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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.

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.

 

 

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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.”

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.

 

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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.”

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.

 

 

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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.

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.

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.

 

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(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.

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.”

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 if the Apaches remained nomadic, “Oak Flat would still become a very prominent place for Apaches to travel to, and if the reservation didn’t exist, then you would still see a lot of that into the modern day.”

Devastating wild fires across western Canada have forced thousands of people from their homes, including those in Indigenous communities.

Two provinces, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, have declared states of emergency.

Air quality from the fires is being felt as far south as Georgia – and even Europe is feeling it.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, for many first nations, the crisis now is one of temporary accommodation.

According to the latest statistics, and they change quickly, more than 30,000 people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been forced to leave their homes and are displaced.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, many Indigenous people have been flown out of remote communites, and satellite images show that in some regions the situation is worsening.

Recently, First Nations leaders in Manitoba gathered to address the issue of temporary space for those forced to flee. But in Winnipeg, Manitoba’s largest city, there isn’t much left.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson says the situation has become dire.

“And we see young children and families waiting in whatever environment that they’re in, waiting to go to their secondary accommodation, whatever that is, And it’s really sad to see our children having to sleep; on floors, people are sitting waiting in hallways, waiting outside. And right now we just need everybody to come together.”

In Ottawa, the federal government has deployed military personnel to help fight the fires.

Officials says the firefighting service has now been stretched the maximum and the call has gone out to Canada’s international partners for help.

 

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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.

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.

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 territorial government officials sanctioned militarized citizen gangs to essentially track down and kill families.

More than 380 Apache deaths were documented in 35 encounters between 1859 and 1874, according to Simon Fraser University anthropology professor John Welch, a former historic preservation officer for the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

Terry Rambler recalled those days.

“The rifles defeated the bows and arrows, and so our people, including my great-grandmother, were herded like cattle from that area to Old San Carlos. They had the help of the U.S. soldiers and the PR campaign by the local papers, depicting us as savages and that we were in the way of Manifest Destiny.”

California lawmakers this week voted to support four new bills by Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA), the state’s first and only Native American legislator.

All four passed with full support, according to Asm. Ramos’ office.

One bill creates a three-year pilot project granting peace officer status to California tribes in limited capacity.

Another bill involves campaign finance and government ethics.

A third bill focuses on suicide prevention by having experts work with state transportation to make bridges safer where suicide attempts have happened.

The fourth bill seeks to have the California State University system work with tribes to find land for respectfully reburying Native American remains.

All four bills now move to the Senate.

 

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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.

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.

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.

 

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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.

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.

 

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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.

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.

 

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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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