Search Results for: april 12

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The former chairman of the Blackfeet Nation has resigned from his post on the tribal council following his arrest last week.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton reports.

Blackfeet Tribal Business Council members last week announced that board member Tim Davis was arrested for disorderly conduct and threatening a public official.

The allegations are related to legal charges family members face for selling and possessing drugs, including fentanyl, at Davis’ house last year.

The council was scheduled to hold an expulsion hearing for Davis this week, but he resigned before the hearing, according to a press release from the council.

Nearly a year ago, police arrested nine people at the home of then-tribal chair Davis on drug-related charges.

Shortly after, the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council unanimously voted to remove Davis as chairman, but he continued to serve on the council. Davis denied that he knew anything about the drugs at his home.

According to the release announcing Davis’ resignation, he said “I understand the importance and high standard of conduct that each member of the Blackfeet Tribal Council must conduct oneself, which is why I am resigning.”

The Blackfeet Nation will hold a special election on April 25 to fill Davis’ seat through the end of his term in July.

Leaders of the Wabanaki Nations are calling on Maine lawmakers to recognize tribal sovereignty and help ensure a better economic future for their youth.

The first “State of the Tribes” address in two decades was recently delivered focusing on self-determination and economic collaboration with the state.

Kathryn Carley has more.

Research shows the five Wabanaki tribes could be an economic engine for large parts of rural Maine, but restrictions set in the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 ensure the tribes are governed under state law.

The tribes are also not guaranteed access to federal programs like the other 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.

Mi’kmaq Tribe Vice Chief Richard Silliboy says self-governance would bring jobs and growth to one of the nation’s poorest areas.

“This wouldn’t just benefit the Native Americans. This would benefit the surrounding communities. This would benefit the state of Maine as a whole.”

Silliboy says Wabanaki tribes would benefit from available federal dollars, helping them to create local farming and mill jobs, or extend hours at a fishery that once fed diners in Portland.

A growing bipartisan effort is backing legislation that could avoid a veto by Governor Janet Mills, who has long opposed tribal sovereignty over concerns for land use and potential litigation.

In its recent report, a Guatemalan human rights monitoring group says attacks against human rights defenders, including Indigenous leaders throughout the country are on the rise.

Maria Martin reports.

The Union for the Protection of Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders (UFEDEGUA) says in 2022, they documented over 3,500 attacks.

These ranged from the criminalizing of independent judges and prosecutors to threats and arrests of Indigenous leaders opposing mining and palm oil projects, to organized smear campaigns on social media.

UFEDEGUA says vengeance against its political and economic enemies has become Guatemala’s public policy.

“Vengeance is definitely a strong word” says Brenda Guillen of UDEFEGUA, “but when you analyze what’s happening, we see retaliation using the system against Indigenous and other human rights defenders.”

The government has not yet responded to the report.

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Organizations supporting Native American’s right to vote are trying to educate people about the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court Election.

WXPR’s Katie Thoresen reports.

Abortion access, voting districts, and voting access are likely to come before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the coming years.

And while those issues impact everyone, they’re more likely to disproportionately effect Native American communities says Native American Rights Fund staff attorney Allison Neswood.

But she stresses that this doesn’t mean that all Native people feel the same way about each issue.

“But it means that they should have the same voice that other Americans or other Wisconsinites have in selecting who makes the decisions on those issues.”

To that end, the Native American Rights Fund and the Wisconsin Native Vote program are working to educate Native Americans on the Supreme Court, what’s at stake, and making sure they know their voting rights.

Neswood is focused on educating people on the judicial system itself, like the oath Wisconsin judges take to administer justice with respect to persons or essentially the concept of justice is blind.

“This is great concept, but it’s not always inline with how communities experience the court system. A couple examples of that, evidence shows that even among people who commit of similar severity people of color are receiving longer sentences, more jail time than white folks.”

Wisconsin Native Vote Manager Dee Sweet wants to make sure Native Americans have all the information they need to make an educated vote.

She says things like minimal or lack of broadband connectivity in rural reservations can be another barrier for Native Americans to exercise their right to vote.

“I’m not saying they’re left out of modern day technology and society they just don’t have the kind of broadband or kind of technology to support that.”

Neither organization endorses candidates.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Election is April 4.

The organizations along with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are hosting a dinner and discussion event at Red Cliff Legendary Waters Casino on March 7.

You can learn more and register at conservationvoice.org.

(Photo: Paul Cross / USGS)

The U.S. Interior Department recently unveiled plans to bolster the number of wild bison herds across their native grasslands.

Aaron Bolton reports.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the formation of federal working group that will outline how the federal government can help tribes and conservation groups bolster herd numbers and gain training to manage herds.

Holland also announced a $25 million investment to establish new herds, fund tribal bison transfers, and co-management of herds with tribes.

The department currently manages 11,000 bison on public lands across 12 states.

Haskell Indian Nations University students compete in AIHEC 2023 hand games.

Tribal college and university students from across the country are preparing to take home awards after three days of competing in more than 20 events including archery, speech, chess, and hand games.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Albuquerque, NM this week for the 2023 American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) conference.

Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College student Joanna Cooley (United Houma Nation) spent time Monday presenting her scientific poster to judges, students, and other AIHEC attendees.

Cooley says for the last year and a half she’s been part of a food sovereignty program in Mount Pleasant, MI.

Her poster describes how to decolonize diets and teach people how to preserve food from their gardens.

“We can teach our people to garden, but if they don’t know how to preserve for future use it’s not very good. Along with the gardening, we’re also doing food preservation workshops and classes. We have a full state of the art mobile food preservation kitchen that will be onsite this spring so that community members and students can harvest their vegetables and go straight into the classroom and learn how to preserve them themselves.”

Cooley says she worked on her poster for about four to six weeks.

She hopes not only will the judges appreciate her work, but that the information will be shared with other tribal communities.

Awards will be given out Tuesday night.

There are more than 30 tribal colleges and universities across the U.S.

Check out Joanna Cooley’s scientific poster:

Check out some of the 2023 AIHEC Art Competition:

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A bill to set up a task force to study Indian Child Welfare in South Dakota has been approved by the state House Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 191 provides for 17 representatives from tribes and state agencies to hold at least eight meetings before November 2024.

Their mission is to look for best practices in strengthening Native families so that children can remain in their homes.

Victoria Wicks has more.

State Sen. Red Dawn Foster (D-SD/Oglala Sioux and Navajo) told the House committee that Native people make up 12% of South Dakota’s population, but more than 60% of the children in custody of the state Department of Social Services.

She said the task force will try to figure out what underlies that inequity and how to fix it.

“Looking at and identifying root causes in where we can put the time [and] resources to address those so that the children don’t end up in DSS.”

She said one key step is to address poverty wherever the child lives.

“If a child is removed, that the adoptive families are receiving the support that they need to care for the children.”

Foster noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments on the constitutionality of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, and if that federal law is weakened, South Dakota needs to join several other states in developing laws to fill the gap.

State Rep. Rebecca Reimer (R-SD) questioned if poverty is the only factor in Native children’s welfare.

“I would think there would be multiple conditions or reasons if you would say that they would be removed.”

Foster said tribes face housing shortages, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and a high prison population, but much of it stems from poverty.

“So looking at all the contributing factors that come along with poverty—Natives are disproportionately affected by that.”

Reimer objected to the bill as having a goal larger than it would be able to meet, but ultimately she voted in favor of it.

Senate Bill 191 now goes to the House floor, and if it passes there, to the governor’s desk.

This week, Alaska leaders are in Washington D.C. to lobby for the Willow oil and gas development project, including a number of Alaska Native organizations, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.

This comes as the Biden administration is poised to make a record of decision on the $8 billion prospect, that would be developed by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.

Nagruk Harcharek is president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, which represents about two dozen North Slope organizations.

Harchareck says the Willow project is key to the region’s self-determination.

“So that we’re forging that path and we’re not having it forged for us, because without the development, without the economy, we’re relying on the state and federal government for what we can and cannot do.”

The Biden Administration has sent out mixed messages about Willow, with the Bureau of Land Management, signaling it would approve the project with limits on drilling, while the Interior Department has raised concerns about environmental and subsistence impacts.

Environmental groups have said it would escalate climate change, while Nuiqsut, the North Slope community closest to Willow, has raised objections.

There are worries the development would affect migrating caribou and cause health problems.

The Alaska Senate has passed a resolution in support of the Willow project. The House passed a similar measure.

Those resolutions will be presented to the Alaska Congressional Delegation in a show of support.

Full disclosure: ConocoPhillips is an underwriter of KNBA.

A participant in the Greater Than Fear Rally & March in Rochester, MN, held in response to President Donald Trump’s Rally at the Mayo Civic Center nearby. (Photo: Lorie Shaull)

The Interior and Justice Departments announced Tuesday field hearings will begin this spring to implement the Not Invisible Act to address missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The Not Invisible Act Commission is developing recommendations.

Members of the commission include tribal leaders, federal partners, service providers, family members of missing and murdered individuals, and survivors.

Public field hearings begin in April and will be held in Oklahoma and Alaska. They’ll continue through July, in Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, California, and Montana.

A virtual hearing will also be held later this summer.

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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales

By Rhonda McBride, KNBA News

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples along the western coast of North America built stone weirs on beaches to trap fish on the incoming tide.

It was an efficient way to catch them, but also ecologically sound.

In Southeast Alaska, sonar in 2010 spotted what looked like a structure underwater near Prince of Wales Island, one that a Canadian underwater archeologist suspected was a weir.

This year a team of scientists got a closer look with an underwater drone and confirmed Dr. Kelly Monteleone’s theory — that the arc of stacked boulders was indeed a weir.

Monteleone teaches anthropology and archeology at the University of Calgary and presented her findings in Juneau recently at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, one of the partners in the project.

She says the weir is at least 11,000 years old – and perhaps one of the oldest in the world.

“This means that they had those patterns eleven thousand years ago, which means they were here so much longer.”

Monteleone says the presence of the weir suggests the land was in use 5,000 years earlier.

The fact that it was underwater also points to a drastic change in sea level in a very short period of time.

“Does that mean with this new level of searise, change became the new normal?”

That’s a question, scientists want to know more about. They say knowledge about how people adapted to drastic changes in sea levels 11,000 years ago could be helpful to Alaska Native people today, as they cope with climate change.

Monteleone and other partners in the project have adopted what a Mi’kmaq elder has described as “two-eye seeing.”

“The idea is that with two-eyed seeing you are able to look at both at an Indigenous lens or viewpoint and a western-scientific viewpoint at the same time.”

Monteleone says her research incorporates oral histories and traditional knowledge to get a more holistic look at the patterns of land use.

The project is also part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s ongoing efforts to document the presence of Indigenous peoples in Southeast Alaska, to strengthen their historic claim to the land.

The Cherokee Nation is opening a new domestic violence shelter in Stilwell, OK on Tuesday, to help families and children.

The 11,000-square-foot shelter is set up to house up to six families and has an indoor child playroom. There will also be staff on-site.

Cherokee officials and members of the tribe’s task force to protect women and families are unveiling new initiatives to address domestic violence on the Cherokee Nation Reservation in 2023.

One of the initiatives includes a statewide intimate partner and family training summit scheduled for April.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. says protecting families and children from violence is a priority, and the implementation of new initiatives is intended to make sweeping and lasting changes to keep the reservation safe.

A Navajo veteran has been awarded a Purple Heart more than 50 years after being wounded in battle.

Leroy Cody recently received the Purple Heart Medal during a ceremony in Leupp, AZ.

56 years ago, he was wounded in battle in the Vietnam War.

The Purple Heart is reserved for U.S. service members who were wounded or killed by enemy action on or after April 5, 1917.

During the ceremony, the Military Order of the Purple Heard Department of Arizona also officially designated Leupp as a Purple Heart Community.

The community has three other Purple Heart recipients – Harry Kee Yazzie, Burt Barton, and Larry Ben.

Leupp now joins a national network of Purple Heart trails, roads, bridges, highways, and monuments honoring service members who have received the honor.

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Leaders from the Red Earth and Shoal Lake Cree Nations in Canada are urging people to keep children safe as they mourn the loss of a 5-year-old boy who went missing in April.

Frank Young was found in a river 81 days after he went missing on the Red Earth Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. He was last seen playing outside.

His family (from both communities), Native leaders, and police held a press conference this week, streamed live by APTN National News.

They talked about the young boy’s life, the investigation and next steps.

His grandmother Teresa Whitecap says he loved preschool and was excited to start kindergarten in the fall.

His favorite cartoon to watch was “PAW Patrol”.

“Frank was always eager to go to school and on the home setting his favorite was PAW Patrol. He had some toys with PAW Patrol and he loved playing with siblings that were staying with him.”

Shoal Lake Cree Nation Chief Marcel Head says the communities will hold child safety awareness campaigns as part of efforts to avoid another tragic event from happening again.

“We live in a day where things are very challenging. It doesn’t take long until we find ourselves in a very hard predicament and that’s why we need to pay close attention and keep our children, keep a close eye on our children. We beg you to keep your children safe.”

Police say even with extensive searches of the area and the use of technology, they could not overcome the natural environment where the boy was found.

Barriers for searchers included high water levels, which covered land and created dangerous conditions.

Police say the investigation will continue. They do not suspect foul play.

Services started on Wednesday on Red Earth and will continue on Shoal Lake on Thursday and Friday where Frank will be buried.

Leaders say donations, which came in to help support search efforts, will be used to create a memorial on Red Earth.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs passed the nomination of Roselyn Tso to serve as director of the Indian Health Service.

Tso, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is currently the director of the Navajo Area IHS.

Committee chair Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) says Tso is well qualified to serve in the position, noting her efforts to help tribes with the COVID-19 pandemic and her dedication to improving health care for Native communities.

The IHS director is charged with leading the agency, which provides care to more than two million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Tso’s nomination passed the committee by a voice vote and is now ready for consideration by the full Senate.

The agency has been without a director since January 2021 after the former leader resigned as the new presidential administration took office.

Minnesota state officials on Wednesday announced the appointment of Tadd Johnson to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents.

Johnson is the first Native American ever appointed to the board.

The board was established more than 170 years ago.

Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan says Johnson will give a voice to Native students and his appointment was made possible by advocacy by the Native community.

Johnson recently retired from working in higher education and is currently working for a Minnesota tribe.

He’s an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band, an attorney and has a long list of accomplishments in his career including tribal judge, gaming commissioner, public TV producer, and work in Washington.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to central Alberta this week for a historic signing of a land claim settlement. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the government is paying out one of the largest settlements made to a Canadian First Nation.

The Siksika First Nation, east of Calgary, lost about half of its land in a fraudulent deal with the Canadian government more than a century ago.  That, after the government broke a Blackfoot Treaty promise.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau says the signing this week, which includes $1.3 billion, is to right a wrong from the past.

“This allows us now to move forward on solid-er footing having undone a little bit of the broken trust of many years of recognizing the harm that we did generations ago, but understanding as well as large as the settlement is it can’t undo the loss, the trauma, the intergenerational impacts of what was done by Canada.”

For his part, Siksika Chief Ouray Crowfoot says it’s now about moving forward.

“It’s about renewing that treaty, you know, the treaty took place 145 years ago a lot of the promises in the treaty were broken, but now it’s about having that relationship rebuilding, that understanding.”

Crowfoot says the settlement won’t make up for past wrongs, but it will make a difference in people’s lives and provide opportunities that they didn’t have before.

Each member of the First Nation will receive $20,000 from the settlement. Money will also be spent on issues that are important to the reserve such as policing on the First Nation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using the Navajo language to draw attention to unsolved homicide and missing person cases on the Navajo Nation. 60-second radio ads have aired across Navajo land seeking information on a cold case, offering a reward and giving out a toll-free tip phone number.

In 2020, field offices in Albuquerque and in Phoenix issued posters in the Navajo language and later started including audio clips with them.

Raul Bujanda is FBI Special Agent in Charge.

“The initiative was really to try and reach the communities a little bit better than we’ve done in the past. So, what we’re trying to focus on is trying to get the communication out there in a form that made sense. We’re great about talking and putting things together, putting messages out as far as an organization, but we knew we were missing the one piece, which is that we weren’t writing in the Navajo language and we weren’t communicating in the Navajo language. So, our primary focus was to do just that.”

Bujanda says the ads were not successful in gathering information, but says the FBI will try again in its efforts to solve cold cases on the Navajo Nation.

The ads aired in April and May on Navajo-language radio station KTNN-AM.

Tribal leaders from New Mexico met with top state officials Thursday in Albuquerque. They took part in an annual tribal summit to discuss issues facing their communities.

Indian Affairs Cabinet Secretary Lynn Trujillo says the state is closely working with tribes, collaborating on policymaking and strengthening government-to-government partnerships.

The agenda reviewed accomplishments and looked at future needs, including an outlook of the summer-water, drought and wildfires.

The summit was established in 2009 under the State-Tribal Collaboration Act to ensure tribes are included in policymaking and funding priorities. It provides a framework for the state and tribes to work together to develop services and programs to serve the Native American community.

There are 23 tribal nations in New Mexico.

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