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Midway through his six-day visit to Canada, Pope Francis traveled from Edmonton to Quebec City and issued another apology for the abuses committed at residential schools. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the pope expressed shame and sorrow for the actions that took place at residential schools.

Before making his address at Quebec City’s historic Citadelle, the pope met privately with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, who is Canada’s first Indigenous governor general.

In his speech, Francis said the deplorable residential school system, which separated many children from their families, different local Catholic institutions had a part. And he again asked for forgiveness for the wrongs done by so many Christians to Indigenous peoples.

Before he spoke, Mary Simon called his visit an important step.

“I acknowledge and applaud what has been achieved. What Indigenous communities have achieved this week’s visit. It’s Indigenous peoples who worked, waited and prayed for an apology on Indigenous lands in Canada. They never gave up.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also described the visit as important, but also suggested it was only the beginning.

“As your holiness said, begging pardon is not the end of the matter, it is a starting point, a first step. Monday morning I was sitting with survivors and I felt their reaction to your apology. Each will take from it what they need, but there’s no doubt you had an enormous impact.”

Some Indigenous leaders have said the pope’s apologies have fallen short.

Earlier, crown Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said there were gaps in the apology that could not be ignored such as the omission of sexual abuses against Indigenous children at the schools, and that the pope had referred earlier this week to the evil committed by individual Christians, but not the Catholic Church as an institution. 

Kansas will be the first state to vote on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Next week, voters will decide if the state’s constitution should continue to protect abortion. Members of the Native American community are registering voters for the election. And as Rhonda LeValdo reports, some Native women say they’re concerned about an abortion ban and access to birth control.

The Kansas City Indian Center (KCIC) is part of the Native vote movement, not only registering voters in Missouri, but also in Kansas as they straddle the state line. They want to get younger voters engaged in the process by doing registration drives anywhere they can, Executive Director of KCIC Gaylene Crowser (Standing Rock Lakota) explains.

“There’s a ton of voting laws that people who haven’t voted before don’t know. We do like to engage young voters and get them into a lifetime of voting and let’s face it democracy is Indigenous, they got this from us.”

And as Kansas will be the first state to vote on an abortion amendment to their constitution, Carole Cadue Blackwood (Kickapoo) and Lawrence school board member says this vote is about treaty erosion.

“I am voting no because it will ban abortion and access to contraceptives. This is treaty erosion. As a Kickapoo woman we were forcibly removed, we were disposed of our land and placed in Kansas and we are going to have more laws regulating us and regulating our bodies. I don’t think people understand when you get down to it, it is treaty erosion.”

The Value Them Both Amendment vote on August 2nd will either uphold Kansans rights to abortion or potentially end them.

Drug overdose deaths during the early days of the pandemic spiked significantly among Indigenous populations. That’s according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aaron Bolton has more.

According to the recently published CDC study, drug overdose deaths nationwide increased 30% from 2019 to 2020.

The rate increased by 39% among Alaska Native and American Indian populations, nearly double the increase for whites during that same period.

The study found that health and economic disparities likely contributed to the spike in overdose deaths among Indigenous populations.

The study says overdose prevention efforts need to incorporate culturally responsive interventions and address poly-substance use in order to reduce drug overdose death disparities.

 

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Pope Francis continued his Canadian visit with an outdoor mass in Edmonton on Tuesday. Nearly 70,000 people attended the event.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, there’s still mixed reaction to the apology the pope made to Indigenous people on Monday for church run residential schools.

A day after the pope’s historic apology on Canadian soil, many Indigenous people are still talking about it with anger and sadness being expressed over the apology.

Elizabeth Sackanay is a residential school survivor. She says she does not accept the pope’s apology because he was forced to come to Canada to ask for forgiveness.

Sackanay says the Vatican has still not released files or documents related to the Residential School era.

“I would like the pope and the churches to get involved in what we’re doing. We’re doing healing. And we need help. He can’t just come to Canada and say I’m sorry. He’s got to touch base with us. He’s got to get his workers to help us heal in this journey.”   

The pope’s public mass in Edmonton has also been called a missed opportunity.

Corbiere Winkler, an Indigenous priest in Ottawa, says the mass could have been used to celebrate Indigenous traditions and cultural practices, but it was not.

The pope blessed and kissed babies and young children. And the mass focused on grandparents, the elderly, and the family. But Winkler says he was devastated when the eucharistic prayer was delivered in Latin, a language that many Indigenous students heard at the residential schools.

Later in the day the pontiff traveled to Lac St. Anne, north of Edmonton, to take part in the community’s annual pilgrimage.

Wednesday he leaves Edmonton and travels to Quebec City for the next stop in his six day visit.

Indigenous people continue to account for a disproportionate number of missing persons in Montana.

That’s according to the latest report from the Montana Department of Justice. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has more.

According to the report, Indigenous people accounted for nearly a third of all 2021 missing person reports in Montana, despite only making up roughly 7% of the state’s total population.

There were 650 reports of missing indigenous people last year, most under the age of 18. 

About two-thirds of missing indigenous people were located within a week’s time.

As of June of this year, eight indigenous people remained missing.

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, a large cultural gathering recently returned to eastern Oregon.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports on the 30th anniversary Tamkaliks celebration.

Dozens of dancers dressed in feathers, beadwork, and porcupine quills marked each pow-wow’s grand entry.

Regional drum groups played as well with a procession of Appaloosa horses circling the gathering for other events. 

The Tamkaliks gathering is for descendants of the Wallowa Band of Nez Perce who were forced off their lands in 1877 and pursued by the U.S. Army just shy of the Canadian border.

Bobbie Conner is one of the event organizers.

“We believe the land hears our prayers. Feels our footsteps on the earth. And the land is happy to welcome us back. But we also believe that there is a light in the earth that lights up when we bring ceremony to the landscape. And it lights up our hearts when we gather to celebrate this magnificent country that we come from.”  

Another event commemorated Native children who went missing during the boarding school era. 

One cause for celebration this year, besides renewing Tamkaliks, is the Nez Perce Tribe’s recent acquisition of 148 acres that formerly formed an ancestral village in the town of Joseph.

 

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It was a day filled with emotion for many Indigenous people in Canada as Pope Francis made an apology for church run residential schools. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the long-awaited apology took place on Canadian soil.

The pope traveled to Maskawacis, south of Edmonton, on Monday to the site of a former Indian residential school where he made history begging forgiveness.

“I am sorry (applause). I ask forgiveness, in particular for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities co-operated, not least through their indifference in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time.”

The Catholic church ran 60% of the government-funded, church-run residential schools. They operated from the late 1800’s to 1996.

Over more than a century, about 150,000 Native children were taken from their homes and forced to attend the schools.  Thousands were physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abused; their languages and cultures stripped from them.

Many Native leaders welcomed the apology saying it might bring closure to some, but for some it would also open old wounds.

George Arcand Jr. is the grand chief of the Confederation of Treaty Six First Nations. He says the apology is only the beginning.

“The wrongs of the past need to be righted. I see Pope Francis’ apology today as only a first step in the church making amends towards our people. After meeting with the pope and hearing his words today I believe there is a path forward.”

The pope also met with parishioners at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, Canada’s only designated indigenous church.

Today the Pope is holding an open air mass in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.

Lakota journalist Tim Giago is being remembered for his dedication to Native American news and Native rights. He passed away on Sunday. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.

Tim Giago was many things in the news world—a publisher, columnist, journalist, television personality.

He started several newspapers, including the Lakota Times, Lakota Journal, and Native Sun News.

Giago got his start in journalism during the Korean War when an editor for the base newspaper was transferred.

The commanding officer saw how well Giago typed and made him the editor.

Giago brought his newsgathering skills back to Pine Ridge Reservation, where he started his first newspaper.

Here’s Giago in 2021, talking about his start in journalism on South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s In The Moment.

“35,000 people on the reservation and we didn’t have our own newspaper,” Giago said. “I felt we needed to have something that would provide information, report the happenings in the school and tribal government and places that weren’t being reported upon. That’s the main reason I started it. Then I found out, going along, that there were things we could do as advocates for Indian rights.”

Giago’s papers led an investigation into bank housing loans that prompted the Department of Justice to look into unfair practices. Giago worked alongside Governor George Mickelson to form a year of reconciliation in 1990. He also wrote extensively about boarding schools in South Dakota.

“We worked together as colleagues and rivals for 40 years.”

That’s Mark Trahant, editor for Indian Country Today. Trahant says Giago leaves behind an extraordinary legacy.

“I mean, he took on subjects that are really well known, but when he started they weren’t. I think, perhaps, the greatest legacy, though, may be the number of people he inspired to become journalists. A lot of young people he opened doors for.”

Giago was 88 years old. Funeral plans have not been announced.

The FBI on Monday announced an effort to address missing and murdered Indigenous people in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.

A list of 170 names was released to improve reporting on missing Indigenous people and to draw attention to unsolved cases.

The list can be found online at fbi.gov/mmip.

 

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Pope Francis has arrived in Canada at the start of a six-day official visit. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, he’ll meet this week with residential school survivors and is expected to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the schools.

He arrived late Sunday afternoon in Edmonton, Alberta, where he was welcomed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon.

On hand were other church, Indigenous and political dignitaries.

In a message on his twitter account, Pope Francis wrote:

Dear brothers and sisters of #Canada, I come among you to meet the indigenous peoples. I hope, with God’s grace, that my penitential pilgrimage might contribute to the journey of reconciliation already undertaken. Please accompany me with #prayer.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 24, 2022

But the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Roseanne Archibald, was not happy that she was not included in the official welcome.

“We don’t feel it’s been about survivors. It has been about the church promoting the church’s idea. Fundraising for the church when they’re asking people to pick up their tickets. We have to focus on what we’re really doing here and that’s about survivors accepting or not accepting and listening to that apology from the pope.”

Chief Archibald says she’s also disappointed that there were no women in leadership roles for the Edmonton welcome.

The pope is to visit a former Indian residential school south of Edmonton Monday and is expected to deliver his first public statement in Canada, and he’s expected to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the church’s role in the abuses they suffered.

It’s estimated about 150,000 Native children were forced to attend the residential schools across Canada from the late 1800’s to the late 1900’s. Thousands were physically, sexually and emotionally abused.  Many died. 

More than 60% of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.

The Menominee Nation has announced a partnership with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to try, again, to open an off-reservation casino in Kenosha, WI.

Chuck Quirmbach from station WUWM in Milwaukee reports.

The Menominee made the announcement just hours after a village board okayed giving a company linked to the Seminole up to two years to buy 60 acres for the casino project.

This is the second collaboration for the Menominee and Seminole Tribes.

Seven years ago, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker blocked a casino plan. But Menominee Chairman Ron Korn, Sr. says his tribe is still looking for ways to support its members. 

“We have a really difficult time meeting the needs of the members of our tribe, and so we’ve always looked for ways to generate additional revenue to help meet those needs. That’s been our goal for a very long time, and it remains our goal today.”

Korn notes that Walker, a Republican, is no longer Wisconsin Governor. Democrat Tony Evers is.

“That would be my point of view maybe, that he’d be more favorable.”

The Governor’s office is only one of several government entities which would need to okay the casino. So would the city and county of Kenosha, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Evers says he’s a long way from making a decision. But he doesn’t rule out approval.

“I have approved casinos in the past. It’s not like I’m anti-gambling. In fact, I think the tribal nations of Wisconsin have the right to do that. I’ve approved sports gambling and some other things.”

But Evers is in a re-election fight against Republicans this year.

So the fate of the Menominee and Seminole project may not be known for some time.

Native journalist Tim Giago passed away on Sunday in Rapid City, SD.

He was a co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association and started several newspapers.

A GoFundMe was recently set up for Giago seeking assistance after he had major medical issues.

His family posted on social media that he passed away peacefully surrounded by his daughters and wife.

He was 88 years old.

 

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Pope Francis is set to arrive in Canada on Sunday for an official six-day visit.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, there are high expectations of an official apology on Canadian soil to Indigenous people for the wrongs done by the Catholic Church during the residential school era.

In the lead up to the trip, the pontiff sought prayers for his penitential Canadian pilgrimage.

Indigenous people are looking for this visit to bring healing and even action as the Catholic Church has failed to raise all the money it promised to compensate the survivors of residential schools.

Rose LeMay is the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group.

“My fear is that the apology will be words alone. And there’s been so many requests for the Catholic Church to do good on its settlement, its residential school payment.”

Also at issue are documents still held by the church relating to the residential schools and for those responsible for the schools to be held accountable.

The pope is scheduled to arrive in Edmonton on Sunday.

The following day he will meet with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people.

Tuesday he will celebrate mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, then take part in a pilgrimage to Lac St. Anne, likely to be the largest annual Catholic gathering in western Canada.

Wednesday he flies east to Quebec City where he will meet the governor general and the prime minister, and on his final day he will travel north to Iqaluit and meet with students of former residential schools.

 

The Inuit Circumpolar Council wrapped up its three-day general assembly meeting on Thursday.

The non-governmental organization represents Inuit peoples from four Arctic nations.

As Emily Schwing reports, Greenland will assume the chairmanship of the ICC for the next four years.

International chair Dalee Sambo Dorough of Alaska handed over leadership of the Inuit Circumpolar Council to Greenland’s Sara Olsvig.

“By acclimation and for the 2022 to 2026 term, congratulations Sara.”

Olsvig served in both Denmark’s and Greenland’s parliaments between 2011 and 2018. She is also a member of Greenland’s Human Rights Council and Constitutional Commission and an anthropologist.

She gave a brief speech to ICC delegates from Alaska, Canada, Chukotka, and Greenland.

“We are crossing uncharted waters. The pandemic has changed the conditions under which we work and the new geopolitical reality puts pressure on us as a people and to the world around us and on the Arctic as a whole.”

Olsvig says international security and safety for ICC members, including those from Chukotka, in Russia’s Far East is a priority as Russia continues its war in Ukraine.

“As an Arctic people, we Inuit are acutely and painfully aware of the difficult situation that we are in and we are in it collectively across the four nation states that we live in and we are going to row our boat slowly and in a careful manner in the years to come to make sure we are all in the boat.”

She also plans to continue the ICC’s focus on formal participation within the United Nations, including in both the Food and Agriculture and International Maritime Organizations to address concerns about food security and the impacts of increasing industrial marine traffic in the Arctic.

Olsvig says engaging Inuit youth perspectives in that work is paramount.

“I think that we have a task in both reaching and understanding what the youth expects from us as an Indigenous peoples organization.”

An emerging leaders initiative has provided the ICC’s executive council with recommendations that outline those expectations.

The ICC will hold an in-person gathering next summer in Ilulissat, Greenland. Canada will host the next general assembly in 2026.

This coverage is made possible with support from the Climate Justice Resilience Fund.

 

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The Inuit Circumpolar Council is holding its general assembly this week. On Wednesday, delegates from the ICC’s four member nations heard a report on how the organization has addressed food security among Inuit communities over the last four years. Emily Schwing reports.

The ICC is a non-governmental organization that represents more than 180,000 Inuit across the Arctic including in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka in the Russian Far East.

Natan Obed is the head of Canada’s Delegation.

“We have some of the highest rates of food insecurity in the world – between 60 and 70 percent in each of our Inuit regions and we know that we need to do much more to ensure that Inuit have enough food to eat.”

The delegations from Alaska and Canada developed the Food Sovereignty and Self Governance Project to examine and better understand food sovereignty issues.

The Alaskan delegation’s cultural sustainability advisor Vernae Angnaboogok presented findings from the project to the ICC.

“The food sovereignty and self governance project builds upon the recommendation from the food security report where authors noted that a key threat to our food security is the lack of decision making power and management.”

Vivien Korthuis is the head of Alaska’s ICC delegation; she noted that a changing climate has a heavy impact on food systems security.

“We are seeing immense changes in the ocean and on the rivers and in our land and weather. Our animals are moving around differently. We have experienced salmon crashes in our region and the impact of that is not just one or two years, it’s going to be for generations.”

The ICC holds a General assembly every four years.

Because this year’s meeting format is a hybrid in-person and virtual meeting, due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, leadership has opted to report on the progress made since its last meeting in 2018.

Alaska will hand over its chairmanship to Greenland at the close of this year’s meeting.

This story is supported by the Climate Justice Resilience Fund.

Native American businesses and Indigenous artists recently showcased their work in Billings, MT.

Yellowstone Public Radio’s Kayla Desroches visited the first Big Sky Indigifest where one business owner talked about Native American-made products.

Chippewa Cree tribal member Luanne Belcourt holds up a c-shaped braid of dried grass tied at each end.

“We grow it and we use sweet grass to pray. This is my favorite.”

Belcourt and her daughters run Cree-Ations, selling items like healing boxes that include sweetgrass for smudging, jewelry, and tea.

“We only sell products made by Native Americans.”

Belcourt says her daughters are artists, like her mother was. She recalls growing up and seeing items manufactured abroad and meant to look “Native American.”

“That’s not Native American. We have our own way of making things and we have our own philosophy behind some of the things we make.”

Belcourt says it’s critical for Native American creators and businesses to support and promote each other.

The organizers of Big Sky IndigiFest hope to make it an annual event.

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A resolution supporting the name change of an area in the Great Smoky Mountains known as Clingmans Dome back to its Cherokee name has passed the tribal council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.

The effort is being led by two Cherokee women who went before the tribal council last week.

Levita Hill and Mary Crowe are conducting research and meeting with Cherokee elders, language speakers and are inviting community members to join them in their efforts to return the name to Kuwahi.

Crowe says they’re seeking to gather input from Cherokee language speakers on the interpretation, spelling and pronunciation of the word, which has different dialects.

“Kuwahi, Kuwahi, however you pronounce it. We have different dialects and we understand that. What we hope to do is to come as a collective community group of elders, to us middle ones, to our younger folks. We see this as an avenue for the younger generation to learn to relearn who and what we are as a people creator placed us here.”

Crowe urged the council not to let a language barrier halt their efforts.

“That area and in itself to our people has been there for thousands of years. What we would like is to get council’s blessing so we can continue to work with those individuals who want to join us in getting this process up to the federal level.”

They’re hopeful the name change will be approved by the federal government, pointing to name changes taking place across the country including one recently in Yellowstone National Park.

The mountain is currently named after politician and Confederate Army General Thomas Clingman.

Resolution discussion (Courtesy EBCI):

 

This past weekend, the Coquille Tribe held its first-ever bass derby, in another effort to remove the invasive fish from their waterways by offering cash incentives.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the big prize fish is still at large.

Before the derby, the tribe tagged almost four dozen bass with microchips. Each carries different cash prize values.

Two hundred people showed up, and reeled in more than 2,000 small-mouth bass.

Some anglers won $50, $100, and $200. But one fish is still roaming the waters, with a $1,000 payoff.

Fred Fry is a commissioner with the Coquille River Port District and derby organizer.

“The better the price tag, the better the turnout. Smallmouth bass, they’re an invasive species, they’re not indigenous. And they’re unbalancing the ecosystem, and they’re eating all the small salmon fish, so we have a much diminished run before they ever get out to the ocean.”

The next derby is Labor Day weekend.

Details are on the Port District’s website.

Sponsors include the Coquille Tribe and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Walker River Paiute Tribe and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently signed a cooperative agreement to promote economic opportunities to farmers and producers. And, to increase access to locally sourced fresh, healthy foods for the community.

The tribal community, located in rural Nevada, will work with a local food program to source and distribute dairy, eggs, and produce to the reservation.

The program was authorized under the American Rescue Plan to improve food and agricultural supply chains.

The tribe is the first to sign the USDA Local Food Purchase Agreement.

Agency officials say additional agreements with tribal governments will follow in the coming weeks.

USDA is expected to award up to $400 million through the program to state and tribal governments.

 

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The Inuit Circumpolar Council is holding its general assembly this week.

The non-governmental organization represents more than 180,000 Inuit people across the Arctic.

As Emily Schwing reports, ICC last met in Alaska in 2018.

ICC members from Alaska, Greenland, Northern Canada, and Chukotka in Russia meet every four years.

Since their last meeting, the ICC has gained provisional status within the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency that sets international maritime law.

Dalee Sambo Dorough is the current ICC Chair. She says the new status is a first for an Indigenous organization.

“With the changing conditions across the Arctic Ocean, we felt it was necessary to gain consultative status within the IMO as an indigenous people’s organization to really advance our autonomous or independent voice within the IMO.” 

ICC has also become the first Indigenous people’s organization to gain observer status within the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

“This is huge in terms of the impacts of climate change across our homelands and our traditional territory including the coastal seas and sea ice.” 

Ahead of this week’s meeting, the ICC released new standards aimed at scientists, researchers, and policy makers. The new protocols layout expectations from ICC members on how best to engage in work that takes place on Inuit homelands across the Arctic. 

14th ICC General Assembly “Inuit – Strength and Peace” from Talking Circle Media on Vimeo.

Listen to Sambo Dorough and others discuss Indigenous involvement in international policy at the National Congress of American Indians mid-year gathering on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 in Alaska, during special coverage on KNBA.

Two Minnesota tribes are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the agency’s approval of changes to Minnesota’s water quality standards.

Last week, the Fond du Lac and Grand Portage Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit in federal court seeking a reversal of the state’s new water quality standards.

At issue in the case is the approval of changes to industrial and agricultural standards.

The tribes argue lowering water quality standards for use in those areas is likely to result in increased pollution downstream.

They’re concerned about water flow around and through reservation land, and threats to the land and water used for hunting, fishing, and gathering – especially for wild rice.

They argue protections are being rolled back in violation of the Clean Water Act.

According to the tribes, it’s believed to be the first lawsuit by any tribe in the country against the EPA over approval of changes to state water quality standards.

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York has been awarded more than $2 million in grants for suicide prevention.

The federal funds will advance programs for community members at risk of suicide; for prevention, intervention, and postvention; and for a zero suicide initiative project.  

Tribal and health officials say suicides and suicide attempts continue to have devastating impacts on the community.

They say contributing factors include the opioid crisis and COVID-19 pandemic stressors.

Health officials say they’re incorporating traditional practices, which emphasize asking for help is a sign of strength.

Assistance can be found at 800-273-TALK or text GOT5 to 741741.

Navajo basketball player Ryneldi Becenti is featured in the new web series Kids Meet.

“In any sport you have to learn how to win, you have to learn how to lose, but at the same time you still keep working hard to accomplish your goal.”

Becenti is the first Native American to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

The series is a collaboration between Sesame Workshop and HiHo Kids.

Sesame Street muppets join young people who lead one-on-one interviews with change-makers, highlighting an appreciation of diversity.

The two-part series includes Samantha Lopez, a dancer who happens to use a wheelchair. 

The episode with Becenti was released Monday on YouTube.

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A 10-week virtual coding camp for Native girls recently started to get young girls interested in STEM. In 2020, only 0.1% of engineers and scientists were Native women, as Taylar Stagner reports.

The Sisterhood of Native American Coders is in its third year.

The group puts together a coding camp for girls ages 9 to 12 and has participants from 89 different tribes. The group aims to expose young Native students to coding principles.

Founder Elizabeth Holm attends Stanford studying computer science. She says the group brings together coding mentors from across the US.

“Our goal is really to get them interested at that young age by exposing it to them, showing them how much how much fun it can be, and like how creative they can be with it, and hopefully inspiring them to continue onward in STEM.”

Holm said that the program was originally in person, but due to the pandemic moved online which allowed the group to include more girls.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez signed legislation into law on Friday, which provides more than $1 billion for infrastructure projects on the reservation.

The federal funds from the American Rescue Plan invests in water projects, electricity, broadband, housing, COVID-19 mitigation, public safety, and local community priorities.

It also provides additional hardship money for Navajo citizens.

A ceremony was held in Crownpoint, NM, which was streamed online and aired on Navajo radio.

President Nez says jobs are also being created.

“We have our Navajo people living off the Navajo Nation that are building homes for other people because they have to work out here. It is time to open back the door to the Navajo Nation and welcome back our Navajo professionals and young people back home.”

The signing represents the largest ever investment in infrastructure projects for the Navajo Nation.

The legislation was approved by the tribal council by a 20-2 vote during a special session in June.

In 2020, the tribe implemented more than $700 million in federal CARES Act funds, which invested in similar infrastructure projects.

Cankdeska Cikana Community College in North Dakota is celebrating the release of the book Mni Wakan, which is described as a tribute to the Spirit Lake Tribe’s traditional language and oral history.

Tribal college president Cindy Lindquist says the book will be part of curriculum and hopes to engage surrounding communities.

“Trying to help non-Native and Indigenous people and our respective cultures and languages. And then, as you get into understanding, there’s such richness, there’s such commonality among the values.”

It’s the third such book the school has issued and leaders say it coincides with similar projects carried out by tribal colleges and universities across the country.

On Thursday, copies will be given away during a public event.

Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) championship games will be streamed on ESPN+.

The games kicked off Sunday in Phoenix, AZ.

More than 400 games will be played this week in Phoenix-area gyms.

There are more than 130 teams comprised of male and female athletes ages 14 to 19.

The games will be available to watch on ESPN+ Friday and Saturday.

Organizers say this will mark the first time an all-Native youth sporting event will be featured on a major sports network.

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On the 110th anniversary of Sac and Fox and Potawatomi athlete Jim Thorpe’s July 15, 1912 Olympic win in the decathlon in Sweden, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reinstated Thorpe as the sole champion of both the decathlon and pentathlon.

Thorpe brought home two gold medals for the U.S. in the 1912 Olympic Games, but was later stripped of his wins for playing minor league baseball prior to the summer games.

The IOC declared he broke amateurism rules in place at the time. In 1982, replica gold medals were given to the Thorpe family designating him co-champion.

For years, his family and advocates urged the IOC to reinstate Thorpe as the sole champion saying he dominated the events.

Today, they say an injustice has finally been corrected.

His granddaughter Anita Thorpe says it’s great to hear the words officially spoken that Jim Thorpe is the sole winner, and it’s a glorious time of celebration for his friends, family and supporters.

The organization Bright Path Strong, tribes, and national Native organizations played a part in advocating for the reinstatement.

Bright Path Strong co-founder Nedra Darling says the truth has been upheld and there’s no confusion about the most remarkable athlete in history.

In 2020, Bright Path Strong launched a campaign to call on the IOC for reinstatement, which included an online petition.

Wisconsin officials are eyeing the removal of more sites with derogatory names as a federal task force narrows down replacement terms for 28 geographic features in the state. Danielle Kaeding has more.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Interior asked for public input on new names for 664 sites nationwide that use an Indigenous slur for women.

Those sites include 28 creeks, rivers, lakes, and valleys in Wisconsin.

Now, Tribal Liaison Kris Goodwill with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says they’re putting together another list of names.

“They’re going to probably complete the first phase before they start the second one, but we know that it’s coming. That is a process where we can submit other names we consider derogatory and suggesting that they be changed.”

As an Indigenous woman, Goodwill says replacing those names means a great deal to her.

“I don’t want an indigenous child seeing that and making them feel that they’re not a part of this community in the state of Wisconsin. Because they are.”

A federal task force will recommend replacement names for each site on July 25.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is set to make a final decision in September.

Native women’s advocates met in Washington, D.C. this week to address violence against women.

Advocates from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico took part in two days of meetings for the fourth convening of the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls.

The Department of the Interior hosted this year’s gathering on behalf of the U.S. government.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland discussed work to address missing and murdered Indigenous people, including the agency’s creation of the Missing and Murdered Unit to pursue unsolved cases.

Sec. Haaland also highlighted the Not Invisible Act, which established a joint commission with the Justice Department to work on reducing violent crime in Indian Country.

Athletes are taking part in the World Eskimo Indian Olympics underway in Fairbanks, AK.

The traditional games display preparedness needed for survival requiring strength, agility, and endurance.

Live coverage can be found on WEIO’s Facebook page through Saturday.

 

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