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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.

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.

 

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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.

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.

 

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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.

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.”

 

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(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.”

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.

 

 

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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.”

 

 

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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 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.

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.

 

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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.

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.

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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

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.

 

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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.

 

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