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Anchor: Megan Kamerick
A new bill just signed in Washington state creating an alert system for missing Indigenous people could be a model for other states.
The Olympian reports the bill signed by Governor Jay Inslee is the first to establish an alert system for missing Indigenous people. The bill was introduced by State Representative Debra Lekanoff, the only Native person in Washington’s legislature, and was created in consultation with area tribes.
The bill creates a hotline to take in reports from the public, and alerts law enforcement officials and sends out public messages when Indigenous people go missing.
The system is similar to the Amber Alert system for children who have been abducted. The Olympian reports State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says other states have already contacted him about implementing similar legislation elsewhere.
Photo: Robert Ashworth
The Navajo Nation is considering repealing its ban on same-sex marriage. Emma Gibson from the Mountain West News Bureau has more.
The Navajo Nation lies within Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and has approximately 400-thousand members. And almost 20 years ago, it banned same-sex marriages.
Alray Nelson heads the LGBTQ Indigenous advocacy group, Navajo Nation Pride. He says the ban has resulted in problems for partners who want to adopt, build a house, have joint health issuance and more.
“In order for us to really feel safe in our own communities living on the Navajo Nation. The Nation has to open up those doors and send a message to the rest of the country that the largest tribal nation in the United States is inclusive. And you’re a part of our family.”
He estimates out of the 574 federally-recognized tribal nations in the U.S., there are about a dozen bans still in place.
Next, the proposal to repeal the ban will go to one of the tribal government’s committees.
A tribe in Connecticut is supporting a town’s continued use of a mascot that includes an arrowhead and a profile of a Native man.
NBC Connecticut reports the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation passed a resolution recently to support the city of Derby using the nickname “Red Raiders” and the logos, as the town tries to retain funding that is jeopardized by its use of the mascot and imagery for local school athletic teams.
According to a resolution passed by the tribal council, it supports the use of the images “as a public means of sustaining Native American culture and history of Connecticut’s first citizens.”
Under a law passed last year, Connecticut municipalities whose athletic teams use Native American names or mascots must get written support from a state or federally recognized tribe. Failing to do so means possibly losing grants funded by revenue from the state’s two tribal casinos.
Photo: Ken Lund
Tribal and federal officials say an agreement to hand over more than 400 acres of land to the Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia is a triumph of collaboration among the tribe, the federal government, and private land owners.
The agreement returns a small portion of the tribe’s ancestral homeland along the Rappahannock River. The tribe will manage conservation and management with the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service.
In a statement, Interior Secretary Debra Haaland said the department looks forward to drawing on tribal expertise and Indigenous knowledge toward managing the area’s wildlife and habitat.
The agreement creates a permanent conservation easement that restricts how the sacred land can be used.
Photo: Pax Ahimsa Gethen
New DNA evidence has confirmed what a tribe in California has always maintained: That it is not extinct.
USA Today reports an anthropologist wrote in 1925 that the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe from the San Francisco Bay Area was “extinct for all practical purposes.” But the tribe has always disputed that claim, and now living Ohlone tribal members have found a DNA link to their ancestors.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found genetic links between current tribal members and ancient inhabitants of the Bay Area. It used a type of genomic research that has only been developed over the last decade. It was also innovative because researchers and tribal members worked together closely.
It’s a surprising discovery given the decimation following the Spanish conquest starting in 1769. The number of Native Americans declined from over 1 million to less than 20,000 in the 1920s.
The Ohlone have petitioned the US Government for federal acknowledgement for 30 years. They’re hopeful the study will support the effort.
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