The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and St. Vincent Healthcare are partners in a new program that changes the way pregnant women, suffering from addiction, are treated.  Instead of being greeted with blame and punishment these women are being met with support services. Read more

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Nationally, people living on tribal lands have some of the lowest internet access rates of any demographic. The cost of the infrastructure is one of the barriers. But a consortium of four New Mexico Pueblos is working to connect their libraries with broadband service. The effort is one of a growing number of tribal-led initiatives that allow rural tribes to aggregate demand to bring costs down. Read more

There’s growing concern among Native advocates that bias rhetoric from our nation’s top leaders is fueling an increase in racially-biased crimes against Native Americans and other people of color. But there’s little evidence other than individual reports to document that. National Native News is joining ProPublica’s Documenting Hate project to collect, analyze and report on hate crimes. Telling your story is important.

The proposed Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska will require a number of major infrastructure projects to support the operation. The projects are among the details revealed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the company’s permit application public. “We are proposing a natural gas pipeline from the Kenai Peninsula across Cook Inlet and then under Iliamna Lake in order to get natural gas to our mine site in order to run our electrical generation,” said Pebble Limited Partnership spokesperson Mike Heatwole.

At the start of the Navajo Nation’s new winter legislative session, President Russell Begaye made it clear which issue sits high on the leadership’s agenda. Begaye signed a proclamation aimed at raising awareness of human trafficking in and around the border-towns of the sprawling reservation. In August, Begaye enacted a tribal council resolution to criminalize the sex slave trade within the reservation borders, something the International Labour Organization estimates is a $150 billion industry worldwide.

by Jim Kent A recent Hate Crimes Forum in Rapid City, South Dakota turned out to be quite a different gathering than Lakota people attending the event anticipated it would be. The law enforcement panel explained the technicalities behind hate crimes laws. Members of the Native American community were hoping for a longer discussion about […]

Members of the Washington, D.C. based-grassroots Rising Hearts group say they were behind Wednesday’s online campaign aimed at the Washington football team’s name.  Fake articles on website parodies of The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the Bleacher Report and the Washington football team showed an updated logo and mascot noting the team ditched its R-word name in favor of the Washington Redhawks. Rising Hearts released a statement taking claim for the action, crafted as a culture jam.

The proposed copper and gold Pebble Mine could bring needed jobs for Native people in southwest Alaska. The open pit mine plan stalled during the Barack Obama Administration because of its size and its threat to the environment, including a prolific and fragile salmon fishery. Now, a new administration and a company promising a smaller, safer project are giving the mine renewed momentum. That also revives worries among Native commercial fishers and others who want to preserve the important and pristine resource. Read and listen to Daysha Eaton’s five-part series Alaska Water Wars.

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Communities near the fishing industry of Bristol Bay are larger and often have more seasonal and year-round work opportunities than those inland, near the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska. Some residents, despite concerns about possible impacts to water quality, are eager to take jobs on related infrastructure projects that would be the mine’s foundation.  In the village of Kokhanok, a “man camp” was built this summer to house people working to develop the mine.