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The proposed Alaska Senate Bill 34 seeks to address high school dropout rates by putting the education plans in the hands of tribes. As KYUK’s Olivia Ebertz reports, supporters say tribal education compacts could lead to drastic improvement in education for Alaska Native communities.

Alaska ranks among the bottom states for graduation rates. And within the state, Alaska Native students drop out of secondary school at higher rates than their peers. According to data from the past three decades, schools in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, where many students are Yup’ik, consistently have the highest dropout rates in the state. Proponents of a proposed bill think they can improve those outcomes by putting education directly in the hands of tribes.

Senate Bill 34 would create a pilot program for Alaska Native tribes to begin running their own public schools through a compact agreement with the State of Alaska. Hooper Bay Elder William Naneng supports the tribal education compacting bill.

“Our people, and our parents want to learn, they want to see the students excel. They want to see our people are going to school, they’re being very curious.”

Naneng serves on the board of a new charter school in Hooper Bay whose curriculum is centered around Yup’ik values, called Yuuyaraq. He hopes the state will choose his school for the pilot project. Naneng said that years of imposed, colonial Western education in Hooper Bay has led to poor graduation rates. He worries this makes it look like Yup’ik people don’t care about education. But he said that couldn’t be further from the truth. Naneng says in order to succeed, students need to be taught in ways that are relevant to their lives. Alaska Federation of Natives President Julie Kitka says it’s clear the Western-centric model isn’t working.

“The state and the commissioners are saying that the state is failing Native students right now.”

The Department of Education says this bill is modeled in-part on the success of a similar program in Washington State. Washington has three tribal-compacted schools and they’ve done well. Back in Hooper Bay, the charter school’s principal says this bill could allow her more consistent funding to hire local elders to help the teachers plan their lessons. Right now, elders are helping plan an entire curriculum around eggs. Bird eggs in the spring and fish eggs in the summer help infuse local traditions into traditional western teaching.

Advocates in Indian Country are among those praising the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act to help strengthen safety in tribal communities, but they say there were much needed provision left out. C.C. Hovie is with StrongHearts Native Helpline, a culturally-appropriate domestic, dating and sexual violence call and text support line for Native Americans.

“Each time VAWA is reauthorized we see more and more improvements to the law and additional positive steps being taken to put an end to domestic, dating and sexual violence in our communities and we’re really relieved that VAWA is continuing to be reauthorized.”

Hovie says while they’re thankful, there’s more they’d like to see in the law including addressing the “boyfriend loophole”.

“This was removed from the latest VAWA from opposition from gun rights advocates and this would have restricted dating partners and stalkers from obtaining firearms if convicted of domestic violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, firearms are the weapons of choice for domestic violence homicides-35% of all women are killed by intimate partners with guns and nearly half of women were killed by someone they were dating.”

Hovie says another need is protection for elders.

“Abuse can happen to anyone. It’s not limited to any age. As Native people we’re taught to respect our elders, but they can still be victims of domestic violence especially in multigenerational households.”

Hovie says StrongHearts will look for these provisions to be included in the next cycle. VAWA, which was signed into law this week by President Biden, is reauthorized through 2027.

StrongHearts is an underwriter of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.

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Native women’s advocates, tribal leaders, Native American members of the Biden administration and members of Congress were among those at the White House Wednesday celebrating the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

The reauthorization of VAWA includes tribal provisions to increase resources, strengthen sovereignty and safety across Indian Country. President Biden, in his remarks at the event, mentioned tribes twice when talking about jurisdiction issues: “Restoring jurisdiction to tribal courts over non-Native domestic violence offenders who abuse women in Indian Country.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. was at the VAWA event: “It’s a great day for the country in the national interests of the United States to have VAWA reauthorized, but it’s certainly important to Indian Country because of the provisions VAWA already contained and the new provisions.”

Hoskin says what the new provisions will do is allow tribes to have fewer restraints, which he says has kept tribes from protecting the most vulnerable and will help hold more non-Indian offenders accountable for breaking the law.

“Tribes across the country have been constrained in terms of addressing sex trafficking, other types of violence that unfortunately more often than not occur with women as their victim even outside of a romantic relationship. Those were just outside the reach of tribes, but no more because VAWA allows us to do what we need to do,” said Hoskin.   

The reauthorization restores tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for certain crimes involving children, sexual violence, stalking, sex trafficking, obstruction of justice, and assaults against law enforcement and corrections personnel.

Photo: Spring Creek Country Club

State officials are determining what to do with a golf course they’re acquiring near a state park. A tribal research group wants the land converted to a natural area, as Richard Two Bulls reports.

The Spring Creek Golf Course sits at the southern border of Good Earth State Park, a few miles southeast of Sioux Falls in Lincoln County. A foundation acquired the land and will transfer it to the Department of Game Fish and Parks by 2025. The land may be incorporated into Good Earth, which already spans 1,200 acres and includes the Blood Run National Historic Landmark. Blood Run is one of the oldest sites of long-term human habitation in the United States. It was inhabited by Native Americans between 1300 and 1700 AD.

The Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project is proposing the golf course be converted back to its natural condition. The state says there are several options under consideration. Al Nedved is the deputy state parks director.

“We developed great relationships with the Omaha tribes and the other tribes and, yes, they were involved in our very first meeting on this Spring Creek issue. And we would look forward to further discussions with them,” said Nedved.

The Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project says existing development on the land may have inadvertently violated the Federal 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Nedved says the state wants to know what resources may still exist there.

“We realize the importance of having a good, solid understanding of what’s present on the site and a good understanding of what some of the potential options as a state park operation might look like there,” he added.

According to Friends of Blood Run, prior to development, there were 270 visible burial mounds on the site that were reduced to 70 due to construction and farming.

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President Biden signed the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act Wednesday at the White House. Native women’s advocates and tribal leaders are celebrating the reauthorization to help protect women, children and families in Indian Country. Provisions in VAWA strengthen safety in Native communities including a pilot program to allow some Alaska Native villages to exercise tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian offenders. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. will be among attendees at the White House signing ceremony. Tribal leaders will discuss tribal provisions during a virtual town hall next week. The Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization was included in the bipartisan Omnibus Spending Package for Fiscal Year 2022 recently approved by Congress.

Watch President Biden’s Speech About VAWA

Photo: Will Marlow

The Blackfeet Nation dropped its mask mandate for the reservation Tuesday, as Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.

The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council along with the reservation’s incident commander announced that masking on the reservation will be optional and that tribal offices will reopen to the public. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Glacier County, which encompasses the Blackfeet reservation, is experiencing medium COVID-19 transmission levels. At that level, the CDC says most people don’t need to wear masks indoors but people who are vulnerable or immunocompromised should talk to their health care provider about it.  

On Tuesday, there were five cases of COVID-19 on the reservation, according to tribal health officials. The coronavirus has killed a little over 60 people on the reservation. During the height of the pandemic, a CDC study showed that restrictions imposed by Blackfeet officials likely reduced transmission of the virus and saved lives.

The Haines Sheldon Museum in Haines, Alaska will feature a new exhibit of Lingít miniatures, showcasing not only the artistic works, but also stories of Lingít people forced to adapt to the rapidly changing times of the late 19th and 20th centuries, as KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports. 

The new exhibit will feature a variety of Lingít miniatures. That includes small-scale totem poles, canoes and dolls. Items were both artistic and practical, says museum collections coordinator Zachary James.

“There’s some small spiritual figures, like small talismans like objects, amulets… And then halibut hooks too.” 

James is Lingít, with ancestry in the Chilkat Valley, Wrangell, and Stikine Basin.

“Within the old traditions, they would take these new ideas and make new things.”

The massive influx of missionaries and settlers to Southeast Alaska, starting in the 1800s, decimated salmon runs and harmed traditional Native livelihoods. Later came steamship tourism. So, Lingít artists began producing miniatures for tourists.

“We have a lot of old photographs from steamship travelers, and it’s almost always women who would be selling their wares. And amongst the baskets that the women weave, they would have small totem poles and small carvings that the men made.” 

The exhibit on Lingít miniatures opens at the Haines Sheldon Museum in Haines, Alaska on Friday March 25. For more information, visit hainesmuseum.org. 

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The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council has announced a decision in a dispute over reservation boundaries. On Monday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled New York State’s purchase of reservation land in the 1800s violated federal law. The court found the state did not have federal approval when it sought about 2,000 acres from the tribe, which violated the Non-Intercourse Act. The ruling affirms the tribe’s claim to the land located in the center of the reservation, known as the Hogansburg Triangle. Tribal leaders say it’s a tremendous win and are seeking to regain title.

In a historic first, Congress has earmarked millions of dollars for cancer treatment on the Navajo Nation. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports, advocates hope this paves the way for more treatment options across Indian Country.

The Navajo Nation’s cancer treatment facility is one of the first to be located on tribal land. Advocates celebrated its opening in 2019, especially given the deadly repercussions of uranium mining. Navajo people face high cancer rates that some experts link to uranium contamination. Now the facility will receive federal dollars to offer services like radiation oncology. Attorney Brandy Tomhave, a member of the Choctaw Nation, works on this issue.

“This represents a historic moment because it’s the very first time the federal government has invested a single dollar into the creation of cancer treatment on an Indian reservation.”

Tomhave says Natives battling cancer have died simply because they couldn’t access treatment with some facilities located hundreds of miles from reservations.

Organizers of a recent annual environmental fashion show in Juneau, Alaska, disqualified one entry that was entirely in Lingít. Some community members including the Alaska Native artist question whether the decision was racially motivated. KTOO’s Yvonne Krumery reports.

K̲aachgóon Rochelle Smallwood’s piece stood out, as Wearable Arts Emcee Richard Carter introduced the piece. Titled YA HÉEN ÁWÉ YA K̲USTEEYI.  It towered over the audience, standing more than 10-feet-tall on the model Magdalena Kahlo. The title of K̲aachgóon’s piece, its description, and the music behind it are all in Lingít. Her piece made an impression on the audience. Every year during Wearable Art, professional judges come in and weigh each piece and its presentation.  Then they pick their favorites and K̲aachgóon’s piece got left out of that process. The Juneau Arts and Humanities Council management, which puts on the show, says this was because of a miscommunication and a time crunch. They made assumptions about whether K̲aachgóon wanted her piece to be judged. The model who wore the piece, Kahlo, as well as other artists and models at the event, complained of racism and exclusion backstage. These complaints worked their way up the chain to Nancy DeCherney, the JAHC’s executive director. The council apologized for the miscommunication and its board members say they held two meetings to discuss those complaints. During those discussions, Juneau arts council staff determined that there wasn’t racism involved in the decision to exclude K̲aachgóon’s piece from the judging process. But the model Kahlo disagrees. 

“And then for them to just be like, no, it wasn’t racist. It was like, it’s just kind of like, okay, well, you don’t get to decide that.”

To K̲aachgóon, it was essential that none of the Lingít she used for the piece be translated into English.

“Native artists don’t have to explain their art or their Indigeneity for people, we don’t have to digest it for them.”

Going forward, the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council management say they’re considering removing the judging process from Wearable Arts. 

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Akiak Chief Mike Williams Sr.

The National Congress of American Indians is hosting a Violence Against Women Act Tribal Leader Town Hall Wednesday. It follows last week’s approval of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization (VAWA) by Congress included in a bipartisan appropriations deal (Omnibus Spending Package for Fiscal Year 2022). VAWA provisions help strengthen safety in Native communities including a pilot program to allow some Alaska Native villages to exercise tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian offenders. Akiak Chief Mike Williams Sr. says it’s good for Alaska and all of Indian Country.

“We’ve been working so hard over the long years, especially here in Alaska when we are dealing with 229 federally recognized tribes (in Alaska) to empower each community is a goal to deal with these issues.”

Tribal leaders will review provisions in the law and discuss next steps for Tribal Nations. *UPDATE date changed-NCAI’s town hall 3/22/22  

Photo: Joseph via Wikimedia

The federal government will fund relocation efforts for six Alaska communities threatened by erosion and flooding. Most are in the YK Delta, where erosion and flooding are pervasive problems.  KYUK’s Olivia Ebertz reports, the projects will play out over time, and other threatened communities can still apply for funding.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in early March [3/4/22] that it will pay for Alaska communities to relocate buildings and infrastructure. The communities whose projects have already been funded include Kotlik, Alakanuk, Kwigillingok, Golovin, Tuntutuliak and Tununak. What do they have in common? They’re all threatened by erosion and flooding.

“We are very excited,” said Brett Nelson, conservation engineer for USDA.

His team has worked to provide flood and erosion mitigation around rural Alaska for years. He knows the communities and their needs. Nelson says this type of federal funding is a big deal. That’s because it’s a first. Usually, the federal government only funds his department to relocate buildings when there’s an emergency, like when a home or building is about to fall into a river. But this funding will be preventative–so communities can begin their relocation efforts before it’s too late. 

“This was a new thing for up here,” said Nelson.

Nelson says the entire process will take about five years. It involves multiple stages of planning before they can move into the actual construction and relocation part. But he says if any one building in those communities becomes urgently threatened, they can speed up the process for those structures. The application is still open for Alaska villages. Any village with an erosion, flooding or permafrost issue is eligible to receive funding. 

Photo: Brian Bull

Twenty trainees will learn the traditional role of fire in managing the landscape this week outside Chiloquin, Oregon, as KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

The week-long training mirrors a similar program held outside Eugene last fall.  Multiple agencies and Native American tribes from across Oregon are helping stage the burn, which will be on two acres of private land. Derek Kimbol is a Klamath tribal member who participated in last year’s training, and is helping coordinate this week’s program.

“Our goals are to provide forest resiliency and to diminish wildfires, so the forest is healthy and it won’t catch into a big mega-fire.” 

Before colonization, Indigenous people did controlled burns to rejuvenate habitat and reduce fuel buildup.  Kimbol says he’s heartened that after a century of fire suppression, non-tribal governments are becoming more open to what many Native people call “cultural burns,” patterned after the practices of their ancestors.

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Advocates are cheering the introduction of a Colorado bill that would create an office for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports, it would put the state in the company of several others in the region.

A look at the numbers explains the urgency. Federal data show more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. More than half have endured sexual violence. Meanwhile, Indigenous women and girls face murder rates 10 times the national average.

The office would work across jurisdictions and provide support to affected families. Democratic State Senator Jessie Danielson co-sponsored the bill.

“We looked at states like Wyoming and others that had established offices or task forces. Because the states in the Mountain West region that have already tried to work on the issue, I figured we could learn from what they’ve done.”

If the bill passes in the state legislature, Colorado would join Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, along with multiple states nationwide.

The area of the Coeur d’Alene River basin and chain lakes in north Idaho is contaminated with lead and heavy metals from a century of mining waste that has traveled downstream from the Silver Valley. A new study is looking at how the contamination impacts tundra swans. Steve Jackson reports.

Lead contamination poses a risk to migratory birds in the area, including tundra swans, which can suffer intestinal, kidney, and reproductive issues. Now a collaborative effort is underway to measure where the swans are exposed to contaminated sediment, and if their overall exposure to lead is decreasing due to feeding in some wetlands that have been cleaned of toxic metals. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is involved in the study in part because of the importance of the swan to their culture.

The birds actually help proliferate an important tribal food, the water potato. Restoration coordinator for the tribe, Rebecca Stevens, says the swans perform what is called scarification to the potato seeds, which breaks through the seed shell to allow water in.

“And so as they feed on water potatoes, they’re actually helping to disperse those water potatoes, which are very culturally significant to the Coeur d’Alene people.”

Results of the sampling is expected to be released in a few months.

Haskell Indian Nations University Women’s Basketball team secured a spot in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ tournament. The team will travel to Kentucky to face their first opponent, Rhonda LeValdo has more.

With March Madness underway, an Indigenous team set to make their appearance in post season play. Haskell’s women’s basketball team watched a live bracket reveal to see what team they would face No. 1 seed Thomas More University. Senior Tiana Guillory spoke on how the season has been. 

“It’s really exciting and I think a lot of us are grateful, we have a tremendous coaching staff that has believed in us since day one. They do a lot for us, and as a group we really worked hard for this.”

First year Head Coach Adam Strom talked about how his team not only plays for their school, but they play for all tribal nations.

“Here at Haskell Indian Nations University our women’s team plays for Indian Country. They play for Indian Nations, they play for something bigger than themselves. It’s something we take very seriously, we are representing.”

The team will play their first game Friday.

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Nez Perce Tribe releases spring Chinook in creek where they’ve been absent for nearly 100 years

A Navajo woman is nominated by President Biden to lead the Indian Health Service

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First Lady Biden visits with tribal members in Arizona this week

Seneca women issue support message to Ukrainian mothers

Congress examines history of tribal stewardship of federal lands

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Navajo Nation maintains mask mandate to ‘keep guard up’

St. Regis Mohawk ends indoor mask mandate, but ‘not out of the woods yet’

California assembly hears about Native attitudes about education

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