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Tribes and states will have another opportunity this summer to compete for federal funding to address collisions between wildlife and cars.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.
About 1-2 million motor vehicles crash into wildlife each year in the U.S.
Kylie Paul, a road ecologist with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, says that threatens animals, human life, and property.
“Each year, it costs Americans more than $10 billion to hit wildlife on their roadways.”
Last year, the Federal Highway Administration gave out $110 million for bridges, tunnels, fencing, and broader plans to keep animals off roadways.
But Paul says states and tribes proposed more than three times as many projects than got funded.
“It’s very evident that states and other entities across the country are really looking to address this problem.”
Now, the federal agency is giving out more money for crossings.
Applications are due in September.
Isabel Deroy-Olson, left, and Lily Gladstone star in “Fancy Dance”. (Courtesy Apple TV+)
Fancy Dance will begin streaming globally on Apple TV+ this week.
The film follows Jax, played by Lily Gladstone, who searches for her missing sister, while she also cares for her niece, on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma.
Writer and director Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga Nation) talked to National Native News about how the film is raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Tremblay says she hopes the film bring some humanity to these topics, which she says is not often the case in Hollywood.
“You go online and it’s hardly a day goes by where you don’t see a missing poster coming across our social feeds. And I think that there’s just so many people in this country that don’t realize that this epidemic exists and how traumatic and how impactful it is on our communities. So we wanted to tell a story about these issues, also forced removal of Native kids from, you know, ICWA was going through the Supreme Court while we were writing this and it was really important for us to talk about these topics, but do it in a way that the story is told through the survivors of this and the people left behind.”
Tremblay says when it came to character development the writers were inspired by their own friends and family members.
“We cared about these characters and we curated them and we built them in a way that mirrored the people in our lives that we love and respect so much and our heroes. You know, Jax is an amalgamation of my mom and my aunties and queer folks that have guided me through my journey on this earth. And so I hope people do recognize people and themselves and that they feel excited and inspired and represented.”
And as far as Native representation in Hollywood, Tremblay says she’s hopeful there’s more to come.
“We’re finally arriving at a place where our talents are being recognized and we’re being allowed to tell our own stories. And I’m optimistic but guarded that this will continue because we’re certainly not going backwards. But it’s about time and Hollywood still hasn’t done enough, right? There’s still so much work to do and there’s still so much more to, so many more stories to be expressed. So, I’m hopeful that there will be more to come.”
“Fancy Dance” streams on Apple TV+ on Friday.
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