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Advocates across the country are holding events this week to raise awareness about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports.

Last year, Congress designated May 5th a day of awareness. Native women and girls face murder rates more than ten times the national average. Northern Cheyenne member Hanna Harris is one example. Her death inspired the resolution in Congress. The 21 year-old went missing and was found murdered in 2013 on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana. May 5th was her birthday.

In Colorado, Gina Lopez, a Ute Mountain tribal member, is working with state lawmakers on a bill to create an office for missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“I’m an adult childhood sexual abuse survivor, and survived intimate partner violence as an adult. And these are unfortunately experiences that are all too familiar to our communities, to our sisters, to our moms.”

Advocates are using the day of awareness to elevate the Colorado bill. The state could join several others in our region that are trying to address this crisis. 

The possible overturn of Roe vs. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed heavily on women’s rights groups and supporters.  This included participants Wednesday at an annual observance of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Springfield, OR.

Samantha Fernandez is a first-year student at the University of Oregon and is of Klamath descent. She says losing abortion rights and access at the federal level would be harsh on an already suffering group, that’s seen inconsistent health care and disproportionate rates of sexual assault and domestic violence.

“For tribal people everywhere, it’s difficult. And they’re going to have to seek refuge in other states and it’s just going to make them more vulnerable. It’s just going to put them in an even tougher position and being able to protect themselves and speak out for themselves without facing any backlash, or anything like that.”

The event drew roughly 40 people, who heard poetry and remembrances of Native women either killed or who vanished without a trace.

The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma would remove any cloud on title to land, about 2.6 acres of farmland in eastern Illinois. In exchange, the Miami Tribe seeks a one-year window to bring its case to federal court to seek compensation for the land’s transfer and sale without Tribal consultation or payment. KNBA’s Tripp J Crouse reports.

Douglas Lankford is chief of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. He spoke before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indigenous People during a hearing on a number of related Tribal issues.

“All this bill grants to us is our day in court and we still have to prove our case, but the landowners in Illinois once it’s signed they receive immediate relief.”

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced House Resolution 6063 for equitable settlement of certain Indian land disputes regarding land in Illinois. The land was part of an 1805 treaty to the ancestral homelands of the Tribe, an area south of the Great Lakes and what are now the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Over time, the United States transferred or sold that land to non-Indians without negotiation or payment to the Miami Tribe. Because the Tribes say the conveyance happened through treaty-recognized title, it says it’s entitled to compensation for the loss. In exchange for the Tribe extinguishing the cloud on title, it seeks a one year window for the Tribe to bring its case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, but extinguishing the cloud of title would happen regardless of the Tribe’s court case.

“That’s really the biggest hurdle is once the law becomes law, is to take this and go win our case which we very much intend to do.”

In 2019, The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma worked with the Illinois Farm Bureau to draft legislation that would be fair to Illinois farmers.

 

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Tribal advocates are discussing the need to advance the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as the Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports.

Advocates say it’s a human rights imperative. The declaration recognizes Native peoples’ survival and self-determination, their land and culture, and political participation. Countries such as Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand are taking steps to implement it. Tribal leaders and advocates here say it’s time for the U.S. to do the same. For example, they want the government to have closer consultation with tribes on key issues.

Attorney Walter Echo-Hawk is a member of the Pawnee Nation. He says the Obama administration endorsed the declaration in 2010, but there’s been little movement since.

“We have no national plan here in the U.S. to attempt to implement the declaration and the Biden administration appears strangely silent on the implementation effort here.”  

Echo-Hawk points out the federal government is investing billions in protecting the rights of Ukrainians. He wants to see similar measures enacted here to protect Indigenous peoples.

This spring in the southwest Alaska region of Bristol Bay, the Traditional Council of New Stuyahok partnered on a program that connects rural communities with Alaska Native artists. KDLG’s Izzy Ross talked with one of those artists who wants to help people use art to heal.

Danielle Larsgaard, a commercial fisher and a domestic violence counselor, recently embarked on a new business endeavor: A traveling art studio called Aliiraq Arts. She wants to hold workshops on how people can use art to process emotions and address trauma.

“Bridging the gap between modern art and bringing back traditional art, our minds, our bodies, our hands, our souls. We heal best when we are practicing our cultural lifestyles, traditional lifestyles.”

Larsgaard brought her studio to New Stuyahok during the last week in April, as part of AmeriCorps’ Resilient Alaska Youth afterschool program. It partners with Tribes, schools and nonprofits in rural communities statewide to support youth activities. The program teamed up with New Stuyahok’s Traditional Council to have Larsgaard lead the art workshops.

She teaches a traditional drum-making class, where students craft 15-inch, sixteen-sided instruments. She also hosts an art therapy paint night with parents.

Mathias Suskuk with the Traditional Council says at least 22 kids participated in the workshop, so many that a few had to work on the project as a team.

“We started with drum making, we sanded the drum part – the circle thing – so it could be smooth for the deerskin we’re gonna use today. And then while that’s drying up, we’ll probably do painting.”

For Larsgaard, these aren’t just art projects; she wants to address the generational gap created by boarding schools and other historical traumas.

“A lot of generations didn’t learn how to preserve grass, or to go out and get hides and to stretch them and make drums and make rain gear and stuff like that. And so, with that generational gap, I’m fulfilling it with teaching these traditional classes for individuals who didn’t have an apa or an ama to walk them alongside and teach those things, or mom and dad to teach them how to live off the land or how to live off the water.”

The New Stuyahok workshops weren’t limited to kids in the afterschool program; the whole community was able to get involved. The Resilient Alaska Youth program will open applications for new community partners this month.

 

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The Yurok Tribe, in collaboration with national and state parks, are releasing two condors on Tuesday in Northern California’s redwoods. They’ll be the first to take flight in the region since the late 1800s.

The effort has been underway by the tribe since 2008. For the Yurok Tribe, the recovery of the species is part of restoration of the ecosystem and for the people responsible for taking care of it.

The condor plays a principal role in the Yurok creation story and is prominently featured in the tribe’s White Deerskin Dance and Jump Dance.

Yurok Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams-Claussen, in a video message, shares the importance of the restoration for future generations, including for her young daughter.

“She is going to grow up with condors in her sky for her entire life. She is not going to know what it is to miss condors. She will always live in relationship with condors, which is really what this project is all about — bringing condor home, back into our communities, back into our conversations, back into our households, and into the minds and hearts of our children on behalf of the hearts of our elders.”

The condors are voluntarily entering a designated staging area with access to the outside world. If the birds do not enter the transition zone by late afternoon a second attempt to release the birds will occur on Wednesday.  The carefully designed release procedure is part of a comprehensive management plan for the reintroduction. Two more condors will be released at a later date.

The New Mexico Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force is holding an awareness event on Thursday. May 5th is recognized across the country as National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. The group has been meeting virtually due to COVID-19 precautions.

Thursday’s event will take place in-person in Albuquerque. Members of the task force will discuss their response plan for the state.

Cabinet Secretary of Indian Affairs Lynn Trujillo talked about the importance of the May 5th awareness event during a task force meeting in April.

“To listen to our communities, to reflect on our work, our accomplishments and celebrate that and then continue to look forward and think about to what’s next for all of us.”

The task force was established in 2019 to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. Members have since released findings and recommendations to the state’s governor and lawmakers.

In California, tribal leaders, lawmakers, and the state Department of Justice will discuss violence against Native Americans at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Wednesday. They’ll take part in a press conference and legislative hearing to share what actions are being taken to reduce and solve violence against California Native Americans, particularly women and girls.

Assembly members James Ramos, chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs, and Cristina Garcia will host the news event in the morning on capitol steps.

Later in the day, the two lawmakers will chair a joint informational hearing on the issue. The hearing is expected to include testimony from law enforcement, tribal leaders and advocates.

 

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to hold advisory committee meetings next month regarding COVID-19 vaccines, including emergency use for younger children. Currently, adults and children five and older are eligible for vaccines. There’s yet to be approval for children under five.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on Friday told a group of journalists the FDA has a written request for emergency use authorization from Moderna, but the FDA does not have complete data. Califf says they’ll act as quickly as possible, but stresses the need to analyze all information and data before making a decision.

“There will be no delays, but we can’t set dates until we see what’s in them.”

Vaccines for younger children could become available as early as June. That’s when advisory committee meetings are tentatively scheduled.  Califf says they’re waiting for Pfizer’s application.

He took part in a question-and-answer panel in-person at the Association of Health Care Journalists 2022 conference in Austin.

Advocates with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition would like to see the Catholic Church apologize to American Indian and Alaska Native people for the church’s role in U.S. Indian boarding schools. The coalition also would like the church to make available boarding school and mission records to tribal nations, tribal citizens, boarding school survivors or descendants, and Native organizations to review. This follows Pope Francis’ apology in April to Canada’s Indigenous people for the Catholic Church’s role in the Indian residential school system.

Healing coalition board member Joannie Romero says the pope’s apology is a step.

“There’s so much momentum happening right now and much like our Métis, our Inuit, and First Nations relatives in Canada, we want an acknowledgement as well in the United States. And, it’s important to also understand each community and their respective experience are going to be very different as what they define as reparations, what that could look like…I think the next opportunity would be for the pope to come to the United States and begin having those conversations with our communities.”

Healing coalition deputy chief executive officer Samuel Torres says the coalition has helped with legislation in Congress to establish a truth and healing commission similar to the one in Canada.

“Canada is in some ways, shape or form a bit ahead of the United States as it relates to work of the coalition. We helped to write both HR 5444 and Senate Bill 2907 the Truth and Healing Commission Bill on Indian Boarding School Policy Act. We are generating a lot of interest doing a lot of education work and advocacy around the bill, but this is work that needs to be codified into law and needs to be included within the political discourse of the United States.”

The healing coalition is seeking a response from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops about efforts in the U.S. to address the harms committed against Indigenous people across the country.

The pope’s apology to Canada’s Indigenous people followed meetings at the Vatican with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit delegates in late-March to the beginning of April.

Quapaw Nation Chairman Joseph Byrd has been selected to represent eastern Oklahoma as a liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice.

He’ll serve on the Tribal Nations Leadership Council representing the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Eastern Oklahoma District, which includes nearly 20 tribes.

The council is set to meet with the U.S. Attorney General this month to discuss funding, the implementation of VAWA’s reauthorization, missing and murdered Indigenous people and public safety in Indian Country.

 

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Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) is asking Passamaquoddy Tribe representatives to drop their push for expanded sovereignty powers. The plea comes after efforts failed in the legislature to reverse a previous state law that restricts sovereignty.

Gov. Mills says continuing the sovereignty push could be a setback in tribal relations with her administration. The issue relates to the tribe’s efforts to drill new wells on tribal land for clean water to replace an unsatisfactory water supply. The state law requires the tribe to secure approval from the state which has so far not been granted.

In Utah, a U.S. federal appeals court says a tribal court ruling has no jurisdiction in a water dispute involving a non-tribal member. The Salt Lake Tribune reports the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Ute Tribe’s court overstepped its bounds when it ordered a stop to the irrigation water to a rancher’s operation that includes tribal land.

The appeals court says the tribal court has no authority over non-Tribal members. It also affirms a previous decision that the tribal court’s jurisdiction applies only to cases that affect the Tribe’s political integrity, economic security, or health or welfare. The tribe maintains the water is reserved for tribal members under an agreement dating back to the reservation’s founding in 1861.

So far, Fairbanks city elected officials remain opposed to reading a Native land acknowledgement at the start of city council meetings. The city council rejected a resolution to do that in March. Native leaders asked them to reconsider saying it’s a matter of history and a matter of respect. Dan Bross from KUAC reports.

Speaking during the public comment portion of a council meeting, several local Native leaders expressed disappointment with council members Jim Clark, Gerry Cleworth, Lonny Marney, and Aaron Gibson voting against the land acknowledgement resolution last month. Fairbanks Native Association executive director Steve Ginnis recounted Clark’s response to a letter from Native organizations about the land acknowledgement.

“He stated that there are many cultures contributing to the community and singling out would divide rather than unite us.  Councilman Clark’s response was the most honest one we received, and one which we whole heartedly disagree with,” said Ginnis.

Member Jim Clark said he remains opposed to the required reading of a land acknowledgement at council meetings.

“If the City singles out an acknowledgement, it’s also excluding, and so for that reason I’m just against any type of acknowledgement.  And I think we can just agree to disagree on that, but it doesn’t diminish any type of respect,” Clark said.

Member Jerry Cleworth repeated his position that a land acknowledgement is better displayed in the council chambers along with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and other historical documents.

Dartmouth College has returned a collection of historic 200 year old hand written papers back to the Mohegan Tribe. Dartmouth officials returned the papers in a repatriation ceremony. The papers were written in the 18^th century by Samson Occom, a scholar and member of the Mohegan tribe.

The collection includes letters, diaries, sermons, and a page of Indigenous herbal remedies. Occom wrote in five languages: English, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Mohegan.

Dartmouth experts say the papers contain what is believed to be the earliest example of written Mohegan language.

The Mohegans have been pushing for Occom to receive more recognition for this role in the founding of Dartmouth.

 

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Both sides presented oral arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to address jurisdictional concerns by the state of Oklahoma since the landmark 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma decision.

That 5 to 4 ruling went in favor of the tribes who maintained the state never properly dissolved reservations and so major crimes involving Native defendants belong in the purview of the federal government, not the state.

The current case asks whether the state has authority to prosecute non-Native defendants who commit crimes on Indian land. A ruling in the state’s favor would narrow the scope of the McGirt decision.

During the arguments, outgoing Justice Steven Breyer noted a ruling in favor of Oklahoma in this case could overturn what has been a longstanding practice in all 50 states.

Some doors to higher education are opening up and some barriers are coming down for Native Americans in California.

The University of California is offering full scholarships to Native Americans to any campus in the U.C. system.

U.C. President Michael V. Drake announced plans to offer free tuition to all Native Americans from more than a hundred federally recognized tribes in California.

The effort is part of a new program called  the UC Native American Opportunity Plan.

Right now, about 1% of the 280,000 U.C. students is Native American.

Across California, U.S. census shows 1.6% of residents identify as American Indian and Alaska Native.

Another group trying to boost the percentage of Native Americans in colleges is launching a special summer camp with that goal in mind. The aim is to offer resources, support and assistance to high school students wanting to attend college.

The American Indian/Alaska Native College Prep Camp is happening June 6-10 in South Lake Tahoe. The camp will help prepare them for the application process, obtain financial aid and be successful at college life.

It will also feature activities to help the youth build self-esteem and see that attending college is an attainable goal. It will expose the teens to Nevada tribal careers. The camp is being offered by the University of Nevada Reno Extension.

Daniel Coen, American Indian student coordinator for Extension says, “The camp will help address some of the stresses that are causing American Indian students to not apply to college or complete degrees.”

A tribal college in northwest Montana is taking applications for a resource management graduate program that is the first of its kind in the country. Aaron Bolton reports.

The Salish Kootenai College launched the program this fall that aims to train the next generation of fire, wildlife, and forest managers in the Columbia River Basin in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

This is the first master’s program at the Pablo-based four-year school on the Flathead Indian Reservation. It’s also the first resource management graduate program housed at a tribal college in the U.S., according to the American Indian College Fund.

The Salish Kootenai College worked with the University of Idaho to develop the curriculum. In a press release, the school says it’s working to provide opportunities for faculty exchanges with the University of Idaho and the opportunity for Salish Kootenai students to do lab work at the university.

Applications for next fall’s program will be accepted through May 13.

A California Congressman has introduced legislation to return more than a thousand acres of historically Native American land back to the Yurok tribe.

Currently, the Tribe owns less than a quarter of its approximately half a million-acre ancestral land base. Timber companies, national and state parks, and other owners occupy that land now.

During the last decade, the Yurok Tribe has recovered approximately 70,000 acres of former timber lands on and near the Yurok Reservation, which straddles the lower 44 miles of the Klamath River in Northern California.

 

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A federal appeals court reversed a lower court ruling and kept alive a lawsuit brought by Native Americans against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The lawsuit accuses Blue Cross of mismanaging tribe-affiliated health plans and overcharging them for health care.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan brought the suit to the federal appeals court saying Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan charged hidden fees and overstated costs.

Dozens of tribes around the country are backing the suit because they depend on Medicare-like rates in their insurance programs as well. The appeals court ruled the lower court acted in error. The district court threw out the tribe’s lawsuit and made a summary judgement in favor of Blue Cross.

After losing in court, a Nevada tribe is going directly to a California archaeological company and urging it to stop digging at a site considered sacred. The excavation at Thacker Pass is a step in the process to begin construction of a lithium mine, as The Nevada Current reports.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony sent a letter to the Far Western Anthropological Research Group. It calls on the company to in the tribal leaders’ words stop “the desecrating of Thacker Pass for corporate greed”.

The letter compares the action to excavating Pearl Harbor or Arlington National Cemetery. Tribal history documents the site now on federal BLM land as the location of a massacre of Paiute men, women and children by U-S soldiers in 1865. Tribal leaders also say BLM neglected to adequately consult with all the tribes connected to what is now called Thacker Pass.

Staff at radio station KEYA in Belcourt, ND say they may be able to return to the air at lower power in the next couple of days after their broadcast tower collapsed. The station is owned and operated by the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe.

Station officials say ice build-up during a blizzard, combined with high winds, caused the 300+ foot tower to buckle.

Support wires kept the upper portion of the tower upright. But emergency workers were forced to cut power to the 19,000 watt transmitter and antenna that broadcasts the station’s signal. No one was injured.

KEYA started broadcasting in 1976, making it one of the oldest Native-owned stations.

Click Here to Support the KEYA Tower Fund

Legislators in California held a hearing this week to discuss the bill to rename the University of California Hastings Law School, as Christina Aanestad reports.

Supporters of AB 1936, including its sponsor Native State Rep. James Ramos (D-CA), want to remove the name of Serranus Clinton Hastings from the public law school for his role in the attempted genocide of California Native tribes.

Hastings went on to become California’s first Supreme Court chief justice and attorney general.

James Russ, president of the Round Valley Tribal Council, spoke in favor of the legislation to rename the school.

The bill also includes restorative justice provisions for the Yuki and Round Valley people.

 

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The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Monday in a case over Alaska’s authority to regulate off-reservation fishing. The legal fight centered on a Metlakatla man charged with illegally fishing in waters just outside the reservation’s marine boundaries. But as KRBD’s Eric Stone reports, it’s not the end of the line for the tribe’s legal efforts to exempt Metlakatla fishermen from state regulations.

Metlakatla tribal member John Scudero Jr. was fishing for coho salmon near his home on Annette Island south of Ketchikan when he was picked up by the Coast Guard. He was charged with illegal fishing. Scudero didn’t have a permit to fish in state waters outside the boundaries of Alaska’s only Native reservation. He was convicted and fined $20,000.

Scudero took his case to the Alaska Supreme Court. He argued that the state didn’t have the authority to prevent him from fishing in traditional territory of his tribe. It’s part of a long-running dispute between Metlakatla tribal members and state authorities.

“We’ve been a fishing tribe for the last 120 years, and we continue to fish.”

The 1891 law that created the Annette Islands Reserve guaranteed the tribe a self-sustaining home, and Metlakatla Indian Community members like Scudero argue that the tribe can’t sustain itself without fishing in areas near Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island outside the reservation’s boundaries. Michigan State University law professor Matthew Fletcher says Scudero’s case is far from the last word. The tribe itself, Metlakatla Indian Community, has a similar case pending in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which challenges the state’s right to regulate tribal members fishing outside the reservation.

“I’d say, as a general matter, it is very much a better vehicle to review these questions.”

State attorneys argued late last year that holding Metlakatla tribal members to the state’s fishing permit system is essential to maintaining sustainable wild salmon runs. Fletcher says that case could have far-reaching consequences for tribes in Alaska, and up and down the West Coast under the court’s jurisdiction. A decision in the tribe’s Ninth Circuit case is expected later this year.

Wisconsin has become the latest state to create an Office of Environmental Justice. Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports on what that might mean for Native communities.

About 15 states have set up an office or commission focused on ways to protect overburdened communities, or communities that face disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers has just signed an executive order creating an environmental justice office to advise him, after Republican legislators failed to go along with the idea.

Following a signing ceremony at the Indian Community School near Milwaukee, Evers said floods and other problems along waterways have harmed Wisconsin tribes. He says some tribal leaders have responded by creating wetlands and other controls. But Evers says the state has a role, too.

“We need to help them make sure their infrastructure is sound and we can help them keep it that way.”

Jason Dropik is Head of School at the Indian Community School and member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. He says it’s good that governors are promising to hear from more diverse voices.

“As both a tribal member and someone who grew up in an urban American Indian population, we just know that often those perspectives are just left out.”

Dropik says he’s also glad his students got to hear that a state leader is promising to think about future generations. He says he’ll believe the promises, as long as he sees work to support environmental justice.

The Indian Health Service announced Monday it received $5 million in federal funding to work to eliminate HIV and hepatitis C in Indian Country.

American Indians and Alaska Natives have the largest percentage of persons with undiagnosed HIV infection, according to the IHS.

The funding will support training, infrastructure and media campaigns.

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An extensive review of more than 22-hundred place names in the U.S. National Park system shows many may reflect colonialism, oppression, or white supremacy. KLCC’s Brian Bull has more.

Natchee Barnd is an associate professor of Ethnic Studies and Native American studies at Oregon State University. He says locally, sites across Crater Lake National Park were included for analysis.

“We did see that there was one called Devil’s Backbone and we weren’t clear on the origins. So, while we did the research on these, we don’t always come to the conclusions where we’re not always able to say for sure what the intent is. But a lot of times the word “Devil” gets attached to Indigenous peoples, communities, or cultures, in this sort of Christian/non-Christian binary.”

Barnd says he’d like people to use this research to understand how place names came to be, and to help develop alternatives that don’t celebrate the removal or destruction of Native communities. He says beyond parks, other sites – including buildings – can be re-evaluated.

The research, titled “Words are Monuments”, is in the latest edition of the journal, People and Nature. 

A bill to ensure Native Americans are included in the renaming of the University of California Hastings College of Law is set for a committee hearing in the California State Assembly on Tuesday. The college is named for a land speculator who built his fortune committing atrocities against Northern California tribes. Yuki people would like the college to take a name in the Yuki language. During a hearing on the college name in March, tribal representatives recounted the massacre of Yuki people by Serranus Hastings. They say the name change by Yuki people would be part of the healing process.

The measure, introduced by Native American State Rep. James Ramos (D-CA), was amended in March to include a provision requiring consultation and collaboration with the school and tribal representatives. The California Legislature named the school in state statute in 1878 and because of the legislative action a state statute is now required to rename the campus. In 2021, the college board approved changing the school’s name and has been in discussion with tribes.

For the first time in two years, the Miss Haskell pageant was held in person over the weekend at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. As Rhonda LeValdo reports, it was a time of celebration for the tribal college and now the royalty will be representatives of the school.

Due to the pandemic, the pageant for Haskell Indian Nations University was not held and the student ambassadors continued their roles for two years. Finally able to start again, Haskell Brave Alexander Many Goats (Diné) said he was glad to see all the support for the ladies competing for Miss Haskell.

“It’s pretty amazing, it’s beautiful especially during the pandemic. I feel like it really changes peoples’ mindset coming to Haskell. I’m glad a lot of people showed up and showed their support for the university.”

While there were no entries for Haskell Brave, there were five ladies in the running for the coveted title of Ms. Haskell. Winning was Aysa Benally (Diné), whose platform for the next year will be mental health for students.

“My platform was based on the importance of and awareness of mental health, because mental health affects all aspects of our life, the way we interact with each other, the way we make decisions and so, I wanted to bring more awareness and resources to students.”

Benally is also a member of the Haskell Volleyball team track and field team. 

 

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In Oregon, the Klamath Tribes are considering legal action to stop the release of Klamath River water to farmers downstream. The tribe opposes the US government plan to release water from the federally run reservoir, the Upper Klamath Lake. Severe drought in the area has been ongoing for three years and exacerbates the competing demands for water – farmers, fish and tribes. Even with the water release, farmers are getting 15 percent of what they normally would.

Last weekend, officials released water from the reservoir to the river to bolster salmon populations already devastated by parasites that grow in low, slow moving water. But tribes say that’s half the normal amount. Sucker fish and salmon have been dying out because of the lack of water from the reservoir to support the health of the Klamath River.

Klamath Tribes blames the current water crisis on what it calls “120 years of ecosystem mismanagement at the hands of settler society.”

“We have nothing left with which to ‘compromise,’ ” the Klamath Tribes statement says.

Calling it the ‘rebirth of a nation,’ Chippewa Cree tribal leaders welcomed the birth of the first bison in more than 20 years. The Rocky Boy Buffalo Project announced the birth of the bison calf this week and released a video showing the newborn wobbling, standing and nursing.

Bison haven’t roamed the Rocky Boy Reservation in north central Montana since the early 1990s. In the 1800s, white settlers, traders and trappers killed millions of bison. Also the U-S military ordered the slaughter of bison to devastate Native communities dependent on the animal for food, clothing, shelter and cultural ceremonies.

Last fall, the tribe celebrated the placement of 11 bison on the Rocky Boy Reservation thanks to gifts from conservation organizations and other tribes.

The Chippewa Cree sustainability leader Jason Belcourt tells the Great Falls Tribune “With this birth, we are witnessing the rebirth of a nation.

Watch Video Of The Newborn

After days of veto speculation, Maine’s governor signed a bill that significantly expands sovereign control over water regulation for the Passamaquoddy tribe. The new law eliminates barriers set up in the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, which treated tribes like municipalities rather than sovereign nations.

Governor Janet Mills insisted on wording that limits the tribe’s control to its own territorial boundary. The legislation returns those sovereign rights that other federally recognized tribes already enjoy. The law was prompted by Passamaquoddy’s efforts to find a viable source of clean drinking water. The requirement they get approval from the state to drill wells on their own land prevented them from moving ahead.

The interim head of Michigan State University’s Native American Institute maintains the university discriminated against her and did not adequately respond to her sexual harassment complaints about a colleague. M-Live reports Christie Poitra responded this week to a motion by the university to dismiss her lawsuit, saying officials continuously exposed her to discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Poitra is a Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians descendant. She says, among other things, that MSU denied her equitable pay and failed to resolve her interim status for the past two years. And she says the university shrunk the budget and even threatened to dissolve the Native American Institute.

The University of Oklahoma is elevating its tribal outreach efforts. The O-U Daily reports the university hired Tana Fitzpatrick in the new position of associate vice president of tribal relations. Originally from Norman, Fitzpatrick is a lawyer and a member of the Crow Nation. She has also served as senior counselor to the assistant secretary of Indian affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

One member of the hiring search committee told the paper Fitzpatrick stood out as someone who understood the issues of sovereignty, and could develop a strong vision for how the university might enhance relationships with tribes and serve indigenous communities.

 

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