

Sully says teams are looking at a heavy workload in the days ahead.

“Today we have drifts all over, but our maintenance crews are out doing snow removal, and their priorities are people that are diabetics, people that need to be getting dialysis every other day, people that need to be getting groceries.”

He says it’s personal because they also rescued a family member suffering pneumonia. This person was eventually rescued from their home after a coordinated effort involving a skid loader. He says their condition is improving in a local hospital.

On Wednesday, Canada marked the first National Ribbon Skirt Day.

It’s an event that was inspired by a 12-year-old girl in Saskatchewan who was shamed for wearing a ribbon skirt to school in 2020.

Dan Karpenchuk reports.

Isabella Kulak was 10-years-old at the time of the incident at the rural school she attended.

Kulak is a member of the Cote First Nation about 140 miles east of Regina.

The colorful ribbon skirt is often worn by Indigenous women at cultural events.

Kulak tells what happened when she wore hers on the last day of school before Christmas break.

“I went to school wearing my ribbon skirt and when I got there, different people were wearing dresses. One of the teachers said that it wasn’t formal to her and maybe next time you should dress more like her, and pointed to a different girl in my class.”

The school division later apologized for the incident. But the story sparked an online movement of women sharing photos of themselves wearing ribbon skirts to honor their identity.

Still what happened shocked Kulak’s mother Lana.

“It really broke my heart. And it brought back all kinds of emotions from when I was a little girl. And I couldn’t believe that it was happening in this day and age and to one of my children now.”

It was not long after the incident the calls began to grow for a national day to commemorate ribbon skirts. And last year in Parliament, a bill to recognize the day was passed to mark the day on January the fourth.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a statement, said Isabella’s story shone a light on the enduring injustices, racism, and discrimination faced by First Nations, Inuit, and Metis in Canada every day.

Trudeau also invited all Canadians to learn from Indigenous peoples about their cultures and histories from languages to traditional ceremonies and regalia to ancestral ties to the land.

The Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma is seeking ownership of a boarding school site in Kansas, the Kansas City Star reports.

The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School may contain unmarked graves.

The tribe released a survey of the site this week.

The Kansas Historical Society owns the site.

It’s managed by the city of Fairway.

The tribe’s concerned the site has not been properly taken care of, while the historical society and city have reportedly rejected the idea of the site being transferred to the tribe.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Canadian government says it will pay for a feasibility study of a landfill site in Winnipeg.

That site is believed to hold the remains of two Indigenous homicide victims.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, Winnipeg police had said it was not possible to search the site because of the passage of time and the 10,000 truck loads of garbage dumped in the area.

When Winnipeg’s police chief made that decision, there were calls for him to resign.

He said he understood the pain and the sorrow people were feeling but he would not step down.

The premier of Manitoba and the mayor of Winnipeg both said operations at the landfill would be paused while officials mulled over their next steps.

The remains are believed to be two of the victims of alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

The 35-year-old is already facing four counts of first degree murder.

In Ottawa, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says the federal government would look into a feasibility study of the landfill.

“This is something where we are working with the city of Winnipeg police force and the province of Manitoba and the mayor’s office to make sure we have a coordinated approach with what is a very very difficult situation for families looking for perhaps even recover remains of their lost ones.”

Meanwhile Indigenous advocates says the arrest of Skibicki shows vulnerable women and girls are subject to dangerous outcomes if governments don’t work together to end gender and race based violence.

The National Family and Survivors Circle says Indigenous women are disproportionate victims of violence in Canada due to unchecked racism and misogyny.

Wednesday marks the first recognition of National Ribbon Skirt Day in Canada.

January 4 will now be an opportunity for people to celebrate and learn about Indigenous culture.

A bill to recognize the day passed Parliament last month.

The day raises awareness about injustices, racism and discrimination against Indigenous people.

The day came about after a First Nation youth was shamed at school for wearing a ribbon skirt.

The Canadian government says it’s working in partnership with Indigenous people to protect and promote their cultures and traditions.

Thunder Valley, a Lakota empowerment organization, has raised $100,000 for its next workforce development group. That money will provide education, mentorship, and leadership opportunities for those in the program.

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

The ten-month workforce program targets native young adults unsure of the next steps in their life.

Lynette Kills Back, Thunder Valley workforce development director, says those entering the program will finish with a life skill.

“Like carpentry, plumbing, electricians, to even get into that skillset, to get into that profession, I think it takes a special person to learn that and help out people like me who don’t know a lick of construction. Some contractors out there require at least 300 hours of on-hands training with tools. Those are part of the main focus points we help them get started with.”

Kills Back says previous participants have found success.

“A lot of them are employable once they leave my program, so they get picked up by contractors whether it be up there in Rapid City or wherever they go to. We also have the Oglala Sioux Tribal Housing Authority, where I currently have four of my past cohort participants who currently work for them.”

But Kills Back says participation goes beyond learning trade skills.

“We also work on that individual as a whole. Holistically, we help them learn their culture. We teach them how to pray, every morning we give thanks we smudge each other off, offer a prayer, and we get out and start with our day. The core participants have the opportunity to learn our Lakota language, the opportunity to participate in our customs and practices like our sweat ceremony.”

Kills Back says eligible applicants include enrolled members of any federally recognized tribe between the ages of 18 and 26.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Wilton Rancheria Tribe in California is facing flood damage on and around the tribe’s traditional site due to flooding of a river.

CBS 13 reports tribal burial grounds are being threatened and tribal officials are asking the public to report any sightings of remains or artifacts to the tribe.

The tribe is also seeking to work with local and state agencies on assistance for those impacted by the flooding.

A flood watch is in place for the Sacramento Valley as other storms are expected to hit Northern California this week.

The Wilton Rancheria is located in Sacramento County.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is continuing to recover from devastating winter weather.

The tribe has been dealing with a winter weather emergency from storms and extreme cold since December.

Tribal administrative leave was granted Tuesday and no travel advisories are in place.

Area schools are not expected to start until later this week.

Residents have faced power outages, food, wood, and propane shortages.

There have also been fatalities after people have been trapped in their homes buried by snow.

Rosebud officials told the Argus Leader last week that at least six people have died including a boy with health issues, elders, and those who were unhoused.

The tribe has been working with various agencies and organizations for assistance.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe has also been dealing with a winter weather emergency.

Last week, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster declaration for the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona.

The order helps with federal aid for the tribe’s response and recovery efforts from flooding in October.

The funding is available to the tribe and certain nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for work and repair of flood damage.

The declaration is issued as the reservation prepares to open for tourism.

The reservation has been closed to tourists since March 2020 due to COVID-19.

The 2022 flooding impacted trails and bridges needed for tourism.

Tourism is expected to re-open on February 1.

A popular tourist area is the tribe’s blue-green waterfalls located below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

The California Highway Patrol will be sending Feather Alert notifications to the public when an Indigenous person goes missing.

The Feather Alert Program is now available as a resource to law enforcement agencies investigating the suspicious or unexplainable disappearance of an Indigenous person.

The Feather Alert will provide immediate information to the public to aid in the missing person’s swift recovery.

State Rep. James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA) championed the Feather Alert bill.

Ramos says California has the greatest population of Native Americans in the nation and is the state with the highest rates of reported cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Here’s Ramos last year at the state capitol in Sacramento talking about the bill, and missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“The rates of murdered and missing people in Native American communities is a shameful state and national tragedy that does not receive the scrutiny and attention it deserves. We are excited about this alert system, but even more excited about the growing momentum the momentum to tackle this issue not only from Indian Country by non-Native people, the California Highway Patrol, as well as the state legislature.”

The Feather Alert bill became law in 2022, and was supported by a number of tribes, law enforcement groups and Native health organizations.

Tribal leaders, advocates, and law enforcement officers met with Ramos in December for a roundtable to discuss the Feather Alter’s implementation in 2023.

MGM Resorts International has announced the sale of land where a 2017 mass shooting took place in Las Vegas to the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, 8 News Now reports.

The property is a 15-acre open lot on the Las Vegas Strip.

The price for the lot was not disclosed.

It reportedly does not include a couple acres MGM gave to the county to house a permanent memorial.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

An initiative by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is honoring tribal communities with highway signs in both English and Native American languages.

The Sokaogon Chippewa Community in Mole Lake is the latest, as WXPR’s Katie Thoresen reports.

No matter where you go in the country or state, highway signs for places are fairly uniform. Giant green signs with big block letters in white mark the location letting you know what town or city you’re in.

A new sign recently installed in Mole Lake prominently reads Sokaogan Chippewa Community with the tribe’s seal beside it. But different from the vast majority of similar signs you find across the state, this one includes the tribe’s name in their own Ojibwemoin language.

“Zaaga’inganiin. It’s a spiritual, cultural light that was in the water. It’s part of our teaching and our migration stories, teachings that came about a long, long time ago.”

Sokaogon Chippewa Community Chairman Robert VanZile was proud to unveil the new sign in a ceremony alongside community members and officials from federal and state transportation offices.

“It’s very positive. It’s heartwarming to see these dual language signs come to life. It’s an ideal that should have happened a long time ago, but it’s happening today and that’s a good thing.”

The Sokaogon Chippewa Community is the fourth tribe in Wisconsin to install a dual-language sign.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation launched the initiative in 2021.

Wisconsin DOT Secretary Craig Thompson would like to work with all of the tribes within the state to get these signs up.

“It’s become a priority and bring back native languages. This is one way we could help and participate in that, but it’s also important for people in Wisconsin and people traveling through Wisconsin to know our history, know when they’re entering these sovereign nations, and to see it in the initial language. We think it’s important on all those fronts.”

And it is that sovereignty that VanZile hopes people will think of when they see that sign.

“I think it’s important to share our language, our culture, our identity, along with our sovereignty. When you have your language, your culture, and your identity you have sovereignty. That’s what we want to express to people.”

Tribal, state, and federal officials hailed the removal of four dams along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon line as a major step toward restoring a once-thriving watershed.

Christina Aanestad reports.

It was a decades long battle, but soon, removing four dams along the Klamath River will open up hundreds of miles of wild river habitat to salmon, a fish that is sacred to nearby Native American tribes.

“My dream is to not only bring the salmon back, but bring back a way of life.”

Karuk Chair Russ Attebery was among the tribal, federal and state leaders who gathered to celebrate the largest dam removal project in the country.

Work begins next year, completion set for 2024. But Chair Attebery says more work will remain for decades to come.

“There are ways we can actually restore those creek and streams that feed our rivers and plants and understand mother natures way and
combine ecological knowledge and knowledge of observation from generation to generation with modern science. That’s the best way to
go.”

Removal of the dams will also return California’s second largest river to a free flowing wild river for the first time in more than a century.

The Red Lake Nation in Minnesota is preparing for its community wellness gathering.

After a two-year hiatus, due to COVID-19, the gathering will kick off on January 9 at the Red Lake Nation College.

The goal is for people seeking solutions and opportunities to improve their quality of life, to foster success, and to overcome addictions, health issues, trauma, and grief.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the death of a homeless Fairbanks man who was found frozen to death during last week’s extreme cold snap.

KUAC’s Tim Ellis has more.

Troopers identified the victim as 55-year-old Charles Akiviana of Fairbanks.

They say they got a call on the morning of December 23 from a man staying at a hotel off Old Airport Way reporting that he’d discovered a frozen body in a snowbank.

A National Weather Service meteorologist says temperatures dropped to about -32 degrees F on the night of the 22, and the wind chill the next morning was -54 degrees F.

Troopers and Alaska Bureau of Investigation officers responding to the call recovered Akiviana’s body and sent it to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

They found a tent in the woods nearby containing his belongings, including a wallet.

City housing coordinator Brynn Butler says her office wasn’t aware of an encampment in the area, but she learned Tuesday that there are about a half-dozen tents there.

“I will be sure to reach out to any of our people who bring out services to encampments, and see if we can verify the number of people there and get them into housing, like emergency shelter.”

Butler and another Fairbanks homeless advocate says that depending on the outcome of the autopsy, Akiviana’s death could be the first case of a homeless person in Fairbanks freezing to death this year.

Brenda McFarlane coordinates the city’s Crisis Now program, which promotes mental-health services for the homeless. She says the need for those services is growing, And she says it’s especially important to work with Fairbanks-area nonprofits to assist the homeless during winter.

“When we have temperatures like this, there are many agencies that are reaching out and telling people about resources.”

Tribes in South Dakota are still reeling from the recent blizzard that left many stranded without vital resources.

That’s prompted renewed calls for improved aid to make it through future weather events.

Mike Moen reports.

The storm cut off roads to areas such as the Pine Ridge reservation, forcing some residents to burn clothing and furniture to stay warm.

State Rep. Troy Heinert (D-SD) is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and says the conditions there were extremely dangerous, too.

Rep. Heinert says tribes already have limited resources and can only do so much to prepare.

“Considerable investments in roads and bridges and equipment; manpower is going to be needed if we’re going to continue to have storms like this.”

He calls on local, state and federal leaders to ensure infrastructure needs and emergency planning for tribal areas receive priority.

In response to the current storm, South Dakota’s governor ordered expanded National Guard missions to help affected tribes, including hauling firewood from the Black Hills Forest Service.

Rep. Heinert says that assistance was a huge help, but notes residents are still having trouble getting to their livestock.

Tribal governments have their own emergency preparedness plans, but often lack enough snow removal equipment to prevent snowdrifts from swallowing up fields, as well as surrounding roads.

“What we found down here in Rosebud is we had no place to put the snow. There was so much and it was so deep, and it was so heavy.”

And because first responders had trouble reaching homes, Heinert and other local leaders say a 12-year-old boy died after suffering a medical emergency.

Because of term limits, Rep. Heinert won’t be back in office in the new legislative session, but he says he will continue to serve as a voice for remote tribal areas in need of additional support.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.