The closely-watched arguments for and against the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act are now in the hands of all 16 judges sitting on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges heard oral arguments Wednesday, January 22, after the court granted plaintiffs’ request for an en banc hearing. Read more here.

National Native News takes a look at the climate of fear, mistrust and despair that arises when perpetrators don’t face any consequences. A group of mostly Alaska Native women have been working for years to change the narrative coming from a mostly male, non-Native government and legal structure. Read the series here.

At a presidential candidate forum on Native American issues Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) promoted his ongoing themes of environmental protection, climate change and universal health care. Sanders was the last of the 11 candidates to address the two-day Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City Iowa. He also spoke about respecting sovereignty […]

Author Marianne Williamson kicked off the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, where tribal leaders, elders and directors of Native organizations questioned four presidential candidates. Williamson spoke about making amends to Native Americans. She also said, if elected president, she would take down the portrait of Andrew Jackson at the White […]

Despite record-breaking Native voter turnout for the 2018 midterm election in North Dakota, tribes and voting rights advocates remain concerned about a controversial voter I.D. law. “Saying, ‘well, turnout was great wasn’t it?’ That is inappropriate and unacceptable,” said North Dakota Representative Ruth Buffalo at a congressional field hearing in Fort Yates. Read the story here.

North Dakota’s Native youth played a significant role in parts of the state to help get out the Native vote last November.Youth-led groups like the Turtle Mountain Youth Council reached out through numerous Facebook Live events and other forms of social media leading up to Election Day to help get young voters engaged. College students and other young people were among those who were affected by the state’s voter ID law during the 2018 midterm election. Read the story here.

The election of Ruth Buffalo to the North Dakota legislature is already paying dividends for Native issues in the state. Buffalo is the first female Native American Democrat elected to the state’s House of Representatives. Just months into her first term as state representative, North Dakota joined a handful of states allowing high school students to wear traditional regalia for graduation ceremonies. It’s the first bill introduced by Buffalo to be signed into law. Read the story here.

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This series is a joint project with National Native News, Prairie Public Broadcasting and Solutions Journalism Network looking into how a potential setback for tribal members in North Dakota turned into a win for tribes, voters and Native candidates. Faced with voting obstacles in North Dakota: ‘We’ll find a way’ Just weeks before the midterm […]

Native American Rights Fund attorney Jacqueline De Leon says even though the Supreme Court would not block North Dakota’s law before the last election, the disproportionate harm to many other Native voters, like Terry Yellow Fat, remains clear.“We still know that there are hundreds of people… potentially thousands of people out there that that still don’t have an I.D.,” De Leon said. “So you know there was a tremendous push this election but we don’t know–and are skeptical–that if the law remains on the books people will have I.D. going forward in the future.” Read the story here.