Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Actor Nathan Chasing Horse, known for his role in “Dances with Wolves”, has been sentenced in Nevada to 37 years to life in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.
A jury found him guilty on 13 charges, mostly involving sexual abuse.
Prosecutors say he used his position as a Lakota spiritual leader to gain trust and manipulate victims over many years.
One woman, who was 14 when the abuse began, told the court her childhood was taken from her.
Chasing Horse was arrested in 2023 and has denied the charges.
Tongass National Forest Deputy Supervisor Barb Miranda talks about the Tongass Forest Plan Revision agenda to Wrangell, Alaska residents at the Nolan Center on April 21, 2027. (Photo: Colette Czarnecki / KSTK)
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) personnel have been visiting Southeast Alaska communities to understand how residents want the Tongass National Forest used.
The federal agency is doing a comprehensive revision of the Tongass National Forest plan, which will guide long-term management.
They are focusing on tribal, subsistence, recreation, tourism, and timber aspects.
Tongass National Forest Deputy Supervisor Barb Miranda with USFS visited Wrangell last week and gave a brief presentation to community members.
“Down in the lower 48, the towns and wild places are surrounded by civilization. Here it’s the opposite — we have our communities surrounded by this wild place that provides so much for our food, for our subsistence and for our economies.”
Miranda says the plan aims to balance ecological preservation and community needs. Towards the back of the room were activities where people could write down their thoughts and take a survey.
Community members highlighted the importance of balancing commercial activities like logging and recreation with subsistence needs.
Albert Rinehart is the tribal administrator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association.
He just finished an activity that had him identify the greatest subsistence harvest in a certain area of the Tongass.
“Subsistence is important to a lot of our smaller communities, rural communities. If we’re gonna be doing any planning, it should be to help those habitats prosper and have our subsistence game be available.”
The current comprehensive plan for the Tongass was revised in 1997 and was last amended in 2016.
The deadline for Southeast communities to comment is May 6.
USFS plans to release a draft of the environmental impact statement in November with a 90-day comment period following.
Additionally, they plan to release the final draft of the statement in the summer of 2027, and the final plan in January of 2028.
This story was provided by KSTK’s Collete Czarnecki
Perseverance Lake in Ketchikan, Alaska. (Photo: Leila Kheiry)
The Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) voted last week to uphold Ketchikan’s rural designation.
That is after two tribal organizations on Prince of Wales (POW) Island submitted requests for reconsideration to the federal Office of Subsistence Management (OSM) last July.
FSB voted in 2025 to reclassify Ketchikan from a non-rural status, allowing all residents to hunt and fish on federally managed lands and waters that were previously closed to them.
That designation was challenged by Craig’s tribe and Native corporation. They said the board failed to “fully consider the unintended consequences” of allowing new subsistence hunters from Ketchikan to access POW’s deer population.
The Ketchikan Indian Community was in favor of the rural designation, and worked for years to get rights to federally regulated subsistence activities. The tribe argued that the rural designation allows its tribal citizens to exercise traditional subsistence practices.
The vote to sustain Ketchikan’s rural designation came in the final hours of the board’s four-day wildlife regulatory meeting in Anchorage.
The vote also followed an executive session on April 23 to discuss the requests for reconsideration.
This story was provided by KRBD’s Hunter Morrison
Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.
Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts.
Check out today’s Native America Calling episode
Leave a Reply