National Native News

(Photo: Dan Boyce / Mountain West News Bureau)

A new philanthropic fund has launched to help tribes pay for clean energy projects.

As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach reports, the investment fund could help tribes unlock tens of millions more in federal money.

Since the Inflation Reduction Act took effect, there’s been historic funding for communities to develop solar, wind, or geothermal power.

But Chéri Smith with the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy says Indigenous peoples often don’t have the money to pay for those project’s upfront costs like feasibility studies and permits.

“It’s kind of like the feds say, Hey, tribes, here’s some money, go eat at this amazing restaurant. Here’s the menu. here’s 75 and everything on that menu is $100 or more.”

Now her organization and other donors are trying to fill that gap so tribes can develop their own reliable sources of power.

Smith hopes to open up applications to tribes in the next couple months – and give approvals within 30 days.

(Courtesy Netflix)

The new film Rez Ball streaming on Netflix follows the Chuska Warriors, a high school basketball team from a town in New Mexico on the Navajo Nation.

Clark Adomaitis spoke with the Shiprock based designer who designed the Chuska Warriors’ basketball uniforms that are featured prominently in the movie.

Rez Ball follows the high school basketball players as they deal with issues that disproportionately affect Indigenous communities, including suicide and alcoholism.

SpringHill Company, Lebron James’ film production venture, produced the film. But the film’s wardrobe didn’t feature Nike-exclusive clothing despite the basketball legend’s life time deal with the company.

Instead, the players don uniforms designed by Shiprock, N.M. resident Roddell Denetso.

“I’m just this little Rez kid with, with a shop that I ran out of by my house from Shiprock.”

Denetso runs a one-person business Black Streak Apparel, designing Indigenous-themed sports garments for youth teams all over Indian Country.

He often designs teams’ jerseys based on their tribal imagery.

Denetso designed Chuska Warriors’ home and away uniforms, a turquoise championship colorway, shooting shirts, team bags, travel gear, full zip jackets and pants, the cheerleaders’ uniforms, and other apparel seen throughout the movie.

“What if I do pinstripe but with spears?, in return, it goes with the team name, which is the Warriors. then the colors, you know, turquoise, one of our sacred colors.”

Denetso got to watch his jerseys in action on set.

As a resident of Shiprock, he felt emotional watching the filming in and around the community.

“I was able to be on set when they shot at Shiprock High, I went over and and I think my coming to reality moment was they were unloading stuff to go on set, and they had a cart, and that cart, you know said Black Streak Apparel. It had, like, the stuff I had done, that, the jerseys I made, and they were pushing that in.”

Roddell Denetso says he hopes to inspire young people to show pride in their culture. And he hopes to reach more customers for his custom-made garments because of his work being shown to a large audience via Netflix.

Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief Bryan Warner views the Treaty of 1828 on display at NMAI. (Courtesy NMAI / Cherokee Nation)

The Cherokee Nation’s Treaty of 1828 was unveiled this week at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C.

The treaty with the federal government established the initial boundaries of the modern-day Cherokee Nation Reservation.

The Treaty was signed as part of a series of agreements that relocated the Cherokee people to lands in Indian Territory, modern-day Oklahoma.

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Native vote advocates in Montana are pushing back against efforts to eliminate ballot collection on tribal lands.

Many members of the state’s seven tribes live hours from the nearest polling place.

Western Native Voice’s field team on the road in May 2024 getting people registered to vote. (Courtesy Western Native Voice / Facebook)

Mark Moran reports.

The Montana Supreme Court has ruled two laws make it prohibitive for people living on reservations to reach a polling place or mail an absentee ballot before Election Day.

The state is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review that ruling.

Executive Director Ronnie Jo Horse says Western Native Voice collects ballots from tribal residents who face transportation and other hurdles that keep them from getting to a physical polling place and adds that service was very important during the pandemic.

“You know, we had a novel virus going around. A lot of people were afraid to leave their houses because Native Americans had a really high mortality rate than any other group in America. ”

The bills ended Election Day voter registration and third-party ballot collection services in Montana. But the state’s high court ruled them unconstitutional and stopped them from taking effect.

The Office of Army Cemeteries has completed its disinterment project over the past month of the remains of students who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

The Army released its findings Wednesday on the remains of nine children, the Associated Press reports.

They were returned to tribes in South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

The findings did not include one other tribe, which had remains returned because the tribe asked to be anonymous.

Dr. Ihi Heke said he did not pick the design for his tattoos. Instead, they were chosen by a Māori artist to represent his calling in life. Heke says the design represents light coming from his jaws. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

New Zealand may be on the other side of the globe from Alaska, but their Indigenous peoples have a lot in common.

Dr. Iki Heke says both have a long history of “talking and listening” to the land, knowledge that can help the world adapt to climate change.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, this was Heke’s message when he was in Alaska recently for a national Indigenous conference on climate.

Dr. Iki Heke has a face you won’t forget, covered with traditional Maori tattoos.

He’s the picture of a mountaineer, who commands the stage as he stands firmly with an axe in hand, as if to defend his culture’s ancient tradition of talking to the land.

“When I talk to a group like this today, in their blood they remember this.”

Dr. Ihi Heke’s toki, the Māori word for axe. He uses the carved handle as a mnemonic device. When he hears something he wants to remember, he positions his finger on a certain place on the axe. Later, when his finger returns to this spot, the memory comes back. Heke says it’s an ancient form of a computer. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Dr. Heke was raised in mountains near Queensland, on the southern part of New Zealand.

Today, he takes students and visitors on hikes to teach them how to talk to the mountains.

“And the mountain asks them questions. Who are you? Where have you been? What are you doing on me?”

Heke takes them almost to the top of the mountain, and then stops 100 feet from the summit.

“I say you don’t need to go to the top. He says the object is not to conquer the mountain but to communicate with it. This fellow is going to be here when you’re gone. You can make it to 80, but this man’s going to carry on. And it’s arrogant for you to think that you conquered a mountain.”

Dr. Ihi Heke, second from the right, was a presenter at the National Tribal and Indigenous Climate Conference, held this month in Anchorage, Alaska. He carried his axe with him everywhere he went. He says he uses it to capture memories. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Heke says when he hunts, hikes, or snowboards on mountains; it’s as if he’s in conversation with some old friends.

“And when I say that, it’s because, when I go into that mountain, they’ve usually worked me over. You know, I come out of there ruined. But after a day or so in recovery, I think it was the mountain that caused that. I thank them for it because they’ve given me opportunities to grow.”

Whether they lived near mountains or along the ocean, Heke believes all Indigenous peoples once knew how to talk with the land, because it’s how they survived.

Heke says these conversations taught Indigenous people to always put the land first, but after contact with Western culture, that changed.

“We’ve got a saying at home, Toitū te whenua. Land is forever. People are temporary. We come through and we leave, but you want to make sure you’re going to leave it in a state that all your kids are going to be able to survive, and their kids will survive. We have to move back into a way of knowing our water and our land that can sustain it. We all used to practice this as Indigenous people.”

Dr. Heke teaches courses at universities all over the world, based on what he calls Attua Matua. Attua means Maori environmental knowledge and Mattua means connection to the environment.

Heke says Indigenous people need to walk backwards to the future to regain their ancestral knowledge, and then share it everywhere.

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Canadians marked National Truth and Reconciliation Day across the country this week.

A day to remember the victims of Canada’s residential school system.

In Ottawa, and other major cities solemn ceremonies were held to reflect on the legacy of the schools.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, many say remembering is not enough.

There were orange shirts and ribbon skirts at ceremonies in Ottawa and across the country as people gathered to remember.

More than 150,000 Native children were forced to attend the church-run, government-funded schools from the mid 1800s to the late 1900s.

Thousands suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Many died.

Among those who spoke was Canada’s governor general Mary Simon (Inuk).

“We honor the resilience of survivors who continue to bravely share their stories so that we may learn in their stories there is unspeakable pain. But there is also tremendous courage and determination to emerge into healing and light.”

Prime minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders attended events in different parts of the country.

Many survivors of the schools told their personal stories.

Chief Bob Chamberlain is a former vice president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

“When I see so many Canadians wearing organge shirts, it shows me that the awareness is growing. But it’s time that the government step up and do more than just help build awareness. But to start making the substantive changes which were the foundation of this country that still exists today.”

Commemorating Truth and Reconciliation Day officially began in 2021. 

Dancers sing at a rededication ceremony of the Porcupine and Beaver Totem Pole at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Saturday, September 28, 2024. (Courtesy Raeanne Holmes / Tlingit and Haida)

A totem pole was raised at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, Alaska, over the weekend.

Though it’s new to the center, the Porcupine and Beaver Kootéeyaa is almost 40 years old.

KTOO’s Clarise Larson reports.

It was carved by late master Lingít carver Amos Wallace.

For decades, it lived inside the U.S. Forest Service office in Juneau. But it was rededicated to its new home inside the visitor center.

Amos’s son Brian Wallace was at the ceremony on Saturday.

He says it means a lot to him to know that his father’s work will now live where thousands — perhaps millions — of visitors will see it.

“It was kind of a homecoming right now. So now tens of thousands of people who visit the glacier center, are gonna be able to visit it, and it’s not going to fade away, it’s going to have an indefinite lifetime.”

The pole was raised ahead of Orange Shirt Day, which recognizes the effects of boarding schools on Indigenous communities.

Amos was one of many Alaska Native children removed from their families and forcibly assimilated at government or church-run institutions.

Wallace says the trauma from that experience deeply impacted his father, who found healing through his art.

He says he hopes it can do the same for the people who will look at the totem pole in the years to come.

“I have great pride that my dad did his part to keep the artwork going, even though it was oppressed. It just shows the world that the Lingít, Haida, Tsimshian – they had a rich heritage, but they are still vibrant. We’re still here. Despite everything that happened, there’s still artwork here.”

The pole also signifies another step toward tribal sovereignty, according to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

The tribe helped make the move possible and hosted the rededication ceremony.

A year ago, the tribe and the U.S. Forest Service signed a memorandum of agreement to co-manage the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area together to better educate visitors on the Indigenous history of the area.

The tribe hired 10 tribal members this summer to work as ambassadors at the visitor center, sharing their personal connections to Lingít culture and how Lingít people are connected to the land.

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Organizers say the issue is crucial for understanding race relations in the city.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger reports.

Members of the Sicangu Youth Council read the names of the children who died while attending the Rapid City Indian Boarding School. The annual ceremony starts in Sioux Park, located in west Rapid City.

Amy Sazue is the executive director of Remembering the Children—the group that puts on the annual event.

She says it’s a commitment to the children.

“Their families didn’t forget them, but this community did. This community forgot that at least 50 children died while attending a school here. That’s part of the division and differences in community members or people not understanding why things are the way they are.”

Hundreds walked about a mile from Sioux Park to the memorial site on a parcel of land just west of the boarding school property where there are unmarked graves.

In 2017, a group of researchers identified the 50 children who died while attending the school.

Borders of the boarding school stretched from Bakken Park to Canyon Lake.

Researchers also discovered a congressional land transfer moved a large swath of the land along Rapid Creek from tribal control to churches, schools and the National Guard.

Heather Dawn Thompson was one of the researchers on the project.

“Folks didn’t even bother to write down their names when they passed away or let their families know what had happened to them. By being able to share this history together, we’re able to not only honor and remember those children, but also move forward in a positive way forward as a community.”

The memorial site is still under development.

A sculpture will get installed in the summer of 2025.

That will kick off a series of artworks for the memorial site set to get installed during the next decade.

The team from the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority for the Tribal Electrification Program grant. (Courtesy Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority)

The Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority received nearly $8 million in federal funds to invest in clean electricity.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann has more on how it’ll help bring more solar power to the Wind River Reservation.

According to a report from the Department of Energy, more than 16 thousand tribal homes across the country were not electrified in 2022.

The Tribal Electrification Program aims to change that – with green energy.

Charles Washakie is the executive director of the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority.

He says there’s a real need for more affordable energy infrastructure for homes.

“ We have a lot of people out there off the grid, we have like eight or nine families off the grid. Our elders, they’re on fixed income and their light bills are $300-400 a month.”

The grant was competitive.

Washakie says hundreds of tribes applied and only 13 received funding this round.

It’ll be used to purchase, assemble, and install solar for homes on the Wind River Reservation.

Fellows Falls. (Courtesy Onondaga Nation)

The Onondaga Nation in New York is getting a portion of land back that was taken by the state.

Tribal representatives signed legal documents with Honeywell International Friday for the return of 1,000 acres of land, which sits within its original treaty footprint set aside in the 1790s.

The transferred is under the federal Superfund program.

According to the tribe, this is the first acreage returned to stewardship of the Nation since New York State and the U.S. government broke a treaty, which originally set aside more than two million acres.

Onondaga Chief Sid Hill says this is a small, but important step for them, and for the Indigenous land back movement across the U.S.

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Two large regional Alaska tribal groups took their fight to overhaul federal management of pollock fisheries to Anchorage U.S. District Court last week.

The Association of Village Council Presidents and the Tanana Chiefs Conference are suing the National Marine Fisheries Service.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, both tribal organizations say the federal agency is using outdated environmental studies to set catch limits.

The tribes say the faulty data has contributed to the collapse of salmon runs.

Salmon are not targeted in the pollock harvest but are taken as bycatch. And although they are a tiny slice of the 4.4 billion lbs. fishery, AVCP’s attorney, Coralette Waite, says the result has been devastating.

“The reality on the ground is that every salmon counts, and unfortunately for our region and for our families and our community, there are winters when families go without salmon, because of the impacts of using outdated strategies.”

During oral arguments on Thursday, Kate Glover, an attorney for Earth Justice, spoke on behalf of the tribes.

She told U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason that federal managers have failed to take into consideration major changes in the ecosystem, due to a warming climate.

“It’s been breaking records in terms of loss of sea ice and the disappearance of the cold pool in the Bering Sea salmon runs have been at record lows in recent years and there have been massive die offs of marine mammals and seabirds. None of that is comparable to what’s happened in the past.”

(Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Glover argued that federal managers are relying on data that is two decades old. The lawsuit calls for new studies and immediate management changes.

In her response to the tribes, federal attorney Jennifer Sundook, said there have been a number of new regulations that have resulted in lower bycatch and less impact on seabirds.

And while Sundook concedes that some of the changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem are unprecedented, she argued that temperature fluctuations are cyclical and not enough to affect the overall management of the fishery.

She said the tribes are taking the data out of context.

Judge Gleason has taken arguments from both sides under advisement and is expected to make a decision in the case in a few months.

Flooding in North Carolina following Tropical Storm Helene. (Courtesy Sgt. 1st Class Leticia Samuels / North Carolina National Guard)

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for North Carolina, including for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, to help people access funds and resources to recover from Hurricane Helene.

The funds are available for essential items like food and water, repairs, or a temporary place to stay.

In preparation for the storm, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians declared a state of emergency last week.

The tribe still plans to hold its Cherokee Indian Fair this week.

In a statement issued by tribal leaders, they said they’re moving forward with the fair with a deep understanding of the devastation caused by the hurricane to surrounding areas.

They said the fair represents a time to gather, reconnect, and strengthen bonds.

The tribe will gather supplies during the fair to help those in need.

Events are taking place across Canada Monday for Orange Shirt Day, which honors survivors of Indian residential schools.

Also known as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it recognizes and reflects on the history and ongoing legacy of the schools, and remembers the children who never returned home.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says events taking place across the province are learning opportunities.

In 2023, Manitoba established Orange Shirt Day as a provincial statutory holiday.

#OrangeShirtDay is a day for survivors to be reaffirmed that they matter, and so do those that have been affected. Most importantly, this day is a chance celebrate Indigenous peoples and culture for all Manitobans. pic.twitter.com/3yIAAJhEJc

— Manitoba NDP Caucus (@ndpcaucus) September 30, 2024

(Courtesy Asm. James Ramos / Facebook)

On Friday, California Native American Day, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed seven tribal bills.

The bills introduced by Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA) include protections for the Indian Child Welfare Act, strengthens the Feather Alert for missing Indigenous persons, and requires schools to teach about the impacts of Missions and the Gold Rush.

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Photo: A sign for Sacajawea’s grave site near Shoshone Business Council chambers in Fort Washakie on Sept. 17, 2024. (Photo: Chris Clements / Wyoming Public Media)

Some Eastern Shoshone tribal members are voicing concerns about the integrity of the tribe’s primary election held on September 17.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Chris Clements reports on a recent public protest.

About fifteen people, including some elders, gathered outside the Shoshone Business Council’s chambers in Fort Washakie, Wyo. to protest perceived election irregularities.

More specifically, addressing the election judges’ efforts to correct absentee ballots that had the incorrect number of candidates to choose from.

Protestors say the judges don’t have the authority to change the date the absentee ballots are due.  Election judges, which are elected positions, are in charge of running elections for the tribe.

Bobbi Shongutsie is running as a write-in candidate in the primary and attended the protest.

“I think that our people finally woke up, and they [SBC] see that we’re awake now and they can’t continue to keep going.”

Protestors held signs that read “new election judges” and other slogans. The Business Council didn’t respond to requests for comment. An emergency special General Session meeting to address the absentee ballots and other issues is set for Saturday.

The Southern Ute Fair marked its 102nd anniversary in Colorado recently with a blend of old and new traditions, including a heavy metal concert featuring an all-Indigenous lineup.

As Clark Adomaitis reports, this type of music, holds a special place in many tribal communities.

This was the 14th year that the Annual Native Rez-olution Youth concert took place at the Southern Ute Fair.

At this concert, people in black T-shirts and black leather boots moshed around to an all-Indigenous lineup with seven heavy metal and rock bands.

The alcohol and drug-free event has a unique lineup of bands every year.

Loren Anthony, a Navajo actor and motivational speaker, is playing bass with Hellthrone tonight.

“The scene has still shown nothing but love, nothing but community, nothing but unity,  all the things that the world outside of our own sees as dark, depressive, gloomy and filled with all these other things that might be tied to it in a negative way. But this type of event promotes not drinking, where people can come and feel safe and have a place to be. Metal music in general, has always been aggressive, has a lot of aggression and has a lot of true meaning to its words.”

Heavy metal is more than just music. It gives people an outlet to express frustrations and societal challenges faced by many Indigenous communities.

In fact, a specific subgenre of Heavy Metal has developed in Native American Communities — Rez Metal.

Ernest Capono is the guitarist for Hellthrone.

“We come here and we promote love and peace and you know, and it’s weird to hear that from, like, from all these metal bands, but, you know, there’s a lot of people that are don’t feel like they belong. There’s a lot of pain. There’s a lot of things that a lot of lot of struggles that people go through, and when people are struggling, they need to feel like they are heard and they’re and they belong. When you come to something like this, and you see the moshing, and you see all the pain and the anger and loud and all that, it’s we’re allowing the misfits to fit, and we’re allowing the anger to come in, and we’re allowing everybody to leave here with a smile.”

The Rez-olution concert takes place every year in September at the Southern Ute Fair.

Friday marks the 57th Annual California Native American Day.

This year’s theme is “Recognizing 100 Years of Citizenship and the Fight for the Right to Vote: 1924-2024.”

The holiday takes place on the fourth Friday of September to celebrate the culture and contributions of California Native Americans.

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A federal appeals court is hearing arguments in Colorado Thursday in a lawsuit over two of the largest national monuments in the Mountain West region.

Rachel Cohen reports.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in southern Utah include vast red rock canyons and cliffs, as well as Native American cultural sites.

“The kivas, the pictographs, the actual migration routes and trails themselves … I can’t imagine a place that’s more worthy of protection.”

Matthew Campbell is an attorney representing the Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, and Pueblo of Zuni, which are intervening in the litigation on the side of the federal government.

The case started when former President Trump shrunk both monuments in 2017. Then, a few years later, the Biden Administration restored them.

The state of Utah sued, saying Biden overstepped his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act, in part because the monuments are too big.

Yet, the court hearings in Colorado probably won’t get into this dispute and will instead focus on questions like whether the court is able to overrule the president’s judgment on monuments.

Assistant Interior Secretary Bryan Newland, left, Crow Tribal Chairman Frank White Clay, Navajo President Buu Nygren, Zuni Tribal Governor Arden Kucate, and Yavapai-Apache Nation Chairwoman Tanya Lewis testify at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on critical water rights legislation, September 25, 2024. (Courtesy President Buu Nygren / Facebook)

Tribal members and advocates traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to ask lawmakers to revive the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

The bill passed the Senate, but has been stalled in the House after expiring months ago.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez has this report.

Wednesday morning, tribal members and allies delivered symbolic health care invoices to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office to point out the multi-generational costs for their families dealing with cancer due to radiation exposure. 

Once inside, advocates pressed for Speaker Johnson to bring the bill up for a vote.

Outside, advocates like Kathleen Tsosi prayed for a new path forward.

“I prayed for Speaker Mike Johnson to change his mind and to have the heart and the compassion as well as the House of Representatives to change their mind and approve the RECA bill.” 

It was a stark contrast to Tuesday’s meeting with Senators who have passed expanded versions of the RECA bill and Representatives who say they have the votes to pass it, if Speaker Johnson would bring it to the floor for a vote.

Dr. Donald Warne cuts the ribbon on the newly-opened facility. (Photo: C.J. Keene / SDPB)

Trust and visibility are keys to effective health care, but not everyone feels the same way walking into the doctor’s office.

That’s why some look to increase representation among health care professionals.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene has more.

The new Great Plains Native Health Hub in Rapid City aims to create a safe space for indigenous patients, but it also wants to be a resource to aspiring health care professionals.

Dr. Donald Warne is the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, a key piece of the new Native Health Hub.

“What we’re excited about is bringing together many of our people who have studied in different parts of the country or have worked in different parts of the country, but have roots here in South Dakota, and bringing our team back here is very exciting. So, what we’re hoping is we’ll link research opportunities to educational opportunities, and by doing that we’ll create programs that are much more holistic and comprehensive.”

Warne says indigenous-first health care makes a tangible difference for Native patients.

“I know that we are from communities that have less resources but know that we can do this. I was very fortunate to grow up in a family that had a lot of medicine men and traditional healers. In truth, I was afraid some of my relatives would be disappointed in me for going to the “dark side” of modern medicine, but in truth I had a lot of support. I think what we’re recognizing when we blend together the best of our traditional cultural values with the best of modern science, we create all kinds of opportunities and synergies to improve outcomes.”

Warne’s colleague, Dr. Courtney Claussen, says while it’s a difficult path, Native students shouldn’t write off health care as an unachievable career field.

“Incredibly strong community ties and community connections are very, very strong pillars of success for those who are seeking higher education, and certainly helped myself.”

The leadership team at the Great Plains Native Health Hub is made up entirely of Indigenous peoples and is connected to the prestigious Johns Hopkins medical program.

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There is a new location for Native health in the Black Hills.

The Great Plains Native Health Hub has opened in Rapid City, S.D. with the support of Johns Hopkins University.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene checks in.

The hub will offer new Native-specific healthcare options as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health.

Oglala Lakota doctor Donald Warne is the co-director of the Center for Indigenous Health.

“Unfortunately, we have some of the worst health disparities in the nation right here in the Dakotas, and when we look at the American Indian population, the average age of death is in the late 40s, as compared to the rest of the population in the late 70s. So, we have a 30-year difference in average age of death – and much of that is preventable. When we think about preventable issues, we’re dealing in the areas of public health and medicine.”

He says a safe, trusting environment for Native healthcare is step one.

“Our leadership team for the Great Plains Hub consists of all Lakota people. I think in research and healthcare and community engagement, the messengers really matter. What we’re excited about is we have new research projects studying Lakota populations, led by an entirely Lakota research team. We can’t think of research in this silo, we have to look at this as an opportunity to provide more opportunities to provide more training for community members that might be interested in healthcare careers.”

Warne’s colleague, research associate Dr. Courtney Claussen, says the hub will bring doctors from around the region to focus on specific local challenges.

“Being located here within Rapid City is beautiful. There are a ton of incredible team members located across the nation, so having the interconnections – not only from nation to nation but to the communities in South Dakota – we were able to meet with a lot of really great folks from the great plains region working in the healthcare area.”

Another major draw of the hub – addressing brain drain by bringing PhD’s back to western South Dakota.

(Courtesy Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation)

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut has been awarded a grant to help cut climate pollution.

Edwin J. Viera reports.

It is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reductions grant program.

The funding will be spent on installing electric vehicle charging stations at government buildings around the reservation.

Raheim Eleazer, environmental liaison for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, hopes to install at least a dozen charging stations.

He said the funding will help reduce emissions in other ways.

“We’re also hoping to electrify some of the governmental fleet vehicles. We’re hoping to do 13 of those whether it’s hybrid or fully electric vehicles.”

Another project for the grant funding involves helping 34 people living on the reservation convert or support their gas-powered cars through a rebate program.

He pointed out reducing pollution from transportation has substantial health benefits.

Connecticut’s worsening air quality has increased asthma rates for Mashantucket Pequot Tribe members.

While the grant runs for five years, each project has its own timeline.

Eleazer pointed out electric-vehicle charging stations are a big focus for the community.

He thinks the new charging stations will encourage people to buy electric vehicles and added it is only the start, since the comprehensive climate action plan outlines plans for other renewable energy projects.

“The possibility or the interest of producing or generating energy from renewable resources such as solar. I know I have personally been looking into potentially thermal networking for the reservation.”

He emphasized creating a microgrid is also an option with interest being shown by the community in diversifying energy generation, because he argued using one renewable energy source is not sustainable in New England.

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The Oyate Health Clinic in Rapid City is celebrating five years.

As South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger reports, officials are marking the beginning of the clinic when tribes exercised Indian Self-Determination Act laws to provide their own healthcare.

Oyate Health Clinic started out serving 12,000 patients and was operating in a building constructed in the late 19th century.

Now, the clinic is in a new facility and is serving nearly double the number of patients.

Jerilyn Church is the president and CEO of Oyate Health Clinic.

The Minecoujou Lakota says Oyate Health incorporates culture into healthcare.

Church says Oyate’s approach is what sets them apart from other health systems.

“We don’t refer to the people we serve as patients, or clients, or consumers. They are our relatives and we treat them as such. Before we incorporate any new policy, any new service, any change in how we provide healthcare, we get feedback from the community and we ask them and we continually ask them how we’re doing.”

Church says the clinic is looking to expand services.

Healthcare is a treaty right for tribal members.

Ryman LeBeau is the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman, as well as chair of the Great Sioux Tribal Leaders Health Board.

He was at the Sioux San building five years ago when the tribes took control of the former boarding school and tuberculosis sanitorium.

The Two-Kettle Lakota says the clinic is tribal sovereignty in action.

“And providing healthcare for our people. That really changes the narrative here, we’re no longer waiting on Indian Health Service to provide health care. We’re doing it ourselves, and we’re sustainable at it.”

LeBeau says insurance billing has been a big success in funding the clinic.

He says it allows for other services to get brought in.

LeBeau says the goal is for the clinic to receive referrals from nearby reservations.

This week, tribal members are hoping to persuade U.S. lawmakers to revive a program that compensates people who were exposed to nuclear fallout and uranium mining.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez reports.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) is particularly impactful for the Navajo Nation, where uranium mining was critical in the making of the atomic bomb.

Spokesperson Justin Ahasteen recalls the story of one person’s battle to get help treating cancer.

“Lesley Begay had to sell all of his livestock, had to relocate to the city, he had to do everything he could to stay alive. And by the good acts of God was able to receive his double lung transplant. He’s one person out of thousand who’ve been affected.”

Under the RECA program, those who qualified received about a third of the cost of cancer treatment.

Members of several tribes including Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo raised funds to travel by bus from New Mexico to Washington D.C.

Meanwhile, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley are joining a group of U.S. lawmakers Tuesday for a press conference.

They’re urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on the legislation.

Lawmakers say it’s been more than five months since there was a bipartisan vote to strengthen the RECA program.

The Oneida Indian Nation in New York is hosting four games featuring world men’s and women’s lacrosse teams.

The 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championship games are being held Tuesday at the tribe’s Mary C. Winder Community Center.

The new 90,000-square-foot center is expected to welcome thousands of people for pool play matchups.

The games will be broadcast nationally.

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U.S. states are profiting off more than two million acres of land sprinkled throughout reservations.

That’s according to a new investigation, which found that revenue from these lands largely goes towards state institutions – but tribes are often the ones paying.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach has more.

The report from news outlets High Country News and Grist shows a checkerboarded map inside reservations.

Cris Stainbrook with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation says this makes it hard for these sovereign nations to care for their lands.

“How do you manage on a landscape basis your lands when you can’t have jurisdiction over those other pieces that are there.”

He says tribes such as the Ute are often paying thousands of dollars a year to lease that land back. And that money pays for public education, hospitals, and jails.

Some states are transferring land to tribes, but Stainbrook says only when it’s not worth much.

He says more awareness is needed.

(Photo: Brian Bull)

Native American students in Eugene, Oreg. rang in the school year with a powwow over the weekend headlined by acclaimed rapper Supaman.

Brian Bull reports.

Christian Parrish Takes the Gun is a member of the Apsaalooke Nation of Montana and has performed under the moniker “Supaman” for over two decades.

He’s won several major awards including an MTV VMA Award in 2017 for “Best Fight Against the System”, as well as The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award for best video.

During his presentation with DJ Elemental, Supaman encouraged Native youth to demonstrate respect, kindness, and openness to change, while still preserving their culture.

He played traditional flute music with hip-hop elements.

“I hope they just go from here with a better understanding how to navigate life you know, with some simple tools that we try to share during our presentation, as well as leaving with a good heart.”

The powwow was to welcome students to a new school year at Eugene’s 4-J District.

Becky White coordinated the event and is with the district’s NATIVES Program.

“We partnered with Native Youth Wellness here in Eugene to bring him to our community, so here’s for a couple days, doing events around town, and we’re so grateful to have him here at our powwow.”

As a person of Cherokee, Cheyenne, and Arapaho heritage, White appreciates the diversity within the Native community.

She says today’s young people are also pushing for change, to tackle persistent problems including racism and climate change.

(Photo: Brian Bull)

“I believe that this generation we have now that is in the K-12 system, and the students that are in college right now, are the most activist group of students we’ve had yet. And I appreciate them so much because they have the ideas, and they have the energy, and they have the drive.”

Supaman is headed next to New York, where he’ll be part of a week-long climate awareness event.

He says the “Supaman” moniker is based on a superhero archetype that everyone can embody.

“I definitely try to use it as, trying to elevate in life, being beyond just the human. Try to believe for better things. You’re able to accomplish great things.”

(Courtesy Donald J. Trump / YouTube)

During a rally in North Carolina over the weekend, former President Donald Trump made a campaign promise to the Lumbee Tribe.

He said if he’s elected president in November, he’ll sign legislation granting the Lumbee Tribe federal recognition, the News & Observer reports.

The tribe has long sought full federal status.

It was recognized by North Carolina in 1885.

Congress passed legislation in the 1950s to recognize the tribe, but denied benefits that other federally recognized tribes receive.

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