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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
Authorities in Wisconsin and Michigan have now signed off on the Menominee Indian Tribe’s nomination of a site to the National Register of Historic Places.
Danielle Kaeding reports that’s drawn backlash from some who say it’s a veiled attempt to stop the Back Forty mine.
Historic preservation boards in Wisconsin and Michigan have approved the nomination of Anaem.
The site includes the Sixty Islands area where the tribe once lived on the Menominee River.
Menominee Tribal Chairman Ron Corn, Sr. says it contains the tribe’s dance rings and burial mounds.
“We’re trying to protect our historic and cultural places. We’re trying to protect, you know, the resting place of our ancestors.”
It’s also where Gold Resource Corporation wants to mine gold and other metals for the Back Forty project.
Michigan Republican and State Sen. Ed McBroom (R-MI) says listing the site would add more hurdles to the permitting process.
“Suddenly, they’re only up here to stop this mine. And this is just their latest trick in the bag to do so.”
Corn says the tribe is opposed to the mine, but insists the nomination is about protecting cultural resources.
A mining company executive says they will avoid disturbing archaeological sites.
Not In Our Honor members demonstrate outside the Kansas City Football stadium. (Photo: Rhonda LeValdo)
A group of Native people and their allies gathered outside the Kansas City Football Team’s stadium on Monday to call on the team to change its name and end the use of Native American imagery.
The NFL “Monday Night Football” game between Kansas City and the Las Vegas Raiders was played on Indigenous Peoples Day.
The Kansas City team released a statement in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day saying in part that the team is having dialogue with local and national groups to identify ways to educate and raise awareness of American Indian communities.
Demonstrators says the statement to them holds no true meaning or value.
Gaylene Crouser is the Executive Director of the Kansas City Indian Center and is one of the organizers of the ongoing demonstrations held outside Arrow Head Stadium during football season.
“I thought their statement is just more propaganda that they put out there to make the fans believe that what they’re doing is ok by Native people and it’s not. And that’s why we have to come out here and make that stand, and every single time, so, that it doesn’t get lost in the rhetoric.”
Raiders’ fan Christian Cuevas came over to show his support.
“And I seen this on TV, that you guys want to change the name, but it’s real out here. And I support it, you guys should change the name. You don’t hear no other team called you know, the Raiders ***-backs or the other words you know. It’s pretty interesting and I believe you guys should change it.”
Demonstrators are members of Not in Our Honor, a group of Native leaders, tribal college students, and Native community members in the greater Kansas City area.
They advocate against the use of Native imagery in sports and media.
Their next demonstration is October 16.
In Native vote news, leaders of the five largest tribes in Oklahoma on Tuesday will publicly endorse Democratic candidate Joy Hofmeister for governor of Oklahoma.
Tribes have been at odds with current Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) over a number of issues including the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the McGirt case, which reaffirmed reservation boundaries.
The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations say Supt. Hofmeister respects tribal sovereignty and say she’s committed to working with Oklahoma’s nearly 40 federally recognized tribes.
In a statement to press, Stitt’s campaign says the governor has the endorsement of the Oklahoma State Fraternal Order of Police and the support of thousands of tribal members across the state.
The five tribes represent more than 800,000 tribal citizens.
The tribes say they’re looking to build safe communities, strong economies, a stable workforce, well-funded education, investments in infrastructure, health, wellness, families, and communities.
The tribes are making the endorsement during an event in Oklahoma City.
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