National Native News

Photo: Gabriel Bourne, left, a Fallon Paiute-Shoshone member, stands next to Dr. Steven Dalton and Crystal Hall, a medical records specialist, after being treated inside the mobile clinic. (Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau) The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe in Nevada is expanding healthcare access with a mobile clinic. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more on how tribal patients are getting the healthcare they need. After years of driving their vehicles to neighboring reservations, the tribe bought a mobile clinic last year. It was funded by a $673,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, aimed at expanding rural healthcare access after the pandemic. The tribe’s mobile clinic serves its members and drives to the Lovelock Paiute and Yomba Shoshone reservations – covering a territory of about 200 miles. It can also treat any member of a tribe in Nevada. Joy Schultz, a registered nurse with the Fallon Tribal Health Center, helps a patient check in for a mobile clinic appointment. (Photo: Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau) Jon Pishion is the director of the Fallon Tribal Health Center. He says they serve about 2,000 people, averaging about 20 patients each month. They try to visit each tribe at least once a month, but that isn’t always easy. “Challenge is weather and distance. They are far away. And during winter, sometimes these areas get hard to access here.” Mobile health clinics are also being used by the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona, and the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana. “I think having the providers go into community opens their eyes to the needs and how to better serve them.” Dr. Christopher Chai is working at the mobile clinic here in Lovelock. He says they can even act as an urgent care for injuries and wounds. “We will get the random rancher come in with a broken finger and say, like, what do I do with this – it sliced open – and we can put in stitches.” Pishion adds that the clinic also helps tribal members be proactive instead of reactive about their health. “We have some people that maybe only come in when they’re sick, but now they’re seeing us for their preventative care when we come out.” Like Barbara Bonta, an elder of the Walker River Paiute Tribe who lives in Lovelock. “I’ve been seeing them for my feet and other problems that I didn’t know I had till they started testing this and testing that.” Barbara Bonta, left, an elder of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, sits on an exam table inside the Fallon Tribal Health Center’s mobile clinic. Nurse Joy Schultz prepares to check her vitals. (Photo: Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau) Bonta was brought to the mobile clinic by her daughter Tia Happy. “With my mom, she can’t sit for a long time in a car to go to Fallon or elsewhere to appointments, so it makes it super convenient when the mobile comes here.” Happy says her mom’s been seeing Dr. Chai for the past two years, consistent care that’s been made possible by this mobile clinic, which isn’t slowing down. This year, the clinic plans to add dental care to its services. An example of a Turquoise Alert issued for people missing under suspicious circumstances in Arizona. (Courtesy Arizona Department of Public Safety) Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) announced last week the launch of the Turquoise Alert system for Native Americans. It’s a new tool intended to help the state’s department of public safety and law enforcement respond when vulnerable people go missing. In May, Gov. Hobbs signed legislation creating the alert. It was deployed before its effective date this fall. Hobbs says the tool is a meaningful step to improve the safety and wellbeing of communities across Arizona, and in particular Tribal communities, which have suffered from a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Tribal leaders were among those to advocate for the alert system. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis (Gila River Indian Community) took to social media to announce the launch of the Turquoise Alert, saying it’s in honor of Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teenager who went missing and was later found dead. “I feel the weight of every story of a missing loved one. Now the creation of the Turquoise Alert System through Emily’s Law is deeply meaningful to me and to all tribal communities across Arizona. We have long lived with the painful reality that our Indigenous brothers and sisters, our relatives, go missing at alarming rates and too often slip through the cracks of systems not built to protect them.” Gov. Lewis says the Turquoise Alert gives tribal communities a fighting chance to bring their relatives home. The alert will be activated when a person goes missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances and is believed to be endangered.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Manitoba has again declared a state of emergency because of wildfires. It’s the second time this year. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the province’s premier Wab Kinew says more shelter is needed for people forced to leave their homes. The wildfires continue to force community evacuations, especially in northern areas. The province is in the middle of one of the worst wildfire season in 30 years. So far, about 20 million acres of land have burned in the province, 11 times worse than the average. And there are more than 100 active fires burning in Manitoba. Now thousands of people are fleeing, some of them for the second time in the past couple of months. Here’s Manitoba premier Wab Kinew. “The primary reason that we have called this latest state of emergency is because we need access to more facilities to be able to shelter this large number of Manitobans who are being forced to flee their homes due to wildfires.” The community of Snow Lake declared a local state of emergency earlier this week. Then the Garden Hill First Nation also issued an evacuation notice. Canadian Armed Forces transport plans have already removed about 1,000 residents. So far, about 6,000 people have been transferred from their communities and 12,000 have been displaced. The state of emergency allows the province to use convention centers and arenas to help provide shelter space. Archaeologists with the Alutiiq Museum dig into layers on layers site at Karluk Lake called site 309, which revealed a “super structure”. This is separate from what was surveyed on Shuyak Island. (Courtesy Alutiiq Museum Archaeology Department & Repository) Shuyak Island, Alaska is one of several located in the Kodiak Archipelago and like many islands in the area it has a rich history. The Alutiiq Museum’s archaeological team has been surveying sites on the island for years and as KMXT’s Davis Hovey reports, they have pieced together more of the historical timeline of the island’s use. Patrick Saltonstall is the archaeology curator with the Alutiiq Museum. He’s heavily involved in site surveys and excavations around the Kodiak Archipelago. This spring, Saltonstall and staff from the museum’s archaeology team finished surveying Shuyak Island, which is located 54 air miles north of Kodiak. “A lot of the old research had focused on the northwest part of Shuyak and we surveyed the whole island. And we found a lot of really big villages on the east side.” He says they surveyed one site that dates back to roughly 7,000 years ago, which he suspects is the oldest found on that island thus far. “I think we found that one village that had 11 house pits, probably had two to three hundred people living in it, you know, 300 years ago.” Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people have inhabited areas around Kodiak Island for at least 7,500 years, according to archaeologists. And thousands of archaeological sites have been documented across the archipelago. According to the Alutiiq Museum, Shuyak Island was an integral part of that history with at least two established Alutiiq villages. But Russian fur trader Gregorii Shelikov destroyed one of the villages and by the late 1700s there were no communities left on the island. The word Suu’aq in Alutiiq means “rising out of the water”. And true to its name, Saltonstall says the island itself is rising at a faster rate than the sea level is, so the threat of eroding sites is not as prevalent today. “What we found up there is that’s not happening anymore. All the sites are much more stable. You see grass growing on all the beaches, and it demonstrates…the land sank in 1964 and it’s rebounded ever since, and it’s outpacing sea level rise up there.” Most of the island is now owned by the state and is included in the Shuyak Island State Park. Mark Macarro, seen here on Air Force One with President Joe Biden in 2024. Condemnation over conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s anti-Native post on social media site X continues. Brian Bull has more. Earlier this week, Coulter posted a video of Melanie Yazzie, a University of Minnesota professor and Navajo Nation member at a 2023 conference discussing colonization. Coulter posted “We didn’t kill enough Indians”, sparking outrage. The post has since disappeared from X, but tribal leaders and organizations have continued to denounce it as “violent” and low, even for a controversial figure like Coulter. The National Congress of American Indians has added to the criticism. NCAI President Mark Macarro says “Careless comments like this glorify the darkest chapters of U.S. history and actively endanger Native peoples’ lives today.” Larry Wright Jr., the NCAI’s executive director, adds, “Free speech does not confer a license to advocate for or justify mass murder — past or present. When a public figure with more than two million followers romanticizes extermination, it fuels harassment, hate crimes, and political violence.” Others have pointed out the callousness of the post given the Missi

Photo: The Fallon Tribal Health Center’s mobile clinic parked at the Lovelock Paiute Tribe’s health fair in Lovelock, Nev., on May 16, 2025. (Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau) Some tribal nations are among the most remote communities in the country – and the rural healthcare shortage has hit them especially hard. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports that one tribe in Nevada has found a solution: a doctor’s office on wheels. It’s a clear morning in Lovelock, Nev., a small desert town about 90 miles northeast of Reno. It’s also home to the Lovelock Paiute Tribe, which has a 20-acre reservation on the edge of town. At a tree-shaded park, where the tribe is hosting its annual health fair, there is live music, jewelry vendors, information booths, and food trucks. There’s also a vehicle that looks like a large blue-and-white motorhome idling on the edge of the park. But inside are two patient rooms and a center lab with a blood draw station. It’s a mobile health clinic brought here by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe – located about an hour away. Gabriel Bourne just stepped out of the vehicle. “Having access to this, I was able to get some shots I needed – that I should’ve probably had a long time ago but didn’t get.” Time and travel are the biggest barriers, he says. Bourne (Fallon Paiute-Shoshone member) lives in Lovelock, so seeing a physician in Fallon is a two-hour round trip. So when Bourne, who hadn’t been to the doctor in more than a year, realized he was steps away from a mobile clinic, he took full advantage. “I’m able to get my eye appointment, which I’ve needed glasses for a while, along with some cancer screening setups, and follow up with the doctor to see labs and everything else.” Accessing quality health care has long been an issue for tribal nations, especially in rural areas. The federal Indian Health Service has less than 100 hospitals and medical clinics nationwide, all to serve about 2.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. And most facilities suffer chronic staffing shortages. Some of the highest vacancy rates have been felt by the Navajo Nation, Albuquerque, N.M., Phoenix, Ariz., and Billings, Mont. Jon Pishion is the director of the Fallon Tribal Health Center, which runs the mobile clinic here at the fair. He says the lack of access was amplified five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A lot of healthcare facilities were being shut down. And with all the services being closed, we needed something to go out to the communities.” (Courtesy Yurok Tribe / Facebook) The Yurok Tribe in rural northern California is catching up to the digital age. Like many tribal communities that are located in remote regions, the Yurok Nation has gone without high-speed broadband internet, but that is changing. Christina Aanestad reports. “Where I grew up there wasn’t any power and phone lines. No connectivity at all.” Shannon Hulbert is board president of Yurok Telecommunications (YTEL), the first-time provider of broadband internet on the Yurok reservation and surrounding communities in northern California’s redwood region. She says the multi-million-dollar project will create more than 200 jobs and make a world of difference. “This creates a reason for people to move back to the reservation, because they have that ability to connectivity to have jobs anywhere. They can work remotely from the reservation and still be part of their reservation activities and communities. Students will have access to online collaboration tools that everybody else is using.” A Census Bureau report last year found Native American communities lag behind the rest of the nation in broadband connectivity. Ninety percent of US households have access, compared to 70% of Native communities. Hulbert says it’s largely because Native American reservations are remote in rural areas, where there remains a digital divide. The YTEL broadband project was made possible through federal and state grants.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The Eklutna Tribe has operated its new casino outside Anchorage, Alaska, under the shadow of two separate lawsuits. As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, a federal judge has dismissed one of them. Ever since a group of property owners tried to block the casino with a lawsuit, tribal advocates have kept a close eye on this case, because their attorney, Don Mitchell, challenged the Native Village of Eklutna’s status as a federally recognized tribe. “Congress has never allowed a middle-ranking employee of the Interior Department to just wave a magic wand and create 200 Indian tribes, either in Alaska or any other place.” Mitchell is referring to Ada Deer, who was Assistant Interior Secretary in the Clinton administration. In 1993, she included Eklutna in a list of Alaska tribes on the Federal Register to eliminate any doubt that they have the same status as other tribes in the United States. Numerous court cases have tried and failed to invalidate Deer’s decision. Last month U.S. District Judge James Robart stood by those cases – and ruled that the Eklutna lawsuit should be dismissed in “equity and good conscience.” Tribal legal experts like Michelle Demmert applauded the ruling, but she says cases like this one consume time, energy, and precious dollars. “Time and time again, the law is clear in these areas that continue to be challenged. If the argument was that the Eklutna tribe is not a tribe, there’s legal precedent. There’s federal law that says, ‘They are.’” In a statement, Aaron Leggett, the president of the Native Village of Eklutna, called the ruling a significant step forward because it affirmed an important principle to the tribe – that its rights are firmly rooted in the land. The tribe still faces another federal lawsuit, this one brought on by the Alaska Attorney general. It also aims to shut down the casino. Canada’s Senate debates Bill C-5 before its passage. A recent federal law that passed in the Canadian parliament, called the major projects bill, has drawn criticism and anger from Indigenous leaders. They call it a betrayal of reconciliation and a failure to properly consult with Indigenous stakeholders. More from Dan Karpenchuk. First there was Bill 5 from Ontario, which allowed the provincial cabinet to designate special economic zones. The aim to fast track resource development such as mining of critical minerals. That bill passed without consultation from First Nations and they say it oversteps treaty obligations. Now at the federal level the controversial Bill C-5 has also passed. It is legislation to fast track major projects across Canada. It gives Ottawa the power to side step environmental protections and other laws. Originally it was aimed at circumventing the Indian Act, but that part was removed. Some Native leaders have warned that it could lead to protests and legal challenges if it does not respect rights and title. And some had called on members of parliament and other lawmakers to slow down Bill C-5 so that Indigenous leaders could review the law. Senator Paul Prosper (Mi’kmaq) is calling the rushed passage of the legislation a betrayal. “We do not want success and progress to come on the backs of Indigenous peoples. We want to be at the table making decisions alongside Canadian politicians because these decisions affect us. They affect our lands and resources.” Sen. Prosper said Canada is becoming a country of extremes and the ability for moderate social discourse is gone. He says it isn’t right or acceptable. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce praised the quick passage of the bill, saying it has the potential to unleash the Canadian economy, but also urged the government to ensure that there is full compliance with rights of Indigenous communities and environmental standards.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: San Carlos Apache College Vice President and Provost Lisa Eutsey, left, and San Carlos adjunct professor Marcus Macktima commencement on May 17, 2025. (Samuel Meade) President Donald Trump is proposing drastic funding cuts for tribal colleges and universities. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on institutions in Arizona and New Mexico. “Without doubt, this is threatening to close their doors.” Ahniwake Rose (Cherokee) is president and CEO of the nonprofit American Indian Higher Education Consortium. These schools depend on three federal agencies to stay financially afloat. “If you take away any one of those legs, you know that stool will fall. We actually saw flat funding at both the Department of Education and the USDA.” As for the Interior Department … “Ironically, the agency that’s really in charge of the trust responsibilities to Indian people is the one that zeroed out funding.” The White House did not respond to KJZZ’s requests when asked to explain why. But Scott Davis (Standing Rock Sioux), senior advisor to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, testified during a congressional hearing that these huge cuts are nothing new. “We’ve been through the ebbs and flows of funding with Congress for a long time. We’ve seen cuts, we’ve seen increases, we’ve seen it all, but we’ve always been resilient.” Map of tribal colleges and universities nationwide. (Courtesy American Indian Higher Education Consortium) Tohono O’odham Community College president Stephen Schoonmaker worries this is nothing short of a death sentence. “Some tribal colleges will die quickly and others will die slowly, but we cannot sustain without the obligated funds that should be coming and have come for a long time.” While the community college is home to nearly 1,200 students with four campuses statewide, Schoonmaker says they are still dependent on the feds. More than half of its operational funding comes from the Bureau of Indian Education. He fears funding shortfalls could have cascading effects, like losing their accreditation, which took years to achieve. “Our accreditor is going to say, ‘Are you fiscally stable?’ And if you aren’t, they’re just going to look at that as a red flag.” And the looming cuts could discourage student interest, with Schoonmaker saying the mere threat hurts enrollment. “Why would a student say, ‘I’m going to go to Tohono O’odham Community College’ when they may lose 90% of a major funding source?” The Institute of American Indian Arts campus in Santa Fe, N.M. (Photo: Jason S. Ordaz / IAIA) In Santa Fe, N.M., the Institute of American Indian Arts is bracing for the Trump administration to do away with its $13 million appropriation. “They’ve never given us a reason, didn’t expect this one though.” President Robert Martin (Cherokee) never imagined his summer being bogged down by grave budget talks before retiring later this month. Now it’s up to lawmakers in DC to decide the fate of this prestigious arts school in the Southwest. “In our name, it has Indian and arts, and both of those, I don’t think, are considered to be very important to this current administration.” Ann Coulter at CPAC 2013. (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr) Leaders of Native organizations and tribes are speaking out against conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s recent post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, which she stated “we didn’t kill enough Indians,” with a photo of a Native professor. Native American Rights Fund Executive Director John Echohawk, in a statement Monday, called the post “ignorant”, “immoral”, and “genocidal language”.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Native American Rights Fund (@nativeamericanrightsfund) Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. shared a long response on Facebook, calling the post beyond abhorrent and dangerous hate speech. Navajo Nation council speaker Crystalyne Curley, left, and Billy Kirkland shake hands with guests at the Navajo Nation Washington Office. Kirkland was honored at the office during a reception in January. (Photo: Antonia Gonzales) The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has a hearing scheduled this month to consider the nomination of William Kirkland for Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior. Kirkland (Navajo) is a political strategist from Georgia and served in the first Trump administration. The National Congress of American Indians applauded his nomination in February, stating the position is critical to upholding the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities, and ensuring the effective delivery of services to tribes.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: A pendant for San Carlos Apache College hung on campus. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) While Congress continues mulling over President Trump’s fiscal agenda, part of the White House budget proposes to essentially defund tribal colleges and universities – reducing federal funding by nearly 90%. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports on how Arizona schools and others across Indian Country are bracing for devastation. Among them is San Carlos Apache College, which is not your typical campus. The tribe has been building toward this dream of making higher education more accessible on the reservation for the last decade-plus. That vision from San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler is still a work in progress, but one he’s been contributing to in ways – big and small. “So we asked the chairman if we can borrow his podium. We didn’t know he had more than one.” Lisa Eutsey is vice president and provost of San Carlos Apache College. She’s talking about the first commencement in May 2020. “And so the next year, I had texted him or something and I was like, ‘Hey, can we borrow your podium again?’ But then I realized we found it, and he was like, ‘Just keep it.’” That’s been a theme for the chairman, when it comes to piecemealing this makeshift campus together in the heart of San Carlos by slowly turning empty tribally owned buildings – including one home to old council chambers – into classrooms. “Actually, a lot of the artwork on the walls are things that the chairman donated.” Chartered in 2014, then officially opening its doors three years later, the college has graduated over 100 students. “I joke I was leaving, in a way, the most fully funded, built out, oldest tribal college.” Eutsey used to be dean of faculty for Diné College, which was founded on the Navajo Nation in 1968. “…to come to a college with no funding, no classrooms, no faculty.” By this fall, Eutsey says the college expects to employ eight full-time teachers and enroll 500 students but they and another 36 Indigenous schools across more than a dozen states are still dreading the worst. Trump wants to cut their federal funding by almost 90% – down to a collective $22 million. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds during a 2025 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing. U.S. Senators have a deadline of July 18 to decide whether to eliminate federal funding for public media. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s CJ Keene has more. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) sits on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. He says supporting tribal radio stations is a priority through the process. “For our Native American reservations, there are some small radio stations in South Dakota and the United States who really rely on the public broadcasting funds to survive. We know that you want to revert some of those funds, but if you do that, some of those small stations that provide emergency service and community information – they may not survive.” Sen. Rounds says White House counterparts have agreed to work with Congressional leaders seeking to keep tribal-operated radio functional through the process. (Courtesy 25th Navajo Nation Council / Facebook) Over the weekend, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) visited the command center for the Oak Ridge Fire in Window Rock, Ariz. to get updates and offer her support. The Oak Ridge Fire is on the Navajo Nation near St. Michaels. Gov. Hobbs says her administration will continue to coordinate with the tribe to contain the fire, and with recovery efforts. Tribal officials, including Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley, met with Hobbs during the visit. As of Monday morning, the fire was covering more than 10,900 acres. It started on June 28. Officials say the fire has not grown significantly in recent days and additional growth is not expected. Efforts will soon be shifting to the recovery phase of the fire. Officials say in the coming weeks, it will be critical to assess the fire’s impacts on the land, vegetation, wildlife, and cultural sites.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Jalisco Miles, left, holds a checklist while Farrell Hayes and Riston Bullock check on the fire truck engine on June 12, 2025. (Lauren Paterson / NWPB) As the Trump administration looks to combine multiple fire agencies under one organization, firefighter numbers are dwindling. Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Lauren Paterson reports on how the Nez Perce Tribe is stepping up despite the challenges. Three young firefighters are standing under the hot sun in Lapwai, Idaho, doing an engine check on one of their fire trucks. All of them are members of and firefighters for the Nez Perce Tribe. Riston Bullock is going into his thirteenth season. He says he does this job because he’s dedicated to protecting the land, and his community. “Now that I’ve been in fire for so long, it’s kind of more, being the first one to respond, put the fires out.” A big challenge here in Idaho, and across the nation, is that there aren’t enough people to help. “ We’re losing firefighters. The numbers are going down.” People can still volunteer, but… “We need people at the shop ready to go when those fires start..” Across from the shop in the air conditioned office, Jeff Handel, the fire management officer, is on the phone trying to schedule repairs for fire trucks. “OK what I need is, I got a couple rigs that need radios put in ‘em.” He’s also worried the younger generation doesn’t seem too interested in firefighting. “ It’s pretty tough in today’s world when you can get a job, work from home and, and, and do okay financially, why would you wanna go out and do the firefighting thing? Which is very hard work.” Back at the shop, the firefighters are organizing equipment like ropes and hatchets. There could be changes coming to how the Nez Perce Tribal fire crew works with other agencies in the region. The Trump administration is trying to merge all federal firefighting into a single agency. That could mean shifting thousands of jobs around just as fire season is ramping up. Bullock says he’s not sure how that would work. “I feel like it’ll just kind of be a new name, but I still feel like we’ll still have our shops and everything here will be mixed out through each other. Approximately $1.2bn will be requested as part of the new Wildland Fire Service budget. For now, Bullock and the rest of the crew aren’t giving it too much thought. They’re busy getting ready for the next call. Alameda County Coroner’s sign. (Photo: I Love Old Signs! / Flickr) A group of researchers found gaps in how death certificates are maintained with implications for Native Americans’ health. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more. Researchers from prestigious universities to Indigenous communities studied death certificates from 2008 to 2019. They found Native Americans have a life expectancy of roughly 72 years old. The national average is 79. That’s a much bigger gap than official stats show, says Jacob Bor. He’s an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and the study’s lead author. “American Indian populations have been subjected to deliberate policies of physical and cultural erasure for centuries. These patterns have contributed to today’s economic and physical marginalization and deprivation and to poor outcomes in these populations.” Bor and his team uncovered another problem. Death certificates for at least 40% of Native Americans failed to identify them as American Indian or Alaska Native. In most cases, their race was misreported as “White.” The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department announced this week the appointment of Joannie Suina as assistant secretary for Native American early education and care. The citizen of Cochiti Pueblo recently served as special projects coordinator at the state’s Indian Affairs Department focusing on issues including Indian education and MMIP. She previously served as communications director for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. The position will work on strengthening state-tribal early childhood partnerships.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

In a 6-3 ruling this week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court says a Native citizen living on her reservation isn’t exempt from state income tax. The Journal-Record reports that Alicia Stroble, a member of the Muscogee Nation, had argued that her income was exempt because she lived and worked on her tribe’s land. In 2020, Stroble had filed three Oklahoma Individual Income Tax Returns for the three previous years. She said the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case, McGirt v Oklahoma, supported her stance as that ruling reaffirmed the existence of the Muscogee Nation’s reservation. Two years later, the Oklahoma Tax Commission denied her exemption, leading to an appeal and the case making it up to the state’s highest court. The definition of “Indian Country” was deliberated in oral arguments last year. The Oklahoma Justices said McGirt doesn’t apply to state tax law. In an opinion, they said that extending McGirt to pre-empt Oklahoma from taxing the income of tribal members residing on unrestricted, non-trust, private-fee land must come from the nation’s highest court. Gov. Kevin Stitt (Cherokee/R-OK) praised the ruling, saying he rejects race-based tax exemptions. Tribal leaders have denounced the ruling as inconsistent and a form of “legal gymnastics”. The Muscogee Nation said they are reviewing their next steps. Quincy Adams prepares to jump on a sealskin blanket during Nalukataq festival in Utqiagvik in June 2025. (Photo: Sarah Betcher) Several coastal Arctic communities hosted festivals throughout June to celebrate a successful whaling season. In Utqiagvik, that meant four full days of sharing subsistence food, prayers, dance, and traditional blanket toss. It also meant gathering as a community, in joy and in loss. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. Trigger warning: This story discusses suicide Whaler Quincy Adams soars above a seal blanket at Simmonds Field in Utqiagvik, with a bag of candy in his hands. He leaps even higher and tosses the kaleidoscope of sweets, as the children around him whoop with joy and catch treats. Adams is one of the captains of the Aaluk whaling crew. They were among those who landed a bowhead whale this spring and threw a feast for the community – especially for elders and widows who can’t hunt for themselves. On a recent visit to Anchorage, Adams watched his kids play in a park as he reminisced on the season. “It’s all for the community, not just for us or our crew. It’s to make sure everybody gets a bite to eat, to make sure that nobody goes hungry. Feeding our people.” Nalukataq, which means blanket toss in Iñupiaq, is a traditional celebration of the successful bowhead harvest. The whaling crews serve several courses of subsistence dishes throughout the event: caribou, duck and geese soup, donuts, boiled whale meat, muktuk, akutaq, and a delicacy – fermented whale meat and blubber, or mikigaq. When the feast is over, the whalers stretch a sealskin blanket, inviting everyone to jump on it. Then, the crowd moves indoors and continues with Inupiaq dancing and drumming throughout the night. This year’s Nalukataq also had an emotional side for Adams. A young member of their crew died by suicide earlier this year and the crew opened the event with a prayer and a message of hope. “It’s just something we wanted to get out to the other people and to the young people and the teens, tell them that there is hope, there is family that loves them, and if they need to talk to somebody, talk to somebody.” Whaling captain Herman Ahsoak says that dedicating Nalukataqs to those who passed is not new. He says the event is about the community coming together. “We put on the blanket and jump and let it all out on the blanket and just jump for joy.” The communities of Wainwright, Kaktovik, Nuiqsit, and Point Hope also celebrated whaling festivals in June. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text the 988 Suicide Crisis Lifeline. And this Saturday, Minnesota’s first-ever Native American Food Truck Festival kicks off in St. Paul. Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine says more than 20 Native food trucks will serve up both traditional and urban Indigenous fair foods at Harriet Island Regional Park. @makingitinminnesota FREE Twin Cities Event Spotlight This Saturday, July 5, head to Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul for the Native American Food Truck Festival. It’s happening from 11 AM to 7 PM! Swing by to try out some incredible food. It’s the first ever in Minnesota so it should be a good time! I also briefly mention Taste of Minnesota in this video, but you can check out my full breakdown of that event in a previous post And don’t forget: my full weekend guide of free Twin Cities events drops on Thursday, July 3. Follow along so you don’t miss it! #NativeAmericanFoodTruckFestival #StPaulEvents #HarrietIsland #IndigenousFood #TwinCitiesWeekend #TasteOfMinnesota #FreeEventsMN #ThingsToDoMN #MinneapolisEvents #StPaulEats #TwinCit

With a vote from U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senate Republicans passed a sprawling budget reconciliation bill that contains much of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Liz Ruskin reports. Alaska tribes and Native organizations have raised concerns about the bill. The Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes recently sent a letter to Alaska’s Congressional delegation opposing the bill with concerns about clean energy, food security, health care, and lands and forests. In a statement Monday, the Fairbanks Native Association said it is “deeply troubled” by the passage of the spending bill, raising concerns about funding cuts to tribes, which provide critical services including health care and food assistance. Sen. Murkowski said it was one of the hardest votes she’s ever taken and she’s hoping it will be changed further before Congress sends it to the president’s desk. She said she helped improve the bill for Alaska, but she said in an emailed statement, “It is not good enough for the rest of our nation — and we all know it.” The bill’s passage followed intense negotiations between Murkowski and Senate leaders aimed at retooling the bill to overcome her objections to removing benefits from Alaskans on Medicaid and food assistance. Murkowski said she decided to vote yes because Republicans made adequate changes to rural health care and food assistance. She cited a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals and clinics, and added flexibility for Alaska in administering changes to SNAP. Only three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) voted yes. The bill includes new oil lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. Murkowski has championed those for years. The bill goes to the House, where a different version passed in May without a vote to spare. Any changes would have to be approved again in the Senate. Interior of the immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” with President Donald Trump in the background. The Miccosukee Tribe in Florida is opposing the Trump administration’s new immigration facility at an airstrip in the Everglades, which the administration calls “Alligator Alcatraz.” Chairman Talbert Cypress told ABC News that the tribe held a meeting this week regarding the facility, which is located on tribal traditional homelands of Miccosukee and Seminole people. “The tribe has been at home on the Big Cypress for centuries and what was decided at the meeting was to examine all avenues that we have to temporarily delay this facility.” Cypress says the tribe is concerned about any potential environmental impacts and safety concerns for tribal members. Demonstrations have reportedly been in the area opposing the facility, as President Trump was given a guided tour on Tuesday. The administration is touting the area for its remote location and surrounding wildlife as barriers for people to escape. (Courtesy State Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-WA) / Facebook) Native Americans in Washington state face opioid and fentanyl overdose rates four times the national average. Isobel Charle has more. Leaders are calling for more investment in treatment centers and transitional housing to address the problem. While nationally, fentanyl overdoses have declined, Native American fatalities have surged since the pandemic. State Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-WA) is part of the Washington State Tribal Opioid and Fentanyl (WTOF) Taskforce. During the taskforce’s third annual summit, tribal leaders and state agencies met for three days and heard from community members in recovery from Opioid Use Disorder. Last year, says Rep. Lekanoff, the taskforce partnered with tribal governments and invested in substance abuse treatment facilities based on a successful model created by the Swinomish. “The model that Swinomish created 12 years ago has now been incorporated into over 20 tribally owned substance abuse disorder facilities that are healing all Washingtonians.” Lekanoff says in the next couple of years the taskforce will focus on transitional housing for those recovering from substance abuse. She says this is a non-partisan issue and it will take everyone working together to make change.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

A federal audit has found that the Environmental Protection Agency did not distribute millions of dollars on time to clean water programs for tribes. As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports, this comes as tens of thousands of tribal homes lack indoor plumbing and clean drinking water. The agency’s own inspector general examined more than $300 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was supposed to go to tribal water programs over two years. In the 2022 fiscal year, more than half of the funds allocated had not been awarded on time. And in 2023, most of the remaining water project funds did not get distributed. The audit cited that the Indian Health Service estimates about 41,000 tribal homes lack indoor plumbing – and thousands lack access to safe drinking water. Marcus Gullet is with the inspector general’s office. “So these funds are really tailored to addressing those problems. Funds for designing and constructing wastewater treatment facilities, improving drinking water systems, and addressing emerging contaminants.” The EPA acknowledged in a final report that it made mistakes in most cases and said it would work to fix them. It agreed to focus on improving the timeliness of providing funds to tribes. Evacuation map for Klagetoh Pump Station Area/Transwestern Pipeline Road in Arizona. (Courtesy Navajo Department of Emergency Management / Facebook) Navajo Nation leaders are urging residents near the Oak Ridge Fire to remain vigilant and follow emergency protocols and evacuation alerts. The fire is burning on the reservation near St. Michaels, Ariz. Residents in at least three communities were evacuated on Sunday. As of Tuesday morning, the fire was at more than 9,000 acres with zero containment. Edith Nageak draws a bird at a sketching workshop during the Migratory Bird Festival in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, in June 2025. (Courtesy Migratory Bird Festival) More than 150 people recently gathered in America’s northernmost community for the Migratory Bird Festival, where they observed, sketched, and learned about dozens of species. Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more on the festival, and on the rapid growth of birding tourism in Alaska. A little brown bird walks and chirps along the still partially frozen Utqiagvik lagoon. It’s a semipalmated sandpiper — one of about sixty species that locals and visitors spotted during the Migratory Bird Festival. Lindsay Hermanns is the festival coordinator. She says avid birders often travel to the Arctic to see rare species who fly here from all corners of the world. But sometimes it’s even more exciting to see familiar birds in their breeding grounds, where they wear totally different plumage. “It’s like a glow up. They look totally different. They’re flying around, they’re doing their mating displays and exhibiting this behavior that you only see in the Arctic.” Attendees rode around in school buses for several hours, spotting different birds and talking about Inupiaq culture, Utqiagvik history, and the Arctic environment. Hermanns says that the main goal of the free three-day festival was to show how important the Arctic ecosystem is for the birds, but the highlight for her was what the participants brought to the table. The Migratory Bird Festival attendees rode around Utqiaġvik, Alaska in school buses for several hours, spotting more than 60 different species. (Courtesy Migratory Bird Festival) Several elders came to the talks and commented on what birds they harvest, how they do it traditionally, and what they call those species in Inupiaq language. “That was a major component of success, in my mind – having the elders be involved like that.” Local knowledge holders and Inupiaq speakers also participated in creating a new Utqiagvik Birding Trail, a brochure that spotlights 10 sites throughout town where you can see birds in breeding plumage. As the Arctic warms, forests shrink and hurricanes intensify, she says migrating to the Arctic becomes more difficult. Lauren Cusimano is with Audubon Alaska. “Utiqgvik becomes even more important for shorebird species, because once they get there, you know, they can do their thing and breed and be hopefully observed by us as birders and conservationists, without much disturbance.” Hermanns says she hopes more Arctic residents will get involved in organizing the event in the future.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has apologized to Indigenous leaders for comments that some First Nations described as racist. The comments were sparked by opposition to Bill 5, which would allow his government to bypass environmental and other regulations in order to fast track resource development in special economic zones. Dan Karpenchuk has more. Native leaders have opposed Bill 5, which would, among other things, fast track mining approvals for critical minerals. And last week Premier Doug Ford appeared frustrated by their opposition. “You can’t just keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government. You’ve got to be able to take care of yourselves.” Ford had also said his government was making an offer to First Nations on “a silver platter” and that he had treated them like “gold”. But his language didn’t sit will with most Indigenous leaders. Sol Mamakwa is the only First Nations member of the Ontario legislature. “Those comments that were very deeply troubling. But also racist. As First Nations, you know, we are not beggars and I think at this point, those type of comments we don’t need those comments from the premier.” During a two-hour meeting with the Indigenous leaders, Ford apologized. “I just want to say I sincerely apologize for my words. Not only if it hurt the chiefs in that room, but all First Nations. And I get passionate because I want prosperity for their communities.” Anishnabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige spoke for Native leaders. “Our chiefs felt today that the apology was sincere. We are looking at today as a new day going forward.” Debassige says the meeting was not about Bill 5, but about the Ontario government upholding its treaty responsibility. She did say Native leaders are still opposed to Bill 5. She also would not disclose everything that was said during the meeting. Deborah Ann Begay is two-spirit and the first Indigenous justice of the peace in Arizona’s Maricopa County. (Courtesy Advance Native Political Leadership) It’s the last day of Pride Month – an observance meant to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ community. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on a Navajo jurist who identifies as two-spirit. Born in Lupton on the Navajo Nation, Maricopa County’s first Indigenous justice of the peace, Deborah Ann Begay, has been ruling out of the Moon Valley courthouse in north Phoenix since 2020. The Navy veteran and single parent attended University of California, Berkeley then law school at Arizona State University. And Begay says the best part of her job is officiating marriages, especially for same-sex couples. “Doing the ceremony, you’re performing a like professional function, but yet you’re kind of included in their private lives. And that’s even more so when I would get invited to their personal homes.” Despite the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing those unions in a 2015 landmark decision, they are still not recognized by the Navajo Nation. The Diné Marriage Act defines matrimony as being only between a man and woman, though there’s been recent pushback to repeal that law. In 1847, members of the Choctaw Nation donated $170 to victims of the Irish famine. And it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Seo McPolin reports on a new festival that is bringing Indigenous and Irish people together again. It’s been ten years since the Kindred Spirits sculpture was installed in the Irish county of Cork. From the 20 feet tall, stainless steel feathers which commemorate the Choctaw donation, a new organization emerged. Kindred Spirits Ireland is hosting the World Peace Gathering July 18-20 for those who wish to “celebrate peace, healing, cultural exchange, and Indigenous wisdom”. Featured guests include former Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch and Chief Phil Lane Jr. “Sensei” Steven Seagal, who claims DNA connections to Indigenous Yakut and Buryat heritage, was also just added to the line-up.                                                       Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Alameda County Coroner’s sign. (I Love Old Signs! / Flickr) A group of researchers have found gaps in how death certificates are maintained with implications for Native Americans’ health. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more. Researchers from prestigious universities to Indigenous communities studied death certificates from 2008 to 2019. They found Native Americans have a life expectancy of roughly 72 years old. The national average is 79. That’s a much bigger gap than official stats show, says Jacob Bor. He’s an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and the study’s lead author. “American Indian populations have been subjected to deliberate policies of physical and cultural erasure for centuries. These patterns have contributed to today’s economic and physical marginalization and deprivation and to poor outcomes in these populations.” Bor and his team uncovered another problem. Death certificates for at least 40% of Native Americans failed to identify them as American Indian or Alaska Native. In most cases, their race was misreported as “white.” Tony Duncan, left, competing at the 2025 World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Feburary and a sheet of the USPS powwow Forever Stamps. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently unveiled four special Forever Stamps celebrating powwows. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio spoke with the artist behind the new collection. The Gathering of Nations – held annually in Albuquerque, N.M. – is where this new collection was released back in April. These tiny pieces of postage are, in part, brought to life by performers Tony Duncan, his wife, Violet, and their eldest child, Manaya. There are four designs – each honoring a different style of dance: Traditional, Fancy Shawl, Crow Hop, and Hoop. The New Mexico-based painter who designed the Forever Stamps tells the rest of his story behind hand-picking the Duncan family. “Hi, my name is Mateo Romero. I’m a tribal member from Cochiti Pueblo. I’m a contemporary Southwestern painter and I’ve worked on the USPS forever sheet stamp, the powwow series with the Duncan family and with KamiJo Whiteclay. “I don’t know of a way where an artist could sort of catch the attention of USPS. It just happened organically. And I was very flattered. I was very honored to do it. “It’s actually not easy to take a painting and translate it into a stamp. I did four paintings for USPS, which I think were like 24 by 30 inches, and then to make it into something the size of your thumb, that’s actually a little tricky, because it has to really carry color. But I think they did a really good job. I mean, I think the colors are clear and the shadows are nice and the faces pop out. It seems to work. You know, I was actually surprised at how well they did it. Yeah, I got shocked at how well it came out. “That’s really what I was trying to do was capture the sort of visual analog of what it might be if you were at a powwow and you’re looking at dancers, and you could hear the sound of the drum behind you. And so I think they move in that direction where they’re beginning to resonate like that – sort of give people maybe some visual cues of what it might be to actually be there. “I did my best. I tried to bring in the best people and the best energy I could kind of make it come alive. It’s really their story. You know, that’s the cool part about it. I mean, I’m the painter, and I’ve created this message, and I’ve put it out there. People seem to like it, but the story really is their story, right? It’s their family and their energy. They actually, in this respect, have become the face of powwow for this moment to the world. They’re the face of the Forever Stamp, and their story is being used in a good way to show the larger story of the powwow.”   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Cherokee Nation leaders and ambassadors and Talking Leaves Job Corps staff hosting open house at new Taling Leaves Job Corps Oklahoma City office in 2016. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation / Facebook) A federal judge Wednesday halted the closure of Job Corps locations across the country. In May, the federal government announced it was pausing the Job Corps program, which helps people ages 16 through 24 with career training. The Associated Press reports, a lawsuit is challenging that move, and the court ordered the government to keep the program running until the lawsuit is resolved. The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, raised concerns about the closures saying it was the first tribe to operate a Job Corps in 1978, and the program was serving around 150 students. A view of the Trinity River from the GeO-Deck of Reunion Tower in Dallas, Texas. (Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia) In Texas, the city of Dallas plans to rename three man-made lakes along the Trinity River in honor of tribes. KERA News reports the city council voted Wednesday to name them Three Sisters Lakes with each lake named after a tribe that has ties to the state. (Courtesy Denver Indian Center / Facebook) American Indian and Alaska Native communities in Colorado continue to face significant gaps in health care access, quality, and outcomes, according to a new analysis of the Colorado All Payer Claims Database. Eric Galatas reports. While the communities face higher rates of many chronic conditions, they are also not getting important preventive care. David Wright, data manager at the Denver Indian Center, said fear remains a primary barrier, pointing to decades of mistreatment, including the forced sterilization of women and federal policies forcing medicine men and other spiritual leaders into mental asylums up until 1978. “Native people, for a long time, have been used to advance medical research without their consent. And so there’s a large mistrust within the Native communities against the medical profession.” Between 2018 and 2024, American Indian and Alaska Native people were diagnosed with kidney disease, autoimmune, nervous, metabolic, and endocrine disorders such as diabetes at rates far above their white peers. Wright noted the analysis, produced in partnership with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, will be used to create a culturally tailored education program for health providers. Without additional training, Wright pointed out health professionals are likely to continue to assume chronic conditions are due to an individual’s dietary choices. Many do not understand for more than 100 years, tribes had to rely on government rations, typically high in carbohydrates and salt, to get enough calories. “Because of the forced relocation and the reservation systems, and relying on heavily carbohydrate related rations.” Poverty, lack of affordable housing and the breakdown of family systems also disproportionately affect health outcomes. Wright argued better health will require treating the whole person, not just specific medical conditions. When people are out of balance in any one area, he stressed there are ripple effects. “If we’re not able to provide stable housing — which is not only of mental and emotional and physical importance — but it also will affect the outcomes and the teachings and the role modeling you need for your children and your family structures.” (Courtesy Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing) The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes recently received grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann reports, other housing-related funding for the tribes is a little less certain. Tribes around the country receive federal support through the annual Indian Housing Block Grant. This year, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe got about 2.3 million, and the Northern Arapaho Tribe received about 3.6 million. Emery’l LeBeau is the director of the Northern Arapaho Housing Authority. “We get this Block grant based on a formula, right? And so it’s based off the units and our need.” The money keeps housing authorities operating and helps maintain their current housing. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would decrease that funding by about 20%. An earlier draft also called for eliminating a competitive community development grant. Gilbert Riche is with the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority and says losing that would have a direct impact on future projects. “ That’s the primary funding source for us to spearhead new housing development.”   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

As food insecurity rises across the country, groups fighting hunger are highlighting the need for food that is not only nutritious, but culturally relevant. Isobel Charle has more. Leialoha Kaula is executive director of the nonprofit Ka ʻAha Lāhui O ʻOlekona – Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon & SW Washington (KALO HCC), which serves Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The organization started distributing food boxes during the pandemic and Kaula said the food didn’t always meet people’s needs because it wasn’t familiar, or they didn’t know how to use it. In response, she said, KALO HCC started including traditional foods in the boxes like taro root and coconut. “We saw that it was not just hunger for food, it was that hunger for culture. It was that hunger for home, that’s what was filled.” Visits to food banks in the state have risen sharply in the last year and data shows Pacific Islander Oregonians are twice as likely to experience hunger than their white neighbors. Kaula said KALO HCC has also started cultivating taro, a Native Hawaiian staple, and encouraging people to get involved in the project. “Even though we’re here in Oregon, that’s still a connection to home. It’s about how we as Indigenous people are caring for the land.” Amid federal cuts to food programs, Kaula said she wants to see Oregon focus more on providing culturally relevant foods, so all communities in the state can thrive. “To really, truly have a healthy Oregon. We have to make sure that we’re serving all the communities in a way that makes them feel seen, heard, and feed them in that way.” A woman in a fur coat looks at the photographer, while a boy smiles at her. (Courtesy Cyril George Photo Collection) In the basement of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) in Juneau, Alaska sit thousands and thousands of photographs. They were taken by a Lingít elder who has since passed on, but for decades he documented important events and everyday life. And as KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey reports, the organization wants help identifying people and places in the photos. Ḵaalḵáawu Cyril George Sr.’s family unearthed his photo collection in the wake of his death 11 years ago. His granddaughter Lillian Woobury says she was astounded at the volume of photos he kept in his small Juneau condo. “That tiny little room had been harboring all of these memories he captured in photo. I mean, every time we thought we’ve got them all, we pulled out another box or another container, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, Mom, it’s another box of photos.’” A family friend suggested they donate the photographs to Sealaska Heritage Institute to preserve and store them. Emily Galgano is one of the archivists who’s been combing through the photographs for the last several years. “There’s so much just joy in these photos. It’s one of my favorite things, looking through them and seeing people just having a good time, people dancing, people talking to each other, cooking out on the beach.” Some of the photos are online now and printed in books that are available in Juneau and Angoon for elders to look through. A boy jumps over a bar as his peers look on. (Courtesy Cyril George Photo Collection) SHI hopes people will recognize some of the faces. The photos are full of life. Most are of people: dancers in full regalia, fishing trips with strung up halibut, graduations, and meetings. They show Lingít people living, working, teaching, and making art. They show elders, and babies, and elders with babies. And those babies may be elders now themselves. Lingít photographer Brian Wallace helped SHI scan the photos. He knew George growing up, and looking through the photos, he says the photos show how Southeast Alaska Native cultures have endured. “They’re thriving when he took the photos, and still thriving.” And some of the photos were deeply personal for Wallace. “And then I loved finding the photographs that he had of my parents.” Woodbury, George’s granddaughter, says it was hard to part with the collection, but she hopes that others, like Wallace, will look through the collection and find photos of loved ones who have passed on. “I think if people walk away seeing these photos and they feel like he gave them that one moment in time back, that makes me happy. And that will be a small part, a small part of this legacy.”   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

As the Trump administration looks to combine multiple fire agencies under one organization, firefighter numbers are dwindling. Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Lauren Paterson reports on how the Nez Perce Tribe is stepping up despite the challenges. Three young firefighters are standing under the hot sun in Lapwai, Idaho, doing an engine check on one of their fire trucks. All of them are tribal members, and firefighters for the Nez Perce Tribe. Riston Bullock is going into his thirteenth season. He says he does this job because he’s dedicated to protecting the land, and his community. “Now that I’ve been in fire for so long, it’s kind of more, being the first one to respond, put the fires out.” A big challenge here in Idaho, and across the nation, is that there aren’t enough people to help. “ We’re losing firefighters. The numbers are going down…” People can still volunteer, but…“We need people at the shop ready to go when those fires start..” Across from the shop in the air conditioned office, Jeff Handel, the fire management officer, is on the phone trying to schedule repairs for fire trucks. “OK what I need is, I got a couple rigs that need radios put in ‘em…” He’s also worried the younger generation doesn’t seem too interested in firefighting. “ It’s pretty tough in today’s world when you can get a job, work from home and, and, and do okay financially, why would you wanna go out and do the firefighting thing? Which is very hard work.” Back at the shop, the firefighters are organizing equipment like ropes and hatchets. There could be changes coming to how the Nez Perce Tribal fire crew works with other agencies in the region. The Trump Administration is trying to merge all federal firefighting into a single agency. That could mean shifting thousands of jobs around just as fire season is ramping up. Bullock says he’s not sure how that would work. “I feel like it’ll just kind of be a new name, but I still feel like we’ll still have our shops and everything here will be mixed out through each other.” Approximately one-point-two billion will be requested as part of the new Wildland Fire Service budget. For now, Bullock and the rest of the crew aren’t giving it too much thought. They’re busy getting ready for the next call. A billboard along U.S. Route 89 encourages those living in the Western Agency of the Navajo Nation to get screened for uranium. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The U.S. Senate is still drafting its version of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Tucked away in that proposed budget is a measure to renew compensation for those who had been exposed to radiation from uranium mining and nuclear weapons’ testing. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. If finalized, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) would now sunset in 2028. It also expands eligibility for claims from the Trinity Test site in New Mexico – where the first atomic bomb was detonated – and to more uranium miners. The Navajo Nation has been lobbying to reinstate RECA since it expired last June. “I’m in just so much pain all the time.” Maggie Billiman (Navajo) has COPD and was recently diagnosed with liver and kidney disease. While downwinders like herself are hopeful about RECA returning, they’re also concerned that lawmakers are considering huge cuts to health services. “This big, beautiful bill is just something else. You get help from the RECA compensation, right, and then take Medicaid and Medicare? It just doesn’t make any sense.” (Courtesy Chickasaw Nation) Janie Simms Hipp was recently named Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year by Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anotubby. Hipp has dedicated her nearly four-decade career to food sovereignty through agricultural law, including her work at the USDA and the Native American Agriculture Fund. The award honors Chickasaw women who have made significant contributions to the Oklahoma tribe.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Apache Stronghold supporters shout “Protect Oak Flat” outside the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse on May 7, 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Despite the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear arguments last month from Apache Stronghold, the nonprofit is trying to revive its religious freedom case over Oak Flat in Arizona. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the group is asking the high court to reconsider. “I betcha the courts don’t change their mind in 0.001% of the time.” Bob Miller (Eastern Shawnee) is with Arizona State University’s Indian Legal Clinic. He’s been following the saga to protect Oak Flat from copper mining. The nation’s highest court allows parties to re-appeal a denied petition within 25 days. But Miller says asking the nine justices to reconsider will almost certainly not alter the outcome. “I cannot conceive of the Supreme Court changing its mind.” Conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas argued in a dissent that not hearing Apache Stronghold’s case was “a grievous mistake” threatening to “reverberate for generations.” In a statement, Resolution Copper says the company appreciates the court’s attention to this case – which had been reviewed over a dozen times. A letter to President Donald Trump from the nonprofit Apache Stronghold sent on May 29, 2025. (Courtesy Apache Stronghold) K’dazq’eni Glacier. (Courtesy Alaska Volcano Observatory) Although Alaska is the land of 100,000 glaciers, only 700 of them have names. Very few of those are Indigenous. But they are important for the writer of a new book called “The Alaska Glacier Dictionary” to include them. As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, it’s more than a reference book, but full of stories. Naomi Klouda says her glacier dictionary is for travelers and armchair adventurers alike, to give them quick access to a glacier’s vital stats and nuggets of history – some that have been erased from recent memory. “There are some really beautiful Alaska Native designations on glaciers, like they’ll be very descriptive. So it was really important to me to get the Indigenous names wherever I could find them.” Like K’idazq’eni, the Dena’ina name for a glacier on Mt. Spurr. “And it means one that is burning inside. Now picture this glacier is on Mount Spur, so in local memory, in Indigenous memory, they would have known about the times that mount had erupted.” Klouda says the names of Alaska glaciers also tell the story of colonialism. When geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey mapped and named glaciers, they often supplanted Indigenous names – or failed to acknowledge the contributions of Alaska Natives – like the Athabascan hunting party led by Chief Sesui, who came to the rescue of some starving, nearly frozen U.S. Army explorers, after a bear raided their cache in 1899. They took the men to their village, fed and clothed them for several months and, when the weather improved, guided them to safety. But it was the leader of the expedition, Lt. Joseph Herron, who was remembered with the name Herron Glacier, not Chief Sesui. “Every glacier has a story and no two are alike. They are very individual.” That’s why Klouda says when it comes to the Indigenous history, the name of a glacier is literally the tip of the iceberg. Special thanks to Aaron Leggett for Dena’ina Athabascan pronunciations. Cherokee Nation bike riders returned to the capital city of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma on Friday, after finishing a 950-mile journey. This year’s ride marked the Remember the Removal Bike Ride’s 41-year anniversary. Riders followed the northern route of the Trail of Tears honoring Cherokee ancestors who were forced to march it in the late 1830s. The journey began in Georgia and ended in Tahlequah, Okla. Twelve cyclists from the Cherokee Nation took part in the ride over three weeks.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (@seckennedy) U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sworn in Mark Cruz (citizen of the Klamath Tribes) as senior advisor to the secretary for Indian Health Services. In a video on social media, Sec. Kennedy said the appointment is important for decision making in the Health and Human Services Department for Native Americans.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

(Photo: Michael Sherman) A new welcome center in the town of Blue River, Oreg. had its grand opening last week. The McKenzie Crossing and Native Center is located in the geographic “heart” of the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. It’s also in an area hit by the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. “I wanted to create something up the McKenzie River and Blue River to help it heal.” Katherine K’iya Wilson is a bicultural liaison for the center, with connections to many tribal communities including Native students she’s mentored at the University of Oregon’s Longhouse. Although the grand opening competed against other events on June 14 including the “No Kings” rallies, Wilson was pleased at those who made it. “We had over 50 people there. A wonderful celebration.” (Photo: Brittany Mason) The center will show how many tribes crossed through the area for gathering, camping, and traveling to the obsidian cliffs along the coast. Wilson’s grand plan is to establish a film center for Native people, where they can learn how to make original films. “At this point I broke the ice, so to speak, and it’s time for the tribes to step in. If they want this to happen I’m here, but it’s too big for this little old lady. But that was the dream.” Wilson says she’s working with Native grant and business writers to make the film center a reality. Lake Mead, the nation’s largest man-made lake and reservoir, in April 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act earmarked $320 million to fund the planning and construction of critical water infrastructure projects across Indian Country in consultation with the Bureau of Reclamation. But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio in the conclusion of his two-part series, it remains unclear how many of those federal dollars – if any – will be clawed back by President Donald Trump. Uncertainty is rippling from top to bottom, although President Trump just tapped Ted Cooke to be the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. Daniel Cordalis (Navajo) runs the Tribal Water Institute at the Native American Rights Fund. “They’re still building out the political roster at Interior quite a bit.” Settlements are hugely important legal frameworks for tribes in securing their water rights by basically turning paper claims into guaranteed acre-feet allocations – along with the funding mechanism needed to do so. Such agreements, largely bipartisan, can only be ratified by Congress. “And of course, tribal waters are not the president’s priorities. It’s not uncommon. That being said, I think we have an Interior secretary who is sympathetic and supportive of tribes.” During his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was hopeful he can deliver results for all along the Colorado River. “I got some good understanding and good exposure to this, but I think you can count on that we’re going to look for a collaborative solution that serves everyone.” But even if Sec. Burgum is behind tribes, getting the GOP-controlled Congress onboard could still be challenging. Cordalis says slashing federal dollars may have a trickle-down effect stalling Indian water settlements. “Congress is very much on the president’s playbook about cutting costs, reducing the budget and doing things and requiring, for lack of a better word, offsets.” There are 39 federal water settlements with tribes. Here’s where they’re located.(Map: Chelsey Heath and Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The biggest offset of them all would be the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement for Navajos, Hopis, and San Juan Southern Paiutes. It’s worth $5 billion, an expense that the federal government incurs. “Where do you offset that and who’s going to do it? That’s the concern here, these settlements have big price tags.” Cora Tso (Navajo), a senior fellow researching tribal issues at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, is slightly more optimistic. She thinks the Trump administration sees this settlement for three tribes in northeastern Arizona as an economic driver. “For the most amount of acres and the largest populations of tribes in the country.” The first Trump administration ratified the nation’s most expensive Indian water settlement to date – valued at $1.9 billion. “That tells me, at least from the federal perspective, the first Trump administration understood the investment in Indian water.” But that all happened before Trump began focusing on so-called government efficiency.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

A public records request in a Missing Indigenous Persons case in North Dakota has revealed unusual footage. As reported this week in Buffalo’s Fire, 77 hours of surveillance footage from the Mandan Police Department shows 20-year-old Renzo Bullhead (Standing Rock Sioux) approaching a railroad bridge, headed east towards Bismarck, N.D. on March 16. But in footage not previously seen by the public, a large splash in the Missouri River appears on the opposite side of the bridge, roughly 20 minutes after Bullhead passes by the first camera. Since Buffalo’s Fire posted the story on its website and social media venues, the new footage has generated calls for further investigation into Bullhead’s disappearance. The Mandan Police Department has not responded to emails asking what they make of the disturbance in the water. From atop the Hoover Dam, a view overlooking the Colorado River cutting through Black Canyon in April 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) While Arizona, neighboring states, the federal government, and Mexico are negotiating over a dwindling supply of water from the Colorado River, another key stakeholder is tribes. Thirty in all, trying to either ratify their rights or safeguard their allocations to the West’s most precious water resource. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports how the tribes’ seats at the negotiating table are being shaped by the second Trump administration. More than two-thirds of the Colorado River Basin tribes are from Arizona. They all need to negotiate with the federal government to essentially get what they want. Unlike states, tribes were historically excluded from these dialogues, but lately their engagement in defining the future of the Colorado River has been celebrated. “All of those tribes are in very different places and there’s no one size fits all. And what’s going to work for one tribe is probably going to not work for most of the other 30.” Scott Cameron, currently the top-ranking Interior Department official on Colorado River matters, reiterated his agency’s commitment to tribal consultation this month at an annual water conference in Boulder, Colo. “So we really need to have these conversations on a one-on-one basis, that having been said, trying to negotiate with 37 people in the room is a lot more complicated than negotiating with seven.” Gila River Indian Community President Steven Roe Lewis during President Joe Biden’s 2024 visit. So far, tribes seem fairly content with the Trump administration’s recent and frequent communication – a sentiment shared by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community during an annual Tucson, Ariz. water conference last month. “We’ve already made significant progress with the new administration, and we’re more optimistic than ever that they’re listening and seriously considering new proposals.” At the same time, the federal agency responsible for refereeing talks has also made notable cuts – gutting roughly 4% of all Interior staff – and potentially shaping its water priorities for years to come. “I’ve heard on calls that about 25% of the workforce is now gone from Reclamation in general, and so just for water in the West, that’s significant.” Cora Tso (Navajo) researches tribal issues at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. When pressed to confirm how many Bureau of Reclamation employees were lost, the Interior Department repeatedly said it does “not comment on personnel matters”. Tomorrow we’ll bring you part two of this special report on water access and tribes. And on this day in 1868, a Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Jean De Smet, met with Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota to negotiate a peace treaty. Meeting with the famed chief at his encampment along the Powder River in present-day Montana, de Smet was not able to sway Sitting Bull to sign a treaty. But the chief did send one of his delegates to Fort Laramie in Wyoming to sign a treaty which allowed whites to travel and settle in designated areas. De Smet died in 1873, three years before Sitting Bull and his forces defeated General Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the LIttle Bighorn.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The Miccosukee Tribe is embarking on a campaign to buy and protect lands in the Florida Everglades. The Guardian reports that it is in a partnership with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation. The goal is to create a safe habitat for threatened species including black bears, panthers, and Key deer. The initiative was spurred by the Trump administration’s slashing of federal funds for conservation projects. Talbert Cypress, chair of the Miccosukee, said the tribe has a constitutional duty to conserve their traditional homelands, the lands, and waters which have protected and fed the tribe “since time immemorial”. The agreement was announced at a summit of corridor stakeholders in Orlando recently, after a study by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society found that 60% of federally recognized tribes have lost grants or other federal funds exceeding $56 million since President Donald Trump began his second term in January. The Hopi Nineteen were sent to Alcatraz Island for seditious conduct on Jan. 3, 1895. (Courtesy Mennonite Library and Archives / Bethel College) Alcatraz Island has been glamorized for decades on Hollywood’s silver screen, most notably by the 1979 blockbuster “Escape from Alcatraz” starring Clint Eastwood. The film depicts an iconic real-life prison break by inmates Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin a year before it closed in 1963. But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports in the conclusion of his two-part series about the Hopi Nineteen and The Rock, the real-life history also features a number of dramatic stories. Wendy Holliday is a former archivist for the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office. “I think a lot of people know Alcatraz. They kind of know the stories from the movies when it was a federal prison and then don’t really know it’s related to Indigenous people. When I was doing the research and I lived on the reservation and I was a tribal employee, 100 years after those men were imprisoned at Alcatraz, this story was still so resonant as though it had just happened yesterday.” Built in 1854, Alcatraz Island became home to the first lighthouse on the West Coast. (Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration) As much as Alcatraz is about uncommon criminals, it’s also associated with boarding schools. “Some of the stories that people would tell me that they had heard kinda passed down, was just about the trauma for them and for their family members that were left behind, wondering what happened.” And once she started, Holliday couldn’t stop telling that side of the story. “It’s not just that they were imprisoned, but they were taken from their ancestral land that was absolutely vital to their spiritual practice and wellbeing. It was a story, still very much alive and I still think today.” Amber-Rose Howard is with Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a coalition of more than 80 groups organizing against prisons across the Golden State. “Of course, Alcatraz is just a non-starter. There’s no drinking water, no utilities, no infrastructure. It’s hard to tell what’s a real threat and what’s just fear mongering, but at this time, I think that we should be taking everything he’s saying seriously.” If not Alcatraz, Howard says undocumented people are likely next to be sent somewhere else – empty prisons that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been eyeing – even in Blythe, Calif. along the Arizona border. “But I don’t think it stops there. It starts with folks who are undocumented, and then it will continue to spill over into disappearing people from underserved, marginalized communities, who are Black, who are Brown, who are Indigenous, who don’t fit the agenda.” Listen to Part One of the Series https://media.blubrry.com/nationalnativenews/ins.blubrry.com/nationalnativenews/nnn061725.mp3   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes recently received grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann reports, other housing-related funding for the tribes is a little less certain. Tribes around the country receive federal support through the annual Indian Housing Block Grant. This year, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe got about $2.3 million and the Northern Arapaho Tribe received about $3.6 million. Emery’l LeBeau is the director of the Northern Arapaho Housing Authority. “We get this Block grant based on a formula, right? And so it’s based off the units and our need.” The money keeps housing authorities operating and helps maintain their current housing. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would decrease that funding by about 20%. An earlier draft also called for eliminating a competitive community development grant. Gilbert Riche is with the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority and says losing that would have a direct impact on future projects. “ That’s the primary funding source for us to spearhead new housing development.” Congress is still in the process of reviewing the budget. The Hopi Nineteen – all hailing from the pueblo village of Oraibi in northern Arizona – were arrested by the U.S. Army in 1894. (Courtesy Mennonite Library and Archives / Bethel College) Last month, President Trump announced plans to reopen and rebuild Alcatraz, one of America’s most infamous prisons that was shut down six decades ago. For now, it’s a federal historic landmark managed by the National Park Service. Several top leaders from the Bureau of Prisons, including engineers, recently toured Alcatraz to conduct site assessments. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the 22-acre island within the San Francisco Bay has strong ties to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona. First a pre-Civil War fort, then a military prison, this maximum security federal penitentiary housed some of the nation’s most notorious inmates from Al Capone to George “Machine Gun” Kelly. But Matthew Sakiestewa (Hopi), a history professor at the University of Arizona, says they all had one thing in common. “ The federal government has always seen that island as a place to put problematic people, including a group of 19 Hopi men.” Some refer to them as the Hopi Nineteen hailing from the pueblo village of Orayvi perched atop Third Mesa in the high desert of northern Arizona. The Hopis were charged with sedition after refusing to let their children attend Indian boarding schools. With no due process since they were considered wards of the state, the then-Commissioner of Indian Affairs sentenced the Hopi Nineteen to confinement and hard labor in 1895 – nearly a thousand miles away. “ You will encounter steep walkways, uneven surfaces and tripping hazards on Alcatraz Island. Please watch your step. Right now, it’s a park. This is a place for the public. I’ve taken the ferry boat trip there, less than two miles from the shore, and you can learn about this Native history.” Sakiestewa says Alcatraz Island is also a political symbol. “ Whether that’s [the] federal government’s perspective or also Indigenous people.” And for Trump, Alcatraz is not only a symbol of law order. “ It’s a big hulk that’s sitting there rusting and rotting, but it sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable. Weak.” Tune in tomorrow for part two of this series on Alcatraz’s ties to the Hopi. Lakota Sioux warriors charge Colonel William Royall’s detachment of Cavalry in this wood engraving from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 12, 1876. (Courtesy Library Of Congress) And on this day in 1876, the Battle of the Rosebud took place in eastern Montana between 4,000 Lakota Sioux warriors and General George Crook’s troops. His men were surprised and caught in the open of a gully, but his Crow and Shoshone allies blunted the attack long enough for Crook to regroup. He lost 28 out of 1300 men, but the greater disaster – the Battle of Little Bighorn – was eight days away.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Writer, actress, comedienne, and activist Jana Schmieding is known for her work with Native-themed series such as Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs, but she’s also a “Duck”. The University of Oregon alum is this year’s commencement speaker and spent this weekend reconnecting with her campus community. Schmieding graduated in 2005 with a degree in Theater Arts. On Saturday, she and her family tied on aprons and cooked fry bread tacos at the UO Longhouse for Native students, alum, and special dignitaries including President Karl Scholz. Schmieding says it turns out Scholz’s daughter is a fan of her work, and there’s a new project underway. “We just shot a pilot also created by Sierra Teller Ornelas, Bobby Wilson, and Jackie Keliiaa, three comedy writers. Sierra was the co-creator of Rutherford Falls. And it’s a community center comedy that takes place in Oakland but we shot it in Portland. And if the show gets picked up by NBC for a series run, we will shoot it in Portland.” For all of her comedy stylings, Schmieding says she takes her role as this year’s commencement speaker for the Class of ‘25 very seriously. She gave a preview summary of her speech. “Special shout out to the Native grads. And I’m talking about Indigenous joy. I’m talking about joy in general. And just the importance of maintaining joy as resistance. Joy as an important part of sustaining our movements, and joy as a creative practice.” Schmieding says the collective struggle she and others faced as people of color really motivated her through her university experience, so coming back after 20 years brings those efforts full circle. People sing and dance in front of a new Kootéeyaa raised at the Hoonah Harbor on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Photo: Clarise Larson / KTOO) The City of Hoonah and Huna Heritage Foundation unveiled a brand new, 21-foot totem pole during a ceremony at the Hoonah Harbor at the end of May. The totem pole, called a Kootéeyaa in Lingít, was designed and raised to honor the community’s rich fishing history and traditions. KTOO’s Clarise Larson was there and has this story. It’s called the Fisherman’s Honor Totem Pole. Carved into the yellow cedar log are depictions of different fishing methods locals use. Above that you have the gill knitter, and then you have the rod and reeler all by hand. Master Artist Gordon Greenwald describes the design of the brand-new totem that now stands at the Hoonah Harbor. He speaks through a microphone to a crowd of more than 100 people who gathered for the ceremony. “This is what you’re looking at, the Huna fishing people, all of us in the past, all of us in the future, and all of us now.” Many Hoonah residents attended the event and a catamaran brought dozens of people from Juneau for the ceremony. Greenwald led the team of carvers who designed and created the Kootéeyaa, which took five months to complete. Fishing is deeply intertwined with its economy and identity of Hoonah. A person unveils the new Kootéeyaa raised at the Hoonah Harbor on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Photo: Clarise Larson / KTOO) During the 1950s and 60’s, Hoonah became known as the home of the “Million Dollar Fleet”. That’s because of the local fishermen’s highly lucrative skills and success on the water. Hoonah’s Vice Mayor Amelia Wilson thanked the crowd for celebrating the Kootéeyaa and the meaning behind it. “To see so many of our fishermen and fisherwomen here really just makes me so proud to be honoring all of you and that legacy that we have of 1000s and 1000s of years of amazing fishermen.” David Sheakley, a speaker at the event, says the pole honors the fishermen who are alive today and recognizes those who have passed away. He references the rain, which patters down on the tents above the crowd. Many people present were active or retired fishermen. “It’s as if this Kootéeyaa is here to help turn those tears of sorrow into tears of joy, to continue on the fishing that is so important within the community, to continue that on into the future.” The ceremony included traditional songs and dances as the tarp was pulled away from the pole to unveil it to the community.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The U.S. Congress is considering a rescission request from the Trump administration to pull funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). As SDPB’s Lee Strubinger reports, the maneuver would negatively affect many tribal radio stations, including four in South Dakota. The station KOYA stands to lose about $200,000 if congress ultimately approves the rescission. John Miller is the station manager for the station in Rosebud. He says the funding reduction would be very detrimental. “For the folks of the Rosebud. Because, we serve a purpose of keeping them up to date and passing along emergency information—passing along pertinent information that helps them in every way and every day. [CPB] funding that we do receive is very beneficial in keeping the station on the air. It wouldn’t be a good outcome for us.” KILI of Porcupine, KDKO of Lake Andes, and KLND of McLaughlin all stand to loose around $200,000 in CPB grants. South Dakota’s lone representative in the U.S. House, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), voted in favor of rescinding the money. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) says he does not want to see funding cut for radio stations in rural areas that rely on public broadcasting — particularly on reservations. “Let’s not cut the stuff where we really do need to be able to help some folks that are in some rural areas, and on the reservations, where they simply don’t have other resources available to keep those radios in operation.” Rounds says his recission decision will be based on whether the package can be amended to allow for funding to continue to reach rural radio stations. The question now heads to the U.S. Senate. Grassroots organizers gathered Thursday in Montana’s largest city for a conference focused on combating the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis. Jackie Coffin reports from Billings. Montana is home to 12 tribal nations and about 7% of the state’s population is Native American. But looking at Montana’s current missing persons database, Native Americans are disproportionately represented, making up about 25% of missing persons cases. Lita Pepion, co-founder of the Billings-based Warrior Women for Justice, says she’s tired of waiting for state and federal resources to make a dent in the problem. “We hear people all the time who go, ‘what’s the council doing?’ ‘What’s the cops doing?’ ‘What’s everybody doing?’ ‘What are we doing?’ Because it’s not just their problem, it’s our problem as well.” Pepion helped organize the two-day MMIP conference to share stories and strategies for searching for missing loved ones, advocating for their cases, and how to heal from the grief that comes with losing family members. “Part of the problem with that addressing that is that we’ve been under or in a state of trauma for so long that we just carry grief after grief, after grief for centuries.” Charlene Sleeper runs MMIP Billings, a grassroots advocacy program that develops research methods, trainings, and communication strategies for missing persons cases in Montana. A presenter at the conference, she feels the state-led effort in combating MMIP has stagnated. “So when it comes to sovereignty and self-determination, I feel like if we, as Indigenous women, take the initiative to create our own solutions in a way that benefits our specific communities that we come from, they’ll be far more effective and impactful.” Pepion says Warrior Women for Justice will hold future events centered around MMIP throughout the summer and fall.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Native American tribes are advising members to carry paper documentation as they travel, to avoid getting caught up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Since President Donald Trump’s push to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants began with his second term, reports of Native people being confronted about their citizenship status by ICE agents have been happening all across Indian Country. This week, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians of southern California issued notice to their members to carry a state-issued drivers license, a certificate of degree of Indian blood, and a tribal ID card as their primary documents. Passports, social security cards, military IDs, and birth certificates are also recommended. The tribe says all Native Americans are U.S. citizens, and therefore not subject to being deported, but having documentation can avoid wrongful detention and harassment. People have rights during any law enforcement encounter. This includes the right to remain silent, the right to request a lawyer, and the right to ask if you are free to leave. A controversial measure in the province of Ontario was recently passed into law. It gives the cabinet of the government of Premier Doug Ford the power to create special economic zones where certain resource projects could be exempt from provincial laws. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the bill passed, even though there was widespread opposition from lawmakers, environmentalists, and Indigenous groups. Premier Ford says Bill 5 was urgently needed in the face of the trade war started by President Trump. It’s also called the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. It would speed up the process for allowing major infrastructure and resource projects such as critical mineral extraction and make Ontario one of the world’s fastest regimes to approve permits. Even though there was widespread opposition, Ford’s government has a majority in the Ontario legislature and the law was quickly passed. Among those to speak against the new law was Linda Debassigee, a grand chief of the Anishnabet First Nation. “We are disappointed and very concerned that Ontario has proceeded in the way it has without any meaningful consultation, engagement and accommodation to our first nations. Bill 5 can be viewed as circumventing protections that are seen as impediments or obstacles to development and furthering the colonial regimes of old and the continued disregard for the treaty relationships. I caution you not sell out our first nation rights, heritage and history in your frenzied attempts to appease the U.S. president, unleash our natural resources and establish a foothold in the global economy.” Ontario’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs Greg Rickford says there will be consultations with Indigenous groups after Bill 5 is passed. That hasn’t happened yet. Other Native leaders say those talks should have taken place before the legislation was developed, not after. The question now is how soon the Ford government will act to designate any location in the province a special economy zone. The Tribe of Gad Warriors from Oklahoma celebrate after defeating AZ Heat for the Triple-A championship at the D-Backs Inter-Tribal Tournament on June 5, 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Last week, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks annual baseball-softball competition for Native American youth. This summertime tradition, known as the D-Backs Inter-Tribal Tournament, is now in its 25th year. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has this report. Rising tribal baseball and softball players from near and far shined while competing in the inter-tribal tourney under the bright lights at Talking Stick Resort’s Salt River Fields near Scottsdale, Ariz. This year’s outing has grown to 75 teams, about 1,100 Indigenous youth representing more than 20 tribes from all over Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Four days. Three divisions. 103 games in all. Oklahoma’s Tribe of Gad Warriors won 4-2 over AZ Heat in the Thursday night Triple-A finals, scoring its second consecutive championship.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Last Friday, a federal judge in Phoenix denied a pair of motions seeking preliminary injunction to stop the Oak Flat land swap between the U.S. Forest Service and the multinational mining company Resolution Copper. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. Federal Judge Dominic Lanza considered their pleas “premature” amid a nearly two-hour hearing at the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse. In fact, Lanza had admittedly made up his mind before plaintiffs – including the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a coalition of conservation and recreation groups – showed up in court. The judge said granting their request would subvert an act of Congress. However, Lanza also ruled that the Forest Service could not proceed with the land exchange until the 60-day mark after the government publishes its final environmental impact statement for the proposed copper mining project. The federal agency is expected to release that report later this month. Roughly 73 square miles of forestland in Northern California have been returned to the Yurok Tribe in what’s being called the largest land-back conservation project in state history. Christina Aanestad reports. The land back more than doubles the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral land holdings, including salmon habitat and areas of cultural and spiritual significance. Tiana Williams-Clausen is the Yurok Tribe’s wildlife department director. “So re-acquiring landscapes like this allows us to heal, to work towards healing a wound that was inflicted not only on the lands but our hearts when these lands were taken away from us.” Josh Kling of Western Rivers Conservancy says his organization bought and transferred land to the tribe in phases, raising $56 million for the conservation deal. “We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve transferred the final phase of land to the Yurok tribe and completed creation of the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and the Yurok tribal community forest.” Historically, the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted, and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. The Yurok Tribe lost 90% of its territory through Gold Rush massacres and diseases from settlers. Timber companies owned and managed the land for over a century. Tim Hayden is the Yurok Tribe’s deputy executive director of natural resources. “This is an incredible opportunity for the tribe to really assert its self-determination, manage its own resources for the benefit of both fish and wildlife, to restore the tribe’s land base, provide access for ceremonial and subsistence and gathering needs of the tribe.” Salmon and trout populations were once the third largest in the Klamath. Now with a dam removal complete, there’s hope those populations will rebound. Pergish Carlson is a river guide with the Yurok. “I know that generations from here will really see the benefits of it even when I’m gone or whatever. And that’s what I always kind of like smile about and think about, you know, a lot is that the future generations, how good it could be even from now.” (Photo: Loco Steve / Wikimedia) And on this day in 1971, federal officers removed the last few Native activists from Alcatraz. Launched November 20th, 1969, the “Occupation of Alcatraz Island” was carried out by the group, Indians of All Tribes. They claimed Alcatraz was rightfully theirs through the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and by the federal government’s closing of the prison island in 1963, designating it surplus federal property. At its peak, the occupation saw roughly 400 Natives and allies. Celebrities like Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, and Jonathan Winters all visited. In the final months, power and telephone services were cut off, and a young girl fell to her death, devastating her parents and causing them to leave. Despite setbacks, many see this occupation as the launchpad of modern American Indian activism.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

In Montana, the FBI and Crow Tribe are working together to offer $10,000 for information in the disappearance of Sa’wade Birdinground, a teenage girl who’s been missing from the Crow reservation for eight months. YPR’s Jackie Coffin has more from Crow Agency. For its third consecutive year, the FBI has surged resources to its bureaus that serve Indian Country as part of Operation Not Forgotten, an effort in part to investigate cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. This year’s effort will see increased personnel working out of the Billings, Mont. field office covering the nearby Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribal nations. For the Crow Tribe, the surge means a flow of badly needed resources to look for missing people including Birdinground, who was last seen by her family in Garryowen on October 6. Her father Wade Birdinground remembers the last words he heard from her. “It was a Sunday, I was in Billings, I was out, it was kind of late and she called me to tell me goodnight and I love you, she always checks on me, you know.” On Friday, FBI agents from the Salt Lake City, Utah bureau, which covers Montana, joined Birdinground’s family, friends, local and tribal leadership, and law enforcement in Crow Agency to announce new resources in the search for Birdinground. The FBI Special Agent in Charge is Mehtab Syed. “The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to her recovery” Crow Tribal Chairman Frank White Clay announced the tribe would match the money. Together, FBI agents and tribal members carried red balloons on a walk around the Little Big Horn College to honor Birdinground, with her father holding onto hope the reward brings her home. “I love you, I know you’re out there, I’m not giving up.” Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. (Courtesy NCAI) This week, tribal leaders from across the country are gathered on the homeland of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut for the National Congress of American Indian (NCAI) mid-year convention. Leaders are addressing top issues facing their communities and advancing tribal priorities for NCAI to advocate on their behalf. Monday’s agenda included discussions about the Indian Health Service, violence against women, and Native education. Among concerns of attendees are recent actions by the Trump administration including possible funding cuts to federal programs and services for tribes. Rodney Butler, Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, says the NCAI gathering is a place to interact with government officials, fellow tribal leaders, and other stakeholders in Indian Country. He adds that Indigenous people are resilient and have been through many tough times. “We are born out of perseverance and we will get beyond these moments, right? That’s the most important thing in sharing that. But also, that recognizing that there are some opportunities even in the clouds that we’re seeing. So, like, the interim Assistant Secretary of Interior will be here, Scott Davis, and he’s going to talk a lot about what tribes can do with this administration and, you know, in advancing sovereignty and growing our tribal economies in other areas where their priorities do overlap. Not perfectly with ours, but there’s certainly opportunity in there. And so that’s a lot of what we’re talking about and just sharing the war stories of ‘how did you navigate this scenario with your grant reductions’ and ‘what’s the best path forward?’ And you see a lot of that. And that’s the beauty of NCAI, broadly speaking, is just being able to share those experiences with sister tribal nations. And we all learn from each other.” Tuesday’s agenda includes conversations about Native child and family wellbeing, Indigenous determinants of health, and NCAI/Native American Rights Fund priorities. The NCAI convention and marketplace continues through Wednesday.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The New York State Education Department has rejected the Trump administration’s demand that a ban on Native American mascots be reversed, challenging the federal government’s interpretation of civil rights law. The New York Times reports that President Donald Trump recently accused New York of illegal discrimination, condemning a state requirement that strips funding from school districts that appropriate Native culture in sports teams and other activities. President Trump has shown support for parents in Massapequa, a community on Long Island’s South Shore, that protested a ban on the district’s “Chiefs” logo and moniker. Trump then ordered New York to allow all school districts to choose their own mascots. But the state’s education department shot back in a letter, that the Trump Administration’s determination was based on “internally inconsistent arguments.” The ban has been in place for two years, and follows many tribe’s complaints that Native mascots are derogatory, inaccurate, and harmful. New York’s schools also rebuked the White House when it demanded that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs be ceased or face defunding. The New York Education Department’s letter also questioned the Trump administration’s involvement in a state issue, adding that a federal court in Brooklyn has previous rejected challenges to the Native mascot ban. Four Corners Power Plant. (Public domain) Last week, the Interior Department announced more than $119 million meant to aid communities reclaiming abandoned coal mines – part of President Trump’s agenda to achieve American energy dominance. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, two tribes were named as grant recipients. The Navajo Nation and Crow Tribe of Montana are among 24 coal producing states getting federal dollars, including Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Despite diversifying and transitioning to some sources of renewable energy like solar, the Navajo Nation still heavily depends on coal to fuel its economy. Four Corners Power Plant solely relies on coal coming from the Navajo Mine in New Mexico. It produces almost 5,000.000 tons of coal annually, generating over a third of the tribe’s general fund. (Courtesy Oregon State University) A new species of bacteria that conducts electricity has been found on the Oregon Coast. Scientists have named it for the Native Americans who historically lived there. The bacteria was found in a mud flat in the Yaquina Bay estuary, and has been deemed Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensi. The original people’s descendants are now part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, who helped the researchers come up with the name. Cheng Li was a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University during the research. The rod-shaped cells that make up this form of “cable” bacteria have filaments that have electrical conductivity that help optimize their metabolic processes in the muck. “The cable bacteria are able to oxidize sulfide and channeling electrons along themselves conducting like wires, and then go to the surface of the sediment and reduce oxygen. Kind of connecting the two parts together by using electrical currents, so that’s why I think is super cool, and then they’re ecologically important to the environment.” Li says it’s important to honor the original inhabitants of the land where this bacteria was found. “So I think that history, it’s really rich, and should be preserved and telling people what had happened. And I think especially more important nowadays, because we’re facing some unforeseen drawbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.” The findings are published in the journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

(Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Oak Flat is set to become one of the biggest copper mines in the world following a U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear the case last month, but the Apache people who consider it to be a sacred site are still fighting to protect it. More than a dozen opponents to the project will appear at the Phoenix federal courthouse Friday where the Harvard-educated, Trump-appointed U.S District Court Judge Dominic Lanza will hear from plaintiffs representing a pair of separate lawsuits against the U.S. Forest Service. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio takes us inside Oak Flat, as he concludes his two-part series. President Ulysses S. Grant established the San Carlos Apache Reservation in 1871. Jeffrey Shepherd is a history professor at The University of Texas at El Paso. “So you get this flurry of executive orders, but it’s also tied with the just, just horribly violent clampdown on Apaches in the Southwest.” This led to rounding up thousands of Apaches, including Geronimo, and marching them to Old San Carlos — nicknamed “Hell’s Forty Acres” — as prisoners of war under military occupation. A mural in downtown Superior depicts an interpretation of the infamous Apache Leap story. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Sharpshooters surveyed the landscape for fleeing Apaches. As many as 4,000 Western Apaches, Mojave, Yavapai, and Chiracahua Apaches were held captive under deplorable conditions by 1874. Some even refer to it as a concentration camp — that became their new homeland. Yet, these communities are made up of complex kinship networks of bands and clans, like Tonto, Yavapai, Chiricahua, and many more. Today’s San Carlos tribal membership is essentially a melting pot of many Apache ancestors, including the White Mountain, Cibecue, Coyotero, Mimbres, Chiricahua, Pinal, Apache Peaks, Aravaipa, Tonto, Mogollon, and Chilecon bands. But back then, not all of them got along, according to Marcus Macktima (San Carlos Apache), an assistant history professor at Northern Arizona University. “Obviously, when you bring all of these different people together on the reservation, there’s going to be some ancient, cultural, historical clashes, because there was no Apache nation. That didn’t exist. We wouldn’t have ever confined ourselves in that way at all.” The San Carlos Apache Tribe only gained federal recognition less than a century ago, when the U.S. unified these distinct bands and clans through the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Long before that, Apaches were nomadic and traveled to hunt, gather, and farm seasonally. So when the U.S. temporarily restricted movement with reservations, that upended their entire way of life, while also severing their ties to Chi’chil Biłdagoteel until the U.S. released them, added Shepherd. “They’re really waging a military but also bureaucratic war on Apaches, as a people, but also upon their land.” Oak Flat is considered by some Apaches as holy land where the Gaan, or mountain spirits, reside beneath the earth. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Mineral wealth, in large part, was a motivator for resizing their reservation six times — between 1873 and 1912 — by the U.S. and even the tribe itself. The chance to discover old Spanish silver mines, especially, attracted expeditions to the Southwest, said Macktima. “That’s driving people into Arizona. And of course, that means the extermination of Apache peoples in the region.” Shepherd stressed that’s not hyperbole. “Rounding people up, concentrating them on reservations, deporting them, and as that happens, we start to see the emergence of that federal land management regime take over the territory as public domain.” In 1896, a tribal measure passed with 56% of the vote to reincorporate a 232,000-acre mineral strip – mostly containing coal — from off-reservation into the public domain in exchange for $12,433 annually — more than $470,000 when adjusted for inflation, explained Macktima. “In the late 19th century, they’re talking about minerals and getting rid of the [San Carlos] reservation to allow for prospecting, and they do that, but the Apaches who agree are not from that reservation.” Aravaipa Pinal Apaches primarily opposed that decision because it harmed their territorial farmlands, while Yavapais and White Mountain Apaches didn’t, with Macktima adding, “so all these different Apaches are coming in saying, ‘Hey, we should go ahead and give this up.’” These ceded lands were supposed to be supervised by the U.S. government for mineral recovery with all revenues returning to the tribe. It wasn’t profitable, so the tribe sought to regain its territory. That mineral strip along the southern border of the reservation was eventually returned to the San Carlos Apache Tribe in 1969. Unlike the mineral strip, Oak Flat has remained in the public domain since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower incorporated that site into the Tonto National Forest — where it remains protected to this day. Macktima believes

Photo: The Old San Carlos Memorial is located in Peridot on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Nestled within the Tonto National Forest in Arizona is Oak Flat – home to one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits on Earth. The ore could be worth a fortune to the mining companies planning to extract it, but to many Apache people, Oak Flat’s value can’t be measured in dollars. They are connected to it – culturally and spiritually – and have been fighting to save it. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio explores the region’s deep Apache roots, in part one of this two-part series. Chi’chil Biłdagoteel — the Apache name for Oak Flat — has been a spiritual site for generations of Apaches. Resolution Copper’s No. 10 shaft, the deepest single lift mine shaft in the U.S., overlooks the Oak Flat campground in the Tonto National Forest. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) From coming-of-age and sunrise ceremonies to picking acorns underneath Emory oak trees, it’s also where some believe angels — called the Gaan — or mountain spirits reside among minerals beneath the surface. San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler has deep ties to this land east of the Valley. “My great-grandmother, she was from that area: Winkelman, Superior, and Oak Flat. My people, Aravaipa, in Apache they’re called Tsé Binesti’é. That means Surrounded by Rocks clan. So when you’re in the area, you can just know why my ancestors were given that name.” Rambler’s relatives resided in the rugged Pinal Mountains, and are among at least eight Apache clans and two Western Apache bands that lay claim to Oak Flat. In all, about a dozen modern-day federally recognized tribes in the Southwest maintain cultural connections there, including the Hopi, Zuni, and Four Southern Tribes: Tohono O’odham, Ak-Chin, Salt River Pima-Maricopa, and Gila River. Apaches past and present, arguably, prized it the most. Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr. speaks about their ongoing religious battle for Oak Flat in 2023. More than 60 Western Apache clans — some now extinct — and differing bands roamed the borderlands of the Southwest from modern-day Flagstaff, Ariz. to eastern New Mexico and even into Mexico. Violence brewed between U.S. settlers, Mexicans, and Apaches. Even the Mexican state of Sonora began, in 1835, paying out bounties for Apache scalps: 100 pesos per male, 50 pesos per female, and 25 pesos per each child under age 14. Despite the 1848 Mexican-American War ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, tensions still escalated. Settlers encroached on Apache homelands, bringing ranching, mining, cattle, timber, and railroad interests with them to the West. The mass migration, in part, led to the Apache Wars, a series of armed conflicts spanning decades with the U.S. Army. Then, the Treaty of Santa Fe — an 1852 truce — was ratified and supposed to cease hostilities. Wendsler Nosie Sr. speaks to the crowd about their ongoing religious struggle at the Apache holy site. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Jeffrey Shepherd is a history professor at The University of Texas at El Paso. “Apaches broke it. Americans broke it. The military broke it. Mexicans broke it. They didn’t care, they just ignored it. Then there were some bands of Apaches that said, ‘This treaty doesn’t cover us. We don’t want peace. We don’t want to let people through here. Why should we trust you?’” Two years later, Mexico sold 29,670 square miles of soil to the U.S. for $10 million through the Gadsden Purchase — eventually leading to the formation of the Arizona and New Mexico territories — with the 1863 Arizona Organic Act amid the Civil War. At the same time, the U.S. still had to deal with Apaches in the West. Marcus Macktima (San Carlos Apache) is an assistant history professor at Northern Arizona University. “A lot of superintendents are saying, ‘Hey, we’re kind of thinking we should just give up the eastern half of the Arizona Territory to the Apaches, because there’s no way we’ll ever be able to control them.’” Warfare ensued for almost four decades, with the U.S. still trying to get rid of Apaches until 1886 when Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo surrendered near Skeleton Canyon — 30 miles northeast of modern-day Douglas, Ariz., near the New Mexico border. Even then, renegade Apaches still raided northern Mexico until 1915, Macktima noted. “The reports from military say that these tribes are just kind of wandering around. They don’t really have a reason to be in these places. That’s just not the case. The people knew what they were doing, and we had a cyclical nature to our culture, but in specific places at specific times, and Oak Flat was a part of that.” They were forced out of Oak Flat in the 1870s. In one horrific incident, 75 Apache warriors near Oak Flat plummeted to their deaths off a sheer cliff — later named Apache Leap – located just on the outskirts of present-day Superior. Aravaipa Pinal Apaches, in particular, were persecuted. Federal and

Photo courtesy Oglala Lakota College Pell Grants send thousands of lower-income students to college each year across the country. However, proposed changes could lower that number drastically, often in the communities that need it most like tribes. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more. Proposed Trump administration changes could slash Pell Grant funding by as much as a quarter. In a tribal setting like the Pine Ridge Reservation, that represents well over 60% of students reliant on Pell Grant support. Oglala Lakota College president Dawn Frank says it would devastate tribal colleges, and their students, across America. “These proposed changes are extremely concerning because raising the full-time credit requirements and excluding less than part time students would disproportionately harm (tribal colleges and universities). Part time TCU Pell recipients see substantial increases in certificate and degree completion rates. That’s something we’re looking at that’s across the board for TCUs.” Frank says TCUs offer nearly a $90-million economic impact to South Dakota alone when accounting for jobs, workforce development, and education. While contingencies do exist at Oglala Lakota College, Frank is concerned about the worst coming to pass with an associated loss of students. “Losing that would mean everyone would have to take a step back. If we’re not producing graduates to continue to work in those positions, I could see a lot of hardships. Look at coupling it with financial necessity amid rising inflation, affordable childcare, transportation especially in our rural area. The strain, we said, would almost cripple or close us.” Frank is calling upon tribal leaders to advocate for their tribal colleges and universities to statewide DC delegations, and specifically asked U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) to champion the issue. National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO) Executive Director Valerie Grussing and tribal leaders during a Washington D.C. trip earlier this year. (Courtesy NATHPO / Facebook) President Donald Trump recently instructed the Interior Department to look into erasing negative references to the nation’s past while embracing the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape. But, as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a Native group worries history will be erased. President Trump’s executive order from March, which covers more than 500 million acres of land managed by the federal agency, is titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. Valerie Grussing is the executive director of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. “From a tribal perspective, could say, ‘Great, we’re overdue for a little truth and sanity in American history.’ But of course, they mean the opposite.” The government is reviewing all monuments and other markers that have been removed, renamed, or altered since 2020 for what it calls a “false reconstruction of American history.” But Grussing worries this mandate simply means whitewashing the past. In a statement, the Interior Department said this initiative is not about erasing history, but meant to “free narratives from ideological distortion,” stressing the agency is “committed to presenting a truthful and comprehensive account” — one in which “all Americans are represented fairly and truthfully.” Any content deemed inappropriate shall be removed within 120 days. Cherokee Nation leaders and ambassadors and Talking Leaves Job Corps staff hosting open house at new Taling Leaves Job Corps Oklahoma City office in 2016. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation / Facebook) The leader of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma is expressing his concern over the closure of Job Corps Training Centers across the country. The Cherokee Nation says it was the first tribe to operate a Job Corps in 1978, and the program currently serves around 150 students. The federal government recently announced it was pausing the Job Corps program, which helps people ages 16-24 with career training. In a video message on social media this week, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. shared an update, saying the pause is an “outright termination of the program.” He added that he opposes the closure and says the tribe is working to save the program. “Job Corps is often a career lifeline to students who may be struggling to find a path.” The tribe is suspending its Job Corps operations and preparing to send residential students home on June 13.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

The Coquille Indian Tribe and the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs recently signed an agreement. The agreement creates a framework for collaboration and increased resources to support Native veterans in accessing federal and state veterans’ benefits. According to a press release, the Memorandum of Understanding paves the way for the establishment of the tribe’s first Tribal Veterans Service Officer, which will jointly be funded by the tribe and state agency. The service officers help veterans and their families in accessing benefits. They’re trained by the state veterans’ affairs department and accredited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This is the fifth such agreement. The other agreements are with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. There are nine federally recognized tribes in the state. Last week, California Assembly lawmakers approved a bill to grant military retirees and their dependents up to $20,000 as a state tax exemption. The bill was introduced by Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA). In a statement, he said the bill’s intended to acknowledge the many sacrifices of military retirees and their families, and serve as an incentive to keep them in California. California does not offer tax exemption on military pensions. Advocates of the bill say if a tax exemption was in place, gains for the state would include more jobs and an economic boost. The bill is supported by a number of veterans organizations across the state. The measure heads to the Senate. Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns (Pascua Yaqui) speaks to a group of reporters about the importance of specific plants to Indigenous peoples in Arizona. Native experts in foraging for traditional food are sharing some of their recommendations. Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports. In Phoenix’s Papago Park, Twila Cassadore points to the base of a palo verde tree where small branches, dried leaves, and other plant matter have formed the ground nest of a desert wood rat. Cassadore says the rodent is both a source of nutrition – and knowledge. “Many of us may not think much about the desert wood rat. But as people who study environmental science and engineering, this friend of ours, also delicious friend, will tell us about climate change.” Cassadore is a traditional food forager and educator with the San Carlos Apache Tribe. She explains to a tour organized by the Society of Environmental Journalists that other researchers have found that as the planet warms, the wood rat uses larger plant material to shade or insulate its home. But where the rat is plentiful, as it is here in the Sonoran Desert, it can also be a source of what Cassadore calls pre-reservation food, from before the years when the U.S. government forced Native people away from their longtime homes. “They took everyone away from the landscape where they originally foraged from and hunted from.” Helping Cassadore with the effort to discover more traditional foods is naturalist Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns (Pascua Yaqui). He points to blossoms and seeds on the palo verde tree. “These flowers, you can make tea out of them. Also, the pods which you may be seeing some of the younger trees out here, they taste like edamame, so you can eat them fresh off the tree, or you can till them, boil them, put salt on them, or store them, for the season you actually do want to use them.” Lazos-Ferns says some larger cities like Tucson have started to plant more indigenous plants that need less water or no fertilizer and be a source of food or medicine.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Courtesy Milk River Meats & Eats / Facebook Montana’s Department of Commerce recently awarded over $300,000 in grants to Native-owned businesses across the state. The funds aim to support the economic development of tribal communities while supporting small businesses. Montana Public Radio’s Victoria Traxler has more. George Brown of Dodson and member of the Little Shell Chippewa tribe is among twenty-five business owners set to receive grants from the state. Brown operates a small cafe, store and meat processing facility with his wife, Sherri. The Milk River Meats and Eats is slated to receive $14,000 for new meat processing equipment. Brown says the money is a “life saver.” “It means a pile. I mean, things are so expensive this day and age that any help you can get to cover the main cost is going to make things work a lot better.” The funding stems from the state’s Indian Equity Fund Small Business Grant program and goes to a variety of industries. Grant funds will support Brown’s meat processing, as well as agriculture, retail, restaurants, and construction businesses. Mackenzie Espeland is an administrator with the Department of Commerce: “Supporting Native American-owned businesses empowers communities all across the state and it strengthens those tribal economies.” She explained the grants create a “ripple effect” in their communities by stimulating growth and creating job opportunities. This year, the program’s $320,000 will support business owners like George Brown. (Courtesy Pattern) Last week, a lawsuit from a pair of tribes challenging a powerline project in southern Arizona – previously thrown out by a Tucson federal judge – has been remanded back to a lower court. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. Plaintiffs allege the Interior Department illegally granted permits greenlighting construction of the SunZia Transmission Line, which broke ground in 2023. The 550-mile route through Arizona and New Mexico crosses over the San Pedro River Valley – a region of archeological, cultural, and ecological significance to Apaches and O’odhams. John Welch is with the nonprofit Archeology Southwest, one of four plaintiffs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Tohono O’odham Nation, and San Carlos Apache Tribe. “Certainly for this project and probably never again – at least in the 9th Circuit – is a federal agency going to be able to pretend that a project doesn’t have those landscape-altering effects. This is a very, very strong appellate decision – a big thumb on the scales of justice – in favor of the plaintiffs, and so it’s not just procedural. They’re going to have to consult in much better faith than the [Bureau of Land Management] did on this project.” A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found plaintiffs presented enough evidence to conclude that the agency violated the National Historic Preservation Act. Still, this latest ruling doesn’t mean construction of SunZia will stop, nor that the tribes will win their legal battle to remove the lines. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is urging for immediate assistance, including housing for evacuees, as wildfires burn in northern Manitoba. According to First Nations leaders, thousands of First Nations people are seeking refuge with many arriving in Winnipeg and other locations with nowhere to go and limited access to necessities. And they say, current shelters are overcrowded and inadequate, and are asking for hotels and other accommodation in Winnipeg and across the province to help displaced families. Leaders are urging the province for immediate assistance. The province has declared a state of emergency. Leaders say those in need of a place to stay, include elders, children, and individuals with serious medical conditions.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Ayuq Blanchett and Josaia Lehauli receive awards from the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (Clarise Larson / KTOO) In Alaska, the Juneau School District is expanding its support of a local language immersion program. After multiple meetings and extended debate, the school board has agreed to fund more of the Lingít language immersion program in the upcoming school year – even amid statewide school budgeting concerns. KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey reports. The program in question is Át Koowaháa: Expanding the Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy Program (TCLL). The school district and the nonprofit arm of a regional Native corporation have historically roughly split the cost. The school board signed a memorandum of agreement Wednesday with Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) to increase its investment in the project. But school board members brought up questions about whether the district should pay for more of the TCLL program amidst widespread concerns about funding. Board member Elizabeth Siddon said the school board supports TCLL, but they have to balance that with the needs of the entire district. “But we support it amongst how we support all of our 4,000 students. So I’m trying to keep in mind that these 119 are not the only students we’re responsible for.” The school board initially approved the change during its budget process. They were then under the impression that the grant SHI used for the program was ending, according to the school board president. But SHI was later approved for an extension of the grant. The program isn’t growing, but now the Juneau School District will fund eight of its 11 positions. The change requires additional funding from the school district’s budget. SHI Education Director Kristy Ford said the program is intended to increase the number of Lingít language speakers. “We have less than 10 fluent speakers left, so the need and the urgency to put an intensive amount of support and instruction into the TCLL program was asked of us.” In recent meetings, some school board members said the program only serves a small percentage of Juneau students, but Ford said the scope is intentional. It’s intense and immersive so that there is a group of dedicated speakers to make sure the Lingít language doesn’t go extinct. Artist’s rendering of the proposed Children’s House. (Courtesy Kaala’s Village) Montana’s Native families face higher rates of separation with a disproportionate number of Native kids in foster care. A nonprofit in Lodge Grass is developing a center aimed at keeping tribal families together and out of social services. Montana Public Radio’s Victoria Traxler has more. Mountain Shadow Association recently began construction of a family healing center to support communities on the Crow Reservation. Executive Director Megkain Doyle explains addiction and behavioral health issues can break apart families. She says children from the reservation are often sent to foster care families out of state when these issues arise. The center, called Kaala’s Village, aims to change that. “That’s what Kaala’s Village is really trying to do is provide this consistent and constant relationship and connection and to help repair those places where connection and relationship are broken.” The center’s approach is based in restorative justice, which aims to address the root cause of crimes, instead of incarceration. Doyle says they hope to help break cycles of abuse and trauma. Kaala’s Village was developed from years of direct dialogue between the nonprofit and Lodge Grass community members. “They really wanted it to be a safe place for them and for their children. And they also wanted to make sure that they were gonna be surrounded by people who shared similar goals with them in recovery.” The 13-acre campus will have housing, along with a preschool and caretakers to help supervise children. Doyle says they hope to fully open by the end of 2026.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: The perch at North Slope Borough’s bowhead whale census, April 16, 2019. (Ravenna Koenig / Alaska’s Energy Desk) Scientists and Alaska hunters have been counting bowhead whales passing by the northernmost American town, Utqiagvik, for the past two months. It is part of a once-in-a-decade effort to evaluate the health of the whale population up north – and support subsistence in the area. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden with our flagship station KNBA reports that so far, the number of whales seems to be on the rise. When bowhead whales pass Utqiagvik on their way up north, it’s a good time to count them. Every 10 years, scientists and local hunters team up to carry out the census for bowhead whales that migrate between the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas. Biologist John Citta says the data helps ensure that the bowhead population is healthy. It’s also used to set subsistence harvest limits in the years to come. “We do it for the whaling captains, and we do it in collaboration with them.” First, they build a perch on the sea ice, right on the edge with a stretch of open water, or lead. Observers have been climbing the perch and counting the whales passing by since the beginning of April. The visual count is only the first step of the census. But so far, Citta says the final estimate might be around 20,000 whales or more. “There are a lot more whales out there now than what there used to be, and we suspect the populations continue to grow, but we just don’t know that for certain yet.” Citta says the bowheads might be thriving because the sea ice in the Arctic is declining. Whalers in the Arctic have been involved in the bowhead census since the early 70s. That’s when the International Whaling Commission counted whales for the first time. Retired whale biologist Geoff Carroll co-led subsequent counts. “We were able to show that there’s plenty of bowheads to support the subsistence hunt.” That initial count only included whales passing through the stretch of open water. But hunters knew that some animals traveled far from shore or under thick ice. Throughout the years, the census has included acoustic and aerial surveys that account for those whales. This year, the acoustic part of the count is also happening. “It turns out that bowhead whales really talk a lot.” The International Whaling Commission expects the final estimate in 2029 to decide whether to renew the region’s current subsistence whaling quota. A state of emergency was declared this week, on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota. It was issued by the tribe’s president Kathleen Wooden Knife. The declaration states it is “due to threats posed by widespread methamphetamine and illicit drug use, trafficking, and related gun violence, which poses risks to public safety, community health, and tribal welfare.” The tribe is seeking increased patrol and investigation from federal agencies, cooperation from the community in reporting crimes, and urgent action to address law enforcement gaps. According to the Office of the President, this follows previous declarations issued in 2019 and 2024. (Photo: Cherokee Nation) Twelve bike riders from the Cherokee Nation left this week from Tahlequah, Okla., for Cherokee, N.C., to participate in this year’s Remember the Removal Ride. The cyclists will join riders from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for the ride, which official begins next week. The ride spans about 950 miles along the northern route of the Trail of Tears in Georgia and ends in Tahlequah on June 21. The ride honors Cherokee ancestors who were forced to march the route in the late 1830s. Cyclists will visit several Cherokee gravesites and historic landmarks. Their journey can be followed on the Remember the Remove Bike Ride Facebook page.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

A group of tribes want the U.S. government to explain how it historically funded boarding schools for Indigenous children. As Jimmy Romo reports for the Mountain West News Bureau, the tribes recently filed a lawsuit aiming to force the country to reckon with the past. The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma, along with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, filed the lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal district court. It seeks to hold U.S. agencies responsible for the Indian boarding school system. Native children suffered horrific abuse and neglect in these schools, and many never made it home. According to the complaint, boarding school operations were funded by Native Nations trust funds. Those funds contained proceeds from the sale of tribal land — land that the U.S. government forced tribes to sign away. The trust, plaintiffs say, was meant for the collective benefit of Native Nations. It is estimated that the government used $23 billion, in today’s money, to run the boarding schools. The tribes are asking the courts to force the U.S. to give a breakdown of how the funds were used. The U.S. government has yet to respond to the complaint. Oak Flat protest in Washington, D.C. in 2015. (Photo: Wendy Kenin / Flickr) The Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Apache people, other Native people, and their allies, say the group’s fight will continue to protect Oak Flat in Arizona. This after the U-S Supreme Court Tuesday, declined to hear the group’s lawsuit Apache Stronghold v. United States. The case seeks to stop the government from transferring Oak Flat, a site sacred to Apache and other Native people, to Resolution Copper, which plans to turn the site into a mining crater. In a statement, Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold said they’ll never stop fighting and that nothing will deter them from protecting Oak Flat from destruction. He goes on to say while the decision is a heavy blow, their struggle is far from over and they’re urging action from Congress while they press forward in the courts. Resolution Copper welcomed the decision, and in a statement said “the mine is vital to securing America’s energy future, infrastructure needs, and national defense with a domestic supply of copper and other minerals.” And says the project will create jobs and boost the economy. Attorneys for the Apache Stronghold say “they’ll do everything in their power to ensure that the Apaches can continue worshiping at Oak Flat as they have for generations.” The FBI says it will add resources in 10 states including New Mexico to tackle unresolved crimes, with a focus on those related to missing and murdered Indigenous persons. But not everyone is convinced it will have a significant impact. More from Roz Brown. The agency said 60 agents will be deployed to Albuquerque to investigate unsolved crimes. Darlene Gomez, a tribal attorney, has spent her career advocating for missing and murdered Indigenous women. When it comes to investigations, she said accountability can be lacking. “When the Department of Justice or President Trump enacts legislation or (a) special task force, we very rarely see any of the data that comes out of what those task forces were supposed to accomplish.” Prior to the FBI announcement, the Trump administration scrubbed an online report from the Not Invisible Act Commission, mandated by bipartisan legislation and signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term. Gomez has a friend who’s been missing for 24 years, so she is encouraged New Mexico recently adopted the “Turquoise Alert,” a system to help locate missing Indigenous people, similar to an Amber Alert for missing children and already operational in California, Colorado, and Washington. Nonetheless, Gomez worries New Mexico is backsliding on its commitment to locate the missing. “I feel like New Mexico was once the premiere state in the country working on murdered, missing, Indigenous women and relative topics, and we were making huge, significant strides. Now we are down at the bottom again.”   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

(Photo: Hannah Habermann / Wyoming Public Media) Colorado is joining the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in Wyoming in designating bison as wildlife. Wyoming Public Radio’s Olivia Weitz reports. Earlier this year, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe reclassified bison from being livestock to wildlife in an effort to manage the species less like cattle and more like big game. On Thursday, Colorado’s governor signed the Protect Wild Bison bill, which creates a dual wildlife and livestock designation. Conservation groups say it makes killing bison that cross into Colorado from other states illegal. Jason Baldes is Eastern Shoshone and heads up the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative. He says Colorado’s move shows growing public support for bison restoration “And the importance of people allowing this animal to exist. and not be commodified, but really have an opportunity to exist on the landscape.” Jim Magagna with Wyoming Stockgrowers says if a similar bill were to be introduced in Wyoming, his group would oppose it. “ I think we’re a long way from that. I can’t say it’ll never happen. Things do change, but I’m not, not aware of any pressure, significant, to do that in Wyoming.” Colorado’s bill goes into effect in January next year. A Montana-based Indigenous group says it’s increasing membership this year in a new way – a traveling conference. Western Native Voice recently held the last of about a dozen conferences it has hosted since March in tribal communities across the state. Kathleen Shannon reports. The group offers programs to attendees that focus on leadership development, civic engagement and education, and public policy advocacy. Denise Juneau, Montana’s former state superintendent of public instruction and a conference keynote speaker, says Native legislators made a lot of headway in this year’s session. “There was a sense of pride in seeing what got accomplished through the 12 Native legislators who got elected from all these different communities, and I think really a glimmer of hope about what can happen when people get engaged.” Bills that passed include updates to the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act and a new approach to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis, as well as reauthorization of Native language preservation programs and formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day. Juneau, an enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa Tribes of North Dakota, credits her own success in part to growing up with parents in the State Legislature and Tribal leadership. “Being in those seats of power and speaking truth to power, and being engaged at that level really makes a difference for your community, for your state, for the country and for the people who are around you.” Yellowstone Peoples Executive Director Shane Doyle is a member of the Apsaalooke Nation. He says there’s a common misconception that Tribes across Montana were historically in conflict, when evidence shows they were largely friendly. “Despite the enormous and remarkable language diversity here in Montana, the Tribes were all able to coalesce over generations and create their own sign language, and it just is a testimony to their stable relations.” A large Lakota camp, thought to be on or near Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1891. (Photo: John C. H. Gabriel / Library of Congress) U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI), have reintroduced the Remove the Stain Act. The bill seeks to revoke the Medal of Honor awarded to soldiers for their participation in the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1890, where U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Lakota adults and children. Twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor. Congress has rescinded Medals of Honor before, and the bill would do the same taking a step toward righting a wrong in history, according to a statement by Sen. Warren. “We cannot be a country that celebrates and rewards horrifying acts of violence against Native people, Congress must recognize how shameful this massacre was and take an important step toward justice for Lakota people.” The legislation has been introduced before and is supported by a number of tribes and Native organizations.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Navajo Code Talkers gather in Church Rock, N.M. in 2010. (Antonia Gonzales) Today is Memorial Day, and across the U.S., parades, ceremonies, and similar events are being held to honor those who served and died for their country. That includes an observance from a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) activist in Oregon. Kimberly Lining is the founder of MMIW Search and Hope Alliance. She says she’s collecting names of fallen Native soldiers … not just in combat, but also those who struggled at home. “Last May I lost a very close friend of mine. He took his own life. And it was very sad and very tragic. He was like a brother to me. And this year I thought I need to get more involved and bring more awareness to that. and I’d also like to bring more awareness to the Indigenous fallen service members, how they became so engrained into our military.” Lining is hoping to present names of Navajo Codetalkers. Being Navajo, Hopi, and Mexican, she says it’s a way to honor the men who used their native language to radio in troop movements during World War II. “And I think it’s important that more people know about that. And those who gave their life and service to that. and It’s more than just outside non-Native communities. The native peoples have had such a big role in service to this country, and fallen for this country. And I just want to bring it to the surface, and start conversations. Not just about history, but how to Indigenous languages across the board.” Lining says the completed project will be a video slideshow that she’ll make available on her social media channels, including that of her organization, MMIW Search and Hope Alliance. Acclaimed Indigenous chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) is expanding his nonprofit to Montana. Yellowstone Public Radio’s Ruth Eddy has more about his plans in Bozeman. “So we’ve got ground elk, onions, delicata squash. We just chopped it up real fine. It’s got sumac, cedar and salt in it “ Chef Rob Kinneen (Tlingit) with the nonprofit Indigenous Food Lab is grilling at the kitchen of Fork and Spoon in Bozeman. The social enterprise restaurant run by the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) serves pay what you can meals five nights a week but also rents out its commercial kitchen. Tonight the kitchen is being used for a pop-up dinner as a taste of what’s to come in Bozeman, as Sean Sherman’s nonprofit starts using the kitchen regularly sometime in the near future. “Our goal is to try and get food access to tribal communities all across the state, and that’s what we’re hoping to do right here in this building” Sean Sherman’s restaurant in Minneapolis was named James Beard’s best restaurant in America in 2022. Owamni highlights Indigenous ingredients by removing colonial ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken. Tonight’s seven-course pop up does the same. The elk skewer is plated on top of a dark red circle of sauce made from currents, topped with fresh ramps, and drizzled with a pine syrup, as Sherman explains. “We harvested this pine cut it all up and then we’re going to cook it down with some maple syrup and some water and just let it simmer for a long time till the water starts to evaporate but it’ll absorb a lot of this pine flavor” This is the only Bozeman pop-up on the calendar for the time being, but Sherman says he hopes a restaurant in Bozeman isn’t too far away. Sherman says their first step is improving native food access, and making educational videos. Megan Vincent was one of 80 guests at the pop up. She is a culinary arts teacher at a highschool in Lewistown. She said the food was amazing, and the braised bison and wild rice flan were favorites. “I want to figure out that dessert. I really want the dessert recipe, to see if I can make that with them. I think the idea of making desert taste that good without using those standard ingredients like sugar and dairy would be an amazing experience.”     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Bison from the city of Denver’s herds are in a pen waiting to be loaded onto a trailer. This year, the city donated 23 bison to tribes. (Courtesy Denver Parks and Recreation) Bison are being restored to tribal lands across the Mountain West and the Great Plains. As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports, a herd managed in Colorado is playing a big role. A few bison jumped into a grass-lined trailer. They were heading to the Kiowa Tribe in Oklahoma. The bison are part of two herds that live in mountain parks owned by the City and County of Denver. And the city gave these 10 away so the Kiowa Tribe could start its first herd in over 150 years. Bison were hunted to near-extinction in the 1800s. Rick Williams (Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne) was at the bison transfer in March. He says it included a ceremony and songs for a safe journey. “The buffalo were a sacred animal to us. You know, we knew that they provided all of our economy and our lifestyle and everything that we needed to survive.” Denver’s donation is part of a larger effort to give surplus bison from conservation herds – and national parks – to tribes to restore cultural and environmental connections. Over the past seven years, Denver has given 140 bison to 10 tribes. That includes the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming and the Northern Cheyenne in Montana. Carol Picket Hull executes the One-Foot High Kick at Arctic Winter Games, April 1982. (Courtesy Alaska State Library / Arctic Winter Games Team Alaska Collection) Carol Pickett Hall was remembered at an Anchorage memorial ceremony as someone who was more than an athlete, but also a person who worked hard to build the Native Youth Olympics into the success it was today. The Iñupiaq athlete died at the age of 61 at her home in Seward, Alaska on May 5. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, friends and competitors alike say she embodied the spirit of traditional Native games. Carol Pickett Hull was only 5 feet 4 inches, but became a giant in her sport, when she set a new world record for the One-Foot High Kick at the 1989 World Eskimo Indian Olympics. That’s when she jumped with 1 foot, to kick a tiny ball, suspended 7 feet in the air. “Tiny little powerhouses.” That was how Nicole Johnson described herself and Carol, when they met as teenagers. “There’s nothing that could stop us, our height, our weight, our ages. Nothing stopped Carol from doing what she loved to do.” “When she won the One-Foot High Kick, she was asked if she wanted to go for the record. She had this infectious excitement. Yes.” Reggie Joule is a ten-time gold medalist in the blanket toss. He says Carol and her teammates came along at a time when men dominated the games. But that soon changed. “They were coming onto this scene with this energy but also with this hunger.” A hunger for the strength and spirit of their culture, which Carol tried to embody. Her 1989 record would stand at WEIO until last year, when Emily King, a Canadian from Whitehorse, would surpass Carol’s record by an inch … a memorable moment for Greg Nothstine, a longtime competitor and game official. “Carol was out there being her biggest fan and said, ‘You can do it. You can do it.’” Over the years, Carol Pickett Hull seemed to be an endless source of encouragement. She coached. She officiated and became one of her sport’s biggest cheerleaders. When she first entered the scene, the games were held in small gymnasiums. Today the statewide Native Youth Olympics draws thousands of athletes and their fans, a reminder of how a little encouragement can go a long way. A map of the process of forced displacement, 1830–1838. Oklahoma is depicted in light yellow-green. And on this day in 1838, the infamous forced march of thousands of Cherokees from their land began, a 1,000-mile trek towards Oklahoma that became known as the Trail of Tears. U.S. troops were armed with rifles and bayonets, and many Cherokee died from starvation, illness, or hypothermia. The estimated 25 million acres they were forced to relinquish in the southeast were taken by white settlers. The Trail of Tears memorial at the New Echota Historic Site in Georgia, which honors the Cherokees who died during the forced displacement by the U.S. government.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

May is Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Awareness Month, where community groups, tribal leaders, and advocates highlight the disproportionate levels of violence directed at Native people. Among the events held this month was the fifth annual Poetry in the Park event in Springfield, Oreg., which was sponsored by Illioo Theater, the University of Oregon’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Department, and the university’s Indigenous Women’s Wellness Group. Marta Clifford is an elder with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and an organizer of the event. She says she was inspired to hang red dresses from the trees in Heron Park, after seeing an installation by First Nations artist Jaime Black. Clifford says the color red is very significant. “Many tribes believe that is the color that the spirits can see, and it is a traditional color now for this program of missing and murdered Indigenous women. And people. All people.” Clifford says all of the poems shared at the event were by Native writers and artists. And most of the readers are current Native or Indigenous students at the University. (Photo: Brian Bull) One of them, Pachimio Feliz, is from the Yurok Tribe of California. He says the MMIP crisis hits home because he’s friends with the family of Emmilee Risling, a UO Native student leader who went missing in the fall of 2021. “She disappeared just a few feet from my village. I know the family, I know it’s definitely a lot of hurt and suffering’s happening right now back home on the Yurok reservation and the Hoopa reservations. A lot of missing people, a lot of unsolved cases, too.” One student, Ericka Grunlose, is with the Colville Tribe. She recited a poem titled, “I Am 10 Years Old”, and is about a young girl who’s kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a non-Native man with “the gentlest smile”. “I actually cried the first time I read this. Because, it just…I just felt it, and as another Native women myself, I just really felt it in my heart. They asked me if I wanted to switch my poem, but I talked with my mom, and I felt like I was strong enough today to come out here and read this poem.” Another student, Mykeisha Yepa of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe, read “Helen Betty Osborne” by Marilyn DuMont. It’s based on the 1971 abduction and murder of a 19-year-old Cree woman. It took 16 years for her four suspected killers to be tried, with only one serving time. “The poem definitely resonated with me because the metaphor of open season. and how powerful it is and how much women are preyed upon, and I guess it’s like a hunting season for women.” After the final reading, an honor song was given in the memory of MMIP as well as the friends and families affected. Roses were handed out to the participants, and people who may be grieving or otherwise affected by the MMIP crisis were invited to talk with the students. “Indian Time #2” is among the works featured at the new Native Elements Art Festival + Market. (Photo: Zoe Urness) And this week is the Native Elements Arts Festival and Market at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Convention Center in New Mexico. One hundred and sixty Native American and Indigenous artists are expected to be featured at the market. A new honor, the “Native Elements Distinguished Achievement Award”, will be presented. The event will benefit the botanical garden, the Institute of American Indian Arts Scholarship Fund, and the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

A long-standing argument over funding for law enforcement on northwest Montana’s Flathead Reservation is over – for now. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) has signed off on funding to help county and tribal officials hash out a long-term plan. For years, Lake County and Gov. Gianforte have sparred over who’s financially responsible for prosecuting tribal members for felonies on the Flathead Reservation. Lake County has historically done that work under an agreement known as Public Law 280. But the county says it can no longer afford that service. Both the county and the state had planned to leave the agreement. That would mean federal law enforcement would take over, but federal officials have said they don’t have the resources. This session, county, state, and Confederated Salish and Kootenai (CSKT) officials hashed out a plan. The state is providing $6 million over the next two years to help transition more cases to tribal courts. CSKT Spokesperson Rob McDonald says some of that work has already started. “We have in the past 18 months or so taking on more than 150 felonies and increased our efforts to reduce the workload on the county.” But Lake County is expected to continue handling more serious felonies that require prison time. The CSKT and Lake County are required under the new law to hash out an agreement laying out the balance of cases each will take on. This month has seen many awareness events across Indian Country for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP). This included an event in Gresham, Oreg., organized by MMIW Search and Hope Alliance. Honor songs were sung with dancing – and people affected by the murders or disappearances of Native people shared their stories before an audience. Kim Lining is founder of MMIW Search and Hope Alliance. She says there was power in what people shared about their missing or murdered relatives. “The power lies in experience. So many times, people say they understand, but sometimes they don’t. And they don’t understand because they haven’t seen it firsthand from experience. So when you bring in surviving family members, family members that are still searching for their loved ones, it brings a different environment of emotion to the audience that’s listening.” While many cases remain unsolved, one outcome brought relief: Louann Aiken, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, was found alive on May 10 in Portland, Oreg., after a two-year disappearance. Lining says she verified it was Aiken, then contacted her relatives. “A lot of tears, a lot of relieved emotions. And some sadness because of the situation, she’s been missing for so long. We did offer them help if they needed help to come out and take Louanne home if Louanne chose to go home. We’re just letting them as a family kinda figure that out. And if they so choose to take us up on that, then we have offered to bring them out here so that they can travel as a family back home to North Dakota.” Lining says her organization will hit its one year anniversary in July. She says the celebration will focus on volunteers, who keep things going. Lining says while MMIW Search and Hope Alliance is largely a regional effort, they try to help with national cases. This includes the Oklahoma City case of Seneca Shemayme, whose family says he was killed in a deliberate hit-and-run last October. MMIP events will continue through May. Those who want to get involved can contact their tribes or look up community calendars.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Tribal leaders from across the country spoke out last week at a U.S. Senate hearing against recent changes within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Others are eyeing how potential cuts to the department’s Indian Health Service (IHS) could affect Native communities. The Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. HHS announced in March that it would cut 20,000 health jobs and close regional offices. That was in response to an executive order from President Trump to optimize the workforce across the federal government. The senate hearing looked at how that decision could harm HHS programs that benefit Native Americans. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) chaired the hearing. “These aren’t just federal services. They’re really critical components of the social safety net, and my view is that these programs support family stability, child development and basic dignity.” One of the witnesses at the hearing was Melissa Charlie, the executive director of the Fairbanks Native Association. The association provides a Tribal Head Start program offering educational and cultural activities. The association also receives HHS funds for emergency shelter for survivors of domestic violence. “As women leave a domestic violence situation with just the clothes on their back, they can’t afford the temporary housing, not in Fairbanks, and especially in remote Alaska.” The senate hearing focused on HHS programs that are not part of IHS, but that agency might be also facing changes. The Trump administration has proposed cutting $900 million from IHS. William Smith is a National Indian Health Board Chairman. He said the proposal would lead to closure of clinics, losses of essential staffing, and an increase in preventative deaths in Native communities. “When we talk about the budget cuts to the Indian Health Service, these are not just budget numbers, you know. These are our lives.” Smith says that the federal government has treaty and trust obligations to ensure Native people have access to healthcare. “We paid with our land, we paid with our health, we paid with our culture.” The Indian Health Board wrote letters to the HHS secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., speaking up against the cuts. Sec. Kennedy was not at the Senate hearing, but was present at two Congressional hearings that same day. Sen. Murkowski said the concerns of tribal health officials will be shared with him. (Courtesy Elderberry Wisdom Farm) A farm in Salem, Oreg. that teaches Traditional Ecological Knowledge to youth has just had some federal funds unfrozen. After President Donald Trump took office this year, many federal agencies have weathered cuts, cancellations, and freezes. That includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which had previously approved three grants to Elderberry Wisdom Farm. Board president, Rose High Bear, explains its mission. “The roots of traditional ecological knowledge are grounded in our spirituality. And a lot of people have forgotten their traditions, and we need to restore our own native spirituality and our relationship with our oldest grandmother, the mother earth.” High Bear says U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR) helped restore one grant worth $750,000. Elderberry Wisdom Farm is now looking for interns to do Native stewardship practices. One will be planting trees in a lower-income area of Salem. “We have heat waves here in Salem, when you’ve got a low tree canopy, it can be 30 degrees hotter than in the more prosperous neighborhoods. So we’re really committed in a number of ways to help our ecosystem and to help our young people to get into careers that are more fulfilling to them.” High Bear says funding still remains a concern, as the internship program’s account will dry out next year.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Montana’s Native families face higher rates of separation with a disproportionate number of Native kids in foster care. A nonprofit in Lodge Grass is developing a center aimed at keeping tribal families together and out of social services. MTPR’s Victoria Traxler has more. Mountain Shadow Association recently began construction of a family healing center to support communities on the Crow Reservation. Executive Director Megkain Doyle explains addiction and behavioral health issues can break apart families. She says children from the reservation are often sent to foster care families out of state when these issues arise. The center, called Kaala’s Village, aims to change that. “That’s what Kaala’s Village is really trying to do is provide this consistent and constant relationship and connection and to help repair those places where connection and relationship are broken.” The center’s approach is based in restorative justice, which aims to address the root cause of crimes, instead of incarceration. Doyle says they hope to help break cycles of abuse and trauma. Kaala’s Village was developed from years of direct dialogue between the nonprofit and Lodge Grass community members. “They really wanted it to be a safe place for them and for their children. And they also wanted to make sure that they were gonna be surrounded by people who shared similar goals with them in recovery.” The 13-acre campus will have housing, along with a preschool and caretakers to help supervise children. Doyle says they hope to fully open by the end of 2026. Extreme heat can affect the health of pregnant mothers. As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez reports, a new study shows the warming climate is adding to that risk, and several states in the Mountain West region are leading the way. One of the most significant findings from the Climate Central study is that excessive exposure to heat can lead to premature births. The policy neutral organization’s Vice President of Science Kristina Dahl says heat incidents can have lasting effects on the baby and the mother. It’s exacerbated by their “socio-economic vulnerability.” Air conditioning in areas that are experiencing hotter summers is important. “So people who have less access to cooling, have less of an infrastructure around preventative health care, tend to be more at risk when it comes to extreme heat exposure.” Lower income women are disproportionately affected. In the Mountain West region, Utah experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days during the past five years. Overall, the study shows Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico experienced among the highest number of pregnancy heat-risk days in the country. “Navajo Highways”, a new children’s television series, is helping teach kids the Navajo language. The live-action puppet series follows the summer adventures of Sadie, a young girl from an urban background who spends time with her Navajo grandmother. Through the guidance of her family and community, she explores Navajo traditions, language, and values. Lori Tapahonso is a co-producer of the show. “It is an accompaniment to any kind of immersion program but also a standalone language program that teaches children about culture and language in a fun and engaging way. It encourages families to learn together but also children can learn on their own.” The series is written and directed by Pete Sands with support from the Navajo Nation and the New Mexico Public Education Department. The series will soon be featured on First Nations Experience (FNX)’s new streaming platform.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Acclaimed Indigenous chef Sean Sherman is expanding his nonprofit to Montana. Yellowstone Public Radio’s Ruth Eddy has more about his plans in Bozeman. “So we’ve got ground elk, onions, delicata squash. We just chopped it up real fine. It’s got sumac, cedar, and salt in it “ Chef Rob Kinneen with the nonprofit Indigenous Food Lab is grilling at the kitchen of Fork and Spoon in Bozeman. The social enterprise restaurant run by the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) serves pay what you can meals five nights a week, but also rents out its commercial kitchen. Tonight, the kitchen is being used for a pop-up dinner as a taste of what’s to come in Bozeman, as Sean Sherman’s nonprofit starts using the kitchen regularly sometime in the near future. “Our goal is to try and get food access to tribal communities all across the state, and that’s what we’re hoping to do right here in this building” Sean Sherman’s restaurant in Minneapolis was named James Beard’s best restaurant in America in 2022. Owamni highlights Indigenous ingredients by removing colonial ingredients like dairy, wheat, flour, cane sugar, beef, pork, and chicken. Tonight’s 7 course pop up does the same. The elk skewer is plated on top of a dark red circle of sauce made from currents, topped with fresh ramps, and drizzled with a pine syrup. Sherman explains. “We harvested this pine cut it all up and then we’re going to cook it down with some maple syrup and some water and just let it simmer for a long time till the water starts to evaporate but it’ll absorb a lot of this pine flavor” This is the only Bozeman pop-up on the calendar for the time being, but Sherman says he hopes a restaurant in Bozeman isn’t too far away. Sherman says their first step is improving Native food access, and making educational videos. Megan Vincent was one of 80 guests at the pop up. She is a culinary arts teacher at a high school in Lewistown. She said the food was amazing, and the braised bison and wild rice flan were favorites. “I want to figure out that dessert. I really want the dessert recipe, to see if I can make that with them. I think the idea of making desert taste that good without using those standard ingredients like sugar and dairy would be an amazing experience.” (Courtesy PBS Kids) The next season of the PBS KIDS show “Molly of Denali” will be the last for the foreseeable future. KTOO’S Jamie Diep reports. The team behind the award-winning children’s TV show will stop working on new content. The show is widely celebrated in Alaska because it features an Alaska Native lead character and showcases Alaska Native culture. This comes as the Trump administration is cracking down on federal funding. But Alaska State Writer Laureate Vera Starbard, who is a writer and story editor for the show, says that’s not the full story. While she and other writers knew the decision was in the works before the presidential election last year, she says they didn’t get the official announcement until recently. And she says she doesn’t think there’s just one reason for the decision. “What I don’t want is for a show this great and this exceptional to be put into this very polarized political lens of ‘it’s x person that did it. It’s this x action that did it.’ It’s actually a lot of sort of typical television reasons. I do think the funding atmosphere that has been tough for a while, political atmospheres, those all for sure, contribute to the much bigger reasons.” This is not the end for the show though – another season will air – but PBS is not commissioning another season of the show. “Molly of Denali” premiered in 2019 and was the first nationally distributed children’s program to feature Indigenous main characters. The show won its first Emmy Award earlier this year for an episode written by Juneau resident X̱’unei Lance Twitchell. He and Starbard were among several Alaska Native writers who contributed to the show during its run.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: A ballot booth at the polling station in Wyoming Indian High School’s Tech Center in Ethete, Wyo. (Lindsay D’Addato / Flickr) A group of Democratic lawmakers are warning an election bill would make it more difficult for Native Americans to vote in national elections. Christina Aanestad reports. Democratic Senators from California, Hawaii, and Oregon are warning the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would disenfranchise Native American voting rights. A letter sent to Secretary of the Interior says the requirement that voters use ID to register that shows the place of birth would be hard to meet, since the majority of Tribal IDs lack that data. The letter signed by more than a dozen senators representing 10 states also says the SAVE ACT would force Tribal voters who live in rural and remote locations to travel significant distances to prove their citizenship just so they can register to vote. Native communities often rely on mail-in voting because of a lack of infrastructure and transportation. The letter says the president’s executive order penalizes states that accept absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day, harming Native voters in states like Alaska, North Dakota, Oregon, and California that process ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. In Alaska, which has 229 federally recognized Tribes, vote-by-mail polling sites can be hundreds of miles away for villages that are not on the road system, making vote by mail essential the lawmakers write. Among the signatories are U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Tina Smith (D-MN) as well as Democratic senators from Nevada and Hawaii. Pope Leo XIV during an audience with the media May 12, 2025. (Photo: Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar / Wikimedia) Canada’s Indigenous community is, for the most part, welcoming the new pope. But as Dan Karpenchuk reports, many are hoping that the new pontiff, Leo XIV, will continue his predecessor’s legacy when it comes to reconciliation. Pope Francis was praised for his historical apology to Canada’s Indigenous people for the role of the Catholic Church in the notorious residential school system. For over a hundred years, from the mid-1800’s, the government funded schools, run by churches, were aimed at assimilating Native children into white culture. Thousands were physically and sexually abused, many died. Survivors of the schools say the apology from Pope Frances was long overdue. But some, like Geraldine Shingoose, say it wasn’t enough and there needs to be more dialogue with the new pope. “Not with Indigenous leadership, or the federal government of Canada. But with residential school survivors. That needs to happen.” Meanwhile the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, says there is still a lot of work to do. “I hope that we can work on reconciliation together, continue on the hard work that the late pope had left for us to finish. And there’s lots of work to do.” Among the issues still remain are the repatriation of Indigenous artifacts from the Vatican collection, and she wants more education around the church’s role in the residential school system, and to make the world a better place. Natasha Singh. (Courtesy AFN / Facebook) The Alaska Federation of Natives will hold its annual October convention in Anchorage. Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more. The theme this year is “Standing Strong, Standing United”. The keynote speaker is Natasha Singh, President and CEO of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. AFN President Ben Mallott says Singh was chosen because of her commitment to unity and her extensive experience in bringing tribes together to work for common causes. Just recently, after a two-year hiatus, two major tribal organizations – Tanana Chiefs and Tlingit and Haida – announced that they were rejoining the AFN, the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: A post marks where Enbridge’s Line 5 crosses the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Danielle Kaeding / WPR) Federal regulators said in a hearing Tuesday that data doesn’t support a Wisconsin tribe’s claims that a pipeline project will violate its water quality standards. As Danielle Kaeding reports, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa says Canadian energy firm Enbridge is underestimating impacts from its Line 5 reroute. Enbridge wants to reroute the oil and gas pipeline after Bad River sued to shut down and remove Line 5 from its lands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a hearing over the tribe’s objection to permitting the project under the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency says Bad River didn’t submit data or studies that show water quality violations would occur, but Bad River Tribal Chair Robert Blanchard says permitting the project would cause irreparable harm. “Whatever happens upstream from our reservation will affect the waters that we and many others depend on for survival.” Enbridge’s environmental projects manager Joe McGaver disputes that. “The Line 5 project will not impact Bad River’s water quality standards. We designed the project for that to be the end result.” The tribe says the reroute would have a negative impact by filling wetlands, blasting bedrock and disrupting groundwater flows. Enbridge and its consultants say wetland impacts will be temporary and blasting won’t affect groundwater or nearby wells. Disclosure: Enbridge is a sponsor of National Native News. Mayflower Island viewed from Gastineau Channel on Saturday, March 23, 2024. (Photo: Clarise Larson / KTOO) The federal government may soon return a traditional subsistence site connected to Douglas Island in Southeast Alaska to its original tribal owners. KTOO’s Clarise Larson reports. Mayflower Island is a small, 3-acre island adjacent to Douglas Harbor and Sandy Beach. It’s near the site of the former Douglas Indian Village, which Douglas’ city government burned in 1962. The City and Borough of Juneau formally apologized for the burning last fall. At a Juneau Assembly lands, housing, and economic development meeting last week, members gave initial approval for a plan that would acquire the island from the federal government and then give it to the Douglas Indian Association (DIA). DIA officials did not respond to KTOO for a request for comment. Dan Bleidorn, the city’s Lands & Resources manager, says this is a plan that has been years in the making. “This is on the list of 2025 Assembly goals for community wellness and public safety. The goal states to support Douglas Indian Association’s efforts to acquire Mayflower Island.” The island once served as a traditional subsistence site and yielded a herring run and spawn used by DIA. DIA is currently in the process of building a cultural learning center near former site of the village. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the property has been under the federal government’s stewardship since 1890. The island was originally reserved for the U.S. Navy to use as a naval station, but, in 1948, it was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Mines, which constructed a mineral laboratory on the site to process ore samples for research. The BLM took over the property in 1996 when Congress closed the Bureau of Mines. The U.S. Coast Guard also used the site under an agreement with the BLM, but that ended in 2023. Bleidorn says the actual property transfer is likely still a few years out. But the Juneau Assembly’s approval is the next step in moving that process along. The resolution will still need to come before the Assembly for final approval. The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is holding a hearing Wednesday on public health and social services for Native Americans. The hearing will examine federal programs serving Native Americans across the Department of Health and Human Services. The hearing comes as the committee’s leaders, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), recently sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., raising concerns about potential impacts on Native communities with Trump administration workforce reductions and funding cuts.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: The Alaska Native Heritage Center’s new boarding school exhibit includes an interactive map. (Rhonda McBride) A new exhibit on Native boarding schools has opened in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, it reveals new research into how churches and the federal government teamed up to operate schools in Alaska. Bob Sam is a Lingít Culture Bearer from Sitka. “This is a really difficult subject we’re talking about.” Earlier this month, Sam opened a day-long summit on boarding schools at the Heritage Center to help Alaska Natives emotionally prepare for the exhibit and discussions that could awaken old traumas. Bob Sam, a Lingít elder from Sitka, is an expert on the use of Native language and culture to heal. He led a ceremony at the end of the boarding school summit to help bring closure to the historical trauma. (Photo: Rhonda McBride) As Sam shared an ancient story about how the Arctic wind tormented humans, he made the sound of the wind. “The wind can be born a whisper.” The wind never really goes away, Sam says, but once its nature is understood, it can be dealt with. National Native News host Antonia Gonzales moderates a discussion on the new research into Alaska Native boarding schools with Emily Edenshaw, president of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and Benjamin Jacuk, director of Indigenous research at the center. (Photo: Thea Lawton) Emily Edenshaw, president of the Heritage Center, says the center’s research is part of a larger effort to bring about truth and healing from boarding school trauma by first understanding what took place. “Every single Indigenous person across the country has been impacted, either directly or indirectly, from boarding schools.” Edenshaw says the Heritage Center has gained unprecedented access to the Rev. Sheldon Jackson archives at Princeton University, where he studied before he became a famous Presbyterian missionary and, later in 1885, a General Education Agent for the territory of Alaska. History often gives him heroic status, a religious leader who brought education and even reindeer herds to help Alaska Natives. But the research reveals a darker picture, where the boundaries of church and state were crossed – in which military methodologies and religious life coalesced into schools that were run more like prisoner of war camps. The Alaska Native Heritage Center and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation held a day-long summit on Native boarding schools on May 2 to coincide with the opening of a new exhibit that looks at how the federal government and churches teamed up to educate Alaska Native children. (Photo: Rhonda McBride) Benjamin Jacuk, the Heritage Center’s director of Indigenous Research, is also an ordained minister and a descendant of Native boarding school students. “Where did all this stuff come from?” He says churches and the federal government had the same mission — to either displace or assimilate Alaska Natives. Jacuk says the records show their motive was resource extraction. “It’s really important to recognize that this version of Christianity was so interwoven with nationalism that you couldn’t pull apart being a quote American in terms of the way that they defined American or a Christian.” The summit that preceded the opening of the exhibit also brought together many survivors of boarding schools, who told of harsh punishments for speaking their Native language, as well as physical and sexual abuse. The Heritage Center says work goes on to document these stories. Disclaimer: Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, which owns National Native News and KNBA, co-hosted the boarding school summit at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. (Courtesy MHA Nation Tourism / Facebook) A new grant program in North Dakota aims to help tribes promote tourism. Mike Moen has more. A bill recently signed by the state’s governor sets aside $100,000 for North Dakota’s five tribal nations for tourism-related projects. Kiera Fox of the MHA Nation Tourism Department says her team can use it to improve signage and other needs, while promoting their history in a culturally appropriate way. “We get to tell our stories with our own voices, you know, reeducate a little bit, correct some of those misconceptions everybody has about Native Americans.” She says MHA Nation is off the beaten path. So, more visibility with signs might convince drivers to take a detour and check out sites, including a local museum and the Crow Flies scenic overlook. The bill sailed through the Legislature with minor opposition. However, the final sum is lower than the proposed $500,000. Bill sponsors say the initiative benefits regional economies, with promotion from tribal and non-tribal areas working hand-in-hand. As for Indigenous communities, Fox says having more tourists spend money locally expands their revenue base.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign

Photo: Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the Becket Fund, speaks for his client, Apache Stronghold, on May 7, 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) A federal court has temporarily halted the federal government’s plan to transfer Oak Flat, a tribal sacred site in Arizona, to Resolution Copper. The transfer was expected to take place as early as June. Apache Stronghold – a coalition of Apache people, other Native people, and non-Native allies – filed an emergency request to halt the transfer while the Supreme Court considers the case. That request was granted on Friday. The coalition has been fighting the land transfer for years saying the copper mine threatens religious freedom, while Resolution Copper has touted jobs and an economic impact. New Mexico and Colorado recently created alerts for missing Indigenous people. Now Arizona is poised to join them with its own “turquoise alert.” As Gabriel Pietrorazio reports for the Mountain West News Bureau, a legislative bill awaits the governor’s signature. Had the Turquoise Alert already been law, bill sponsor State Rep. Teresa Martinez (R-AZ) says it could’ve helped find 14-year-old San Carlos Apache Emily Pike. “Not only was she killed, but she was dismembered. And it breaks my heart that we in the state of Arizona didn’t even go looking for this little girl.” Another supporter is State Rep. Myron Tsosie (D-AZ) from the Navajo Nation. He remembers 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike, who also went missing. Her 2016 death aided in bringing Amber Alerts to Indian Country. “This is for Shiyázhí Emily Pike, this is for Shiyázhí Ashlynne Mike and many others who are still missing. This is for you.” Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns (Yaqui) speaks to a group of reporters about the importance of specific plants to Indigenous peoples in Arizona. Native experts in foraging for traditional food are sharing some of their recommendations. Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports. In Papago Park, east of Phoenix, Twila Cassadore points to the base of a Palo Verde tree where small branches, dried leaves, and other plant matter have formed the ground nest of a desert wood rat. Cassadore says the rodent is both a source of nutrition, and knowledge. “Many of us may not think much about the desert wood rat. But as people who study environmental science and engineering, this friend of ours, also delicious friend, will tell us about climate change.” Cassadore is a traditional food forager and educator with the San Carlos Apache Tribe. She explains to a tour organized by the Society of Environmental Journalists that other researchers have found that as the planet warms, the wood rat uses larger plant material to shade or insulate its home. Twila Cassadore (San Carlos Apache), a food sovereignty advocate and educator, examines the seeds of a mesquite tree during a talk on the importance of desert plants to Indigenous peoples in Arizona. But where the rat is plentiful, as it is here in the Sonoran Desert, it can also be a source of what Cassadore calls pre-reservation food, from before the years when the U.S. government forced Native people away from their longtime homes. “They took everyone away from the landscape where they originally foraged from and hunted from.” Helping Cassadore with the effort to discover more traditional foods is Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns, a naturalist and member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. He points to blossoms and seeds on the Palo Verde tree. “These flowers, you can make tea out of them. Also, the pods which you may be seeing some of the younger trees out here, they taste like edamame, so you can eat them fresh off the tree, or you can till them, boil them, put salt on them, or store them, for the season you actually do want to use them.” Lazos-Ferns says some larger cities like Tucson have started to plant more Indigenous plants that need less water or no fertilizer and be a source of food or medicine.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: White Mountain Petroglyphs in southwestern Wyoming. (James St. John / Flickr) Protections for Indigenous rock art in Wyoming are in limbo after state lawmakers and the Trump administration took potentially conflicting actions related to them. Kathleen Shannon has more. Senate File 91, which handily passed the state Legislature, increased the penalties for any kind of petroglyph or pictograph site destruction to a $750 fine and up to six months in prison. The measure moved forward as the U.S. Department of the Interior fast-tracked energy projects through a decades-old legal review of such sites. Crystal C’Bearing, tribal historic preservation officer for the Northern Arapaho Tribe, said she used to have 30 days to comment on a project, but now has seven. “In terms of tribes, our sacred sites and our places of significance, that’s our history on the ground. It’s not in books, it’s on the land. So it’s really important for tribes to have that voice in there to protect those sites.” The original Wyoming bill included nearly $500,000 for the state’s Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources to survey and make 3D models of Wyoming’s petroglyphs, but it was ultimately cut. According to a 2024 “State of the Art” report, of the nearly 1,100 Indigenous rock art sites across Wyoming, about a quarter have been vandalized or defaced. Beyond Wyoming’s borders, C’Bearing noted her office provides legally mandated consultation on any projects in her tribe’s ancestral migratory territory, which includes portions of 17 states. She added she takes on hundreds of requests. “That 30-day window was barely enough time. Now we have to kind of prioritize those so we can push them through. But it’s a challenge.” C’Bearing emphasized the office is allowed to request more time to review projects, giving consultants some leeway. When Native-owned businesses first begin navigating the market, it can be a challenge. However, one organization is providing more than financial support to business owners. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene checks in. The Four Bands Community Fund offers support alongside loans for Indigenous-owned businesses – and these programs directly impact the lives of South Dakota’s Cheyenne River tribal members. Members like Bonnie LeBeaux, who used their resources to successfully grow her quilt making business. “Being a new entrepreneur, you’re learning everything as you go. I was taking college courses at the time for business, but the college business curriculum doesn’t prepare you for entrepreneurship.” Assistance like credit management, business planning, and loan assistance. Assistance LeBeaux says was vital to the success of her business. “It’s so easy, they’re accessible to the community. I think that’s what makes it not so intimidating. I don’t think that there’s any other programs that are able to help entrepreneurs in the hands-on way that Four Bands does.” Now, LeBeaux says she hopes to use her loan to expand her businesses workspace. The first Four Bands program was the Cheyenne River Entrepreneurial Assistance Training and Education (CREATE). Under that program, LaBeaux and other locals have managed to revitalize the Cheyenne River economy. According to Four Bands, prior to their programs less than 1% of businesses in Cheyenne River were Native owned in a community that was 75% Indigenous. A bill to create a statewide alert for missing Indigenous people passed the Arizona Legislature this week. The bill passed the House by a vote of 57 to 0. Lawmakers believe such an alert may have helped in the case of Emily Pike, a Native teen who went missing and was later found dead. The Turquoise Alert, also known as Emily’s Law, was sent to the state’s governor for approval.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Some Natives leaders in Alberta have added their voices to criticisms over separatism. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (CP) has defended a pledge of a possible referendum on the issue. The idea of Alberta separatism was floated in the later stages of Canada’s national election in April. Alberta is the heartland of the Conservative party and some people appeared frustrated over a fourth Liberal term in office in Ottawa, and raised the issue that long standing grievances might lead to a move for separation. Premier Smith proposed legislation that would make it easier for citizens to call for a vote to secede from Canada. But that’s concerning to many First Nations in the province and in Western Canada. Recently chiefs of four Alberta First Nations issued a statement saying that any efforts to separate will be met with their full opposition. Here’s Troy Bossman Knowlton of the Piikani Nation. “Talking of separation is really insanity because there is no pathway to separation. You can have all the referendum you want.” And Billy Joe Tuccaro of the Mikisew First Nation threw a copy of the proposed legislation into the air when he spoke. “Bill 54 this is what we think of you. You’re garbage like that.” The chiefs say that large areas of the province are governed by sacred treaties between First Nations and the crown. and those lands are held in trust by the Crown for the benefit of First Nations and not as property of the provincial government. Those treaties were made before before Alberta entered into Confederation in 1905. Some Native leaders say for Smith make that kind of a promise without engaging with First Nations shows the lack of respect for the original inhabitants of the land. (Courtesy Asm. James Ramos / Facebook) Tribal leaders, advocates, and California state lawmakers gathered at the state Capitol in Sacramento Wednesday to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP). Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), chair of the California Legislative Native American Caucus, held a press conference before hosting day-long events. Asm. Ramos says MMIP continues to gain momentum in the state. “This issue is not nothing new. This is something that’s plagued Indian reservations and tribal communities for a long time, for generations. What’s new is we’re gaining allies in this fight for bringing awareness around solving crimes against Native American people in the state of California, allies in the legislature, allies in law enforcement.” Following the press conference, a hearing was held to exploring how to end violence on tribal lands. “We want to make sure that those families that are out there going through these different crises know that you’re not alone that we’re standing side by side with you trying to get resources that you drastically need. We continue to raise that voice here at the State Capitol to ensure that California’s First People truly do have a voice when it comes to public safety.” (Courtesy Asm. James Ramos / Facebook) In the evening, a candlelight vigil was held with the Capitol Dome illuminated red to honor MMIP. (Courtesy Coalition of Large Tribes) U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) are demanding urgent action from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more. In a letter to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., they said the Indian Health Service (IHS) is unable to deliver quality health care services to American Indians and Alaska Natives, as required by federal law. The senators say staffing shortages and a civilian hiring freeze have made matters worse for an already struggling system. They say not only medical services are in jeopardy, but also billing, appointments, lab work and other essential tasks, even accreditation for IHS facilities. In their letter, the senators also called on Sec. Kennedy to halt any further cutbacks without first engaging in meaningful tribal consultation. Sen. Murkowski is chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Sen. Schatz is vice chair. Sen. Merkley is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

An advocate for protecting Native American lands says he has concerns about some Trump administration initiatives. Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports. Keegan King (Pueblo of Acoma) is founder and CEO of the Native Land Institute, based in New Mexico. At a recent forum organized by the Society of Environmental Journalists, King told reporters that he’s worried about President Trump trying to fast-track development of energy production on public lands, including parts of the sacred Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. King says tribal leaders are gearing up for a long battle. “It’s going to drain a lot of resources over the next four years. So, tribes, tribal leadership are already trying to look into legal defense funds, looking at potential public lands sell-offs, and what that means for adjacent public lands to reservation communities.” Trump talks of “unleashing American energy” and argues some development restrictions drive up energy costs, and weaken national security. Keegan King says he’s also worried about the status of some National Monuments. The Biden administration with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) expanded co-management with tribes. King urges white-led conservation groups to partner with more Indigenous ones to protect various sites, in some cases, letting the tribes lead the strategy. “All of these public lands, all of the places that we love, that you write about, are Indigenous lands at one point, and many of our tribes still go there for prayer, pilgrimage — also to recreate, to hunt, fish, like every other American.” The latest Trump federal budget proposal would reduce money for national parks, monuments, and historic sites by nearly 25% and turn some of those properties over to states. Sacred Mato Paha is now part of Bear Butte State Park in Meade County, S.D. (Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz, MD / Wikimedia) Lawmakers have moved to ban the interment of human remains at Bear Butte State Park in South Dakota. This ruling includes the spreading of ashes at the site. SDPB’s CJ Keene has more. The ban was previously instituted more than 20 years ago before being unceremoniously repealed in 2019. Bear Butte, also known as Mato Paha, is considered a sacred site to Indigenous people, and this ban was first put in place after consultation with tribal leaders. For those spiritual reasons, visitors are encouraged to respect the area before hiking. The mountain stands alone from the Black Hills proper near Sturgis, and the peak is about 4,500 feet above sea level. “Eagle Buffalo Star” by artist Rachel Berg hangs in the Oyate Health Center in South Dakota. (Courtesy OHC) A South Dakota clinic that serves Native Americans is hanging Indigenous art on its walls as a healing tool. Mike Moen reports. Rachel Olivia Berg is one of the artists. She has created artworks for companies in places such as hotel lobbies and jumped at the change to provide art at the Oyate Health Center in Rapid City after it put out a request. “What’s really nice about Oyate [Health Center] is art from our perspective, things we understand, things we relate to. It helps you feel like it’s your space.” The clinic-wide permanent collection includes more than 100 works of art spread throughout the center. The pieces focus on culture-specific healing, made by 50-some tribal citizens from the Great Plains area. Officials say having Indigenous symbolism throughout the campus has transformed the space, and what it means to heal inside it. Here’s Ashley Pouier, selection committee member and art museum curator. “Native people dissect that word ‘healing’ to being more of a spiritual health as well as physical and mental health.” The collection includes photography, paintings, and 3-D work. This story includes original reporting from Amy Felegy with Arts Midwest.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.

Photo: Hoonah Head Start students try herring eggs. (Courtesy Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska) The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has announced that its annual traditional food distributions were canceled this year. In March, the federal government canceled a funding agreement with the tribe. KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey reports. For the last three years, the tribe distributed herring eggs, salmon, and black cod to tribal citizens in each of its recognized communities — from villages in Southeast to cities like Anchorage and Seattle. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled funding that provided the tribe’s food assistance program. A USDA notice to Tlingit and Haida said that the tribe’s community food distribution “no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate”. Aaron Angerman is Tlingit and Haida’s food security program manager. He said the community distribution program started in 2022 to promote self-sufficiency and to reduce reliance on food shipped from the Lower 48. “Our answer to that, and then our heavy reliance on barge systems and things like that, was to turn back the clock a bit about food sovereignty, which is something that our people have relied on since time immemorial.” The tribe planned to use more than $500,000 from USDA for the distribution. The money was allocated to the tribe in January, but USDA sent Tlingit and Haida a notice in March that said the agreement had been canceled. The money was part of a program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Agreement which was intended to encourage local governments to buy from farmers and food producers. And that aligned with the tribe’s goal to keep more traditional foods that are harvested in Southeast Alaska in the fridges and freezers of tribal members. “For us to be able to take a food that was purchased from commercial vendors, to contract those vendors who are tribal citizens, to keep not only that funding within the tribe and the region, but also take a food source that was harvested in our area and typically sent overseas to bring that food back to our people and to be shared.” The herring egg distribution is special for this reason: because of overfishing and exporting of herring and herring roe, the fish now only spawn in very limited areas. Angerman said his team is working to get more secure funding. But there’s a lot of other work they are doing to further the understanding and use of traditional foods in the meantime. “We need to work with elders and those with traditional ecological knowledge to see why and where and how we harvested previously, then to not only do that, but to teach people how to harvest themselves, how to process that food, how to put up or prepare that food.” Because, he said, if a salmon ends up on someone’s doorstep, and they don’t know how to process it, that isn’t food sovereignty. Angerman said Tlingit and Haida was able to purchase enough herring eggs to bring to some of their tribally run preschool classrooms this year, so the youngest tribal citizens can still learn about the importance of traditional food and land stewardship. And some distributions in Washington and Oregon will still happen, according to the tribe’s release. The local tribal council in Seattle used different funding sources to set aside money for distributions to reach elders outside of Alaska. Western Native Voice advocates at the Montana State Capitol. (Courtesy Western Native Voice / Facebook) On the heels of a busy Montana legislative session, the advocacy group Western Native Voice is setting its sights higher and opening a Washington D.C. office next week. Kathleen Shannon reports. The nonprofit formed in 2022 to advocate for equity and opportunity for Montana’s Native people. Since then, the group has gained members in, and collaborated with tribes across, many western states. Keaton Sunchild, director of government and political relations for the group, said it can be difficult to operate at a national level from 2,000 miles away. “Being able to be right there, be on top of the action and be able to use our voice in Washington is going to help us be a little bit more proactive.” He pointed out top issues at the national level include criminal justice funding for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and drug crises disproportionately affecting tribal communities. Sunchild noted the national office will open May 12. Sunchild called this year’s Montana legislative session “pretty successful” for Western Native Voice, but highlighted one area of continued concern is voting rights. Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) is expected to decide Tuesday on Senate Bill 490, which would add restrictions to same-day voter registration, but Sunchild has a plan for that too. “It’s a road we’ve been down before. Trying to figure out the best way forward for that, whether that