Monday, November 18, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Photo: Cape Foulweather, Oreg. (Wayne Taylor / Flickr)

In Oregon, a coastal piece of the Siletz Tribe’s ancestral territory has been restored. 

Monday’s announcement coincides with the 47^th anniversary of the tribe regaining federal recognition.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports. 

Twenty-seven acres of Cape Foulweather on the Oregon Coast have been reacquired by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

The tribe purchased the land from the McKenzie River Trust last month, with a $2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It really is an amazing opportunity for us to become stewards again.”

Angela Sondenaa is director of the tribe’s Natural Resources Department.

She hopes to reintroduce cultural burning to the coastal prairie section, to rejuvenate its ecosystem.

“Cape Foulweather is an incredibly diverse and sensitive ecological area.  It’s been a cultural gathering site for millennia.”

Sondendaa says it’s been a good year for the Siletz.

Last December, President Joe Biden signed a bill sponsored by House Representative Val Hoyle, restoring gathering, fishing, and hunting rights to the tribe on their ancestral lands.

“And it will provide direct opportunity for tribal members to gather and resume subsistence harvest in the rocky coastline there.”

The Siletz reservation was established in 1855 by Congress and President Franklin Pierce.  It was further diminished through land cessions.

Conservationists and tribes say they intend to sue the federal government if it doesn’t take steps to protect a rare snail – which is threatened by a lithium mine.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more. 

The Kings River pyrg is tiny – about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. And it’s found only in an area of Nevada called Thacker Pass, where there are plans to mine lithium, the key ingredient for electric car batteries.

 

Paul Ruprecht is with the Western Watersheds Project.

He says mining will shrink the small springs that the snail relies on. 

“The species is really vulnerable because fluctuations in water availability could really impact its ability to continue to exist in these areas.”

The conservation group had previously petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the snail as endangered.

The agency was supposed to make a decision this year, but never did. 

So the nonprofit and several tribes informed the government they intend to sue. 

The People of Red Mountain is a group of knowledge keepers from the Fort McDermitt Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock Tribes.

They say they have a cultural responsibility to protect native species in the area.

Federal officials now have until mid-January to respond. 

 

 

 

Alaska’s vote counting process will finally come to an end this Wednesday, but Nick Begich III is already declaring victory in his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK).

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports.

Between Friday and Saturday, an additional 24,000 ballots were counted.

Although they closed the gap between Rep. Peltola and her Republican challenger to about 8,300 votes, Begich still maintains a lead of more than 2% against Peltola.

A candidate must have more than 50% of the vote to avoid ranked choice voting in Alaska. That’s when the second-choice votes of other candidates in the race are added to the totals.

Although 318,000 ballots have been cast, Begich so far has failed to meet that threshold, so the race will likely be determined by ranked choice.

Peltola, a Democrat, had a strong well-financed campaign but failed to overcome the coat tail effect of President-elect Donald Trump’s big win in Alaska, which boosted Begich’s campaign.

Meanwhile, a ballot measure that seeks to overturn Alaska’s open primary and ranked choice voting system is passing by the slimmest of margins – by only 2 tenths of a percent point.

In August 2022, ranked choice voting helped Peltola win a special election to fill Rep. Don Young (R-AK)’s seat after his death, making her the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.