Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Texas cannot prohibit tribes from offering high stakes electronic bingo games. That’s the 5 to 4 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

It’s a major legal victory for the Alabama Coushatta and Ysleta del Sur tribes and a blow to the state that has worked for decades to prevent tribal gaming. The case boils down to who has the authority to control gaming.

Part of the argument from Texas relied on refuting precedent set in the California vs Cabezon Band of Mission Indians case which solidified tribes’ rights to pursue gaming.

That decision was instrumental in the subsequent Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). In this exchange during oral arguments in February, Justice Neil Gorsuch questions the counsel for the Texas Attorney General’s office on why the Cabezon decision should apply everywhere else, but be disregarded in this case.

In the majority opinion, Gorsuch wrote that the high court finds no evidence Congress endowed Texas law with anything like the power the state claims. The justices noted that Texas allowed charitable bingo while banning tribal bingo.

The decision says if the state doesn’t specifically prohibit the game, then it can’t impose the prohibition on the tribes. In a statement, the Alabama Coushatta tribal council chair said the court’s decision is an affirmation of tribal sovereignty and a victory for the Texas economy.

There are renewed calls in Canada from some Indigenous leaders for criminal charges for abuses at the country’s residential schools.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the calls come a little over a year since tribal leaders say they found remains of more than 200 children at the former residential school site in British Columbia.

Since then, the possible remains of more than a thousand children have been found at other former school sites in Canada and searches with ground penetrating radar are also taking place at even more sites.

Indigenous leaders say they are also searching for justice, especially against those linked to running the schools or were involved.

Rose LeMay is the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. LeMay says given the number and severity of abuses at the schools, she sees no reason why there should not be a criminal prosecution.

“I’m not entirely sure there was ever a good reason not to do criminal prosecution. What could it look like? It could be a national led investigation which could, conceivably be the RCMP. That raises some questions. The RCMP was likely one of the police forces that took many kids away from their families for the churches. The other question is whether it could be an international investigation such as the International Criminal Court to the Hague.”

The problem there is that the International Criminal Court does not investigate crimes prior to 2002. The last residential school in Canada closed in the mid 1990’s. However, LeMay says advocates want to see some kind of prosecution.

From the late 1800’s to the late 1900’s, more than 150,000 Native children were forced to attend the government-funded church-run Indian Residential Schools across Canada.

Thousands were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. Many died.

A citizen of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin is cleared of a murder charge after serving more than 17 years in prison for the crime.

Native News Online reports Danny Wilber is free from prison after his conviction for a 2004 murder at a house party.

Wilber largely acted as his own legal representative since he was put behind bars, but his appeal gained steam after a pair of forensic experts took up his case.

They concluded Wilber was convicted despite evidence that showed he could not have committed the crime. There were no witnesses who supported the prosecution’s case.

At the end of May, the Milwaukee District Attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The National Park Service is renaming one of Yellowstone National Park’s largest mountains to honor Native Americans. Parks officials say the original name is an affront to Indigenous people. The new name reflects recommendations from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council. Taylar Stagner from Yellowstone Public Radio reports.

Yellowstone National Park is changing the name of Mount Doane to First Peoples Mountain. It’s located east of Yellowstone Lake and settlers named the mountain after Gustavus Doane who has been cited as instrumental in the conquest of the area.

According to a Yellowstone National Park press release, Doane led an attack in 1870 against a band of Piegan Blackfeet and killed 173 Indigenous people including elders and children suffering from smallpox.

The event is called Maria’s Massacre and Doane boasted about that attack for the rest of his life. Tribes have been calling for the renaming of the mountain for many years. Two years after the massacre, Yellowstone was named the first national park.

Members of a Native American Methodist Church in Oklahoma said the congregation has been targeted numerous times by intruders who inflicted thousands of dollars of damages.

KCCO-TV reports officials with the church, located in Norman, thought the suspects were looking for money. Instead they left $10,000 worth of damages and stole candy and chips and drove a butcher knife into a table.

Reverend Justine Wilson said she thinks that was a message and many parishioners don’t feel comfortable coming back to the church until the suspects are caught.

The church had been raising money for a new sanctuary but that will now go towards repairing the damage.

Authorities in Brazil said on Tuesday they arrested a second man in connection with the disappearance of an Indigenous expert and a British journalist.

The New York Times reports officials were shifting from a search-and-rescue operation to homicide investigation. Police say they arrested the brother of a fisherman who was detained last week.

Journalist Dom Phillips was reporting on patrol teams that Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira helped create to tackle illegal hunting and fishing in the area – work that led to threats against Pereira.

Reuters reports the two were in a remote area that has the world’s largest number of uncontacted Indigenous people and has become a center for drug smugglers, illegal logging, and mining.

A Senate committee later this week will hold a listening session called “Cannabis in Indian Country”.

Marijuana Moment reports the Senate Indian Affairs Committee will meet on June 17.

Chairman Brian Schatz (D-HI) said it’s an opportunity for tribes to offer feedback to Senate staffers on cannabis issues.

In March, nine senators sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to direct federal prosecutors to not interfere with tribes that pursue cannabis legalization polices. The Department of Justice used to follow a guidance from the Obama Administration that embodied that kind of prosecutorial discretion.

But that was rescinded by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions along with another memo that sought to curtail prosecutions in states with legal cannabis markets.

The senators are urging Garland to reinstate that prosecutorial discretion.

A former tribal vice chairman and tribal council speaker for the Navajo Nation has died.

Edward T. Begay died on June 12. He was 87.

Begay helped secure the first gaming compact with the State of New Mexico.

He also led a delegation to the United Nations to advocate for the recognition of the human rights of the Navajo people.

Navajo council member Amber Kanazbah Crotty said, “Many of us are here because we were able to hear his words in fighting for our people and making decisions that are in the best interest.”

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Native Americans prosecuted in tribal court can be prosecuted again in federal court. That’s the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

The case involves Merle Denezpi, a citizen of the Navajo Nation. He was accused of rape, but was convicted of assault and battery in what’s known as a Court of Indian Offenses—a consortium of several Native nations that might not individually have the capacity to tackle court cases.

Following his conviction, he was released after serving less than five months in jail. Typically tribal courts can impose sentences of less than a year. He was then subjected to another trial for the same offense in federal court. There he was convicted of rape and sentenced to 30 years in prison. His lawyers argued the second trial amounted to double jeopardy.

The majority Supreme Court decision, however, concluded Denezpi’s separate trials were for violations of both a tribal ordinance and federal law, which are two separate things.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, though, is among the three dissenting justices, saying the case involved the same crime and same prosecuting authority” and the majority’s ruling is “at odds with the text and original meaning of the Constitution.”

Tribal officials are putting their support behind a bill to permanently ban new uranium mining near Grand Canyon National Park. They gave their testimony at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing. Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, for decades, Southwestern tribes have been some of the most outspoken opponents of mining in the area.

The Grand Canyon Protection Act would make permanent a 2012 moratorium put in place by the Obama administration on new claims throughout more than a million acres near the park.

The Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining heard from supporters of the legislation.

Havasupai Chairman Thomas Siyuja Sr. submitted written testimony calling for the protection of the area’s groundwater and urged passage of the bill. The Havasupai Tribe lives in the Grand Canyon and has resisted uranium mining for decades. They say it could threaten their lands, sole water source and very existence.

In addition, Siyuja said one uranium mine less than 10 miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon endangers Red Butte, a sacred site to the Havasupai and an origin point of the tribe’s creation story.

Advocates for the bill, including U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) who sponsored the legislation, say the more than 600 active uranium claims near the canyon could eventually turn into mines without a permanent ban.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Grand Canyon Protection Act last year.

The uranium industry says new mining methods are safe and won’t contaminate area aquifers.

Minneapolis Indigenous restaurant Owamni won the restaurant world’s highest honor.

The James Beard Foundation awarded the restaurant the Best Restaurant in the nation at a ceremony at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

Chef Shawn Sherman says he hopes the award helps to encourage more Indigenous restaurant openings.

Sherman opened the restaurant on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in 2021 with co-owner Dana Thompson.

The two received a previous James Beard award for their cookbook The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen.

Listen to Shawn Sherman’s 2019 conversation on Native America Calling

Listen to Dana Thompson’s 2021 conversation on Native America Calling’s regular feature The Menu

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is planning a visit to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

The in-person appearance is intended to highlight the benefits of the Rosebud’s portion of federal America Rescue Plan money to offset the effects of the pandemic.

One tribal official told Reuters the 191-million dollars in ARPA money was a “lifesaver” for the tribe.

Officials say much of the money will go toward building affordable housing for tribal members living on the reservation.

Reuters reports there’s no record of any treasury secretary visiting any Native reservation.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The National Congress of American Indians placed CEO Dante Desiderio on administrative leave just as the organization starts its mid-year conference in Anchorage.

In a written statement, NCAI President Fawn Sharp called the timing of the action “inopportune”, but says it’s “necessary and proper to fulfill governance duties and to abide by NCAI’s policies and procedures.”

The statement declined to provide any additional details. NCAI’s conference in Alaska is the organization’s first in-person conference in almost two-and-a-half years.

Meanwhile, Indianz.com paints a picture of dissatisfaction with NCAI from member tribal leaders and points to an inability to connect with members, slow progress with hiring goals, and continued high staff turnover.

NCAI says Desiderio is not separated from the organization and that team leaders from the executive committee will take over day-to-day duties and ensure the mid-year conference continues operations as expected.

In Oklahoma, a Cherokee Nation gaming subsidiary will pay $450 million for a Mississippi casino, currently owned by MGM Resorts.

KODE and the Las Vegas Review Journal report the tribe plans to expand gaming outside of Oklahoma with the purchase. The Gold Strike Tunica casino is located on the Mississippi River about 30 minutes from Memphis and has over 1,100 luxury rooms. It features high stakes gaming as well as a conference center and dining.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment Gaming already owns and operates the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa and nine other tribal casinos. It’s also pursuing another casino in Arkansas after regulators issued the state’s final casino license to the tribe in late 2021.

The U.S. Army has begun another disinterment at the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School to reunite the remains of eight Native American children with family members.

WITF reports the children were from the Washoe, Catawba, Umpqua, Oneida, Ute, and Alaskan Aleut tribes.

It’s the fifth such disinterment with the remains of 21 Native American children returned to date. The school was operated by the Department of Interior from 1879 until 2018 with the motto “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”

More than 10,000 children attended the school from approximately 50 different tribes and more than 180 died from hunger and disease.

Starting in 2016, some remains began being returned as tribes reached out to the Department of the Army.

The Army reimburses families for their travel to participate in a transfer ceremony. It also funds the cost for transport and reinternment.

The Portland Museum of Art and tribal leaders held a transfer ceremony recently to return nine objects of cultural patrimony to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

The museum said the objects were collected by a school superintendent in Wrangell and Skagway, AK between 1921 and 1944. After his death, the museum purchased them from a dealer in 1948.

The Central Council and the Wrangell Cooperative Association claimed the items in 2002 under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The objects included a Killer Whale Hat from the original Chief Shakes House Flotilla, robes, a Mudshark hat, Mudshark shirts, and the Storm Headdress.

Kathleen Ash-Milby (Diné) is curator of Native American Art for the museum.

She said in a press release that by returning these objects, the museum can begin to “repair a complicated history between Indigenous people and museums.”

The bodies of a missing Brazilian Indigenous expert and a British journalist may have been found in the Amazon rainforest.

The Guardian reports Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips went missing a week ago when they were returning from a reporting trip. An aide to the Brazilian ambassador to the UK gave the news to Phillips’ family and said the men were tied to a tree.

But federal police are apparently denying the aide’s comments. However, they did confirm personal belongings of the men and “biological material” had been found. That discovery was due to a small but determined Indigenous search team.

Pereira had faced threats for his work in the region where he helped 26 Indigenous tribes monitor and protect their land from illegal loggers, miners, hunters, and fishers.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Confederated Salish and Kootenai cultural leader Tony Incashola died this week at the age of 76.  Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has this remembrance.

Incashola was a key figure in the cultural revival on the Flathead Reservation in the 1970s. He served on the Séliš-Ql̓ispé cultural committee for decades and held the role of committee director since 1995.

CSKT Tribal Chairman Tom McDonald says Incashola’s time on the committee and as a tribal councilman in the 1980s touched every part of the tribe’s work, including the tribe’s takeover of the Salish Kootenai Dam and the expansion of the natural resources department.

“Every time we put together educational material, there was Tony being able to talk about the importance of this plant or this animal, talk about the importance of the landscape of a particular site.”

Incashola’s cultural knowledge also helped foster the Nkwusm Salish Language School in Arlee. Language Teacher Gene Beaverhead says Incashola was always there to answer questions and was instrumental in preserving many oral stories. But Beaverhead says like the passing of any elder, some of Incashola’s cultural knowledge will likely be lost.

“We’ve lost so many elders these last few years, we’ve lost so much. We still have some, but not like what we had. The stories they had were just irreplaceable.”

Beyond his cultural work, Incashola was a Vietnam War veteran and was known as a fierce community member, always calling youth sports games in his hometown of St. Ignatius. 

He left behind his wife Denise, their four children, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. 

Services will be held in St. Ignatius Friday.

The Washington State Supreme Court has temporarily halted evictions for seven households on Nooksack Tribal Land.

The court granted the injunction this week while it decides if it will take up the case, the Cascadia Daily News reports. The households involved are part of a group disenrolled from the Nooksack Indian Tribe and have been facing eviction for months.

Their attorney Gabe Galanda told KNKX his clients are Filipino and Native, and are being singled out for their mixed identity. He hopes the residents will be able to stay in their homes this summer.

The tribe wants the housing for enrolled tribal members, and in a statement said the tribe owns the land, housing, manages the properties and is the landlord. A decision from the court could come as early as next week.

For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Congress of American Indians is holding an in-person conference. NCAI’s mid-year gathering kicks off this weekend in Anchorage, Alaska, with the theme “Thinking Beyond Self-Determination.”

Tribal leaders from across the country will discuss top issues facing their communities.

Alaska is home to nearly half of the more than 570 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. The conference agenda is influenced by the Alaska Region.

Mike Williams is chief of the Akiak Native Community and NCAI Alaska region vice president.

“We look forward to engaging conversation about the Violence Against Women’s Act and implementing the Alaska pilot project to enhance the safety of our communities, land into trust issues to reacquire and protect our homelands, and environmental sustainability to secure our ways of life for future generations.”

The packed agenda includes a youth track. The NCAI Youth Commission has tailored activities and sessions to help develop the next generation of leaders.

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Celebration, the every-other-year gathering of Indigenous people in Southeast Alaska, kicked off Wednesday in Juneau.

Through Saturday, Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian people will participate in dances, arts markets, and cultural demonstrations.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating 10,000 years of cultural survival.”

Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl says the theme recognizes the many environmental, colonial and, more recently, pandemic-related challenges their people have overcome.

“We knew that we were going to survive that. I know our people suffered highly from it, but we still had the strong belief that we were going to survive and sure enough, here we are 10,001 years later, and prospering.”

Indigenous people were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in Alaska, accounting for nearly a third of the deaths from the virus. That included many elders and some of the last remaining Native speakers for several languages.

X̱’unei Lance Twitchell says more action is needed at the state level to help preserve Native languages.

“There’s probably 19 languages that are still going right now. And I think in about ten years it will be down to maybe ten, unless we do something.”

Official events began with the dedication of the institute’s new Arts Campus.

Worl says the facility will host classes aimed at preserving cultural practices and serve as the focal point of Northwest Coast Arts.

“We’ve already had basket training classes there, we’ve had tanaa training classes there, we’ve also had the box drum training. So, it’s not even formally open but our people are so anxious to use it that they’ve run in there, pushed things aside. And that’s just the beginning.”

There’s also a new 360 degree totem pole. Worl says it’s the first of its kind in Alaska and represents the cultural values of the three main Alaska Native groups of Southeast Alaska.

The Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, CA is bringing cast and crew of the Peacock series “Rutherford Falls” to its casino on Thursday.

The event is for the Native community with a focus on Native youth. More than 100 Native youth from across Southern California are expected to attend. They’ll be able to walk the red carpet and get a sneak peek of episodes before the new season premieres next week.

Youth will also hear from actors, directors, and writers. Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro says the event gives young people an opportunity to learn about the television and film industry.

“To be able to engage cast and crew members on both sides of the camera and talk about career opportunities, have Rutherford on the rez, and engaging youth to do a Q and A that was something that really appealed to us.”

“Rutherford Falls,” a comedy about two friends, features Native actors, writers, and producers. Macarro says Native representation matters.

“That can take a narrative that is not distorted and really begin to take and craft a narrative that is more in line with how I believe Indian tribes think the narrative should be when they’re talking about Indian people, Indian communities, tribes across the country.”

The second season of “Rutherford Falls” premieres on June 16.

This week, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota celebrated the return of reservation land.

The Band purchased more than 28,000 acres from the Conservation Fund. According to the Band, it’s the largest restoration of its reservation since the allotment era.

The land was taken by the federal government more than 100 years ago and sold to timber companies and homesteaders.

Plans are underway for the Band to manage and conserve the land while balancing economic and cultural benefits for the Band and its members.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Wild rice is in decline, so some members of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe in Wisconsin are turning toward another traditional crop for sustenance – flint corn. WXPR’s Erin Gottsacker visited the Golden Eagle farm, where a community corn garden is in the works.

Flint corn, also known as calico corn or Indian corn, has multi-colored kernels of deep purple, red and gold. It’s the type of corn cultivated by American Indian people hundreds of years ago to make hominy. In Lac du Flambeau, the Ojibwe tribe used flint corn to supplement a diet of wild rice and venison. Greg Johnson is a Lac du Flambeau tribal member, cultural teacher, and artist.

“If you went back 150 or 200 years, our people didn’t have pantries, they had birchbark baskets and they had both corn and wild rice.”

He says few tribal members still grow flint corn and make their own hominy.

But with climate change disrupting wild rice growth, he’s trying to bring the staple back.

“We’re all facing the same dilemma when it comes to wild rice. Wild rice is in decline, so I thought back to what my ancestors would have done. Just trying to provide food for our families and replace that wild rice that has always sustained us.”

Johnson and a dozen tribal members planted more than 40 rows of flint corn at the tribe’s Golden Eagle farm. When the corn is harvested in the fall, it’ll be braided and hung up over the winter, then boiled with maple ash in the spring to enrich the corn and turn it into hominy.

It’s a practice that dates back centuries, but one Johnson hopes can help tribal members deal with the more recent challenge of climate change.

Native cast members of the new television series “Dark Winds” say the show is providing an opportunity to showcase more Native talent both on camera and behind the scenes.

The drama follows tribal police on Navajo land in the 1970s, based on books by the late-non-Native author Tony Hillerman.

Zahn McClarnon, lead actor, says Native people adapted this latest TV version of Hillerman’s work from a Native lens and taking control of the narrative.

“We put together a team of Native writers, Native producers, Native directors, and Native crew. And Native consultants. So we were kind of telling Tony Hillerman’s stories from a different perspective…I think it’s a great step towards seeing Natives in their experience as normal allowing the public, the audience to see that Native culture is American culture, it is American history, control of our stories is important.”

Fellow actor Jessica Matten agrees and points to “Reservation Dogs” and “Rutherford Falls,” as other productions with Native representation in the mainstream.

“We’ve kicked down the doors and now I feel there’s this responsibility to make sure that those doors stay open, that this isn’t just a trend in a moment in time, but that we actually through the exposure we’re getting now, we’re able to humanize Native people in a global way. We are still a small population in comparison to other cultures who get more exposure whether that’s in cinema or television or in any other facet.”

The “Dark Winds” production crew included two Navajo cultural consultants, used a Native-owned studio, and filmed on Pueblo lands in New Mexico.

The series premieres on AMC on June 12th and this Friday, Native America Calling devotes the full hour to “Dark Winds”.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Mint celebrated the release of the Wilma Mankiller quarter Monday in Tahlequah, OK.

The quarter is one of five designs in the American Women Quarters Program. The program is highlighting the accomplishments and contributions of trailblazing American women, including in areas of civil rights and government.

Chief Mankiller was the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. During the event, current principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin Jr., talked about Chief Mankiller’s legacy.

He says she helped lead the way in work to improve health care, address racial justice, and advocate for women’s rights.

“If Chief Mankiller’s legacy was summed up simply by what she did, my friends it would be enormous, but her legacy grows because her work continues to make an impact and I see it every single day. She keeps changing the world every time our tribe helps an elder, every time neighbors join together to make their Cherokee community a safer and better place to live, every time a kid applies to college or starts learning the Cherokee language.”   

T.V. Johnson with the U.S. Mint told the crowd the work they do at the Mint is connecting America through coins. He says the Cherokee Nation has been featured on dollar coins, but not on a quarter.

“This will be the first time a Cherokee member will be featured on a quarter. A coin that changes hands over and over again prompting anyone who sees it, not in the know, to say who is this? And, perhaps inspire a little girl or boy to become inspired about Wilma Mankiller and her remarkable perseverance contributed so much to the Cherokee people and people worldwide.”

The coin’s design depicts Mankiller looking to the future, wrapped in a shawl and the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation. The inscriptions are in English and in the Cherokee syllabary.

The release of the Mankiller quarter is the third coin in the program.

Before U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tested positive for COVID, he was scheduled to travel to the Cherokee Nation on Tuesday. Instead, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg will go in his place.

The tribe and federal agency are signing a compact and funding agreement to plan and oversee road construction and transit projects without having to seek federal permission and oversight.

While the deputy secretary takes the planned tour a road project and discusses electric vehicle initiatives undertaken by the tribe, Sec. Buttigieg is working remotely per CDC guidelines while he self-isolates and recovers from his mild symptoms.

Montana tribes later this year will receive the first round of federal funding for water and sewer projects on tribal land.   Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports, the money comes from Congress’ bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year. 

Montana tribes will receive just shy of $2 million this year for construction of new wells and lift stations as well as other improvements for tribal water and sewer systems.

Projects on the Crow Agency, Blackfeet, Flathead, Fort Belknap, and Northern Cheyenne reservations will be funded this year.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tribes across the nation will receive a total of $3.5 billion dollars for water and sewer projects by 2025.

Outdated water and sewer infrastructure has hampered the Blackfeet Nation in particular. The tribe has been unable to build a new drug treatment center and other sorely needed services because Browning’s water and sewer system is maxed out. The tribe isn’t receiving federal dollars to update that system during this first wave of funding. 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A large datacenter could be built near Polson, MT in the coming years. As Aaron Bolton reports, the proposal was pitched during a technology summit last week. 

Entrepreneur Brian O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful on the TV show “Shark Tank,” announced at the summit held in Bozeman his investment firm is working with the bitcoin mining company Bit Zero and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) to potentially build the datacenter.

“The demand for these centers is insatiable all around the world and the states that have figured this out have wind, have hydro, have solar. This is the future.”

O’Leary said the center could provide services to bitcoin miners and data storage for other web-based services. Most of the power to the facility would come from the Salish Kootenai Dam south of Polson on the Flathead Reservation.  

CSKT tribal council secretary Martin Charlo says the tribes are interested in the jobs the center could provide for locals.

“Our tribes have always been a people of vision and I believe that Kevin and Mr. Daines, Governor Gianforte, and Akbar are bringing this great vision to us.”

While the tribes say they haven’t committed to the project, they’ll continue looking into the datacenter to see if it’s a viable business opportunity.  

A candlelight vigil is planned Monday night in front of the White Mountain Apache Police Department in Arizona for fallen officer Adrian Lopez who was killed last week on the Fort Apache reservation.

According to police, Lopez was conducting a traffic stop Thursday night when an altercation occurred between the officer and the person operating the vehicle. Lopez was fatally shot during the altercation.

The suspect then took his police vehicle and fled the scene. The suspect was pursued by police and was involved in a gun battle where the suspect was killed.

Another officer was shot and transported to a Phoenix hospital for treatment.

A memorial has been set up for Lopez in front of the White Mountain Apache Police Department.

Lopez started with the department in January. His family flew to Arizona from California over the weekend and told ABC 15 they’re grateful to the community for their support and plan to take Lopez home to the LA area.

Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation is providing law enforcement assistance to the tribe. Ten Navajo Police Officers took the oath of office from a White Mountain Apache judge last week, which allows them to patrol and perform public safety duties on the Fort Apache reservation while the tribe mourns the loss of Officer Lopez.

The tribe is also receiving city, county, state, and federal support. 

The Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Mint are hosting a public event Monday to celebrate the release of the Wilma Mankiller quarter.

The quarter is one of five designs for the first coins in the American Women Quarters Program.

The four-year program features coins with reverse designs to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of trailblazing American women, including in areas of civil rights, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. 

Mankiller was the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and a well-known advocate for Native American and women’s rights.

The coin’s design depicts Mankiller with a resolute gaze, wrapped in a shawl and the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation.

The coin’s inscriptions in English are “United States of America,” “Wilma Mankiller,” “Principal Chief.”

The coin also includes the inscription “Cherokee Nation,” which is written in the Cherokee syllabary.

The release of the Mankiller quarter is the third coin in the program. The celebration is taking place in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

The U.S. Mint and the National Women’s History Museum will hold a film screening and panel discussion on Mankiller in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to central Alberta this week for a historic signing of a land claim settlement. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the government is paying out one of the largest settlements made to a Canadian First Nation.

The Siksika First Nation, east of Calgary, lost about half of its land in a fraudulent deal with the Canadian government more than a century ago.  That, after the government broke a Blackfoot Treaty promise.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau says the signing this week, which includes $1.3 billion, is to right a wrong from the past.

“This allows us now to move forward on solid-er footing having undone a little bit of the broken trust of many years of recognizing the harm that we did generations ago, but understanding as well as large as the settlement is it can’t undo the loss, the trauma, the intergenerational impacts of what was done by Canada.”

For his part, Siksika Chief Ouray Crowfoot says it’s now about moving forward.

“It’s about renewing that treaty, you know, the treaty took place 145 years ago a lot of the promises in the treaty were broken, but now it’s about having that relationship rebuilding, that understanding.”

Crowfoot says the settlement won’t make up for past wrongs, but it will make a difference in people’s lives and provide opportunities that they didn’t have before.

Each member of the First Nation will receive $20,000 from the settlement. Money will also be spent on issues that are important to the reserve such as policing on the First Nation.

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using the Navajo language to draw attention to unsolved homicide and missing person cases on the Navajo Nation. 60-second radio ads have aired across Navajo land seeking information on a cold case, offering a reward and giving out a toll-free tip phone number.

In 2020, field offices in Albuquerque and in Phoenix issued posters in the Navajo language and later started including audio clips with them.

Raul Bujanda is FBI Special Agent in Charge.

“The initiative was really to try and reach the communities a little bit better than we’ve done in the past. So, what we’re trying to focus on is trying to get the communication out there in a form that made sense. We’re great about talking and putting things together, putting messages out as far as an organization, but we knew we were missing the one piece, which is that we weren’t writing in the Navajo language and we weren’t communicating in the Navajo language. So, our primary focus was to do just that.”

Bujanda says the ads were not successful in gathering information, but says the FBI will try again in its efforts to solve cold cases on the Navajo Nation.

The ads aired in April and May on Navajo-language radio station KTNN-AM.

 

Tribal leaders from New Mexico met with top state officials Thursday in Albuquerque. They took part in an annual tribal summit to discuss issues facing their communities.

Indian Affairs Cabinet Secretary Lynn Trujillo says the state is closely working with tribes, collaborating on policymaking and strengthening government-to-government partnerships.

The agenda reviewed accomplishments and looked at future needs, including an outlook of the summer-water, drought and wildfires.

The summit was established in 2009 under the State-Tribal Collaboration Act to ensure tribes are included in policymaking and funding priorities. It provides a framework for the state and tribes to work together to develop services and programs to serve the Native American community.

There are 23 tribal nations in New Mexico.

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