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Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order Wednesday requiring an agreement to be in place prior to the transportation of radioactive material through the Navajo Nation.

The order comes after the tribe says two trucks with uranium ore traveled through the Navajo Nation Tuesday.

Tribal police attempted to halt the transportation, but the trucks made it from Arizona to Utah.

According to the tribe, the owner of a mine near the Grand Canyon did not provide notice to Navajo officials.

The tribe says there are Navajo laws in place regarding the transportation of radioactive materials to ensure public safety.

President Nygren calls the transportation “illegal” and says failure to seek approval disregards tribal sovereignty.

The order will be in effect for six months.

(Courtesy Health Tech Academy)

There’s a new program helping Indigenous people enter the medical field.

As Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach reports, it’s a way to funnel tribal members into careers and fill healthcare gaps.

The online, three-to-six month trainings are stepping stones into the healthcare world.

Karla Coleman is with Health Tech Academy – a for-profit company that helps fill staffing shortages.

Now, it’s partnering with the Jackson, Wyoming-based nonprofit – Native American Jumpstart – to find Indigenous students across the Cowboy State, Great Plains and the Navajo Nation.

Enrolled tribal members can apply for grants that could make the entire program free.

“We’re not only able to help people get a start in this industry, but we can also help them build their own community by staying in their community.”

Compared to other U.S. populations, Indigenous peoples see higher mortality rates and more chronic conditions – partly due to being far away from quality care. Coleman says she hopes this partnership could help bridge that gap.

(Photo: Chuck Quirmbach)

A Native American man who was one of three ironworkers who died in a construction accident 25 years ago this summer was recently remembered at a public ceremony.

Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports.

William DeGrave, Jeffrey Wischer, and Jerome Starr died in July 1999, when the so-called man basket they were in crashed to the ground after a crane was unable to control a 450-ton piece of metal roofing being lifted in a strong wind.

The construction project was a new major league baseball stadium, now called American Family Field, where the Milwaukee Brewers play.

Jerome Starr was Ojibwe.

Part of a recent ironworkers-sponsored remembrance ceremony outside the ballpark included tribal member Maynard Webster performing an honor song.

Later, Starr’s sister Katherine Hamilton Starr choked up while talking to a reporter about her relative.

“He was a great brother. He was always providing for everybody. Always cared about everybody. Very caring.  He was always there, (if you) needed anything. We were very close.”

Standing next to Katherine was her daughter – Jerome Starr’s niece – Dawn Hamilton, who tearfully relayed a favorite memory.

(Photo: Chuck Quirmbach)

“Going over to Uncle Jerry’s house, in the summertime to go swimming. And then the holidays or whatever, he always opened up his home to everybody in the family. Everybody and anybody was welcome. He kept us united.”

Hamilton and others also took part in a smudging ceremony to pray for the deceased.

Hamilton says she’s grateful all of those who passed away building a ballpark were honored.

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The Department of the Interior on Tuesday released its second and final report on its Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which was launched in 2021 by Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) to investigate federal Indian boarding school policies and their intergenerational impacts on tribal communities.

The report includes an updated list of boarding schools and maps with 417 institutions.

It provides profiles of each school and confirms that at least 973 Native children died while attending school. It also identifies marked or unmarked burial sites.

The report includes eight recommendations for the federal government such as issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology from the government for its role in adopting and implementing Indian boarding school policies.

Smoke from the Oregon Fire obscures the sun, turning it red on July 24, 2024. (Courtesy Willamette National Forest)

With dozens of fires burning across Oregon and neighboring states, officials are issuing continued air quality advisories.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, this includes regional tribes.

There’s no clear forecast for how long the smokiness will last across the Pacific Northwest and Canada.

Dylan Darling of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality says there are currently seven counties in the state that are affected by poor air quality – and five more with “intermittent” smokiness.

“It’s been quite a busy season. Just a lot of fires going in areas where they might be around for awhile.”

Hot, dry conditions and inaccessible terrain will keep many smoldering for weeks, even months.

Rochelle Escatel, Emergency Manager for the Klamath Tribe, says they’re doing what they can with air conditioning and filtration.

“We do have a list of our most vulnerable tribal members. From our elders to our youngest adolescents, because some of our children with asthma are also high vulnerability.”

Escatel adds they’ve received almost 100 air conditioner units and 42 air filtration devices from the state government – and have cooling centers as well.

Wildfire season typically winds down in the fall, when rains and cooler temps become more prevalent.

This mural was painted at the facility to celebrate the donation (Photo: C.J. Keene / SDPB)

The buffalo is an important part of Lakota culture and a new project aims to use the animal as a positive path forward for young Indigenous people.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more.

Sacred Storm Buffalo is more than just a meat processing plant – it’s a community, a home, and a career for those that chose to get involved.

Now the project is receiving a $1.6 million seed loan from NDN Collective, a Rapid City-based Indigenous advocacy network.

Tawny Wilson is director of lending with the group.

“NDN Collectives decolonized lending program prioritizes projects that balance meaningful impact with financial sustainability, and Sacred Storm hit the mark on every single one of these criteria. This project supports a greater network of community support, improving food security, workforce development, preservation, and supportive housing in the region.”

Chris White Eagle oversees the project and serves as executive director of Wanbli Ska.

He says it’s a meaningful alternative for young Lakota people facing challenging economic situations.

“The fact that these boys get some stability in their life financially, and the fact that they’re able to have a house they can actually call their own. A lot of these boys have been couch surfing, they come from broken homes, and they don’t have a place they can normally call their own. I think that’s the most rewarding work in the whole world.”

White Eagle says it’s hard, but life-changing work.

“Butchering buffalo isn’t the lightest work, but I just think of growth. When it comes to this plant, it’s more than just bringing back the buffalo and getting the meat back to our people, it’s saving young men’s lives so they aren’t getting into the court system. It’s saving lives so they aren’t doing anything to take their lives. So, it’s more.”

He adds for those interested in getting involved, it’s a simple as stopping by the facility and getting a foot in the door.

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Medicine Rock and Strawberry Island are two of the most sacred sites on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Wisconsin.

Recently, there have been multiple reports of disrespectful and destructive behavior at both places by non-Native people.

WXPR’s Hannah Davis-Reid talked to elders in the Lac du Flambeau community about the history and significance of the places.

Medicine Rock and Strawberry Island on Flambeau Lake are two of the most sacred places on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation. 

Medicine Rock, or Gichi Mashkiki in Ojibwe, has been held sacred for generations, since Chief Kishkemun first brought the band to the area in 1745.  

He told his people that as long as they took care of and protected this rock, they’d be here. 

Carol Brown is an elder in the community and Chief Kishkemun’s descendent on her father’s side. 

“It’s not a place for parties. It’s not a place for picnics, although it’s beautiful. And it’s got a sandbar,” she explained.  

Strawberry Island, whose artifacts and remains have been dated as far back as 200 BC, is both the site of the last territorial battle between the Ojibwe and the Sioux in 1745, as well as a coerced land sale between the US government and the Ojibwe. 

In 1887, the Dawes Act employed a “divide and conquer” strategy to assimilate Native communities by breaking down communally owned tribal land and parceling it out to individual tribal members who needed money to survive and ended up selling their land to homesteaders. 

Strawberry Island was eventually sold to the Mills family, who got approval for a subdivision plat on the island, which the tribe successfully fought against in court. 

Eventually in 2014, the tribe bought Strawberry Island and since then, they’ve kept it as a protected area, strictly not to disturbed. 

“Our elders and our before then have have told us ‘don’t go on to the island, you need to respect that area. That’s where spirits lie.’ And we’ve always respected that.”

In a press release, the tribe said they’re seeking solutions to avoid this issue in the future. 

(Courtesy Kit Carson Electric Cooperative)

Tribal Communities in the Mountain West will receive millions of dollars to invest in climate resiliency efforts and clean energy.

Yvette Fernandez reports for the Mountain West News Bureau.

Tribal Communities across the country are being allocated $45 billion for “climate resiliency”.

This includes big projects such as improving community electric grids and creating solar, wind, and battery storage. It also includes providing households as much as $14,000 to upgrade appliances, says the Department of Energy’s Matthew Dannenberg.

“As our planet continues to warm, it is vital that access to clean energy, climate resiliency is available to everyone and that tribes are not left behind.”

Dannenberg says these funds also represent jobs and ensure decisions are being made with cultural awareness.

The funds come from a variety of federal climate initiatives such as the American Rescue Plan and Justice 40, which calls for allocating at least 40% of climate funds for tribes and other disenfranchised communities.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Jagger, Rural Rapid Response Team Leader and a critical care nurse, reviews patient charts while working in the COVID-19 ward at the Northern Navajo Medical Center, Shiprock, N.M., Dec. 23, 2020. (Photo: Spc. Ashunteia Smith / U.S. Army)

The Navajo Nation Department of Health is recommending the use of masks indoors due to COVID-19.

According to the department, the tribe is seeing a slight uptick of COVID cases on the reservation.

The department has issued a COVID-19 health advisory notice and is asking people to take protective measures, which include COVID vaccinations, and mask use.

Some hospitals on the reservation have resumed requiring masks in their facilities.

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In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court is designed to help keep young people out of the justice system.

In part one of the series, we took a look at how the program focuses on Cherokee culture and community.

In part two, members of the court team share how the program is a hands-on, more personal approach, which includes working with the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.

Shannon Buhl is Cherokee Nation Marshal.

“Tribal issues and tribal governments, tribal communities, has historically been more holistic than our non-tribal counterparts. It is one of my goals that I gave the Justice Services Department that do whatever you need to do to make sure me and my marshals don’t have to deal with them as an adult. That means give good positive training, support, whatever we need early on, and hopefully we can change their trajectory and where they might be.”

The healing to wellness court team has the support of the Cherokee Nation’s top leader, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.

“Rather than put them through the often, heartless criminal justice system that we see in a lot of parts of this country do something that lifts them up, makes them feel like they’re the center of something that isn’t a condemnation. Certainly, they need to be responsible and there’s an element of being responsible but there’s I think more importantly a path that’s diverted out of the traditional law and punishment aspect of the criminal justice system and I think that’s why it’s been successful so far.”

As a sovereign tribal nation, having jurisdiction over Cherokee people within the Cherokee Nation is of great significance to the tribe.

And, with the 2020, U.S. Supreme Court McGirt ruling that its reservation had never been disestablished, the Cherokee Nation has had an opportunity to reimagine its justice system.

Cherokee Nation District Judge Nathan Barnard.

“The nation has control over our programs, hence the healing to wellness. That’s something that may not have been possible if they were prosecuted in the state court. You know, we have the ability to govern whenever our young person has a situation where they break the law that that it’s the nation that has the opportunity to decide what’s gonna happen to that young person.”

Additional team members helping guide young people are from the tribe’s attorney general’s office and behavioral health care.

Nikki Baker-Limore is Senior Assistant Attorney General.

“If a juvenile is just getting into experimenting with drugs and having some minor crimes that aren’t violent. It’s the perfect type of kiddo that we wanna work with and try to influence so that they can lead a successful life, clean of drugs, and crime free.”

John Robinson a behavioral health services supervisor says they want the young people to live their lives fully and be productive members of society.

“Some days these kiddos will hopefully be adults, they don’t need to be incarcerated, they don’t need to be still involved with the system. They may be the guy that’s driving my Uber, my cab, they may be my nurse, they may be the guy waiting my table or serving my food. So I definitely want them at their best.”

The voluntary phased program lasts a minimum of eight months.

This story is a collaboration with First Nations Experience Television (FNX) with support from the Public Welfare Foundation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the Commission will vote during its August Open Meeting whether to adopt a new event code that would deliver messages to the public over television and radio about missing and endangered persons.

According to the FCC, adding the event code to the nation’s Emergency Alert System would help law enforcement agencies get public attention to missing and endangered people of all ages who do not qualify for AMBER Alerts for children.

It’s also intended to help Tribal communities.

The Commission’s Open Meeting is scheduled for August 7.

A public draft of the proposal is online at FCC.gov.

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In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court is incorporating Cherokee culture into its program.

The program is designed to help keep young people out of the justice system.

One of the favorite activities among participants is stickball.

The sport traditionally served as a judicial or diplomatic function to help settle disputes before leading to war.

“What I really love about stickball is community … but the main part that I love overall is I feel like I’m reclaiming my ancestral rights.”

Jesse Cotter is a stickball captain.

He says working with young people in the healing to wellness court helps the participants learn teamwork skills and community values.

“We see what’s going on in their lives, how can we help out, what are the ways that they’re trying to help themselves that they might need some pointers on because a lot of us we’ve been through a lot of the things that they’re going through.”

Captains say stickball also helps participants deal with aggression and lean how to solve problems.

Captain Jesse Grayson says it provides positive reinforcement.

“All we’re doing. We’re just helping. We’re trying to help spark that idea with them, spark their interests, and hopefully they keep, they move on with it and carry it with them.”

While, there’s the traditional men’s game, there’s also a social game where women can play.

Stickball captain Joshua Mouse describes the social game.

“The men’s will be the ones using two sticks and women’s are basically use their hands and pretty much have free range to do whatever they want to out there. For the scoring, usually there’s more points given if you hit the top effigy at the top of the pole you know that’s the one you’re trying to hit right there is the ball.”

Mouse says the men’s game is different.

“For scoring in that game, though, that’s dependent on the driver whenever they start the game. The drivers will meet in the center of the field and go over the rules of the game. You can either run it between the two saplings or you can have to run it through the saplings and then come back onto the field to score.”

Incorporating Cherokee culture is an essential part of the healing to wellness court says Patti Buhl, Cherokee Nation, Director of Juvenile Justice.

“We’ve actually been able to introduce them to their culture and help them learn more about their history, and traditional ways of being part of a community in a healthy manner, living amongst one another in a healthy manner, helping each other. It has been absolutely integral to this program, the cultural aspects.”

The healing to wellness court is a voluntary phased program lasting a minimum of eight months.

Participants go to counseling services, families sign agreements – to all work together in the program.

Participants have one or two visits a week from a program coordinator, they’re required to go to school, do community service, and take part in educational programming.

The program focuses on young people 12 to 18 for non-violent offenses, often it’s substance use.

The program instills in the young people that they’re valued members of the community.

Leah Hitcher is Healing to Wellness Court Coordinator.

“They see all these people and they think that their intentions is just to detain them and put them away, they’re bad kids. But when they get to see in our court team and everybody weigh in and say good positive things about them too, they have hope in us.”

The healing to wellness Court was started in 2021 with assistance from grant funding.

The first referrals were taken in 2023 and in the spring of 2024 the program saw its first graduate.

This story is a collaboration with First Nations Experience Television with support from the Public Welfare Foundation

A new book being released by Medicine Wheel Publishing, marks Orange Shirt Day, which raises awareness about residential schools in Canada.

The book, Today is Orange Shirt Day, by Phyllis Webstad is designed for young children up to three years old.

The author and publisher say the book provides a gentle way to introduce the next generation to learn about the history and legacy of residential schools.

The book will be released on August 20 ahead of the holiday in September.

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An Indigenous-led food coalition in the Four Corners is giving locally grown produce to Native families.

As Clark Adomaitis reports, this is part of an effort to address health inequity in the community.

In a warehouse in Cortez, Colo., Karlos Baca, a Southern Ute and Dine chef and food organizer, is demonstrating how to fry green tomatoes in corn meal grown on the nearby Ute Mountain Ute reservation.

“Flour egg wash and then this one’s just corn meal. So it’s yellow corn.”

Karlos Baca demonstrates how to fry green tomatoes in flour, egg, and yellow cornmeal — all local ingredients. (Photo: Clark Adomaitis / KSUT/KSJD)

Twenty Indigenous families from the Four Corners area stop in to watch Baca demonstrate how to cook, and to pick up packages of produce from local farmers.

One woman eats Baca’s fried tomato.

“Yeah. Good. Thank you. See you next week.”

Baca has been working to feed Native people in the Four Corners region for 15 years.

Now, he’s working with the Four Corners Food Coalition, an Indigenous-led nonprofit that received a grant to set up weekly packages of local produce or Indigenous Shared Agriculture boxes for 20 families for 16 weeks.

His work here is not just about providing food – it’s part of a larger social justice movement.

“One of the first systems of warfare is always destruction of people’s food systems, their food stores, their agriculture, to make them make them subservient.”

One of Baca’s food justice goals is to fight the effects of colonialism on Native people.

“If you look at colonization, the history of it didn’t happen overnight. the change in diet, even though the enforcement of government rations, you could say, you know, really did massive damage to the Indigenous diet and lifeways, foodways, everything. If you look at our Indigenous foods as microchips, you know, and that on a cellular level, everything that your ancestors ate was, is still in your system. So as you’re plugging each one of these individual items of food back into your body, you’re also unlocking those memories, right?

The Four Corners Food Coalition hopes to grow the food distribution program in future years.

Indian Health Service Director Roslyn Tso (center) toured the Billings Urban Indian Health and Wellness Center earlier in July. (Photo: Kayla Desroches / Yellowstone Public Radio)

The state of Montana is directing millions of dollars to boosting psychiatric services within Indigenous communities.

Yellowstone Public Radio’s Kayla Desroches reports.

Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) announced $6.5 million in one-time grants will be available to tribal Nations and Urban Indian communities through a proposal process.

The Billings Urban Indian Health and Wellness Center is one of five Urban Indian Organizations in Montana to receive a portion of its funding from the Indian Health Service.

It also runs on grants.

Director Leonard Smith says the building needs updates to its cooling and heating systems along with other renovations.

“We’re trying to build the resources and space that is needed to provide the services that we’re developing and designing.”

The funding announcement comes from a pot of $300 million lawmakers set aside from the state general fund last year for improvements to Montana’s behavioral health and disability support systems.

A commission that includes elected leaders, a rural mental healthcare representative and a member of disability services is in charge of recommending areas of need.

The Montana Department of Health and Human Services says tribes and Urban Indian Health Organizations interested in funding should submit proposals for how they would use the money.

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KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

Buffet lines at hotels and casinos are often filled with lasagna, fried chicken, and other vittles that are high in sodium, sugar, and fats. But at the recent Sacred Tobacco & Traditional Medicines Gathering at the Grand Ronde Tribe’s Spirit Mountain Event Center, the menu was more … pre-colonial.

“Some smoked trout, some sunflower cookies with apples and cranberries, Wajapi … and I always feel like I’m mispronouncing it, so if I did that I am very sorry!”

Amanda Storm works with Native American Rehabilitation Association Northwest and helped coordinate the menu for this week’s event.

Another partner was Angey Rideout, Youth Tobacco Prevention Coordinator for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

“All trying to make sure that the foods that we were serving here were going along with the theme of sacred tobacco, traditional medicine, and looking at food as medicine. And our Indigenous First Foods are medicine.”

Several chefs and planners at the event center further developed the menu to help offset national trends of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes among Native groups.

(Courtesy Arctic Thunder Open House / Facebook)

The biennial Arctic Thunder Open House, featuring military demonstrations and aerial acrobatics, is taking place this weekend in Anchorage.

Organizers say it’s an exciting event with some familiar acts such as the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team, the Joint Forces Demonstrations, and other shows.

The 2024 theme of the Arctic Thunder Open house is “Honoring Legacy … inspiring the Next Generation” and a part of that theme includes an exhibit honoring Alaska Native veterans.

John Sadler, chief of ground operations for the Arctic Thunder Open House, says it’s important to recognize Alaska Native veterans and their contribution to all of the branches of service.

“The exhibit honoring Alaska Native veterans came about through a partnership with 11th Air Force working with our community partners. We have Native liaisons who work on staff here on base, and through that community partnership we were able to come together, and come up with an idea of how we can engage the community together here at the open house.”

The event gathers thousands of people over two days, showcasing the skills and talent of multiple military branches. Sadler says it’s a great team work experience.

“These shows are just a fantastic opportunity for us to join in as a community and have everyone from Alaska come in and just be as one, and see an entertaining show. It’s really adrenaline pumping seeing all these planes flying by very quickly. Some of our civilian acts are fully acrobatic. So, it just brings a lot of joy for the community to come together and see what we do here for the Alaska and military mission.”

And it’s not just entertainment for civilians to see from afar, Sadler says people will be able to get up close and personal with some of the countries most elite aircraft.

“What I’m most looking forward to the air show, is some of our ground displays so we’re going to have dozens of aircraft, or just from the Air Force, but from the armies and some of our foreign allies. They’re all going to be all across the ramp fully there, showing what they do. It’s not just going to be from a distance, stuffy, and see it from afar. The actual crews that fly these aircraft are going to be there to show you, tell you about it and some of them even go inside to show you what it is and how to operate that aircraft.”

The Arctic Thunder Open House has been taking place at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson since 1990.

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