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Blackfeet traditionalists and conservation groups on Wednesday appealed a federal court decision that reinstated a controversial lease in the Badger-Two Medicine.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports, this is the latest court filing in a decades long battle over oil and gas development in the traditional homeland of the Blackfeet Nation in northwest Montana.

The roughly 165,000-acre Badger-Two Medicine is a section of the Lewis and Clark National Forest along the Rocky Mountain Front.

The landscape is sacred to the Blackfeet people and is popular with recreationists and hunters.

A decades-long legal battle over dozens of oil and gas leases within the Badger took a major step in 2016, when the federal government canceled any remaining leases, including one owned by Louisiana-based Solenex.

In September, a federal court ruled that Solenex’s lease must be reinstated, saying the federal government lacked the authority to cancel the lease.

The Pikuni Traditionalist Association, which preserves Blackfeet culture, along with several conservation groups appealed that ruling to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. They maintain that like many other leases issued in the region in the 1980s, the Solenex lease lacked an environmental assessment and was therefore issued illegally.

A cannabis policy session at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) annual convention in Sacramento, California, was well attended Wednesday.

The Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association spoke about advancing tribal Sovereignty and Indian Self-Determination in cannabis.

The discussion looked at strategies and priorities in federal cannabis reform.

ICIA’s founder Rob Pero says the turnout for the session shows there’s much interest in the cannabis industry in Indian Country.

“Well, it’s been changing for years. What we want to do at ICIA is provide a platform for people to actually have discussions about it like who’s doing what, who needs help here, who needs help there and how can we fill the voids and our development of the cannabis industry in general. The narrative is ramping up and that fact that we had such great participation at NCAI, we are really excited about the future.”

The session featured special guest Gary Farmer.

The musician and actor is known for his role as Uncle Brownie in the TV series “Reservation Dogs”.

Farmer talked about his support for the cannabis industry.

NCAI continues Thursday with focus on water rights, the Indian Child Welfare Act, Indian education, climate resilience, the Farm Bill, and how to resolve tribal-U.S. disputes.

Higher education leaders, especially advocates for tribal colleges and universities, say they hope to see strong turnout for the midterms.

Mike Moen has more.

Cheryl Crazy Bull with the American Indian College Fund says because most of these schools are on reservations, they can’t rely on state support, only federal funding.

She says they hope to see voters research candidates who would make more funding a priority, so these schools could have more of a firm financial footing.

“We need people in Congress who support Native higher education, so that we can get the kinds of resources that we need.”

She says additional support could also help address gaps in Native students seeking financial aid.

During the pandemic, Congress has provided emergency relief to tribal colleges. But leaders testified before federal lawmakers that their funding levels per student remain inadequate, typically falling below the authorized level $9,000.

In Minnesota, Jacob McArthur leads economic development for the White Earth Tribal Government. He attended his area’s community college before moving on to a mainstream university. He says tribal schools or TCUs serve as a great bridge, especially for non-traditional students, whether they finish at another school or fill needed roles within their community.

“Our TCUs are really important for workforce development. It isn’t just about the two-year degree and putting you on the pathway towards a four-year degree.”

According to the Gallup Purdue index, nearly 75% of tribal college alumni said they were employed in areas related to American Indian communities or tribal lands, and many work directly with their tribe.

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First Nations groups and individuals have filed a $1 billion class action lawsuit against the government of Manitoba and the Attorney General of Canada.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the lawsuit is related to the child welfare system in the province.

The action was brought by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the First Nations Family Advocate Office, three First Nations communities, and three individual plaintiffs.

They allege the child welfare system in Manitoba failed the children, their families, and First Nations.

Cora Morgan is the First Nations Family Advocate with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

“You know the outcomes for our children in care have been homelessness, incarceration, mental health issues.”

Morgan says her office works to reunite families. She says it’s been successful at reuniting or preventing the apprehension of more than 4,000 children, but there are many still within the system.

The lawsuit covers children living off reserve who were taken by Child and Family Services and placed into foster care going back to 1992.

Of the 11,000 children in care in Manitoba, about 80% are First Nations.  

Plaintiffs also want an end to the practices and policies that result in First Nations children being removed from their families.

Morgan says the province has seen 150 years of what she calls stolen children, and the lawsuit finally gives a voice to those young people, and to parents and to First Nations communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau held a tribal consultation this week and a session at the National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention taking place in Sacramento, California.

The agency is sharing information and planning for the 2030 census.

But as Rhonda LeValdo reports, some NCAI attendees say, in tribal communities, there’s still a lack of trust of the federal government.

Counting the Native American population has had problems and Oglala Lakota citizen Cecilia Fire Thunder says the U.S. Census still needs help in engaging with tribes individually.

“We’ve not done a good job in the past census really counting all of our people from our communities, and so every year we talk about how can we do it differently? Today, the same thing. They throw all these PowerPoints up there, but no where did it say this community said this, this community said that. Sometimes the people don’t want to be counted because they said nobody pays attention to them. So, how do we reframe that? That their medicine at the health clinic is dependent on IHS, their children’s education at the tribal school is dependent of the Department of Interior, BIE. How do we create a framework for them to understand why it’s important to be counted?”

The U.S. Census is trying to include more Native voices in the process.

Dee Alexander, tribal affairs coordinator, explains.

“We’ve got tribal specialists we’ve hired full-time that are out there, boots on the ground, meeting with tribes talking about upcoming surveys. We’re also doing tribal consultation on the 2020 data that’s coming out, and so we’re constantly in communication with the tribes of what’s going on with the census.”

With a significant increase from 5.2 million to 9.7 million of Native Americans/Alaskan Natives and the next census eight years away, they are working to make sure every person is counted.

With less than a week before Election Day, Get Out the Native Vote, a non-partisan effort in Alaska, is hosting an absentee polling station this week in Anchorage.

Located at the Cook Inlet Tribal Council building, any registered Alaskan voter can complete their ballot at the location prior to November 8 from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 

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The National Congress of American Indians is hosting its annual convention this week in Sacramento, CA.

A group of Native people from disenrolled tribes came out to draw awareness to the disenrollment issue.

As Rhonda LeValdo reports, they’re asking the Native rights organization and its tribal membership to listen to them.

The general assembly kicked off Monday afternoon, as a group gathered outside the convention center to protest tribal disenrollment.

About 20 people advocated their cause to NCAI attendees who walked by them. They’re calling on NCAI to listen to their stories on disenrollment.

Cam Foreman explains why they felt the need to be there.

“To say that you support tribal sovereignty while you won’t condemn the desecration of ancestors, the banishment and abuse of elders who are sacred, that’s what NCAI says, to protect the Indian Child Welfare Act, yet children are being denied their right to belong, banished from their tribal communities. It’s not a membership issue it’s a civil and human rights matter and it needs to be condemned. It’s gone on for too long. This is just a small percentage, a tiny bit of the 11,000 that have been disenrolled from their tribes, homes and communities.”

Meanwhile, inside the convention, during the first general assembly, NCAI President Fawn Sharp conveyed the message that the conference was focusing on tribal sovereignty issues with the theme “Defending Sovereignty since 1944.”

“This year’s annual convention was going to be all about defending tribal sovereignty, that was before Castro-Huerta, that was before so many decision coming out of the U.S. Supreme Court. We knew that we have to gather all of Indian Country to strategically talk about tribal sovereignty.”

Protesters disagree and think the concept is disingenuous because they’ve been officially ejected from their tribes. 

The sovereignty theme is taking center stage at this year’s convention.

A sovereignty run from Oklahoma to California ended in Sacramento as the convention started to raise awareness on attacks on tribal sovereignty, and the recent reinstatement of Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Olympic wins

The National Congress of American Indians told National Native News it does not have a comment to provide at this time regarding tribal disenrollment.

The speaker of the Navajo Nation Council faces disciplinary action after a photo surfaced of him allegedly intoxicated during a recent family trip.

As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, a bill has been introduced that would strip him of his leadership position.

The photo shows Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon slumped over and appearing inebriated while sitting in front a gambling machine in Las Vegas, NV.

The image, which Damon called “unauthorized,” recently circulated on social media.

He told the council that he was, in fact, intoxicated and in a statement said he accepts responsibility for the incident and apologized to the Navajo people. But he stopped short of stepping aside as speaker and will instead let council delegates decide his fate.

Legislation introduced last week would put Damon on indefinite unpaid leave and require the approval of two-thirds of the council.

If it’s passed, chairs of four council committees will rotate as speaker pro-tempore.

Damon was on a family vacation to Las Vegas for the Indian National Finals Rodeo to support Navajo athletes when the photo was taken.

He said he was not on official Navajo Nation business at the time and spent no tribal funds.

Damon leads the tribe’s legislative branch and is in his second term as speaker.

He’s running unopposed for to his seat on the council in the November 8 election.

 

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A recent two-day meeting in Alaska revealed big federal budget shortfalls for marine mammals management in the state.

Emily Schwing has more.

The Indigenous People’s Council for Marine Mammals (IPCoMM) meets twice a year.

Scientists from federal agencies, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, join members to discuss marine mammal populations and subsistence resources across the state, but IPCoMM members say the federal agencies aren’t doing enough.

“It’s 100% a lack of funding and a lack of staffing on the government’s part.”

Raven Cunningham manages a Marine Mammal Program in a part of the state where a once-threatened sea otter population is now thriving. That’s having big impacts on the shellfish people gather for food.

Cunningham says stock assessments for subsistence resources and population surveys on sea otters haven’t happened in over a decade

“So, when we look at our take, as subsistence users, we can’t look at how that’s affecting the population or whether we need to take more or less.”

That was news to U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). He says federal management agencies are supposed to be counting animals, like sea otters, regularly.

“Part of that is just their basic job. The Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to be doing that already. Where the funding can be a little challenging is for these commissions.”

IPCoMM is made up of 18 marine mammals commissions and councils from across the state, and they all receive federal funding.

Ben Payenna sits on the Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council, which represents 15 Alaska Native tribes that harvest polar bears for subsistence. He says the group wants to create effective and cooperative management plans.

“If we don’t have the funding to do it, we just can’t. That gets a little bit frustrating when we are meeting to serve a purpose, but then we can’t fulfill our duties.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service declined to comment, but during IPCoMM’s meeting, a scientist with the agency said they were “out of money for just about anything.”

He says any funding for things like population surveys and stock assessments would have to come from Congress.

A new data project in North Dakota shows Native vote disparities when it comes to travel and cost.

Mike Moen reports.

The group North Dakota Native Vote teamed up with Joseph Robertson, a Native data scientist, on the initiative.

The resulting interactive web feature factors in a range of sources, including Census figures, recent gas prices, and available voting infrastructure.

Robertson says they were able to estimate the costs and travel times for someone from certain tribal areas just to cast a ballot.

He says the findings reveal real obstacles.

“We did a quick analysis through the Porcupine community on Standing Rock – and that trip to get to the post office or the courthouse in Fort Yates is about 60 miles roundtrip.”

When factoring in summer gas prices, the cost for that voting trip is more than one-thousand dollars per-100 people. There’s added costs if they’re mailing in their ballot or using a P.O. box.

North Dakota Native Vote’s executive director Nicole Donaghy says they’ve been able to engage with some state agencies about voting access, but hopes the data turns more heads.

“Access to the ballot is not equitable for people living on reservations. Now, that also could apply to communities that are not on a reservation that are very rural. And so, I think that the more knowledge that our officials have the better.”

Donaghy says the partnership brings data and important social matters together in a very productive way.

 

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Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has issued an executive order to investigate cases of missing people in a way that’s more empathetic to victims and families.

As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, it’s part of a federal multi-state initiative to address a crisis gripping Indian Country.

Nez and other tribal leaders met with FBI officials and prosecutors from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for the plan’s signing ceremony.

According to officials, the guidelines are part of a response plan both to find missing people and to help victims and families heal.

They hope it’ll serve as a template for the Navajo Nation to share data across local, state, and federal jurisdictions and collaborate on cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Nez says his order is designed to set a tone of hope and pioneer a new era of cooperation between the tribe, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the FBI.

For years, records of missing Native Americans have been incomplete or outdated.

In July, the FBI’s Albuquerque office launched a project to create a more dynamic and comprehensive list of missing people on the Navajo Nation. As of October 11, it included 192 names.

The Navajo Nation plan is among the first of 11 pilot programs begun in Indian County through the U.S. Attorney General’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative.

The more than 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation spans parts of northern Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums ended its conference Thursday with the largest attendance of more than 1,200 participants in Temecula, CA.

Rhonda LeValdo has more.

The theme of ATALM was intertwined cultures-stronger together, and many attendees agreed.

Gena Peone, Spokane Tribe and archivist with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, says this conference helps tribal nations with the storytelling aspect unique to them.

“I just think it’s important for each tribe to be able to tell their own stories and that there just hasn’t been a good forum for people to come together and tell that in a collective way. So, as more money becomes available, funding, you get more expertise because you have more tribal members that are pursuing education or experiences that deal with cultural preservation, exhibits all of those things and storytelling. I think everyone wants to assert their own stories.”   

Rick West, ATALM Board of Governors says they always want to highlight the work of Native people and the conference was successful in getting attendees to share their ideas. 

“I want ATALM always to be a generator…in making our voice heard, telling our own stories, keeping those stories, having them speak both to the past and probably even as important to the future, that’s what I want. I want ATALM to be always be identified with accomplishing those kinds of objectives.” 

ATALM 2023 will be held in Oklahoma City, OK next year.

Tribal leaders in California will discuss challenges in their repatriation efforts at an informational hearing at the state legislature next week before the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs.

Leaders are also expected to provide input about a proposed council under the oversight of the California Natural Resources Agency.

The council will evaluate projects and the distribution of $70 million to increase tribal access and co-management of public lands, and recommendations for returning tribal ancestral land.

The hearing will take place Thursday in Sacramento.

 

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The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal says that a $40 billion welfare settlement to compensate Native children and families does not satisfy all the requirements of the tribunal’s orders.

Dan Karpenchuk reports.

 The tribunal is urging the parties involved in the agreement to continue negotiating despite its decision.

Ottawa was ordered by the tribunal three years ago, to compensate First Nations children and families after it had ruled they had been discriminated against for years because child welfare services on reserve were not properly funded.

The initial deal announced at the beginning of the year would have awarded $40,000 to each child and their families that suffered. But the tribunal is now worried about the timeline for people to opt out and whether all children will get the full amount.

Cindy Blackstock is the executive director of the First Nations Child and Caring Society of Canada.

“It also turned out that some children would see their amount from $40,000 turn to nothing, and those are children who were removed during a child welfare investigation on reserve because their families were denied prevention services, but they may have stayed with friends, family, whatever. Our message to Canada and to the class action lawyers was make sure you don’t leave these people behind.”   

Blackstock says it’s not just a handful of children that are affected, but it could be in the tens of thousands.

The Assembly of First Nations says the tribunal’s decision is devastating. The government has also expressed disappointment in the tribunal’s decision.

The original agreement set aside $20 billion for individual compensation and $20 billion for long term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system.

The Alaska Federation of Natives, the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska, has endorsed Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) for Congress.

Rep. Peltola made history in September becoming the first Alaska Native person to ever serve in Congress.

She spoke before the Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Convention last week in Anchorage.

The Democrat talked about unity, and expressed her gratitude to the late Rep. Don Young (R-AK), whose seat she won in a special election.

In an exclusive interview with National Native News, KNBA, and KYUK, Rep. Peltola commented on serving Alaska Native and American Indian people, saying as a member of Congress it’s her job to uphold trust and treaty responsibilities.

“So often what I’ve seen is this relationship where an agreement is made and then a generation goes by and that institutional knowledge is forgotten of all of the concessions that were made to get to this treaty. Then the next generation wants more concessions, and then the next generation more concessions from Alaska Natives and Native Americans. I just think it’s really important that as we’re being approached with more concessions we all remember collectively this institutional knowledge of the compromises that were made to to get to that initial place.”

Rep. Peltola is running in the general election to keep her seat.

In a press release Wednesday, the AFN stated the Alaska Native community is determined to help elect representatives and partners to achieve further self-determination and legal empowerment as sovereign, self-governing Indigenous peoples.

The AFN has also endorsed U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums Conference underway in California honored guardians of culture and lifeways on Wednesday.

The Tribal Leader award was given to Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Miniconjou Lakota from the Cheyenne River reservation in South Dakota.

He is the 19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which he took on the responsibility at the age of 12.

He founded the World Peace and Prayer Day along with the Bigfoot Riders, which memorializes the massacre of Big Foot’s band at wounded knee.

He has opened many sessions at the United Nations.

In his speech, he called for peace and that everyone is a messenger to protect Mother Earth.

“What man has brought before us, all disasters you see, the prophecy of White Buffalo Calf Woman, return to your sacred sites, respect mother earth, in this way all nations will celebrate. I read the statement, we warned one day you will not be able to control what you have created, as I speak with you today, and you go home to your sacred sites, your homelands, remember that you are messengers. Remember the life creator gave us and the responsibilities. So, I speak to you in a humble and peaceful way in peace and harmony. “

The award takes its name from the sculpture that is on top of the Oklahoma State Capital by Seminole Chief Kelly Haney, whose message to the recipients and attendees is “Dream big, work hard, believe deeply. For this is just the beginning. Let us all rise to our potential.”

More than 1,000 people are attending the conference in Temecula, which wraps up on Thursday.

 

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There’s a long road ahead regarding reconciliation between South Dakota’s government and tribes in the state.

This could play a factor in the coming election.

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

While attending a recent Sioux Falls rotary club meeting, South Dakota Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith was faced with a question about reconciliation with the state’s tribes.

“We keep working towards it, but I think it’s something that’s probably never done, but the focus has to remain. The people that were first shouldn’t be treated last. So, I have a friend named Ed Iron Cloud, some of you might know Ed from Pine Ridge. He came, and he’s a real quiet man, he comes and sits in my office and kinda rocks. He said ‘Jamie, we gotta figure out how to make Native Americans be a part of the fabric of South Dakota again, instead of just being kinda over here.’”

Incumbent Republican Governor Kristi Noem has vocalized desires to improve state-tribal relations. But she has faced pushback on issues like tribal sovereignty over COVID-19 restrictions, as well as her so-called “riot boosting” act – which some tribal members saw as an effort to limit their right to protest.

Representatives from Noem’s campaign pointed to chapter eighteen of her book “Not My First Rodeo,” in which Noem says her guiding principal on tribal issues has been to quote “let me try.”

Smith described Noem’s administrative policy surrounding Native issues as “combative”.

“Covid was part of that – but I think we have to respect their sovereignty in making a different choice for their people. And when it comes to how do you work together through our issues, it can’t be us as a state going to the tribe and saying, ‘this is what you have to do.’”

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Kevin Killer says reconciliation plays a part in every facet of government.

“We need to look at all things that the State of South Dakota is involved in, especially around economic development, and how to open up those doors. And I know the Governor has the GOED program around economic development, and they have influence over how that’s administered. Things like that would go a long way.”

Killer also cited healthcare and law enforcement as issues he’d be interested in collaborating with state government on.

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums Conference is underway in Temecula, California.

One of the focuses is how to help tribal and nontribal cultural institutions work together as Rhonda LeValdo reports.

Full-day workshops started off the 2022 ATALM conference titled International Cultures: Stronger together.

In a presentation, representatives from federal repositories showed attendees how to search their collections online.

Historian Barbara Bair, curator with the Library of Congress, explains the importance of doing the training.

“We want to be welcoming and inviting and have a two-way relationship and learn from them.” 

Amy Mossett is director of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara education department. She talked about finding her grandmother’s recording done by Frances Densmore in the collections.

“I was able to hear my grandmother singing a garden song, I was able to share that recording.”

The Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian, and National Archives also were present and welcomes more people to search their collections as they are always updating the information they have, as well as contacting them if more guidance is needed.

 

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Advocates are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The court will consider the constitutionality of the decades old law, which is intended to keep Native children with Native families.

Mark Richardson has more.

Dozens of tribes and ACLU chapters in at least a dozen states have filed briefs urging the court to uphold ICWA.

Tedde Simon (Navajo) with the Northern California branch of the ACLU says many tribes still consider the separation practices cultural genocide.

“Anything that was Indigenous about them was scrubbed away and removed.”

The case was supported on appeal by conservative groups, who claim ICWA gives tribal nations rights not provided to other racial minorities.

Native advocates fear a reversal could change how the federal government interacts with tribal nations on major issues.

Simon, who serves as an advocate for racial justice and is a member of the Navajo Nation, says many Native Americans believe that when possible, keeping a native child in their Indigenous culture is in everyone’s best interest.

“All kinds of studies have been done showing that Native children have much better life outcomes across all of these indicators when they have the ability to be connected to their culture and their language and their heritage. ”

Simon adds that many Native Americans believe the case isn’t just about children’s rights but is also an attack on the power and authority of tribal nations to defend their gaming rights, restore tribal lands to reservations, and manage their water rights in the Colorado and other river basins.

“This has the potential to be the most important Supreme Court case relating to Native American people in our lifetime. If the Supreme Court is to rule ICWA unconstitutional, it would have potentially devastating impacts on tribal sovereignty and the existence of Native nations.”

A warning: the following story deals with sexual assault

Indigenous singer and songwriter Kelly Jackson, of Wisconsin’s Lac du Flambeau band, is using her music to raise awareness about violence against women.

WXPR’s Erin Gottsacker reports.

Kelly Jackson wrote this song, “Don’t Speak”, about a decade ago in response to a personal encounter with sexual violence.

“I wrote ‘Don’t Speak’ because I’m a survivor. It was my way of putting into music what my own emotional recovery was.”

She started performing the song for audiences, and quickly realized it resonated with a lot of people.

“People would come up to me and say, ‘oh my gosh, I’m a victim of sexual violence when I was in college’ or ‘this happened to me.’”

In hopes of opening up this conversation, Jackson recorded a music video for the song. It features a cast of real-life indigenous survivors – from a military veteran to a college student to a wife and children.

In the video, each woman stands alone as her world literally turns upside down.

“We had this beautiful set and the whole room itself literally tipped backwards 90 degrees,” Jackson described. “Everything falls. It’s like that point where you find yourself lost in the chaos following a traumatic event. I think watching everything come back up and the women dusting themselves off and the powerwalk forward was very moving for me.”

They walk off stage alone, then reemerge together.

The video is the centerpiece of a fundraising and awareness campaign to raise attention to violence against women.

Jackson is calling the effort “Impact Change.”

Proceeds will help her nonprofit assemble emergency care packages for victims of violence. She encourages people who want to support the cause to simply start a conversation.

 

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Authorities say they’ve arrested all three suspects in the shooting deaths of two people, and the shooting of an officer after a daylong, multi-agency search on the Colville Reservation in Northeast Washington.

KHQ News reports the search began after the Colville Tribal Police Department responded to a call about a shooting in the small community of Keller on Thursday.

Police found two people dead at the scene.

A tribal officer pursued a vehicle that matched the description provided by witnesses. He was shot in the arm during the chase. A news release from the tribe says he was transported to a hospital for medical care and is now in stable condition.

The campaign manager for an Arizona candidate for governor is drawing backlash for a tweet that included an illustration of a bloody ancient human sacrifice along with the words “Happy Indigenous Peoples Day”.

The Arizona Mirror reports Colton Duncan, who works for republican candidate Kari Lake, posted the image October 10 of a bygone ritual by a Mesoamerican civilization that lived nearly two thousand miles away.

Lake has previously described Duncan as “the most important person” on her campaign.

The tweet went largely unnoticed until a Democratic lobbyist and campaign consultant called attention to it.

Native leaders condemn the tweet and are calling for a public apology from Lake.

Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis called it “racist garbage” and says “Arizona’s Native peoples deserve better.”

National committeewoman for the Arizona Democratic Party Debbie Nez-Manuel, who is Navajo, says the tweet is inexcusable. Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes.

Former Arizona state Representative and Navajo tribal member Sylvia Laughter has died.

As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, she represented part of the Navajo Nation at the state capital for six years and was the first Navajo woman to serve as a lawmaker from her district.

Laughter was first elected in 1998 to the Arizona state House and represented a vast swath of rural northern Arizona that included many of the tribal lands in the state.

According to Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez’s office, she obtained crucial funding for programs that benefitted tribal members.

Laughter was the founder of the Navajo Code Talker Memorial Foundation and led the effort to construct bronze monuments to the revered soldiers in the tribal capital of Window Rock, AZ, as well as the city of Phoenix, the state capital.

She also sponsored legislation to create the state’s Navajo Nation license plate that still provides transportation revenue.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon says Laughter pursued justice and accountability and fought for her community and the tribe during her tenure.

He says Laughter secured more than 20 million dollars for education, veterans and elders.

According to a family GoFundMe site, Laughter had battled COVID-19 for 10 months before her unexpected death on October 15.

They write that Laughter was a quote, “advocate for freedom and truth.”

Funeral services were held over the weekend.

Marjorie Mejia, longtime tribal chairperson for the Lytton Rancheria of northern California, passed away unexpectedly of natural causes last week.

She was in her 60s.

The Richmond Standard reports during her 27-year tenure as chair, Mejia helped develop the small Sonoma County tribe.

She established the San Pablo Lytton casino, which made the tribe self-sufficient.

She also secured a homeland by building a master-planned community in Windsor.

Mejia helped expand infrastructure, businesses, investments, housing and healthcare.

She was recognized across the country as a distinguished leader for her hard work and devotion to advancing her tribe.

 

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The U.S. Justice Department is filing a lawsuit against Rapid City hotel owners accused of denying service to Native Americans.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Federal prosecutors accuse owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel and Cheers Sports Lounge of devising and implementing racially discriminatory policies this spring.

One of the hotel owners posted on Facebook that Natives were no longer allowed at the hotel and bar following an overnight shooting in their building in March.

Days after, Native Americans tried booking rooms at the hotel twice and were allegedly denied service.

Kristen Clarke is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the DOJ.

“Policies that prohibit Native Americans from accessing public places are patently offensive, racially discriminatory and have no place in our society today.”

The DOJ says the owners violated title two of the Civil Rights Act.

Nick Tilsen is the CEO of NDN Collective, an indigenous rights organization.

They filed an initial lawsuit against the hotel saying they were denied service.

Tilsen calls the move by the Justice Department significant.

However, Tilsen says it’s up to the community to tackle the issue of racism in Rapid City.

“If it wasn’t for us marching in the streets and if it wasn’t for us speaking truth to power. If it wasn’t for us having the courage to walk into Grand Gateway and get denied. If it wasn’t for the courage of us filing a lawsuit, the Department of Justice wouldn’t be doing this today.”

Defendants Nick and Connie Uhre did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) was greeted with exuberant applause and a standing ovation at the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention where she delivered the keynote address Thursday.

She spoke to the convention’s theme of “unity”, although she deplored the pervasive political climate she said is filled with negative political messages that inspire fear, distress, and worry.

“They’re Destructive. They’re acidic. They tear us down. There is no place for hate and fear and self-pity if we’re going to survive and thrive and overcome our challenges.”

Rep. Peltola (Yup’ik) peppered her speech with personal asides and memories.

She took time to recognize the family of long time Rep. Don Young who were in attendance.

Rep. Young died in March and Rep. Peltola won the special election to fill out his term.

She is on the November ballot to fill the seat on the November election.

The AFN gathering in Anchorage is the first fully in-person convention since the start of the COVID pandemic.

A rare white buffalo mounted at the Montana Historical Society will be returned to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports a ceremony was held Thursday to acknowledge the move.

Big Medicine was born on the Flathead Reservation in the 1930s.

He was not considered albino as he had a brown tuft of fur between his horns, but the slim odds of the local herd producing a white buffalo made him sacred to the Salish, Kootenai, and other tribes.

When Big Medicine died, he was mounted and eventually displayed at the Montana Historical Society in Helena.

The CSKT formally asked for his return this summer with plans to bring him back to the National Bison Range on the reservation where he once lived.

The historical society’s board voted unanimously to grant that request.

CSKT Tribal Chairman Tom McDonald spoke in a ceremony shortly after the vote.

“It’s a revitalization. His return will be very significant for us, can’t be overstated how important today is.”

The historical society plans to hold onto Big Medicine until the CSKT builds a facility on the bison range where he can be displayed.

 

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