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Members of the Native American Journalists Association voted to change the organization’s name to the Indigenous Journalists Association.
The name change received a vote of 89 to 55.
Members had various opinions on whether or not to change the name.
Longtime member and KYNR radio host Roy Dick from the Yakama Nation in Washington was against the name change.
“To me, they’re trying to make it international. We’re used to what we worked for. Like myself, I’m a radio man. Everyone turns the radio on to see what I have to say, and I tell them I’m a part of NAJA. They ask me, ‘What’s NAJA?’ I say ‘Native American journalist’, and that includes radio, TV, and print. And to me that identifies us as a special group of people.”
Others, like first-year member Darla Ponace, intern from Eagle Feather News from Saskatchewan, voted to change the name.
“It thought that Indigenous was more, it included more Indigenous people from Canada, the U.S., across the ocean, so I thought it made it seem more inclusive for other indigenous people. That’s why I voted to change the name. Not to step on anyone’s heels or toes.”
The vote took place as members from the U.S. and Canada celebrated 40 years of the organization in Winnipeg last week.
Coquille Tribal members paddle through the Ni-les’tun Marsh in a ceremonial canoe. (Courtesy Roy W. Lowe / U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
The University of Oregon and the Coquille Indian Tribe are partnering up on research to reduce carbon emissions.
KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.
The UO has a five-year, $3 million grant to study ways to cut climate-changing carbon.
It’ll incorporate environmental findings, artificial intelligence, and Indigenous knowledge to help address challenges to the environment.
Jason Younker is Chief of the Coquille Tribe, as well as UO assistant vice president and an advisor on government-to-government relations for the administration.
He says it’s important for traditional ecological knowledge to be included.
“Our whole world is warming up. That’s affecting the water, it’s affecting the salmon, it’s affecting everything. And what can a small little tribe on the southern Oregon coast do to help be an example for other people?”
The National Science Foundation-funded study aims to involve more Indigenous perspectives and offers a range of carbon-cutting actions that communities can choose to carry out.
Advocates urged President Joe Biden to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and stop endorsing what they say are false climate solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) during a recent visit to New Mexico.
Members of the New Mexico No False Solutions coalition (NMNFS) unfurled banners that said, “Keep [it] in the Ground, and Invest in Renewables,” along Interstate 25 during the President’s stop in Belen, N.M.
Under President Biden, the Department of Energy is promoting hydrogen across the country.
New Mexico, along with other states, is seeking federal funding to build out large-scale hydrogen projects.
In June, NMNFS sent a letter to the Department of Energy urging it to reject New Mexico’s application for federal hydrogen funding, highlighting climate, environmental justice, health, and safety concerns.
NMNFS member Sofia Martinez warned that a hydrogen economy will lock in dirty fossil fuels in the state at a time when New Mexico needs to rapidly transition away from oil and gas.
“First it was nuclear, and now hydrogen is coming into New Mexico. We are tired of being the testing grounds and sacrifice zones for untested sources of energy.”
According to the group, climate-fueled disasters have had massive human and financial costs.
The group says last year alone, communities in the U.S. experienced 18 separate weather and climate disasters, causing almost $170 billion in damages and at almost 500 direct or indirect fatalities.
About 95% of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels.
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