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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council is lending its support to bills in the New York legislature seeking to ban the use of Indian mascots, names, and logos in public schools.

The tribe gave feedback on amendments made to bill S1549C (A5443E). The tribal council stated for years that they’ve been helping raise awareness on the derogatory and harmful manner in which Native mascots are often used by public schools and entities across the state and country.

According to data from the National Congress of American Indians, there are more than 100 schools and 55 districts in New York state that use a Native American related mascot. Previous versions of the bill were introduced in 2021, but were not brought to the floor for a vote.

The council is hopeful the new legislation will pass and be signed into law. It calls for the removal of mascots and imagery by September 2024.

The top leader of the Navajo Nation is supporting President Biden’s nominee to lead the Indian Health Service.

President Jonathan Nez spoke before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs this week giving his approval of Roselyn Tso to serve as director of the IHS.

Tso is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and is currently the director of the Navajo Area IHS. Nez praised her decades long work in public health and helping the Navajo Nation respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is because of her extensive experience working with federal and tribal governments that we are confident that she will continue to promote federal trust responsibilities and enhance our nation-to-nation relationship to improve the Indian Health Service delivery throughout Indian Country. We are pleased the Biden-Harris administration has honored the request of tribal leaders and nominated an IHS director who understands the challenges experienced by our Indigenous communities. We fully support President Biden’s nominee.”

At the hearing, Tso vowed to work to improve health care for Native people and address challenges at IHS if confirmed as director. The IHS provides care to more than two million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Ahead of North Dakota’s June primary, an advocacy group is working on the Native vote hoping to expand access for Native voters now and in the future. Mike Moen reports.

A record number of Native American candidates are seeking various offices in North Dakota, including nine for legislative seats. Nicole Donaghy of North Dakota Native Vote says their latest work involves creating maps and compiling data that measures the cost of voting for those living in tribal areas with limited polling sites.

“We really want to draw that picture of how these decisions are made without the communities in mind. And so, what stands out is that there is a cost to voting when you have to drive 40 miles one direction in order to get to the polling place.”

This effort is still taking shape, but she says they eventually want to illustrate how the economic burden to cast a ballot affects turnout. Meanwhile, her group recently took part in a meeting of county auditors and has been in touch with state election leaders.

Donaghy says it helps in boosting awareness for things such as a voter ID event held this week on the Standing Rock Reservation. She says issues such as education, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and longstanding barriers in accessing quality health care are on the minds of Native voters.

In the end, Donaghy feels many in these marginalized communities are still just trying to get a sense of whether policymakers are actually listening to what they have to say.

“People want to be in the know. People want to know what’s happening. Why should we vote? Why should we vote for this candidate?”

Next week, North Dakota Native Vote is hosting an online candidate forum featuring Indigenous candidates for the state legislature.

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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales

President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as director of the Indian Health Service says, if confirmed, she’ll work to improve the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health and wellbeing of American Indians and Alaska Natives served by the IHS.

Roselyn Tso testified Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. (READ or WATCH her testimony)

A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she was nominated in March. She currently serves as Director of the Navajo Service Area IHS.

Tso says she has nearly four decades of working at and lived experience using the Indian Health Service. She says working with tribes and other partners is key to providing care, which was seen during the pandemic.

“Throughout my career at the Indian Health Service I have worked to improve the agency to better meet the needs of the people we serve. This was most evident throughout the pandemic where I saw and was part of a true partnership with the Navajo Nation, the San Juan Paiute Tribes, the local, state, federal and private partners to combat COVID-19.”

If confirmed, Tso says she’ll strengthen and streamline IHS business operations; develop systems to improve accountability, transparency and patient safety; and address workforce needs and challenges.

IHS delivers health care services to more than two million American Indians and Alaska Natives. Her nomination to serve as the Director of Indian Health Service is subject to confirmation by the full Senate.

Calls to hold federal agencies more accountable for the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people are growing, including in Washington, D.C.

Here’s Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) during a recent committee hearing: “Now, Miss Ella Mae Begay went missing from the Navajo Nation in June of 2021, but her and over 9500 missing Native people are not listed in either database.”

The combined number of cases listed in databases from the Department of Justice and Bureau of Indian Affairs amounts to roughly 60. An Indian Affairs official pointed to the lack of data due to a personnel change.

Grant money will help some areas improve internet service for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe in South Dakota. The pandemic has highlighted the need for improved connectivity in Indian Country. Mike Moen has more.

The federal government says $77 million will be shared among tribal governments in 10 states, to be used for things like new equipment and creating affordable internet service programs. Sherry Johnson, education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe, says many local students weren’t able to be fully connected with teachers when schools were shutdown.

“This really affected our children – with our academics, our test scores – and we definitely can see that in our data.”

She says reading and math scores saw declines. But with this funding, the roughly 700 homes on the Lake Traverse Reservation will get more reliable service, and schools will be equipped with devices like Chromebooks.

Johnson says that puts families in a better position for future distance-learning scenarios. She says some homes already have service, but the bandwidth is low. Adding to the dilemma is a large land ridge that runs through the reservation.

“And at times, it’s really a barrier for our cell boosters and stuff [that] are needed to really pick up and have a good signal there.”

She says they’ll be able to buy more equipment to counteract those signal disruptions. The community will see other connection gaps addressed, including telehealth.

The two other grantees in South Dakota are the Cheyenne River and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribes.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows tribal areas trail the rest of the nation by 21% when it comes to homes with internet service.

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A First Nation is commemorating a painful anniversary. It’s been almost exactly a year since the remains of possibly more than 200 children were found at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, Prime minister Justin Trudeau attended a memorial gathering in Kamloops, B.C.

Trudeau says the unmarked burial ground set off a reckoning for Canadians about the country’s history and relations with Indigenous people.

“I hear you.  This is about remembering those we lost.  This is about gathering and reflecting where we are, and mostly where we need to go altogether.”

It’s been a year since the unmarked graves of 215 children were found at the former school site.  Trudeau added that this was a difficult year for survivors and their families and there is a long road ahead for reconciliation. Governor general Mary Simon also attended the gathering.   She said what was known by most Indigenous people, the suffering and loss caused by the residential schools is now known by all.

“But you haven’t yet had time to grieve, to make peace in your hearts.  I hope today contributes to that process of healing.”

Simon says the remains found has been called a discovery, but for survivors of the Indian residential schools, it’s a confirmation.  Simon is the first Indigenous person in Canada to hold the office of Governor General. The chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, Roseanne Casimir says she’s disappointed that the pope will not visit Kamloops when he comes to Canada next month. She’s still pleased that he will meet with other Indigenous people in Canada. Last month, Pope Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in running the residential schools.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe has filed a lawsuit against Lyman County in South Dakota for delaying a redistricting plan that would ensure the election of Native candidates to the county commission. The lawsuit alleges the delay prevents Lower Brule from electing two commissioners in the upcoming election. Instead, the Tribe will have one Native preferred candidate in 2024 and another in 2026. Victoria Wicks has more.

Lyman County has had an at-large election process since 1992. That means candidates running for the five commissioner seats can live anywhere within the county. Lyman County contains part of the Lower Brule Reservation and has a Native population of 38 percent. With at-large elections, no Native candidate has ever succeeded in winning a seat on the county commission.

To avoid a lawsuit, Lyman County and Lower Brule agreed that the county must establish two commissioner positions chosen by Native voters. In October 2021, Lower Brule proposed five single-candidate districts, two of them Native-majority and three white-majority. According to plaintiffs, that scheme was legal under existing South Dakota law. But in February, the Lyman County Commission enacted an ordinance establishing just two voting districts, one white with three commissioners and one Native with two commissioners. And the commission voted to delay the changes until after the next election. Lyman County then went to the state legislature and asked for a change in state law to allow the two-district plan. When the Senate State Affairs committee took up the bill on March 2, Lower Brule Tribal Vice-Chairman Cody Russell testified against that change.

“Because county commissioner races are staggered, Native voters will not have the chance to elect the two representatives that we should have until 2026.”

Russell said Native voters would be denied full rights for four years. And he said that Lyman County’s plan defeats the intent of the Voting Rights Act.

“This plan divides the county into Native and white districts, segregating us and deepening existing tensions.”

Russell is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They are asking the federal court to stop the delay and allow the election this year of two Native commissioners.

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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recently celebrated the restoration of a bison range with tribes in northwest Montana. Montana Public Radio’s Freddy Monares has this report.

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Chairman Tom MacDonald introduced Sec. Haaland to a crowd of several hundred people inside the Salish Kootenai College’s basketball gym on Saturday.

“Please let us give a big round of applause for my hero, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.”

Sec. Haaland says with the loss of tribal homelands and depletion of bison herds, tribes have lost traditional connections with bison.

“But in spite of that tragedy and loss, we are still here. You are still here. And that’s something to celebrate.”

Sec. Haaland says the restoration is a culmination of Native peoples’ resilience, conservation guided by Indigenous knowledge and the Biden Administration’s commitment to honor treaty obligations. She says it’s a return to something pure and sacred.

In late 2020, Congress passed, and former president Donald Trump signed, a bill returning management of the bison range to the tribes. The federal government unlawfully took the land in the 1900s.

Chairman McDonald says the bison range is more than a restoration of land for the tribes — it’s a restoration of a piece that has been missing and a gift to pass onto future generations.

“For us to share this story and began our healing journey here with the first American woman Secretary of the Interior elicits emotions in all of us that I cannot put into words.”

Despite the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, only a small number of cases are listed in federal databases.  The Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports, these omissions are getting noticed and drawing frustration.

During a recent committee hearing Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) pointed out there are nearly 10,000 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Yet, the combined number of cases listed by the Department of Justice and Bureau of Indian Affairs is roughly 60. 

“The goal of all of us is to bring more attention here. Undermining this is going to show that, oh, don’t worry, we got it under control. No one needs to do anything, and that’s terribly wrong.” 

A representative with the Bureau of Indian Affairs told the senator one reason for the dearth of info was a personnel change. He said shortly after the launch of their website, an employee responsible for data entry left.

Senator Lujan said his office is monitoring the number of cases, or lack thereof, listed in the federal databases. He urged federal officials to prioritize an issue that advocates say is slipping through the cracks.

Nineteen U.S. Senators are requesting the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hold a hearing on legislation to establish a truth and healing Commission on Indian boarding schools.

The commission would investigate, document, and acknowledge injustices of federal government policies, including attempts to terminate Native culture, assimilation and human rights violations. During a recent House subcommittee hearing on the House version of the bill, tribal leaders and advocates called for its passage. Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes testified.

“This commission’s purpose is not to point fingers, lay blame, or invoke guilt in people who are generations removed from these atrocities. It would simply help American Indian communities find information that would otherwise be unattainable and bring an opportunity for some assemblance of closure. We cannot go back and change the past, but we can and must hold ourselves accountable for doing the right thing today. The stories of human suffering at these institutions can no longer be hidden from view or ignored. It is time they take their place in public conscious.”

Last week, the Senators sent a letter to leadership of the Indian Affairs committee requesting a hearing.

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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales

A killer whale totem pole has made its journey through the Pacific Northwest to raise awareness of calls to remove dams from the Snake River. Through May, it made stops in tribal communities and cities, as Eric Tegethoff reports.

The Spirit of the Waters Totem Pole Journey began at the beginning of May in Bellingham, near the Lummi Indian Reservation where it was carved. Since then, it’s traveled through Oregon, Idaho and back to Seattle. Jewell James with the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers is its head carver. He said the pole is 16 feet long, weighs three-thousand pounds and sits on two carved, eight-foot-long salmon.

“A killer whale that has a baby whale on its nose to reflect Tahlequah, the whale that lost her calf and carried it around Puget Sound for 17 days and over 1,000 miles trying to get the message to us, the human beings, that we are killing them off.”

James says the journey is supporting the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ call to remove four dams on the lower Snake River in southeast Washington, which are impeding salmon migration. The salmon’s population drop in the Columbia River Basin in recent decades also has starved Southern Resident orcas in Puget Sound. Dam supporters say they are integral for barging and irrigation in the region. But James says there’s growing disappointment among tribes and conservation groups with lawmakers’ inaction as salmon near extinction.

“They’re more prone to protect the interests of corporations than they are the general public, and we find that a little frustrating.”

The journey has brought together tribal members, conservation groups and the faith community to call for the restoration of the Snake River.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) worked with the U.S. Department of the Interior for months in the development of the recently released federal Indian boarding school report to address the troubled legacy of boarding school policies.

The report found that from 1819 to 1969, the federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 federal schools across the country, and identified marked or unmarked burial sites at about 53 different schools.

The NABS is calling for more research and expanded work beyond the federal initiative. NABS board member Joannie Romero says it’s important to uncover documents and educate the public about Indian boarding schools.

“Have access to these records, to church records, to the National Archive, and to also really understand the intergenerational impacts of the trauma it’s had on communities and we’ve seen these ripple effects carried out through the federal Indian law and policy.”

Romero adds it’s also part of the healing process.

“Those who experience trauma while at school, and mourn the loss of their peers who never returned to their communities, and try to reintegrate themselves into Indigenous culture. In general, we see those effects today.”

The coalition is seeking the establishment of a commission to help locate records and gather information from former students and descendants.

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Anchor: Megan Kamerick

The first Native American U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will be in western Montana Saturday to help celebrate the return of the Bison Range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. MTPR’s Aaron Bolton has more.

The tribes earlier this year officially took over management of the Bison Range which was illegally taken by the U.S. federal government in the early 1900s. Sec. Haaland is scheduled to speak at the Salish Kootenai College Saturday afternoon.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Director Martha Williams, and Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras (R-MT) will be on hand as well to celebrate the return of the land with CSKT leaders.

“For us at CSKT, this is a step forward in the right direction. It was really righting a wrong in our history. We’re really happy to be reunited with our bison herd and the land out there and the resources,” said CSKT spokesperson Shane Morigeau.

The celebration will take place on Saturday. A community lunch and powwow will be held at the Bison Range on Friday.

Members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe will have free access to the beach in Massachusetts that bears the tribe’s name.

The Providence Journal reports the Narragansett Town Council narrowly approved the measure after a contentious four hour public meeting this week. The popular beach typically requires a $12 access fee plus parking.

The measure was unpopular with many of the town’s residents who say the beach is already overcrowded. Resident Joe Cardello reflected many people’s opinion that the action is poorly thought-out.

“To give a blanket three thousand—I don’t care who it is. I don’t care if it’s the Indians or anybody else. But I will tell you this. If you’re going to be giving a free pass to anybody in this town, it should be the taxpayers, because we pay the taxes.”

Narragansett tribal member Bella Noka reminded those at the meeting that the word Narragansett is not a town or a beach, but the name of a thriving nation. She says access is not about recreation or sunbathing.

“That is where we go to grandfather ocean in ceremony. Your homes, your big, beautiful homes. You dug up our ancient burial grounds to build them.”

The original idea came up during a roundtable meeting in February with tribal members and others.

A trial is underway in Alberta where two white men are charged with the murder of two Metis hunters two years ago. Roger Bilodeau and his son Anthony Bilodeau shot and killed Jacob Sansom and his uncle Maurice Cardinal after an encounter along a country road.

The Bilodeaus forced the confrontation because they suspected the two Indigenous men were thieves. The two men did not call authorities following the shooting.

Attorneys say the defendants opened fire in self-defense.

In California, the state senate confirmed the first Native American to hold a district judgeship.

Courthouse News reports Sunshine Suzanne Sykes was confirmed by a vote of 51 to 45. She would also be the first Article III judge in the country who is a member of the Navajo Nation.

Article III judges have lifetime appointments on federal district and circuit courts, as well as the Supreme Court. Sykes was previously a judge on the Superior Court of Riverside County in California.

The University of California Berkeley School of Law announced it will cover all tuition for current and future students who are both California residents and members of federally recognized tribes.

Reuters reports administrators say they want to make Berkeley Law a destination for Native American students. They hope to expand the program to students from federally recognized tribes who are not California residents.

Native Americans made up just 1% of first year law students around the country this academic year.

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Anchor: Art Hughes

A first nation in western Canada says it is looking into the deaths of more than 200 children who never came home from a residential school. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, one researcher calls the former school, the most horrific in Canada.

Eric Large is the lead investigator. He began his investigation earlier this year into the former Blue Quills Residential School near St. Paul, Alberta. Large began looking at burial records in February and says there are about 215 children, between the ages of six and eleven, who died, but whose remains were never accounted for.

“It can be safely stated that in our community of 12,000 people each family has had four to five children who went missing from this institution.”

Large says the number of missing children is extensive. He says the former school was rife with violence, illness, starvation, abuse and death.

A councillor for the Saddle Lake Cree Nation says a partial skeleton of a child was discovered when he was helping to dig new graves in the local cemetery, but there was no marking to suggest there was a grave there.

He wants the federal government in Ottawa to help pay for ground penetrating radar so that a more thorough investigation of the school site  can take place. He also wants a community wellness plan created to help people deal with the trauma.

The finding at the former residential school comes almost a year since a first nation in British Columbia confirmed, through ground penetrating radar, that 215 possible unmarked graves were found at the site of another Indian Residential School.

Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders in Canada met with Prince Charles as he wraps up his tour of the country. They’re requesting a royal apology for the abuses from residential schools.

The BBC reports Assembly of First Nations national chief RoseAnne Archibald appealed directly to the heir to the British throne at a reception in Ottawa.

Charles earlier briefly acknowledged the country’s past abuses of Indigenous people. He said it’s important to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.

A series of discoveries identified the remains of hundreds of people, presumably children, buried in unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools. Charles said he looks forward to the process of reconciliation in the country. A process he called “vital”.

A trial is underway in Alberta where two white men are charged with the murder of two Metis hunters two years ago. Roger Bilodeau and his son Anthony Bilodeau shot and killed Jacob Sansom and his uncle, Maurice Cardinal after an encounter along a country road.

The Bilodeaus forced the confrontation because they suspected the two Indigenous men were thieves. The two men did not call authorities following the shooting.

Attorneys say the defendants opened fire in self defense.

The U.S. federal government is preparing to return nearly 12,000 acres of land to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The land has been in dispute since 1948 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs followed through on an errant order to sell the land without consent from its owners.

More than 19,000 acres of land was sold off over the next decade. The band has been working ever since to have it returned.

Minnesota Public Radio reports the county’s stance to work collaboratively with the tribe helped bring about a positive outcome.

Photo: Xnatedawgx

The Metropolitan State University of Denver will provide Native students waivers for tuition and fees. The college averages anywhere from 70 to 100 Native students a year. The free tuition program is expected to cost about $200,000 its first year. The move follows action by the state legislature last fall to offer in-state tuition to any student that belongs to a federally recognized tribe with historical ties to Colorado.

MSU’s action is part of a small trend. In April the University of California system announced tuition wavers for any state resident belonging to a federally recognized tribe. The policy applies to all the schools in the UC system for undergraduate and graduate students.

And Oregon is launching a program to cover tuition, housing and books for members of the state’s nine federally recognized tribes seeking to go to one of the state’s public institutions.

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Anchor: Megan Kamerick

In Arizona, the state auditor general says officials managing the children’s health insurance program have wrongly ended coverage for some Native American children. Andrew Oxford reports.

State and federal regulations exempt children who are Native American from monthly premiums under the program, known as KidsCare.

But the auditor general found officials kicked 50 children out of the program between 2018 and 2021 because their families or guardians did not pay premiums, even though officials had documentation showing each child was exempt.

The auditor general also found 44 of those 50 children were still not enrolled in KidsCare or any other state Medicaid program as of October and raised concerns they may not have any health insurance at all.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which manages KidsCare, says it is putting new procedures in place in response to the report.

Six tribes and a group of conservation nonprofits in the Upper Colorado River basin have released a “shared vision” for the future of the river. KUNC’s Alex Hager has more.

Both indigenous groups and environmental advocates are pushing for more recognition in talks about how water is used. Tribes hold the rights to about a quarter of the river’s flow, but have been largely excluded from decision making for decades.

Jennifer Pitt with the Audubon Society says discussion of the environment was also left out of the river’s original governing documents.

“We do find that by working together, we can build each other’s capacity and try to bring some of these historically left out voices into the modern conversation.”

States and tribes are due to negotiate new guidelines for how the river is shared before 2026, when the current rules expire.

A new report by Amnesty International shows there has not been much progress in addressing sexual violence against Native American women since the last time the organization reported on the crisis in 2007.

Minnesota Public Radio reports at least 56% of Native women have experienced sexual violence and one in three have experienced rape. But officials with Amnesty said these numbers are likely lower than the actual number of cases because of a lack of data tracking by the U.S. government.

Tarah Demant (left) with Amnesty International USA told MPR the lack of commitment by the U.S. government is a complete failure of its human rights obligations.

The study also highlights the problem of unclear jurisdictions among federal, state and tribal governments and a lack consistent funding for law enforcement and prosecution. This is despite the passage of legislation to address the issue such as the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the Violence Against Women Act.

Amnesty is calling for the full restoration of tribal jurisdiction over all crimes committed on tribal lands and greater funding for law enforcement and prosecution as well as healthcare.

In Colorado, a law takes effect June 1st where schools that retain Native American mascots face a monthly fine of $25,000.

But as the Colorado Sun reports, it’s unclear who will collect that money since no agency has been empowered to do so. This is despite the fact the law was passed last year. The news site reports lawmakers considered closing the loophole this year as part of a school finance bill, but that didn’t happen. They may take it up later this year, but what that means in the interim for schools that violate the law is unclear.

The Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs told about two dozen schools to get rid of mascots that use Native American imagery. Those that refuse are supposed to send $25,000 to the state’s Treasury Department starting in June. But the Sun contacted schools who may be subject to the law. None of them planned to remit the fines.

The Commission is also deciding this week whether to add Thunderbirds to its list of derogatory mascots. This could add another seven schools to the list that may need to get rid of their mascots before June 1st.

General Counsel for the Ute Mountain Tribe Peter Ortego said the tribe likely is not interested in pursuing fines or punishment. Rather it wants the mascots removed and for schools to work with tribes to find a solution.

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Anchor: Art Hughes

Reactions from tribal officials to the U.S. Department of Interior’s report on boarding schools continue to come in. Leaders with the Navajo Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation say the report should be only the beginning of a larger process.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez called the report a starting point. He said he wants to see Interior follow up with plans to help Native families heal from intergenerational trauma due to the boarding schools and also create a more comprehensive report on each tribal nation’s experiences.

The report released last week identified 408 boarding schools that operated across 37 states from 1819 to 1969. There are at least 53 burial sites at those schools, which were designed to assimilate Native children into white culture through corporal  punishment and other abuse.

Rupert Steele, a boarding school survivor and chairman for the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation in Utah echoed the calls from Nez and said the federal government must address the disastrous results of boarding schools and the impacts on families.

Steele said “I call upon the United States government to use the opportunity to rebuild American Indian communities, revitalize our languages and culture, and provide us with the resources necessary to thrive.”

A new congressional analysis highlights the educational and economic barriers Native Americans continue to face. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports.

The report describes multiple entrenched systemic inequities. Native Americans lack equitable access to credit and financing. They confront roadblocks to education and jobs. And Indigenous people in the U.S. are facing persistent health disparities intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ryan Nunn (left) is with the Center for Indian Country Development. Some of his research is cited in the report. He says collecting more data is key to tackling these problems.

“So, for example, we really don’t know very much at all about tribally owned enterprises, which are incredibly important in Indian Country because they make up a big share of economic activity in tribal communities and they remit large revenues to tribal governments.”

Nunn points to some progress when it comes to federal data collection. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for decades omitted Native Americans from its monthly jobs report. That changed earlier this year.

Suggestions that Oklahoma tribes would establish safe havens for abortions against a strict new state law are “irresponsible’”.

That’s the word the Cherokee Nation used in a release in response to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK)’s comments over the weekend that tribes in the state could set up what he called “abortion on demand” clinics to get around the state’s new law that bans abortions after six weeks.

Gov. Stitt called the tribes “super liberal”.

In a written statement Monday, the Cherokee Nation attributed Stitt’s comments as “speculation” and a “disguised media campaign that is really meant to attack tribes and their sovereignty”.

No Oklahoma tribes have expressed intentions to build any clinics offering abortions.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is expanding its cultivation capacity, citing high demand at its new medical marijuana dispensary in South Dakota.

The tribe opened the dispensary 10 months ago. They are now planning two new structures, the first of which could be operational sometime this summer.

Tribal Business News reports the tribal dispensary employed 50 people and serves about 10,500 people registered as patients with the tribe. That’s compared to 425 patients registered throughout the entire rest of the state.

South Dakota voters approved a measure to legalize medical marijuana in 2020. 

Tribes and the U.S. Army are preparing another round of repatriations of remains from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

In a collaborative effort with tribes, Army officials are scheduled to assist in disinterring and moving the remains of seven children in July. One of those is only the second Alaska Native student to be returned.

The Portland Press Herald reports a Maine man aims to go to Carlisle, then escort his relative, identified as Anastasia Ashouwak, back to Kodiak.

Last July, the Army transferred nine Lakota children to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in a ceremony that culminated in a caravan of Lakota youth to South Dakota. Also last summer, the remains of one Alaska Native Carlisle student was returned to St. Paul Island in Alaska. 

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Anchor: Megan Kamerick

Tribal leaders and others are absorbing the impact of the recently-released report on boarding schools from the U.S. Department of Interior. An organization in South Dakota aims to honor children students who died at boarding schools in that state with a memorial project. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger reports they also intend to push for more follow-through from those responsible

The new federal report shows South Dakota had 30 boarding schools, the fourth most in the country.

Federal government policy forced assimilation for native children, including language and culture eradication.

Amy Sazue is Sicangu and Oglala Lakota. She’s the executive director of the Remembering the Children memorial project. Sazue says there’s more to come from the federal investigation.

“Very notably, it’s just a first step,” Sazue says. “Tons of records that still need to be located. Churches, offices, state offices and city offices that need to be held accountable. Graves and children that need to be found a protected.

So far, the investigation has identified at least 500 deaths at boarding schools across the country. It’s found 33 marked burial sites, six unmarked burial sites, and 14 locations with both marked and unmarked burial sites. The Interior Department says it will not disclose specific locations of burial sites, to protect against grave-robbing, vandalism, and other disturbances.

Local researchers previously determined at least 45 children died at the Rapid City Indian School, which is now the location of the Oyate Health Center.

The memorial project will honor those children at a spot behind West Middle School in Rapid City. The group will break ground on the memorial later this year.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt says he is concerned that tribes in the state are working to set up safe havens for abortion clinics following a new law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Stitt, who is Cherokee, told Fox News Sunday that tribes in Oklahoma are, quote, “super liberal.”

“We think that there’s a possibility that some tribes may try to set up abortion on demand. They think that you could be 1/1000 tribal member and and not have to follow the state law. And so that’s something that we’re watching. But I’ll tell you this, Oklahomans will not take will not think very well of that if the tribal member tribes tried to shut up abortion clinics abortion on demand in eastern Oklahoma, because the expansion of of tribal lands includes the city of Tulsa now, which is a million person MSA.”

Nearly 40% of eastern Oklahoma is reservation land according to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which makes those areas subject to tribal and federal laws. But KOSU radio reports under the Hyde Amendment, federal funds cannot be used to provide abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life, so any clinic providing abortions on tribal land would need to use private funds.

No Oklahoma tribes have announced any plans to establish abortion clinics on tribal land.

American Indians and Alaska Natives suffered the largest increase in firearm suicides from 2019 to 2020. Robyn Vincent with the Mountain West News Bureau has more.

Dr. Tim Simon co-wrote the new CDC report that showed this deep disparity. He says there are multiple factors at play, including poverty.

“Firearm homicide and suicide are associated with economic conditions and how racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in communities with high surrounding poverty.”

The report found that 24% of the U.S. population lived in counties with high poverty rates in 2020. For American Indians and Alaska Natives, that percentage was nearly double.

Dr. Simon says potential reasons for the increase in firearm suicides include a spike in gun sales and the many stressors people have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, there is help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255.

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