The National Park Service this month issued a first-ever director’s order to strengthen its consultation with tribes.

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

The new order comes from National Park Service Director Chuck Sams (Cayuse and Walla Walla).

He’s the first Native American to lead the federal agency.

Sams says too often tribes experience a lack of collaboration.

“Where a federal agency just kind of tells you what’s going to happen to a particular piece of land that they manage that tribes may have interest in. And this director’s order actually brings much more meaningful discussion with tribes up front before all the decisions are made.”

That includes respecting that tribes see the plants and animals populating their lands as cultural resources. The order also calls for honoring tribes’ sovereignty and oral traditions.

Sams says some national parks already have strong relationships with tribal nations.

Yellowstone National Park has agreements with tribes to support bison restoration and management.

And Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho last month worked with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to create displays with Indigenous history and perspectives.

President Donald Trump in 2017 expediating the process for the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline. (Courtesy The White House)

President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda for “energy dominance” could impact leaders in the sector, including the state of Wyoming and tribes.

But some say the industry might have limited tolerance for blanket policy shifts, as Kathleen Shannon reports.

Before the election, the University of Wyoming hosted this year’s Tribal Energy Summit, where major themes were carbon capture, rare earth elements and critical minerals, and community engagement.

After the election, there are questions about how far Trump will sidestep the nation’s momentum toward renewable energy.

Daniel Cardenas with the National Tribal Energy Association expects the next Trump administration to look similar to the last one.

“They weren’t outright anti-renewable. They were just preaching an ‘all-above’ strategy, with more of a focus on fossil energy. But I think that’s probably the route that things will go, which supports what Wyoming’s already doing during Gov. [Mark] Gordon (R-WY)’s administration, is ‘all-the-above.'”

Cardenas says despite campaign rhetoric, industry leaders see opportunities in a varied approach to energy production.

ExxonMobil’s CEO this week urged Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump promised to back out of in 2017.

A vast majority of the U.S. reserves of key energy-transition metals are located within 35 miles of Native American reservations, according to the investment firm MSCI.

Cardenas says Tribes have been left out of the conversation on the energy transition – which he calls the “energy evolution” – but that they could be key partners.

“Collectively, tribes are the largest private landowners in the United States outside the federal government. So no matter what, if the country needs and wants to develop more infrastructure, the path to that is through Indian Country.”

Investments in clean energy – especially in “red” states like Wyoming – are foundational to President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump has called a “green new scam.”

Trump’s power to change Biden’s law, however, may be limited by Congress.

In California, the Yurok Tribe, Del Norte County Superior Court, and District Attorney’s Office recently signed an agreement to allow Yurok citizens, who are adults, facing certain criminal charges an opportunity to defer prosecution.

They’ll instead enroll in the tribal court’s wellness program, which uses a holistic approach.

The Yurok Tribal Court, along with the District Attorney or Superior Court, will determine if an individual is eligible to participate.

If the individual qualifies, the tribal court will develop a wellness plan and oversee its implementation through culturally integrated case management.

Diversion periods are often set at six months to two years.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

As Republicans and Democrats battle it out for control of the U.S. House, Alaska’s lone Congressional seat appears to be closer to being flipped.

That seat is held by U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK), the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride has the latest numbers.

Since election night, Rep. Peltola has trailed her Republican challenger Nick Begich III by about 10,000 votes.

After the Alaska Division of Elections added more than 38,000 votes to the totals late Tuesday night, Peltola cut into her opponent’s lead by a few hundred votes, but the gap between the two candidates remains about the same.

So far, Begich has 49.1% of the vote, not enough to avoid triggering Alaska’s ranked choice voting system on November 20.

If Begich cannot surpass a threshold of 50% of the vote, the second-choice votes for two other candidates in the race will be divided between Begich and Peltola, who will have to get a lion’s share of those votes to pull out ahead.

The next election update comes this Friday.

People on the Wind River Reservation say President Joe Biden’s recent apology for the federal Indian boarding school system needs follow-up.

The schools sought to assimilate Native children and separate them from their languages and communities.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann has more.

In recent years, both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes have brought home remains of children who died at the Carlisle Boarding School.

The trauma of the boarding school system still impacts those communities today.  

“I hope they prove it. It’s good for (President) Biden to offer an apology, but that isn’t enough.”

“The apology needs to go deeper than just the boarding school issue. It needs to deal with physical genocide, extermination, decimation of the buffalo.”

“Increased funding for tribal nations to be able to regain everything that was lost because of the boarding school policy.”

That was Northern Arapaho member Cherokee Brown, former Eastern Shoshone Business Council chairman John St. Clair, and Northern Arapaho Business Councilwoman Karen Returns to War.

Federal officials announced a new round of funding to help tribes access clean drinking water.

As Alex Hager reports for the Mountain West News Bureau, that includes nearly $35 million for tribes in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Across the country, nearly half of all tribal homes do not have access to reliable clean drinking water.

This money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, is part of a federal effort to change that.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado and the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona are among those getting money to plan, build, and maintain pipelines and water treatment plants.

The Biden Administration says this pool of money will help it stay on track with a goal to give 40% of its climate spending to marginalized communities.

This comes as tribes in the Southwest are asking for a bigger say in talks about how to use the Colorado River.

They’ve been largely excluded from negotiations about the river since the earliest days of its management.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and Prime Video have teamed up to bring the Cherokee language to viewers through dub and subtitles on select titles in Prime Video’s library.

It’s part of the tribe’s efforts to preserve the Cherokee language.

The first production was The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The episode premiere during a recent special screening in Tahlequah.

All season one episodes of the series are being translated and expected to be available in Cherokee by the Spring of 2025.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

(Photo courtesy Michael Sherman / Spring Fed Media)

Regrowth and renewal were the themes of a special replanting ceremony in Blue River this weekend.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the event was also to highlight the history of Native Americans in the McKenzie River Corridor.

About 30 people gathered to accept white oak seedlings that were blessed and sprinkled with tobacco.

Dietrich Peters of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde coordinated the event.

“Come on up, we’ll get you some tobacco, and you can offer your prayers as well.”

Katherine Wilson of the group McKenzie Reel said while much of this was to help restore Blue River’s landscape after the devastating Holiday Farm Fire of 2020, it was also to highlight the activity of Native people who crossed through before colonization.

She said there was one clear takeaway from the event by those present.

“Well, by the sounds of the sobs, the healing. The river and the land just seemed to be so joyous. It was healing, and I didn’t expect that.”

Attendees took oak tree seedlings to plant across the region. Wilson says she’ll hold similar events soon, to complement Blue River’s natural rejuvenation as it keeps building homes and facilities.

A view of the 1932 monument near the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre. (Public domain)

Hundreds of volunteers from Utah and Idaho gathered recently to help the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation restore the site of the Bear River Massacre.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, Clarissa Casper of the Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio has more.

Rios Pacheco stood on the land where, in 1863, his ancestors were victims of one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in United States’ history.

Behind him, across the site of the Bear River Massacre, hundreds of volunteers planted native shrubs and trees –– a collective effort to heal what was taken from both the land and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

For Pacheco, who serves as the tribe’s spiritual leader, planting native plants on the land where hundreds of his ancestors’ lives were stolen is a way to not only restore the ecological balance of the area but also to heal the spirits of his people.

Once you plant something in the ground, he said, life is restored.

Through the plants, he feels connected to his ancestors.

Planting native species on this sacred ground is a way for his people to return and heal –– much like a plant regenerates from its own seeds.

In reconnecting with the land and honoring the memories of those who survived, the plants offer both renewal and forgiveness for the past, he said.

“That’s just like the plants. When you plant them, the forgiveness comes by taking care of them, fertilizing them, watering them, so that way that plant will grow again.”

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation began its journey to ecologically and spiritually restore the site of the Bear River Massacre in 2018 when it purchased approximately 350 acres of their ancestral land just north of Preston, Idaho.

This is the second year the tribe has held a planting weekend at the site for volunteers, and the second time hundreds of individuals from both Utah and Idaho have dedicated their time to the effort.

The Bear River Massacre occurred during one of the coldest winters his ancestors experienced at the site, Pacheco said.

His people would camp in the valley where the attack occurred during winters because of the warmth the area provided with surrounding hot springs.

The tribe’s efforts to heal the site –– named “Wuda Ogwa,” which directly translates to “Bear River” –– are also meant to honor the plants that used to be abundant in the area and aided Pacheco’s ancestors in a variety of ways.

Because Wuda Ogwa is primarily a wetland habitat, many of the native plants that volunteers planted on Friday and Saturday were water-based and will help filter the river,

Pacheco said the tribe has also made efforts to build beaver analogs to hopefully bring beavers back to the area to perform their beneficial river duties.

As volunteers worked, Pacheco observed them and heard them share stories about the plants they planted last year and the friendships they have developed through the effort.

“You’re not just elevating the landscape. You’re elevating your inner spirits.”

Although the tribe has only involved the broader public in its project since 2023, a great deal of work has been done to prepare the land for the new plants.

For the past three years, the Utah Conservation Corps has been removing thousands of invasive Russian olive trees that have invaded Wuda Ogwa’s floodplain since the massacre.

This tree, according to UCC Northern Regional Coordinator Ben Borgmann-Winter, outcompetes the native vegetation the tribe hopes to revive in the area.

Russian olives also serve as “junk food” for wildlife, Borgmann-Winter said, as their olives are high in sugar and not nutritionally valuable.

In addition, these trees channelize and hold riverbanks in place, leading to various issues, including lowering the water table and decreasing moisture levels in the soil.

They also siphon an estimated 75 gallons each day from the Bear River that could ultimately make its way to the Great Salt Lake, Borgmann-Winter said.

“This is a really special space, a sacred space. Look at how many hundreds of volunteers are here right now from all over Utah, all over Idaho. It’s a pretty special project. We’re very honored to be involved in that.”

The tribe’s big-picture vision for the land includes planting 300,000 native shrubs and trees, cleaning up the land’s creeks, and restoring degraded agricultural fields into wetlands abundant with life.

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Terri Smith is the administrator for the Northern Arapaho Reentry Agency. (Chris Clements / Wyoming Public Media)

On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, a Northern Arapaho Tribal member is leading the charge against recidivism, which is 33% higher for Native Americans than other groups.

As Wyoming Public Radio’s Chris Clements reports, Terris Smith herself is an ex-inmate.

Driving her pickup through the community of Arapahoe, Terri Smith is the Northern Arapaho Reentry Agency’s sole employee.

Launched with a federal grant, the program helps Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribal members readjust to post-prison life on the reservation … and stay out of jail.

Smith grew up here, and knows what it’s like to get caught up with addiction and the law.

She served six months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute Oxycodone.

Not only that, she lost her law license while in prison, and her position as chief judge of the Wind River Tribal Court.

“There’s gonna be a lot of people who still view that side of me, but I’m, I know I’ve done the work to get better, you know, I did my time, I went to treatment.”

She came home in 2021 and started over.

“I honestly think this job’s perfect for me right now. Like, because I’m getting a second chance. I want everyone to get that.”

Smith and her client Tremayne Thunder meet in a conference room at the local library. (Photo: Chris Clements / Wyoming Public Media)

Tremayne Thunder is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, and Smith’s first client out of 15.

Last year, he was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm.

Smith has helped Thunder make medical appointments, meet with his parole officer, and even find a place to live when he got out.

“She can relate to everything, as in, all of it, you know, like, the prison system, the probation system, being an addict, everything.”

State Sen. Affie Ellis (member of the Navajo Nation/R-WY) endorsed the programs.

“I think these programs are really important and long overdue.”

Reentry services like Smith’s are new to the Wind River Reservation … and to many other tribal nations.

Sen. Ellis says she supports Smith and the agency, but worries about its dependence on federal money.

“We’ve seen this time and again in Indian Country: great idea, great program. Here’s some funding. Tribes get something going, and then money runs out, they lose the grant, and then the program’s gone.”

Meanwhile, back in Arapahoe, Smith heads to the reentry agency office in Great Plains Hall.

She’s looked to reentry agencies in Oklahoma and Minnesota for guidance on how to run hers.

She’s also petitioning to get her law license back so she can help her clients even more.

“I got letters of recommendation from my attorney friends and from Lee [Spoonhunter], the councilman. I hope it goes well.”

Mature spring chinook salmon return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in their natal freshwater rivers and streams. (Photo: Roger Tabor / USFWS)

Wild Chinook salmon are returning to the Upper Klamath River after the removal of four outdated hydroelectric dams.

Isobel Charle has more.

After 20 years of organizing and legal battles by the Yurok Tribe and other groups, 400 miles of historic salmon habitat have reopened.

Scientists are now monitoring the effects of the dam removal on salmon populations.

Yurok Tribe member Amy Bowers Cordalis says they’ve been astonished by how quickly the migrating fish are returning to areas that haven’t supported them for generations.

“And all these people are using Indigenous knowledge and marrying it with Western modern science to observe and to tell us how the river is healing. And it’s really a remarkable opportunity.”

Cordalis is also founder of the Indigenous conservation group Ridges to Riffles.

The data being collected details, among other things, fish spawning locations, their health, and their numbers – all of which will be crucial for predicting future populations.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Federal officials announced a new round of funding to help tribes access clean drinking water.

As Alex Hager reports for the Mountain West News Bureau, that includes nearly $35 million for tribes in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Across the country, nearly half of all tribal homes do not have access to reliable clean drinking water.

This money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, is part of a federal effort to change that.

The Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado and the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona are among those getting money to plan, build, and maintain pipelines and water treatment plants.

The Biden Administration says this pool of money will help it stay on track with a goal to give 40% of its climate spending to marginalized communities.

This comes as tribes in the Southwest are asking for a bigger say in talks about how to use the Colorado River.

They’ve been largely excluded from negotiations about the river since the earliest days of its management.

America’s Warrior Partnership lead Jessy Lakin delivers firewood to an Alaskan Veteran. (Courtesy Jessy Lakin)

Alaskan winters are some of the coldest winters in the world.

With record breaking snow falls and temperatures reaching the negatives, Alaskans prepare months ahead of time for the long, cold winter months.

For some people, even staying warm becomes a challenge and is the reality for many veterans living in Alaska, including Native veterans.

Jessy Lakin is a combat veteran, who served two deployments in Iraq.

After his service, he moved to Alaska and started volunteering for organizations, such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, and created a non-profit called Battle Dawgs, helping veterans suffering with PTSD and addiction.

A few years after Lakin moved to Alaska, he spoke with an Alaska State Trooper, who said he had just delivered fire wood to a veteran, and told him of the dire situation many veterans face in Alaska.

“He said that he had responded to four deaths at that point, that he knew were veterans, and he was telling me that he was frustrated because there wasn’t really anything in place to help seniors, with snow removal, and fire wood, and the problem was, that we found, was veterans like to isolate. They don’t have anybody checking on them.”

Lakin says the four veterans who died, all showed signs of struggle when they were found.

They had burned all of their wood furniture, and their oven doors were found open, indicating they tried to warm their homes with the oven.

He said he knew he had to do something.

“There was no real tracking system here in the state, nobody is really paying attention to that, and there was no kind of program designed to support them. So, we got proactive, we started thinking about how to help. And we created the Mat-Su winter project.”

The project started out small, with Lakin and some veteran friends reaching out to other veterans, to deliver firewood, and remove snow from by their home.

He soon changed the name to the Alaska Warrior Partnership.

Here is Lakin talking about one of his experiences.

“When we found him, he was barely moving, he had his dog inside of his jacket, and then I think every piece of clothing on him possible. Hadn’t had fire in three days and it was negative 40 degrees.”

But the story has a happy ending.

“We took care of him, and then got him off the program, got him moved into a better house in town that had electric heat. Got him connected to other services as well.”

Lakin says he’s responded to many residences in similar situations.

More information about the program is posted on the America’s Warrior Partnership Facebook page.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

In October, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK) predicted that her race could come down to dozens of votes.

So far, the margin isn’t that close – but still, pretty close.

Rep. Peltola was the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress. But as KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, the Democrat is trailing behind her Republican challenger, Nick Begich.

Alaskans expected Donald Trump to win their state.

The question was: What would be the coattail effect for Nick Begich III?

So far, Begich has just under half of the vote, about 10,500 votes more than Peltola.

His uncle, former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, is a Democrat and supports Peltola.

Although there’s only about a dozen precincts left to count, these are in predominantly rural and Alaska Native communities with votes that will likely go to Peltola.

Sen. Begich says, although her path to victory is narrow, it’s still there.

He recalled election night in his own race in 2008 against the late Senator Ted Stevens.

“Everyone counted me out. Even the senators back east counted me out, because I remember calling them. I mean, in my election against (U.S. Sen.) Ted Stevens, I was down 3,700 votes election night. Then I won by 3,800 votes.”

Former State Rep. Charisse Millett (Iñupiaq/R-AK) says she’s hoping Peltola will pull through.

Rep. Millett served as Republican House Majority leader.

“We’ll see. I’m hopeful. As a Native woman, I’d like to see Mary prevail.”

But Millett says it won’t be easy.

“I think there’s a path for her to prevail, but it’s really an uphill battle. Everything in the stars has to align in order for her to prevail.”

Begich needs more than 50% of the vote to avoid triggering the next step in Alaska’s ranked choice voting system on November 20. That’s when the votes for two other candidates in the race would be divvied up between Begich and Peltola, depending on who voters ranked as their second choice.

If Begich wins, he would hold the House seat that his grandfather and namesake held, before he died in a plane crash in 1972.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Sharice Davids (@shariceforcongress)

It is another term for U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS). Rhonda LeValdo has more.

With her fourth victory, incumbent Rep. Davids won her reelection with 53% of the vote to Prasanth Reddy’s 42%.

Rep. Davids talked about the hurdles she overcame to get things done for Kansas.

“We have faced so many challenges, rising costs, divisiveness. I mean, there are things like attacks on our basic rights. Things that have made the last few years not easy for a lot of folks. But through it all, we have seen people push forward, pushed toward their solutions, taking the commitment that we have to each other, and our shared commitment for our state, and shared commitment for our country, and doing everything we can.”

While the crowd watched the presidential election results, Haskell student Jacob Curtis (Cherokee citizen) talked about why he drove all day back to Oklahoma to vote as a young person as the crowd cheered to incoming results.

“It is important to vote in our Native communities.“

At the end of Rep. David’s speech, she stated that there is more work to be done in the State of Kansas and hope everyone can work together and get over the divisiveness.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

 

 

 

 

 

While many votes are still being tallied and election outcomes finalized, NPR reports that in 25 states, voters had the chance to elect or re-elect an Indigenous candidate.

Using data collected by Indian Country Today and the group Advance Native Political Leadership, at least 170 Native American, Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiians were on the ballots.

And while there have been gains in Indigenous representation, recent data shows Native elected officials made up less than 0.1% of the roughly 519,000 elected offices across the U.S.

To achieve parity based on the Native population in the country, Indigenous people would have to hold 17,000 offices.

Watch our Native Vote 2024 Election Night special anchored by Antonia Gonzales and Shaun Griswold

(Photo: Archkris / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Across Canada, tributes and condolences are pouring in after the death of a key Indigenous leader.

Murray Sinclair was the former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and considered a pioneer for Indigenous rights.

Dan Karpenchuk has this remembrance.

“When I was asked to chair the truth and reconciliation commission, I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. My experience as a lawyer, as a judge, as the co-chair of the aboriginal justice inquiry of Manitoba in the early 1990’s had given me a considerable amount of information about what Indigenous people had experienced here in Canada.”

That’s Murray Sinclair from an interview in 2021.

Sinclair went on to say the stories of survivors of the residential schools proved to be horrendous.

He took part in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.

Tributes came from Native leaders across the country, and from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Canada lost a giant.

“The deep convictions and immovable strength he brought to bear on such extraordinary challenges were an inspiration to all of us.”

PM Trudeau also said Sinclair challenged us all to confront the darkest parts of our history because we could learn from them and be better for it.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said he broke barriers and inspired people to pursue reform and justice with courage and determination.

In 2016, he was appointed to the Canadian senate.

He retired from that role in 2021. And in recent years he limited his public engagements due to poor health.

He had congestive heart failure and nerve damage forced him to rely on a wheel chair.

The father of five died peacefully yesterday in a Winnipeg hospital.

He was 73.

(Courtesy W.K. Kellogg Foundation)

Many states are turning to dental therapists to serve tribes.

But, some aren’t so sure adding another mid-level position is the way to tackle dental care deserts.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach reports.

Dental therapists are a relatively new position. They can do things like cleanings, fluoride treatments, and even simple fillings, says dentist and researcher Donald Chi.

“Put out small fires in a community with lots of dental care needs, and so then the dentist can come in and put out the big fires.”

He says dental therapists are often focused on tribes, since about half of Indigenous people live in areas without enough dentists.

Initiatives have been particularly successful in Alaska, but there are few training programs for dental therapists in the lower 48.

And Tanna Nagy with the Wyoming Dental Association says she’d rather see resources go toward existing programs for dentists, hygienists and assistants.

“Instead of trying to find faculty for new programs, which is just hard to find already.”

She says states could also encourage reaching unserved populations by reducing dental workers’ student loan debt.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Today is election day and it is important to make sure every voice is heard at the ballot box.

That includes Native voices, who are often disenfranchised from the polls.

SDPB’s C.J. Keene checks in with one group looking to get out the Native vote.

The Communities Organizing for Unified Power (COUP) Council, a Rapid City Indigenous organization, held a town hall to discuss the importance of getting indigenous peoples to the ballot box.

After a successful campaign season signing people up, He Sapa Voters voter organization director Jean Roach says it’s a challenge to encourage people to participate for many reasons.

“People are like ‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ but just telling them that their vote can be more of a bigger picture in the end. An invocation.”

(Courtesy He Sapa Voters / Facebook)

Roach says housing, policing, and representation are among the most important issues facing the local community this election season.

She adds these issues can be addressed, along with increased representation in the capitol, if people recognize the influence they hold.

“People don’t realize how powerful we really are. We need to unite, and by voting that’s one step toward making a difference in our own lives. People really don’t see it, but we encourage it because maybe we’re going to have a candidate up there and we can make a difference. So, we want to make some changes. Really big ones.”

(Courtesy History Colorado)

Last week, President Joe Biden apologized for U.S. government-run Native American Boarding schools.

Clark Adomaitis has more on the reaction in Colorado.

Over the course of 150 years, Indian boarding schools aimed to exterminate Indigenous culture by removing children from their families and suppressing their languages and cultural practices.

Children were also subject to other atrocities including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

Indigenous leaders at Fort Lewis College are applauding President Biden’s apology.

Last year, History Colorado reported that between 30 and 50 children from the Fort Lewis boarding school are buried in the cemetery on the grounds where the former boarding school stood.

Heather Shotton is the Vice President of Diversity Affairs at Fort Lewis College. She’s a citizen of the Wichita and Affiliated tribes, and is Kiowa and Cheyenne.

“It has been a long time coming, and something that is needed to start the healing process and so that we can recognize that history.”

Shotton says she appreciates Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo)’s leadership in this issue.

Ernest House Jr. is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe and a Fort Lewis College board member.

“Particularly having an indigenous person in the Department of Interior leading has probably had a great deal of influence, and has been critical to have that type of representation.”

“There’s not anybody from tribal communities that has not been either personally impacted by a relative, a family member, a connection by this historical trauma, this this dark chapter.”

House wants the U.S. government to take action after President Biden’s apology.

He wants funding for language programs.

“Five-hundred and seventy-four federally recognized tribes, yet less than 200 still speak our native language. The languages were stripped from these students once they went to Indian boarding schools. The culture and what made them unique was stripped away.”

The Department of Interior reports that almost 1,000 Indigenous children died at federal Indian boarding schools.

The state of Colorado is continuing to fund research into the state’s Indian boarding schools.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Montana’s Tim Sheehy, left, and incumbent Sen. Jon Tester faced off in a debate on Montana PBS. (Courtesy Montana PBS)

Control of the U.S. Senate could hinge on the Montana Senate race and Native Americans could very well decide the outcome after racist Indian tropes became a centerpiece of the contest.

Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

Most polls have three-term U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) behind his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, but Sen. Tester’s campaign has been redoubling its get-out-the-vote effort including on the state’s reservations where many of Montana’s estimated 70,000 Native Americans live.

That makes them a crucial voting block, and many are mad after recordings surfaced of Sheehy mocking attendees of Montana’s 105-year-old Crow Fair celebration, saying “they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” and throw beer cans during the parade.

Tribal elders have called on the former Navy SEAL to apologize but he’s refused, which the moderator relayed to Sheehy in their September debate.

Sheehy responded: “The reality is, yeah, [it was] insensitive. I come from the military, as many of our tribal members do. We make insensitive jokes and probably off-color sometimes, but I’m an adult, I’ll take responsibility for that. But let’s not distract from the issues that our tribal communities are hurting.”

Sen. Tester called on Sheehy to apologize.

“You can say, ‘Look, I’ll take responsibility,’ but apologies matter. And how you treat people matters, and if you treat them with disrespect, other people will disrespect them. So, like I said to begin with, you’re a big guy; just apologize.”

When National Native News asked Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) — the first Native American cabinet secretary in history — about demeaning tropes being spread by political aspirants like Sheehy in this election, she said it’s time for candidates to read up on Native American history.

“All I can say is that I hope that people who say things like that will educate themselves, because if they’re running for office, they need to be educated so that they can be effective leaders for their constituents. I know that there will always be a certain amount of ignorance out there with respect to tribal nations.”

Sec. Haaland told us Sheehy’s comments are personally painful.

“When people say really offensive things like that, they lack a knowledge of the history of our people. Our history is complicated. It’s complex. It has many different eras. We went through eras of genocide, and we went through eras of land stealing and then assimilation policies. We have lived through so much.”

In their official capacity, federal officials like Sec. Haaland are prohibited from campaigning by the Hatch Act, so we never mentioned Sheehy by name to the Interior secretary.

And when we specifically asked about the incumbent senator, the secretary gently rebuffed us.

“I can’t ask you about politics, but what has Sen. Tester — as a former chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee — what has he meant to Indian Country?”

“Would you like to ask a different question? Because I can’t speak for him.”

Sen. Tester’s campaign is dropping more than $1 million on tribal outreach this year, and they’re hoping Indian Country comes through and sends him back to Washington on Tuesday.

(Courtesy Erin Braaten / Dancing Aspens Photography)

A rare white bison calf was born in Yellowstone National Park last summer.

Now, a resolution to protect such animals has strong support from tribal communities.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach tells us why.

Phil White Eagle is Sicangu Lakota.

He believes the white bison calf – even rarer because it has a black nose and eyes – fulfilled a tribal prophecy.

It could be both a blessing and an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with nature.

“We need to get ready for something that’s coming…it means that we need to pray.”

And Two Eagle believes more white animals could be born around the world.

So, tribes and conservation leaders have banded together to get the animals recognized as sacred internationally.

A resolution at the United Nations biodiversity conference could do that in the coming years.

“The white animal is a messenger of some type.”

A Lakota spiritual leader has dubbed the Yellowstone bison Wakan Gli – which means Return Sacred.

And on this day in 1791, a coalition of Great Lakes tribes crushed U.S. troops at the Wabash River in western Ohio.

Miami Chief Little Turtle

Lead by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket, the Native warriors advanced in a crescent formation against the troops, killing 600 in three hours and causing the rest to flee in panic.

Deaths on the Native side were estimated to be as few as a couple dozen.

It’s considered the biggest victory of Native Americans against U.S. soldiers, more so than the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The proper repatriation of Native American remains is behind a new facility in Corvallis, Oreg.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, it’s a collaboration between Oregon State University and the nine federally recognized tribes within the state.

Called the “OSU-NAGPRA facility”, the two-buildings are about 2,000 square feet total.

They’re for consultation, records, and storing human remains in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The 1990 federal law mandates the safe return of skeletons, bones, and cultural items to their tribes.

Ashley Russell is director of Natural Resources and Culture for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians.

She credits sensitive discussions among tribes, OSU, and the state in making this facility possible.

“It’s just very important to us as tribes to have that relationship, and it not be like a transactional thing because these are ancestors. They’ve made their journey, they’re on the other side, and you have to be careful when you navigate those sorts of things.”

Other tribal representatives across Oregon have voiced support for the facility, which may be the first built specifically for repatriation purposes.

Oregon’s NAGPRA Director Dawn Marie Alapisco was pleased with the support.

“This isn’t an ending at all, this is a new beginning. This is a change, a shift in how NAGPRA can and should be performed.”

NAGPRA compliance has been a constant sore spot between many tribes and institutions.

Some universities have retained bones and remains in years past, citing “research” needs.

White raven with a black-feathered companion at a dumpster behind the Spenard Road House Restaurant. The Ravens seemed to especially enjoy discarded tater tots and bread crusts. (Photo: Jennifer Olson)

The odds of a white raven being born are one in 30,000.

Despite those improbabilities, a blue-eyed white raven first appeared in the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage last October, where it became an instant media sensation.

The bird was last seen in April, when it took off with its family to return to the wilderness, where ravens nest and raise their young.

There’s no guarantee the white bird will be back, but as KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, there is still hope.

White Raven. White Raven. Wherefore art thou? That question echoes across Spenard, as flocks of ravens made their annual October migration into town, where there are plenty of pizza crusts and French fry droppings to tide them over through the winter.

Jennifer Olson goes out every day looking.

“With my limited storage space. I managed to amass about 6,500 photos.”

Olson says it’s hard to delete a single, one.

“Because each moment is different, each little look of the eye. A little tilt of the head. A turn of the beak, or a moment with another bird. The background. It’s endless”

Olson got some of her best pictures near a trash dumpster behind the Spenard Roadhouse. She’s been there too. But alas, so far, no White Raven.

The very first photo posted on the Anchorage White Raven Spottings Facebook page was on October 24 last year.

But Aaron Towarak (Iñupiat) may have been the first to photograph the bird in Anchorage.

On October 20, he took a photo of White Raven and its black feathered companion on the roof of an old, vacant restaurant.

“In some ways it has its own mysticism.”

Towarak remembers the moment well. He was living in a Spenard Hotel room, waiting to get into alcohol treatment.

“And I was just trying to stay active, because I was going through alcohol withdrawal, so I was walking around on Spenard. And that’s kind of when I saw it. It’s a good place marker for my personal journey.”

He said the sight of the bird inspired him and on October 23, he entered a treatment program in Juneau, and now celebrates one year of sobriety.

Towarak says things would come full circle for him to see the White Raven again. He’s wondered how the bird is doing. But if he doesn’t see it, that’s OK too.

“You kinda wonder where they are, where they go off to, what they do. But then you just realize we don’t have control over nature or maybe even ourselves at times.”

Towarak says that’s one of the big lessons of sobriety, is to learn to acceptance.

“A lot of times we want to impose our will on the world, but it’s kind of about letting go of things in your life that you don’t have control over.”

Towarak has regained control of a lot. He spends time with his children, has a good job, and, after a year of getting around on foot and on a bicycle, bought a new car.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily and stay up-to-date on the 2024 Native Vote. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Navajo family in Arizona cast their votes after 5-day horseback ride Native sports teach teamwork, cooperative, respect, and survival skills