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Indigenous leaders in Alaska are voicing frustration after two parents sued Ketchikan’s school district over the use of tribal values within a local school. And the meaning of one particular value is prompting disagreement.
KRBD’s Raegan Miller has the story.
Posted in hallways and classrooms at Ketchikan Charter School are posters listing the 14 Southeast Traditional Tribal Values. One of those values, “reverence for our creator,” is now at the core of the lawsuit filed by parents Justin Breese and Rebecca King.
They are suing Ketchikan’s school district and Ketchikan Charter School for posting the values in school common areas.
Breese says it’s a violation of the First Amendment and Alaska’s state constitution.
“We don’t think that the school district should be speaking to any type of spiritual or religious type value, those types of values are things that are best passed down in a family, where your parents teach the students about their religious and spiritual beliefs. And that’s not the place for the government to step in and teach those kinds of spiritual and religious values to students.”
But when Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska President Richard Peterson looks at the list of 14 traditional tribal values, he doesn’t see anything exclusive to one religion.
He says there’s no common religion for Indigenous people in Southeast Alaska and the meaning of “reverence for our creator” is different for everyone.
Peterson says he’s open to a conversation about it, but he says a lawsuit is the wrong approach.
“You know, it’s hard not to feel like this might have some bearings in racism. I don’t like to leap to that conclusion. But, you know, it’s hard to find when you go down this list of values, where we can’t all, no matter what our cultural background, find a way to connect to those.”
The lawsuit was filed in Ketchikan Superior Court July 25.
Ketchikan’s school district has yet to respond in court.
A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Jamie Yazzie, a Navajo woman who went missing in 2019.
Last week, authorities arrested Tre C. James for the alleged murder.
Yazzie had been fatally shot and was found on the Hopi reservation in Arizona in 2021.
She was listed as a missing person by tribal and federal law enforcement.
James was indicted on first degree murder charges and domestic violence charges against three victims between 2018 to 2021, including suffocation, kidnapping, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
His detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona is handling the prosecution.
Prosecutors say they’re committed to addressing violence in Native communities and issues of missing and murdered Indigenous people, including by working closely with tribes.
The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in New Mexico is commemorating the anniversary of the Pueblo Revolt this week with in-person and virtual events.
The Pueblo Revolt, which took place on August 10, 1680, was a successful uprising by Pueblo people against Spanish colonization.
The ICC is reflecting on the history with a number of events, including a library blog, a Pueblo Book Club meeting, a lecture, and a yucca knotted cord demonstration.
The cord helped Pueblo communities coordinate the timing of the revolt against the Spanish.
The Native uprising is credited with helping ensure the survival of Pueblo culture.
More information on the events can be found at www.indianpueblo.org.
Tribal leaders are set to talk to California state lawmakers in Sacramento on Tuesday about water access and Native rights.
More than half a dozen leaders are expected to attend a hearing in a joint session by the water, parks, and wildlife committee and the Native affairs committee.
Tribal leaders say colonization, the taking of their ancestral lands, and jurisdiction issues have impacted accessing adequate water supplies for their people.
State and federal officials are also expected to attend the hearing.
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