National Native News

Alaska’s long election season has finally come to an end.

In his steady march to unseat U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK), Nick Begich III has crossed the finish line.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has more on the final vote count.

As early and absentee ballots trickled in after election night, Rep. Peltola was never able to close the gap between her and her Republican challenger, Nick Begich. And under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, Begich could not get past the required 50% threshold to win.

That is, until the Division of Elections added the second choice ballots from two other candidates in the race to the totals.

“So in round three, we have an unofficial winner, Nick Begich with 51.31% of the vote over Mary Peltola with 48.69%.”

After the final count, Peltola issued a statement thanking Alaskans for the honor of serving.

She also thanked her campaign and Congressional staffers for their support and achievements.

“You’ve lifted me up during difficult times. You achieved generational wins for Alaska. You brought so many new people into the Alaska political process. You amplified Alaskans’ voices across the country. And you made fish a national issue.”

Alaska historian Steve Haycox says Peltola was once a student of his, who went on to make history herself as the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress.

“That will serve as an important precedent in Alaska history as it goes forward.”

Haycox also says, although Peltola only served one full term – and the last part of the late Congressman Don Young’s term – he says it’s too early to write Peltola’s political obituary.

“I cannot imagine that her public career is over. I think she’ll be back.”

Haycox says Nick Begich’s win was also historic.

He now fills the Congressional seat that his grandfather Nick Begich, Sr. held.

(Courtesy The Dairy Arts Center)

Some Native artists say a great way to honor National Native American Heritage Month is to support Native arts, but some in Wyoming say there are barriers to their exposure and success.

Kathleen Shannon reports.

Some new programs and exhibits support Native art in the region, including a Native Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council and a permanent establishment in Boulder, Colo.’s Dairy Arts Center dedicated to Native arts called the Creative Nations’ Sacred Space.

Bruce Cook (Haida/Arapaho) is a fellow this year and was awarded a startup challenge grant from the Wyoming Innovation Partnership to help emerging Native artists become established creative professionals.

“We just closed the Homeland Show for the welcoming back of the Arapaho and the Cheyenne to their homelands. And we’re going to continue on that theme with bringing emerging artists from the reservation down there to get them a show and professional development. ”

(Courtesy The Dairy Arts Center)

Cook, who’s based on the Wind River Reservation, is a celebrated wood carving artist in the Haida tradition and has been expanding his ledger-painting work in the Arapaho tradition.

His work will be on display at Scarlow’s Art and Coffee in Casper, Wyo. through the end of the month.

Cook says there’s not a lot of opportunity for Native artists in the area.

Business was easier in Seattle, he says, where he was represented by a gallery. But in Wyoming, the road for Native art to be accepted, recognized, and funded has been more difficult.

“There’s a lot of sales of beadwork within the reservation. But it’s not really being seen outside the reservation. As far as the arts scene in Wyoming, it’s pretty nonexistent.”

With fellow artist Robert Martinez (Northern Arapaho), Cook co-founded the Northern Arapaho Artists Society and this was the second year they ran a Native arts market in Jackson.

He reminds supporters of arts in the West that Native artists are “alive and well, creating art”.

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(Photo: Ken Lund via Flickr)

Audio available by 12pm ET

Tribes in California are celebrating after state officials approved the renaming of more than 30 place names containing the derogatory S-Q word across 15 counties.

Jacob Resneck reports.

Most of the place names are county roads but also at least one cemetery and a building containing the S-Q word that only in recent years has universally been recognized for what it is: a racial slur against Native American women.

“It will undo the derogatory language that is not only defamatory but erases our history and hence us as a people.”

That’s Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria north of San Francisco Bay.

“And, you know, there’s a lot in that sentence, but it’s so true. I mean, I don’t think people understood that the S-Q word is comparable to for us to the N-word.”

The renaming initiative is the fruit of Assembly Bill 2022. Under the legislation passed two years ago the geographic places will be renamed in consultation with California tribes with priority given to honoring tribal cultures and Indigenous languages.

William Ray Jr., chair of the Klamath Tribes.

With a second Trump term near, tribes in Oregon and elsewhere are concerned for their environmental restoration efforts.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

In his first presidential term, President Donald Trump opened up lands considered sacred to Native people for development, as well as rolling back dozens of environmental protections.

Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR)

In a call with tribal officials, Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said she’ll stand with Oregon values as the White House changes hands again.

“My hope is that we’ll see respect and cooperation from the federal administration to work with our tribes.”

Gov. Kotek said she’s focused on the Columbia Basin Initiative, which worked with President Joe Biden to restore fish runs.

William Ray Jr., chair of the Klamath Tribe, then spoke about protecting salmon and two species of sucker fish.

“Our biggest concerns about the incoming administration is the water delivery systems and how it’s gonna affect our endangered species of C’waam and koptu mullet species.  If all the water delivery agreements are gonna be fulfilled at 100%, extinction becomes real viable.”

President Trump has discussed diverting water from the Columbia River to California, and also questioned the need for protecting the endangered Delta smelt there.

Elk in Colorado. (Photo: Vince O’Sullivan via Flickr)

A new study shows that wildlife migration routes in the West will likely shift because of climate change.

That’s why researchers worked with biologists from the Southern Ute Tribe to find out how to tackle the problem.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports.

Researchers used GPS data from dozens of elk collared by the Southern Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado. 

They analyzed their current migration patterns – and projected how they will look in 2050 as temperatures rise and precipitation declines. They also considered continued growth and development and the traffic that comes along with it. 

They found elk could be more spread out in the winters as snowpacks shrink. And in the summers, herds could be more compacted as their range is cut by about half. 

That means new wildlife crossings – like bridges and tunnels – will be needed, says Caitlin Littlefield.

She’s with Conservation Science Partners and the study’s lead author.

“Wildlife crossings can enable continued access to new or expanding ranges, or continued access to resources like, say, forage that’s shifting in time and space.”

Littlefield says the study shows state and federal agencies the need to invest in wildlife crossings that consider the climate’s impact on animal movements.

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Photo: An Edison exit poll questionnaire. (Steve Rhodes / Flickr)

Four major Native American groups are criticizing the presentation of Native voters in exit polls for this year’s presidential campaign.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, they say the data is misleading and potentially harmful.

In a joint release, the groups say exit poll data from Edison Research for the National Election Pool is concerning, given limits in scope and methodology.

They say the sampling of 229 Native Americans does not reflect the diversity of Indian Country, and add that exit polling was done at only 279 polling places on Election Day, and 27 early in-person voting sites.  And none were held on tribal lands.

“The numbers weren’t quite adding up for us.”

Michael Johnson is president of IllumiNative.

He says earlier work done with the Native Organizers Alliance on what’s called the Indigenous Futures Survey showed different results from the Edison-NEP research.

“While 48% of our community aligned with liberal ideologies, 52% of our community considered themselves moderate, conservative, or had no alignment to a party. And when we started seeing the exit poll from Edison-NEP, this didn’t seem to square with data we had done in our own community.”

But many major news outlets went with Edison-NEP’s findings, which showed 34% of Native voters in key battleground states identifying as left-leaning, and 65% as right-leaning.

Johnson says this is inaccurate, and harmful.

“The pervasiveness of misinformation creates a bias towards things that we don’t know or communities that we’re not a part of. And adds to the stereotypes, biases, and miseducation, and stands in the way of solidarity for all of our communities.”

The other two groups contesting the Edison Research-NEP data are the Native American Rights Fund and the National Congress of American Indians.

In a statement, Edison Research tells National Native News that given factors like the small sample size and the potential sampling error, the survey data should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote.

Johnson says he’s looking forward to a collaborative effort to tackle misrepresentation in polling, which would include more intensive tracking of Native voters at voting sites across Indian Country. He says this will help fight the plague of misinformation that harms nations.

A post marks where Enbridge’s Line 5 crosses the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Photo: Danielle Kaeding / WPR)

After securing key state permits, hurdles remain for a Canadian energy firm’s plan to reroute an oil and gas pipeline around the Bad River tribe’s reservation in Wisconsin.

As Danielle Kaeding reports, that includes renewed calls from tribal leaders to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5.

Bad River Tribal Vice Chair Patrick Bigboy says he’s shocked and upset with the state’s decision to grant permits for Enbridge’s reroute.

The company proposed a new 41-mile segment around the tribe’s reservation after the band sued the company to shut down and remove Line 5 from its lands. Bigboy says he wants the pipeline completely out of the Bad River watershed.

“It’s now at the headwaters, which compromises more of the reservation and the waterways, wetlands, all the things that are in line with the river and the flow of the water.”

Bigboy says the federal government should uphold the tribe’s treaty rights and water quality standards and deny federal approval of the project.

Enbridge’s Midwest operations director Paul Eberth says federal regulators will determine if its reroute poses impacts downstream.

“We expect to be able to, like we did with the state, meet the conditions in order to be able to secure a permit.”

An attorney for the tribe says they’re evaluating next steps for a legal challenge.

Courtesy NZ Parliament

This week, tens of thousands of people demonstrated outside the New Zealand Parliament to oppose a bill Māori people say threatens their rights.

Reuters reports the bill was introduced this month by members of parliament who want to reinterpret a more than 180-year-old treaty signed between Indigenous people and the British.

Videos across social media show people holding Māori flags and speakers talking about Indigenous rights, culture, and solidarity.

The demonstration came days after an Indigenous lawmaker started a haka in parliament to protest the bill.

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Photo: Hanging Flume in the Dolores River Canyon near Uravan, Colo. (Simon Foot / Flickr)

President Joe Biden has created more national monuments in a single term than any president since President Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

Tribes and environmental advocates are pressing him to do even more.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.

After President Donald Trump shrunk the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante monuments in Utah, Biden’s first step was restoring them. 

“And because of that, he really started thinking about monuments right from the get go. So you see much more activity than you usually see during the first term.”

Justin Pidot is a professor at the University of Arizona law school, who worked in the Biden and Obama administrations.

He says Biden has had a particular focus on monuments proposed by tribes. That includes Avi Kwa Ame established last year in Nevada. It’s a site sacred to the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, among others.

Before leaving the White House, Biden could designate more national monuments.

Local campaigns are advocating for protection of the Owyhee Canyonlands on the border of Oregon and Idaho and the Dolores Canyons in southwest Colorado.

The Alutiiq Museum is currently under construction to expand its footprint near downtown Kodiak, April 8, 2024. (Photo: Brian Venua / KMXT)

The Alutiiq Museum received about $150,000 to revamp the Koniag Cultural Library.

The grant comes as it’s finishing construction on its new building.

As KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, staff say it’s good timing to have even more to show off at its future grand reopening.

The Alutiiq Museum has been closed for over a year for an expansion to nearly double its size.

Museum officials plan to display more items from its collections as well as feature more art from contemporary culture bearers.

But now with this grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the museum will make it easier than ever to access its library, too.

“In the past, we had a library – I don’t think anyone knew that.”

That’s Amanda Lancaster, the museum’s curator of collections.

Since 2018, the library has served as the official tribal library of Koniag, Kodiak’s regional Native corporation.

“It was in the basement, it was very inaccessible, you had to make an appointment, you had to have a staff member with you just because it was in the basement and sort of more of a staff space.”

The library features thousands of printed materials, hundreds of audio/visual items, and well over 10,000 photos as part of the collection for people to research Alutiiq culture.

The new funding will help the museum pay for renovations for a more friendly library space.

Lancaster says they’re aiming to have matching shelving units, furniture for a seating area and computers for research.

Patrons won’t need appointments or staff supervision just to be in there – they’ll just need to check in and use the library at their leisure.

‘We’re just hoping that it will make it much more accessible so that people will want to come and use it.”

While the new money won’t cover new acquisitions, it could make room for future donations.

“It’s going to be much larger and much more spacious and (have) space to sit and read.”

It’s also a reason to recatalog and reorganize all of those resources.

“I’m just really excited to have one sort of dedicated project where we make sure everything’s in the right space.”

After the renovations, the grant will also pay for an outreach effort to solicit comments on how to make the library as useful as possible.

The Alutiiq Museum is set to have a grand reopening in May.

Taweah Garcia holds a sign supporting a campaign to change the name of Squaw Valley in California. (Courtesy Shonnie Bear)

California will remove the S-Q word, a derogatory term for an Indigenous woman, from more than 30 sites.

The state’s Natural Resources Agency announced last week, the L.A. Times reports.

In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed a bill into law requiring the term to be removed from all geographic features and place names in the state.

It follows a similar move by the U.S. Interior Department.

In 2021, Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) declared the term derogatory and established a process to remove names from federal lands.

Renaming in California is expected to take place in early 2025.

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Photo: Cape Foulweather, Oreg. (Wayne Taylor / Flickr)

In Oregon, a coastal piece of the Siletz Tribe’s ancestral territory has been restored. 

Monday’s announcement coincides with the 47th anniversary of the tribe regaining federal recognition.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports. 

Twenty-seven acres of Cape Foulweather on the Oregon Coast have been reacquired by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

The tribe purchased the land from the McKenzie River Trust last month, with a $2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It really is an amazing opportunity for us to become stewards again.”

Angela Sondenaa is director of the tribe’s Natural Resources Department.

She hopes to reintroduce cultural burning to the coastal prairie section, to rejuvenate its ecosystem.

“Cape Foulweather is an incredibly diverse and sensitive ecological area.  It’s been a cultural gathering site for millennia.”

Sondendaa says it’s been a good year for the Siletz.

Last December, President Joe Biden signed a bill sponsored by House Representative Val Hoyle, restoring gathering, fishing, and hunting rights to the tribe on their ancestral lands.

“And it will provide direct opportunity for tribal members to gather and resume subsistence harvest in the rocky coastline there.”

The Siletz reservation was established in 1855 by Congress and President Franklin Pierce.  It was further diminished through land cessions.

Conservationists and tribes say they intend to sue the federal government if it doesn’t take steps to protect a rare snail – which is threatened by a lithium mine.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more. 

The Kings River pyrg is tiny – about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. And it’s found only in an area of Nevada called Thacker Pass, where there are plans to mine lithium, the key ingredient for electric car batteries.

Thacker Pass, Nev. (Photo: Famartin/CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed)

Paul Ruprecht is with the Western Watersheds Project.

He says mining will shrink the small springs that the snail relies on. 

“The species is really vulnerable because fluctuations in water availability could really impact its ability to continue to exist in these areas.”

The conservation group had previously petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the snail as endangered.

The agency was supposed to make a decision this year, but never did. 

So the nonprofit and several tribes informed the government they intend to sue. 

The People of Red Mountain is a group of knowledge keepers from the Fort McDermitt Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock Tribes.

They say they have a cultural responsibility to protect native species in the area.

Federal officials now have until mid-January to respond. 

(Courtesy Rep. Mary Peltola / Facebook)

Alaska’s vote counting process will finally come to an end this Wednesday, but Nick Begich III is already declaring victory in his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK).

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports.

Between Friday and Saturday, an additional 24,000 ballots were counted.

Although they closed the gap between Rep. Peltola and her Republican challenger to about 8,300 votes, Begich still maintains a lead of more than 2% against Peltola.

A candidate must have more than 50% of the vote to avoid ranked choice voting in Alaska. That’s when the second-choice votes of other candidates in the race are added to the totals.

Although 318,000 ballots have been cast, Begich so far has failed to meet that threshold, so the race will likely be determined by ranked choice.

Peltola, a Democrat, had a strong well-financed campaign but failed to overcome the coat tail effect of President-elect Donald Trump’s big win in Alaska, which boosted Begich’s campaign.

Meanwhile, a ballot measure that seeks to overturn Alaska’s open primary and ranked choice voting system is passing by the slimmest of margins – by only 2 tenths of a percent point.

In August 2022, ranked choice voting helped Peltola win a special election to fill Rep. Don Young (R-AK)’s seat after his death, making her the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress.

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The National Park Service (NPS) held a recent symposium on the cultural impacts on Tribes by the 1924 establishment of Wupatki National Monument.

KNAU’s Richard Davis attended the event at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff and has this report.

Central to the day was a panel to elevate Indigenous perspectives of Wupatki’s federal management.

The panelists recognized efforts by the Park Service to incorporate tribal history and asked for better representation in administrative roles and increased education on Wupatki’s true history.

Stewart Koyiyumptewa, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office director, took issue with the very creation of the Monument and the perception of Hit’satSenom structures as “ruins”.

“Wupatki, as it is known today, we have never waived our right to that place. We still call that our home. It’s not abandoned as archaeologists, anthropologists and even the Park Service may think. We still have deep connections to that area.”

(Photo: Richard Davis)

Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Officer Richard Begay condemned regulations that hinder religious practices.

“We have to have permission from Park Service to access our sacred sites, to collect plants. If that plant only grows on Wupatki … if it is restricted then the knowledge of those plants and the rituals associated could easily be lost.”

NPS staff recognized the impact the management of Wupatki has had on Indigenous people.

Amy Horn, cultural resources program manager for Flagstaff Area National Monuments, is looking towards the future.

“It’s a painful part of our monument’s history. We want to acknowledge it and make sure that they are heard so that we can have a collaborative relationship in the future.”

The monument’s official 100th anniversary is December 9.

Julissia King holds up model of a traditional kayaq. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

The Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage is known for its exhibits and cultural programs.

But as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, the center’s Indigenous awareness programs are growing in popularity, especially during Native American Heritage month.

Almost 700 students filled the auditorium at East Anchorage High School this month to learn about Alaska’s many different Native cultures and their values.

The team from the Alaska Native Heritage Center had a warm reception from students for two separate programs this month.

“We do a lot of amazing stuff. It fills my cup.”

Chris Delgado manages the Heritage Center’s cultural awareness programs and says they can be customized to meet the needs of a wide variety of organizations.

“We have National Park Service. We’re working with the FBI. We are working with the United States Air Force.”

Maureen Cronin, an academics coach at East High, is not surprised that companies want to invest in programs that raise their employees’ cultural awareness.

She says cultural literacy is important everywhere, but especially at East, which has students from fifty different cultures and is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

“It’s really important to demystify cultural generalities, and it’s important to develop cultural understanding.”

And cultural appreciation for what the Heritage Center calls the genius of Indigenous culture, or “Indigi-nuity”.

“That’s how we survived out in the Arctic, back in the day.”

Colton Paul, a six-time gold medalist at the Arctic Winter Games who demonstrates traditional Alaska Native games at the workshops, says the athletes and their feats of strength and endurance epitomize “Indigi-nuity.”

“They can jump so high. They can kick way above their heads. I remember when I was a little kid, I would see these other kids kicking way above their heads, I would think, ‘That is right above the stars. That’s so high.’”

The cultural awareness trainers at the Heritage Center say they’ve noticed that when people gather to learn about another culture, they also learn to build better relationships with each other.

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The National Park Service this month issued a first-ever director’s order to strengthen its consultation with tribes.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.

The new order comes from National Park Service Director Chuck Sams (Cayuse and Walla Walla).

He’s the first Native American to lead the federal agency.

Sams says too often tribes experience a lack of collaboration.

“Where a federal agency just kind of tells you what’s going to happen to a particular piece of land that they manage that tribes may have interest in. And this director’s order actually brings much more meaningful discussion with tribes up front before all the decisions are made.”

That includes respecting that tribes see the plants and animals populating their lands as cultural resources. The order also calls for honoring tribes’ sovereignty and oral traditions.

Sams says some national parks already have strong relationships with tribal nations.

Yellowstone National Park has agreements with tribes to support bison restoration and management.

And Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho last month worked with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to create displays with Indigenous history and perspectives.

President Donald Trump in 2017 expediating the process for the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline. (Courtesy The White House)

President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda for “energy dominance” could impact leaders in the sector, including the state of Wyoming and tribes.

But some say the industry might have limited tolerance for blanket policy shifts, as Kathleen Shannon reports.

Before the election, the University of Wyoming hosted this year’s Tribal Energy Summit, where major themes were carbon capture, rare earth elements and critical minerals, and community engagement.

After the election, there are questions about how far Trump will sidestep the nation’s momentum toward renewable energy.

Daniel Cardenas with the National Tribal Energy Association expects the next Trump administration to look similar to the last one.

“They weren’t outright anti-renewable. They were just preaching an ‘all-above’ strategy, with more of a focus on fossil energy. But I think that’s probably the route that things will go, which supports what Wyoming’s already doing during Gov. [Mark] Gordon (R-WY)’s administration, is ‘all-the-above.'”

Cardenas says despite campaign rhetoric, industry leaders see opportunities in a varied approach to energy production.

ExxonMobil’s CEO this week urged Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump promised to back out of in 2017.

A vast majority of the U.S. reserves of key energy-transition metals are located within 35 miles of Native American reservations, according to the investment firm MSCI.

Cardenas says Tribes have been left out of the conversation on the energy transition – which he calls the “energy evolution” – but that they could be key partners.

“Collectively, tribes are the largest private landowners in the United States outside the federal government. So no matter what, if the country needs and wants to develop more infrastructure, the path to that is through Indian Country.”

Investments in clean energy – especially in “red” states like Wyoming – are foundational to President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump has called a “green new scam.”

Trump’s power to change Biden’s law, however, may be limited by Congress.

In California, the Yurok Tribe, Del Norte County Superior Court, and District Attorney’s Office recently signed an agreement to allow Yurok citizens, who are adults, facing certain criminal charges an opportunity to defer prosecution.

They’ll instead enroll in the tribal court’s wellness program, which uses a holistic approach.

The Yurok Tribal Court, along with the District Attorney or Superior Court, will determine if an individual is eligible to participate.

If the individual qualifies, the tribal court will develop a wellness plan and oversee its implementation through culturally integrated case management.

Diversion periods are often set at six months to two years.

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As Republicans and Democrats battle it out for control of the U.S. House, Alaska’s lone Congressional seat appears to be closer to being flipped.

That seat is held by U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK), the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress.

KNBA’s Rhonda McBride has the latest numbers.

Since election night, Rep. Peltola has trailed her Republican challenger Nick Begich III by about 10,000 votes.

After the Alaska Division of Elections added more than 38,000 votes to the totals late Tuesday night, Peltola cut into her opponent’s lead by a few hundred votes, but the gap between the two candidates remains about the same.

So far, Begich has 49.1% of the vote, not enough to avoid triggering Alaska’s ranked choice voting system on November 20.

If Begich cannot surpass a threshold of 50% of the vote, the second-choice votes for two other candidates in the race will be divided between Begich and Peltola, who will have to get a lion’s share of those votes to pull out ahead.

The next election update comes this Friday.

People on the Wind River Reservation say President Joe Biden’s recent apology for the federal Indian boarding school system needs follow-up.

The schools sought to assimilate Native children and separate them from their languages and communities.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann has more.

In recent years, both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes have brought home remains of children who died at the Carlisle Boarding School.

The trauma of the boarding school system still impacts those communities today.  

“I hope they prove it. It’s good for (President) Biden to offer an apology, but that isn’t enough.”

“The apology needs to go deeper than just the boarding school issue. It needs to deal with physical genocide, extermination, decimation of the buffalo.”

“Increased funding for tribal nations to be able to regain everything that was lost because of the boarding school policy.”

That was Northern Arapaho member Cherokee Brown, former Eastern Shoshone Business Council chairman John St. Clair, and Northern Arapaho Business Councilwoman Karen Returns to War.

Federal officials announced a new round of funding to help tribes access clean drinking water.

As Alex Hager reports for the Mountain West News Bureau, that includes nearly $35 million for tribes in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Across the country, nearly half of all tribal homes do not have access to reliable clean drinking water.

This money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, is part of a federal effort to change that.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado and the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona are among those getting money to plan, build, and maintain pipelines and water treatment plants.

The Biden Administration says this pool of money will help it stay on track with a goal to give 40% of its climate spending to marginalized communities.

This comes as tribes in the Southwest are asking for a bigger say in talks about how to use the Colorado River.

They’ve been largely excluded from negotiations about the river since the earliest days of its management.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and Prime Video have teamed up to bring the Cherokee language to viewers through dub and subtitles on select titles in Prime Video’s library.

It’s part of the tribe’s efforts to preserve the Cherokee language.

The first production was The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The episode premiere during a recent special screening in Tahlequah.

All season one episodes of the series are being translated and expected to be available in Cherokee by the Spring of 2025.

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(Photo courtesy Michael Sherman / Spring Fed Media)

Regrowth and renewal were the themes of a special replanting ceremony in Blue River this weekend.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the event was also to highlight the history of Native Americans in the McKenzie River Corridor.

About 30 people gathered to accept white oak seedlings that were blessed and sprinkled with tobacco.

Dietrich Peters of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde coordinated the event.

“Come on up, we’ll get you some tobacco, and you can offer your prayers as well.”

Katherine Wilson of the group McKenzie Reel said while much of this was to help restore Blue River’s landscape after the devastating Holiday Farm Fire of 2020, it was also to highlight the activity of Native people who crossed through before colonization.

She said there was one clear takeaway from the event by those present.

“Well, by the sounds of the sobs, the healing. The river and the land just seemed to be so joyous. It was healing, and I didn’t expect that.”

Attendees took oak tree seedlings to plant across the region. Wilson says she’ll hold similar events soon, to complement Blue River’s natural rejuvenation as it keeps building homes and facilities.

A view of the 1932 monument near the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre. (Public domain)

Hundreds of volunteers from Utah and Idaho gathered recently to help the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation restore the site of the Bear River Massacre.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, Clarissa Casper of the Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio has more.

Rios Pacheco stood on the land where, in 1863, his ancestors were victims of one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in United States’ history.

Behind him, across the site of the Bear River Massacre, hundreds of volunteers planted native shrubs and trees –– a collective effort to heal what was taken from both the land and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

For Pacheco, who serves as the tribe’s spiritual leader, planting native plants on the land where hundreds of his ancestors’ lives were stolen is a way to not only restore the ecological balance of the area but also to heal the spirits of his people.

Once you plant something in the ground, he said, life is restored.

Through the plants, he feels connected to his ancestors.

Planting native species on this sacred ground is a way for his people to return and heal –– much like a plant regenerates from its own seeds.

In reconnecting with the land and honoring the memories of those who survived, the plants offer both renewal and forgiveness for the past, he said.

“That’s just like the plants. When you plant them, the forgiveness comes by taking care of them, fertilizing them, watering them, so that way that plant will grow again.”

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation began its journey to ecologically and spiritually restore the site of the Bear River Massacre in 2018 when it purchased approximately 350 acres of their ancestral land just north of Preston, Idaho.

This is the second year the tribe has held a planting weekend at the site for volunteers, and the second time hundreds of individuals from both Utah and Idaho have dedicated their time to the effort.

The Bear River Massacre occurred during one of the coldest winters his ancestors experienced at the site, Pacheco said.

His people would camp in the valley where the attack occurred during winters because of the warmth the area provided with surrounding hot springs.

The tribe’s efforts to heal the site –– named “Wuda Ogwa,” which directly translates to “Bear River” –– are also meant to honor the plants that used to be abundant in the area and aided Pacheco’s ancestors in a variety of ways.

Because Wuda Ogwa is primarily a wetland habitat, many of the native plants that volunteers planted on Friday and Saturday were water-based and will help filter the river,

Pacheco said the tribe has also made efforts to build beaver analogs to hopefully bring beavers back to the area to perform their beneficial river duties.

As volunteers worked, Pacheco observed them and heard them share stories about the plants they planted last year and the friendships they have developed through the effort.

“You’re not just elevating the landscape. You’re elevating your inner spirits.”

Although the tribe has only involved the broader public in its project since 2023, a great deal of work has been done to prepare the land for the new plants.

For the past three years, the Utah Conservation Corps has been removing thousands of invasive Russian olive trees that have invaded Wuda Ogwa’s floodplain since the massacre.

This tree, according to UCC Northern Regional Coordinator Ben Borgmann-Winter, outcompetes the native vegetation the tribe hopes to revive in the area.

Russian olives also serve as “junk food” for wildlife, Borgmann-Winter said, as their olives are high in sugar and not nutritionally valuable.

In addition, these trees channelize and hold riverbanks in place, leading to various issues, including lowering the water table and decreasing moisture levels in the soil.

They also siphon an estimated 75 gallons each day from the Bear River that could ultimately make its way to the Great Salt Lake, Borgmann-Winter said.

“This is a really special space, a sacred space. Look at how many hundreds of volunteers are here right now from all over Utah, all over Idaho. It’s a pretty special project. We’re very honored to be involved in that.”

The tribe’s big-picture vision for the land includes planting 300,000 native shrubs and trees, cleaning up the land’s creeks, and restoring degraded agricultural fields into wetlands abundant with life.

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Photo: Terri Smith is the administrator for the Northern Arapaho Reentry Agency. (Chris Clements / Wyoming Public Media)

On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, a Northern Arapaho Tribal member is leading the charge against recidivism, which is 33% higher for Native Americans than other groups.

As Wyoming Public Radio’s Chris Clements reports, Terris Smith herself is an ex-inmate.

Driving her pickup through the community of Arapahoe, Terri Smith is the Northern Arapaho Reentry Agency’s sole employee.

Launched with a federal grant, the program helps Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribal members readjust to post-prison life on the reservation … and stay out of jail.

Smith grew up here, and knows what it’s like to get caught up with addiction and the law.

She served six months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute Oxycodone.

Not only that, she lost her law license while in prison, and her position as chief judge of the Wind River Tribal Court.

“There’s gonna be a lot of people who still view that side of me, but I’m, I know I’ve done the work to get better, you know, I did my time, I went to treatment.”

She came home in 2021 and started over.

“I honestly think this job’s perfect for me right now. Like, because I’m getting a second chance. I want everyone to get that.”

Smith and her client Tremayne Thunder meet in a conference room at the local library. (Photo: Chris Clements / Wyoming Public Media)

Tremayne Thunder is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, and Smith’s first client out of 15.

Last year, he was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm.

Smith has helped Thunder make medical appointments, meet with his parole officer, and even find a place to live when he got out.

“She can relate to everything, as in, all of it, you know, like, the prison system, the probation system, being an addict, everything.”

State Sen. Affie Ellis (member of the Navajo Nation/R-WY) endorsed the programs.

“I think these programs are really important and long overdue.”

Reentry services like Smith’s are new to the Wind River Reservation … and to many other tribal nations.

Sen. Ellis says she supports Smith and the agency, but worries about its dependence on federal money.

“We’ve seen this time and again in Indian Country: great idea, great program. Here’s some funding. Tribes get something going, and then money runs out, they lose the grant, and then the program’s gone.”

Meanwhile, back in Arapahoe, Smith heads to the reentry agency office in Great Plains Hall.

She’s looked to reentry agencies in Oklahoma and Minnesota for guidance on how to run hers.

She’s also petitioning to get her law license back so she can help her clients even more.

“I got letters of recommendation from my attorney friends and from Lee [Spoonhunter], the councilman. I hope it goes well.”

Mature spring chinook salmon return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in their natal freshwater rivers and streams. (Photo: Roger Tabor / USFWS)

Wild Chinook salmon are returning to the Upper Klamath River after the removal of four outdated hydroelectric dams.

Isobel Charle has more.

After 20 years of organizing and legal battles by the Yurok Tribe and other groups, 400 miles of historic salmon habitat have reopened.

Scientists are now monitoring the effects of the dam removal on salmon populations.

Yurok Tribe member Amy Bowers Cordalis says they’ve been astonished by how quickly the migrating fish are returning to areas that haven’t supported them for generations.

“And all these people are using Indigenous knowledge and marrying it with Western modern science to observe and to tell us how the river is healing. And it’s really a remarkable opportunity.”

Cordalis is also founder of the Indigenous conservation group Ridges to Riffles.

The data being collected details, among other things, fish spawning locations, their health, and their numbers – all of which will be crucial for predicting future populations.

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