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Native leaders are urging for the release of Leonard Peltier as his parole hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Peltier, who’s spent nearly 50 years in prison, is said to be in deteriorating health. He was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He has long maintained his innocence.
(Photo: Gary Stevens / Flickr)
Leaders say the hearing may be his last opportunity for freedom.
Nick Tilsen, President and CEO of NDN Collective and Judith LeBlanc, Executive Director of Native Organizers Alliance, are urging for his freedom through compassionate release.
Amnesty International is also urging for his parole.
(Courtesy Cherokee Nation)
The Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Navy christened a new ship named in honor of Cherokee people who served in the Navy and Marine Corps.
The ceremony was held Saturday in Houma, La.
The USNS Cherokee Nation is about 10,000 tons, built for a crew of more than 60, and will be operated by the Navy’s Military Sealift Command.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. says Cherokee people have served in every major battle and war, and continue to serve in the Armed Forces at high rates.
In remarks at the ceremony, Chief Hoskin talked about the ship’s name.
“I think what it stands for in terms for its link to the Cherokee people, this day forward, as long as she sails is resilience, service and friendship.”
The ship is said to be the fifth U.S. ship to be named in honor of Cherokee people, according to Navy officials.
The USNS Cherokee Nation is nearly complete and will play a role in the country’s national defense strategy, providing a wide range of missions.
Goosh-shu Haa Jennie Wheeler and Káakaxaawulga Jennifer Younger at the Native artists’ market at Celebration. June 6, 2024. (Photo: Yvonne Krumrey / KTOO)
A mother-daughter duo — a weaver and an engraver — won Best of Show at Celebration’s Juried Arts show. Their winning entry was a spruce root hat called Dancing in the Summer Rain.
The four-day festival held last week in Juneau, Alaska, honors and uplifts the culture of Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian people.
KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey has more.
At her table at the Celebration Native artists’ market, Goosh-shu Haa Jennie Wheeler said she was surprised to win.
“I was totally shocked yesterday when we got the award, because I really was not expecting it. They asked me to say something. I just lost it. I was too emotional.”
She wove the spruce root hat.
Her daughter Káakaxaawulga Jennifer Younger wove light blue trade beads into the sides and engraved formline flowers on the hat’s copper top. Red beads line the crown and drip down the hat.
It’s not the first piece they’ve made together, but the copper crown was something Younger said she hadn’t seen in spruce root weaving before.
“I think we both just get super excited about doing something new that we hope is still honoring tradition. By doing, hopefully, fine weaving, proper formline engrave design, yeah, so we just kind of just did it.”
And the name of the piece – Dancing in the Summer Rain – comes from the way those new design elements come together musically.
Dancing in the Summer Rain by Káakaxaawulga Jennifer Younger and Goosh-shu Haa Jennie Wheeler on display at the Walter Soboleff Building. June 6, 2024. (Photo: Yvonne Krumrey / KTOO).
“When I added those strings of beads on the hat, and I put it on my head, and just the sound it made – it wasn’t like a loud rattle, but it just sounded like the rain on a roof or something.”
The hat also won the endangered arts category.
Wheeler has been bringing new spruce root weavers into the practice for more than a decade now. She said she’s especially happy to teach students who come from the place that was known for the art two hundred years ago.
“I always wanted to bring spruce root weaving back to Yakutat, because Yakutat were known for the best spruce root weavers in the 1800s, and we lost it for many years. And now I have five students born and raised in Yakutat, young adults, and they are doing really good.”
Dancing in the Summer Rain and the other winning pieces of the juried arts show are on display in the Nathan Jackson Gallery at the Sealaska Heritage Institute Walter Soboleff building until December.
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