National Native News

With a vote from U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senate Republicans passed a sprawling budget reconciliation bill that contains much of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda.

Liz Ruskin reports.

Alaska tribes and Native organizations have raised concerns about the bill.

The Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes recently sent a letter to Alaska’s Congressional delegation opposing the bill with concerns about clean energy, food security, health care, and lands and forests.

In a statement Monday, the Fairbanks Native Association said it is “deeply troubled” by the passage of the spending bill, raising concerns about funding cuts to tribes, which provide critical services including health care and food assistance.

Sen. Murkowski said it was one of the hardest votes she’s ever taken and she’s hoping it will be changed further before Congress sends it to the president’s desk.

She said she helped improve the bill for Alaska, but she said in an emailed statement, “It is not good enough for the rest of our nation — and we all know it.”

The bill’s passage followed intense negotiations between Murkowski and Senate leaders aimed at retooling the bill to overcome her objections to removing benefits from Alaskans on Medicaid and food assistance.

Murkowski said she decided to vote yes because Republicans made adequate changes to rural health care and food assistance.

She cited a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals and clinics, and added flexibility for Alaska in administering changes to SNAP.

Only three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) voted yes.

The bill includes new oil lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.

Murkowski has championed those for years.

The bill goes to the House, where a different version passed in May without a vote to spare.

Any changes would have to be approved again in the Senate.

Interior of the immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” with President Donald Trump in the background.

The Miccosukee Tribe in Florida is opposing the Trump administration’s new immigration facility at an airstrip in the Everglades, which the administration calls “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Chairman Talbert Cypress told ABC News that the tribe held a meeting this week regarding the facility, which is located on tribal traditional homelands of Miccosukee and Seminole people.

“The tribe has been at home on the Big Cypress for centuries and what was decided at the meeting was to examine all avenues that we have to temporarily delay this facility.”

Cypress says the tribe is concerned about any potential environmental impacts and safety concerns for tribal members.

Demonstrations have reportedly been in the area opposing the facility, as President Trump was given a guided tour on Tuesday.

The administration is touting the area for its remote location and surrounding wildlife as barriers for people to escape.

(Courtesy State Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-WA) / Facebook)

Native Americans in Washington state face opioid and fentanyl overdose rates four times the national average.

Isobel Charle has more.

Leaders are calling for more investment in treatment centers and transitional housing to address the problem.

While nationally, fentanyl overdoses have declined, Native American fatalities have surged since the pandemic.

State Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-WA) is part of the Washington State Tribal Opioid and Fentanyl (WTOF) Taskforce.

During the taskforce’s third annual summit, tribal leaders and state agencies met for three days and heard from community members in recovery from Opioid Use Disorder.

Last year, says Rep. Lekanoff, the taskforce partnered with tribal governments and invested in substance abuse treatment facilities based on a successful model created by the Swinomish.

“The model that Swinomish created 12 years ago has now been incorporated into over 20 tribally owned substance abuse disorder facilities that are healing all Washingtonians.”

Lekanoff says in the next couple of years the taskforce will focus on transitional housing for those recovering from substance abuse.

She says this is a non-partisan issue and it will take everyone working together to make change.

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A federal audit has found that the Environmental Protection Agency did not distribute millions of dollars on time to clean water programs for tribes.

As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports, this comes as tens of thousands of tribal homes lack indoor plumbing and clean drinking water.

The agency’s own inspector general examined more than $300 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was supposed to go to tribal water programs over two years. 

In the 2022 fiscal year, more than half of the funds allocated had not been awarded on time. And in 2023, most of the remaining water project funds did not get distributed.

The audit cited that the Indian Health Service estimates about 41,000 tribal homes lack indoor plumbing – and thousands lack access to safe drinking water.

Marcus Gullet is with the inspector general’s office.

“So these funds are really tailored to addressing those problems. Funds for designing and constructing wastewater treatment facilities, improving drinking water systems, and addressing emerging contaminants.”

The EPA acknowledged in a final report that it made mistakes in most cases and said it would work to fix them. It agreed to focus on improving the timeliness of providing funds to tribes. 

Evacuation map for Klagetoh Pump Station Area/Transwestern Pipeline Road in Arizona. (Courtesy Navajo Department of Emergency Management / Facebook)

Navajo Nation leaders are urging residents near the Oak Ridge Fire to remain vigilant and follow emergency protocols and evacuation alerts.

The fire is burning on the reservation near St. Michaels, Ariz. Residents in at least three communities were evacuated on Sunday.

As of Tuesday morning, the fire was at more than 9,000 acres with zero containment.

Edith Nageak draws a bird at a sketching workshop during the Migratory Bird Festival in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, in June 2025. (Courtesy Migratory Bird Festival)

More than 150 people recently gathered in America’s northernmost community for the Migratory Bird Festival, where they observed, sketched, and learned about dozens of species.

Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more on the festival, and on the rapid growth of birding tourism in Alaska.

A little brown bird walks and chirps along the still partially frozen Utqiagvik lagoon.

It’s a semipalmated sandpiper — one of about sixty species that locals and visitors spotted during the Migratory Bird Festival.

Lindsay Hermanns is the festival coordinator.

She says avid birders often travel to the Arctic to see rare species who fly here from all corners of the world. But sometimes it’s even more exciting to see familiar birds in their breeding grounds, where they wear totally different plumage.

“It’s like a glow up. They look totally different. They’re flying around, they’re doing their mating displays and exhibiting this behavior that you only see in the Arctic.”

Attendees rode around in school buses for several hours, spotting different birds and talking about Inupiaq culture, Utqiagvik history, and the Arctic environment.

Hermanns says that the main goal of the free three-day festival was to show how important the Arctic ecosystem is for the birds, but the highlight for her was what the participants brought to the table.

The Migratory Bird Festival attendees rode around Utqiaġvik, Alaska in school buses for several hours, spotting more than 60 different species. (Courtesy Migratory Bird Festival)

Several elders came to the talks and commented on what birds they harvest, how they do it traditionally, and what they call those species in Inupiaq language.

“That was a major component of success, in my mind – having the elders be involved like that.”

Local knowledge holders and Inupiaq speakers also participated in creating a new Utqiagvik Birding Trail, a brochure that spotlights 10 sites throughout town where you can see birds in breeding plumage.

As the Arctic warms, forests shrink and hurricanes intensify, she says migrating to the Arctic becomes more difficult.

Lauren Cusimano is with Audubon Alaska.

“Utiqgvik becomes even more important for shorebird species, because once they get there, you know, they can do their thing and breed and be hopefully observed by us as birders and conservationists, without much disturbance.”

Hermanns says she hopes more Arctic residents will get involved in organizing the event in the future.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has apologized to Indigenous leaders for comments that some First Nations described as racist.

The comments were sparked by opposition to Bill 5, which would allow his government to bypass environmental and other regulations in order to fast track resource development in special economic zones.

Dan Karpenchuk has more.

Native leaders have opposed Bill 5, which would, among other things, fast track mining approvals for critical minerals.

And last week Premier Doug Ford appeared frustrated by their opposition.

“You can’t just keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government. You’ve got to be able to take care of yourselves.”

Ford had also said his government was making an offer to First Nations on “a silver platter” and that he had treated them like “gold”. But his language didn’t sit will with most Indigenous leaders.

Sol Mamakwa is the only First Nations member of the Ontario legislature.

“Those comments that were very deeply troubling. But also racist. As First Nations, you know, we are not beggars and I think at this point, those type of comments we don’t need those comments from the premier.” 

During a two-hour meeting with the Indigenous leaders, Ford apologized.

“I just want to say I sincerely apologize for my words. Not only if it hurt the chiefs in that room, but all First Nations. And I get passionate because I want prosperity for their communities.”    

Anishnabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige spoke for Native leaders.

“Our chiefs felt today that the apology was sincere. We are looking at today as a new day going forward.”

Debassige says the meeting was not about Bill 5, but about the Ontario government upholding its treaty responsibility.

She did say Native leaders are still opposed to Bill 5.

She also would not disclose everything that was said during the meeting.

Deborah Ann Begay is two-spirit and the first Indigenous justice of the peace in Arizona’s Maricopa County. (Courtesy Advance Native Political Leadership)

It’s the last day of Pride Month – an observance meant to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ community.

KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on a Navajo jurist who identifies as two-spirit.

Born in Lupton on the Navajo Nation, Maricopa County’s first Indigenous justice of the peace, Deborah Ann Begay, has been ruling out of the Moon Valley courthouse in north Phoenix since 2020.

The Navy veteran and single parent attended University of California, Berkeley then law school at Arizona State University.

And Begay says the best part of her job is officiating marriages, especially for same-sex couples.

“Doing the ceremony, you’re performing a like professional function, but yet you’re kind of included in their private lives. And that’s even more so when I would get invited to their personal homes.”

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing those unions in a 2015 landmark decision, they are still not recognized by the Navajo Nation.

The Diné Marriage Act defines matrimony as being only between a man and woman, though there’s been recent pushback to repeal that law.

In 1847, members of the Choctaw Nation donated $170 to victims of the Irish famine. And it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Seo McPolin reports on a new festival that is bringing Indigenous and Irish people together again.

It’s been ten years since the Kindred Spirits sculpture was installed in the Irish county of Cork.

From the 20 feet tall, stainless steel feathers which commemorate the Choctaw donation, a new organization emerged.

Kindred Spirits Ireland is hosting the World Peace Gathering July 18-20 for those who wish to “celebrate peace, healing, cultural exchange, and Indigenous wisdom”.

Featured guests include former Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch and Chief Phil Lane Jr.

“Sensei” Steven Seagal, who claims DNA connections to Indigenous Yakut and Buryat heritage, was also just added to the line-up.

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Photo: Alameda County Coroner’s sign. (I Love Old Signs! / Flickr)

A group of researchers have found gaps in how death certificates are maintained with implications for Native Americans’ health.

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

Researchers from prestigious universities to Indigenous communities studied death certificates from 2008 to 2019. 

They found Native Americans have a life expectancy of roughly 72 years old. The national average is 79. 

That’s a much bigger gap than official stats show, says Jacob Bor.

He’s an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and the study’s lead author. 

“American Indian populations have been subjected to deliberate policies of physical and cultural erasure for centuries. These patterns have contributed to today’s economic and physical marginalization and deprivation and to poor outcomes in these populations.”

Bor and his team uncovered another problem.

Death certificates for at least 40% of Native Americans failed to identify them as American Indian or Alaska Native. 

In most cases, their race was misreported as “white.” 

Tony Duncan, left, competing at the 2025 World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Feburary and a sheet of the USPS powwow Forever Stamps. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently unveiled four special Forever Stamps celebrating powwows.

KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio spoke with the artist behind the new collection.

The Gathering of Nations – held annually in Albuquerque, N.M. – is where this new collection was released back in April.

These tiny pieces of postage are, in part, brought to life by performers Tony Duncan, his wife, Violet, and their eldest child, Manaya.

There are four designs – each honoring a different style of dance: Traditional, Fancy Shawl, Crow Hop, and Hoop.

The New Mexico-based painter who designed the Forever Stamps tells the rest of his story behind hand-picking the Duncan family.

“Hi, my name is Mateo Romero. I’m a tribal member from Cochiti Pueblo. I’m a contemporary Southwestern painter and I’ve worked on the USPS forever sheet stamp, the powwow series with the Duncan family and with KamiJo Whiteclay.

“I don’t know of a way where an artist could sort of catch the attention of USPS. It just happened organically. And I was very flattered. I was very honored to do it.

“It’s actually not easy to take a painting and translate it into a stamp. I did four paintings for USPS, which I think were like 24 by 30 inches, and then to make it into something the size of your thumb, that’s actually a little tricky, because it has to really carry color. But I think they did a really good job. I mean, I think the colors are clear and the shadows are nice and the faces pop out. It seems to work. You know, I was actually surprised at how well they did it. Yeah, I got shocked at how well it came out.

“That’s really what I was trying to do was capture the sort of visual analog of what it might be if you were at a powwow and you’re looking at dancers, and you could hear the sound of the drum behind you. And so I think they move in that direction where they’re beginning to resonate like that – sort of give people maybe some visual cues of what it might be to actually be there.

“I did my best. I tried to bring in the best people and the best energy I could kind of make it come alive. It’s really their story. You know, that’s the cool part about it. I mean, I’m the painter, and I’ve created this message, and I’ve put it out there. People seem to like it, but the story really is their story, right? It’s their family and their energy. They actually, in this respect, have become the face of powwow for this moment to the world. They’re the face of the Forever Stamp, and their story is being used in a good way to show the larger story of the powwow.”

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Photo: Cherokee Nation leaders and ambassadors and Talking Leaves Job Corps staff hosting open house at new Taling Leaves Job Corps Oklahoma City office in 2016. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation / Facebook)

A federal judge Wednesday halted the closure of Job Corps locations across the country.

In May, the federal government announced it was pausing the Job Corps program, which helps people ages 16 through 24 with career training.

The Associated Press reports, a lawsuit is challenging that move, and the court ordered the government to keep the program running until the lawsuit is resolved.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, raised concerns about the closures saying it was the first tribe to operate a Job Corps in 1978, and the program was serving around 150 students.

A view of the Trinity River from the GeO-Deck of Reunion Tower in Dallas, Texas. (Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia)

In Texas, the city of Dallas plans to rename three man-made lakes along the Trinity River in honor of tribes.

KERA News reports the city council voted Wednesday to name them Three Sisters Lakes with each lake named after a tribe that has ties to the state.

(Courtesy Denver Indian Center / Facebook)

American Indian and Alaska Native communities in Colorado continue to face significant gaps in health care access, quality, and outcomes, according to a new analysis of the Colorado All Payer Claims Database.

Eric Galatas reports.

While the communities face higher rates of many chronic conditions, they are also not getting important preventive care.

David Wright, data manager at the Denver Indian Center, said fear remains a primary barrier, pointing to decades of mistreatment, including the forced sterilization of women and federal policies forcing medicine men and other spiritual leaders into mental asylums up until 1978.

“Native people, for a long time, have been used to advance medical research without their consent. And so there’s a large mistrust within the Native communities against the medical profession.”

Between 2018 and 2024, American Indian and Alaska Native people were diagnosed with kidney disease, autoimmune, nervous, metabolic, and endocrine disorders such as diabetes at rates far above their white peers.

Wright noted the analysis, produced in partnership with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, will be used to create a culturally tailored education program for health providers.

Without additional training, Wright pointed out health professionals are likely to continue to assume chronic conditions are due to an individual’s dietary choices.

Many do not understand for more than 100 years, tribes had to rely on government rations, typically high in carbohydrates and salt, to get enough calories.

“Because of the forced relocation and the reservation systems, and relying on heavily carbohydrate related rations.”

Poverty, lack of affordable housing and the breakdown of family systems also disproportionately affect health outcomes.

Wright argued better health will require treating the whole person, not just specific medical conditions.

When people are out of balance in any one area, he stressed there are ripple effects.

“If we’re not able to provide stable housing — which is not only of mental and emotional and physical importance — but it also will affect the outcomes and the teachings and the role modeling you need for your children and your family structures.”

(Courtesy Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing)

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes recently received grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann reports, other housing-related funding for the tribes is a little less certain.

Tribes around the country receive federal support through the annual Indian Housing Block Grant.

This year, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe got about 2.3 million, and the Northern Arapaho Tribe received about 3.6 million.

Emery’l LeBeau is the director of the Northern Arapaho Housing Authority.

“We get this Block grant based on a formula, right? And so it’s based off the units and our need.”

The money keeps housing authorities operating and helps maintain their current housing.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would decrease that funding by about 20%.

An earlier draft also called for eliminating a competitive community development grant.

Gilbert Riche is with the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority and says losing that would have a direct impact on future projects. 

“ That’s the primary funding source for us to spearhead new housing development.”

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As food insecurity rises across the country, groups fighting hunger are highlighting the need for food that is not only nutritious, but culturally relevant.

Isobel Charle has more.

Leialoha Kaula is executive director of the nonprofit Ka ʻAha Lāhui O ʻOlekona – Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon & SW Washington (KALO HCC), which serves Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

The organization started distributing food boxes during the pandemic and Kaula said the food didn’t always meet people’s needs because it wasn’t familiar, or they didn’t know how to use it.

In response, she said, KALO HCC started including traditional foods in the boxes like taro root and coconut.

“We saw that it was not just hunger for food, it was that hunger for culture. It was that hunger for home, that’s what was filled.”

Visits to food banks in the state have risen sharply in the last year and data shows Pacific Islander Oregonians are twice as likely to experience hunger than their white neighbors.

Kaula said KALO HCC has also started cultivating taro, a Native Hawaiian staple, and encouraging people to get involved in the project.

“Even though we’re here in Oregon, that’s still a connection to home. It’s about how we as Indigenous people are caring for the land.”

Amid federal cuts to food programs, Kaula said she wants to see Oregon focus more on providing culturally relevant foods, so all communities in the state can thrive.

“To really, truly have a healthy Oregon. We have to make sure that we’re serving all the communities in a way that makes them feel seen, heard, and feed them in that way.”

A woman in a fur coat looks at the photographer, while a boy smiles at her. (Courtesy Cyril George Photo Collection)

In the basement of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) in Juneau, Alaska sit thousands and thousands of photographs.

They were taken by a Lingít elder who has since passed on, but for decades he documented important events and everyday life.

And as KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey reports, the organization wants help identifying people and places in the photos.

Ḵaalḵáawu Cyril George Sr.’s family unearthed his photo collection in the wake of his death 11 years ago.

His granddaughter Lillian Woobury says she was astounded at the volume of photos he kept in his small Juneau condo.

“That tiny little room had been harboring all of these memories he captured in photo. I mean, every time we thought we’ve got them all, we pulled out another box or another container, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, Mom, it’s another box of photos.’”

A family friend suggested they donate the photographs to Sealaska Heritage Institute to preserve and store them.

Emily Galgano is one of the archivists who’s been combing through the photographs for the last several years.

“There’s so much just joy in these photos. It’s one of my favorite things, looking through them and seeing people just having a good time, people dancing, people talking to each other, cooking out on the beach.”

Some of the photos are online now and printed in books that are available in Juneau and Angoon for elders to look through.

A boy jumps over a bar as his peers look on. (Courtesy Cyril George Photo Collection)

SHI hopes people will recognize some of the faces.

The photos are full of life. Most are of people: dancers in full regalia, fishing trips with strung up halibut, graduations, and meetings.

They show Lingít people living, working, teaching, and making art. They show elders, and babies, and elders with babies. And those babies may be elders now themselves.

Lingít photographer Brian Wallace helped SHI scan the photos.

He knew George growing up, and looking through the photos, he says the photos show how Southeast Alaska Native cultures have endured.

“They’re thriving when he took the photos, and still thriving.”

And some of the photos were deeply personal for Wallace.

“And then I loved finding the photographs that he had of my parents.”

Woodbury, George’s granddaughter, says it was hard to part with the collection, but she hopes that others, like Wallace, will look through the collection and find photos of loved ones who have passed on.

“I think if people walk away seeing these photos and they feel like he gave them that one moment in time back, that makes me happy. And that will be a small part, a small part of this legacy.”

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As the Trump administration looks to combine multiple fire agencies under one organization, firefighter numbers are dwindling.

Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Lauren Paterson reports on how the Nez Perce Tribe is stepping up despite the challenges.

Three young firefighters are standing under the hot sun in Lapwai, Idaho, doing an engine check on one of their fire trucks.

All of them are tribal members, and firefighters for the Nez Perce Tribe.

Riston Bullock is going into his thirteenth season.

He says he does this job because he’s dedicated to protecting the land, and his community.

“Now that I’ve been in fire for so long, it’s kind of more, being the first one to respond, put the fires out.”

A big challenge here in Idaho, and across the nation, is that there aren’t enough people to help.

“ We’re losing firefighters. The numbers are going down…”

People can still volunteer, but…“We need people at the shop ready to go when those fires start..”

Across from the shop in the air conditioned office, Jeff Handel, the fire management officer, is on the phone trying to schedule repairs for fire trucks.

“OK what I need is, I got a couple rigs that need radios put in ‘em…”

He’s also worried the younger generation doesn’t seem too interested in firefighting.

“ It’s pretty tough in today’s world when you can get a job, work from home and, and, and do okay financially, why would you wanna go out and do the firefighting thing? Which is very hard work.”

Back at the shop, the firefighters are organizing equipment like ropes and hatchets.

There could be changes coming to how the Nez Perce Tribal fire crew works with other agencies in the region.

The Trump Administration is trying to merge all federal firefighting into a single agency. That could mean shifting thousands of jobs around just as fire season is ramping up.

Bullock says he’s not sure how that would work.

“I feel like it’ll just kind of be a new name, but I still feel like we’ll still have our shops and everything here will be mixed out through each other.”

Approximately one-point-two billion will be requested as part of the new Wildland Fire Service budget.

For now, Bullock and the rest of the crew aren’t giving it too much thought. They’re busy getting ready for the next call.

A billboard along U.S. Route 89 encourages those living in the Western Agency of the Navajo Nation to get screened for uranium. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

The U.S. Senate is still drafting its version of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Tucked away in that proposed budget is a measure to renew compensation for those who had been exposed to radiation from uranium mining and nuclear weapons’ testing.

KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has more.

If finalized, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) would now sunset in 2028.

It also expands eligibility for claims from the Trinity Test site in New Mexico – where the first atomic bomb was detonated – and to more uranium miners.

The Navajo Nation has been lobbying to reinstate RECA since it expired last June.

“I’m in just so much pain all the time.”

Maggie Billiman (Navajo) has COPD and was recently diagnosed with liver and kidney disease.

While downwinders like herself are hopeful about RECA returning, they’re also concerned that lawmakers are considering huge cuts to health services.

“This big, beautiful bill is just something else. You get help from the RECA compensation, right, and then take Medicaid and Medicare? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

(Courtesy Chickasaw Nation)

Janie Simms Hipp was recently named Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year by Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anotubby.

Hipp has dedicated her nearly four-decade career to food sovereignty through agricultural law, including her work at the USDA and the Native American Agriculture Fund.

The award honors Chickasaw women who have made significant contributions to the Oklahoma tribe.

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Photo: Apache Stronghold supporters shout “Protect Oak Flat” outside the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse on May 7, 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear arguments last month from Apache Stronghold, the nonprofit is trying to revive its religious freedom case over Oak Flat in Arizona.

As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the group is asking the high court to reconsider.

“I betcha the courts don’t change their mind in 0.001% of the time.”

Bob Miller (Eastern Shawnee) is with Arizona State University’s Indian Legal Clinic. He’s been following the saga to protect Oak Flat from copper mining.

The nation’s highest court allows parties to re-appeal a denied petition within 25 days. But Miller says asking the nine justices to reconsider will almost certainly not alter the outcome.

“I cannot conceive of the Supreme Court changing its mind.”

Conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas argued in a dissent that not hearing Apache Stronghold’s case was “a grievous mistake” threatening to “reverberate for generations.”

In a statement, Resolution Copper says the company appreciates the court’s attention to this case – which had been reviewed over a dozen times.

A letter to President Donald Trump from the nonprofit Apache Stronghold sent on May 29, 2025. (Courtesy Apache Stronghold)

K’dazq’eni Glacier. (Courtesy Alaska Volcano Observatory)

Although Alaska is the land of 100,000 glaciers, only 700 of them have names.

Very few of those are Indigenous. But they are important for the writer of a new book called “The Alaska Glacier Dictionary” to include them.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, it’s more than a reference book, but full of stories.

Naomi Klouda says her glacier dictionary is for travelers and armchair adventurers alike, to give them quick access to a glacier’s vital stats and nuggets of history – some that have been erased from recent memory.

“There are some really beautiful Alaska Native designations on glaciers, like they’ll be very descriptive. So it was really important to me to get the Indigenous names wherever I could find them.”

Like K’idazq’eni, the Dena’ina name for a glacier on Mt. Spurr.

“And it means one that is burning inside. Now picture this glacier is on Mount Spur, so in local memory, in Indigenous memory, they would have known about the times that mount had erupted.”

Klouda says the names of Alaska glaciers also tell the story of colonialism.

When geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey mapped and named glaciers, they often supplanted Indigenous names – or failed to acknowledge the contributions of Alaska Natives – like the Athabascan hunting party led by Chief Sesui, who came to the rescue of some starving, nearly frozen U.S. Army explorers, after a bear raided their cache in 1899.

They took the men to their village, fed and clothed them for several months and, when the weather improved, guided them to safety. But it was the leader of the expedition, Lt. Joseph Herron, who was remembered with the name Herron Glacier, not Chief Sesui.

“Every glacier has a story and no two are alike. They are very individual.”

That’s why Klouda says when it comes to the Indigenous history, the name of a glacier is literally the tip of the iceberg.

Special thanks to Aaron Leggett for Dena’ina Athabascan pronunciations.

Cherokee Nation bike riders returned to the capital city of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma on Friday, after finishing a 950-mile journey.

This year’s ride marked the Remember the Removal Bike Ride’s 41-year anniversary.

Riders followed the northern route of the Trail of Tears honoring Cherokee ancestors who were forced to march it in the late 1830s.

The journey began in Georgia and ended in Tahlequah, Okla.

Twelve cyclists from the Cherokee Nation took part in the ride over three weeks.

A post shared by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (@seckennedy)

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sworn in Mark Cruz (citizen of the Klamath Tribes) as senior advisor to the secretary for Indian Health Services.

In a video on social media, Sec. Kennedy said the appointment is important for decision making in the Health and Human Services Department for Native Americans.

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(Photo: Michael Sherman)

A new welcome center in the town of Blue River, Oreg. had its grand opening last week.

The McKenzie Crossing and Native Center is located in the geographic “heart” of the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. It’s also in an area hit by the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire.

“I wanted to create something up the McKenzie River and Blue River to help it heal.”

Katherine K’iya Wilson is a bicultural liaison for the center, with connections to many tribal communities including Native students she’s mentored at the University of Oregon’s Longhouse.

Although the grand opening competed against other events on June 14 including the “No Kings” rallies, Wilson was pleased at those who made it.

“We had over 50 people there. A wonderful celebration.”

(Photo: Brittany Mason)

The center will show how many tribes crossed through the area for gathering, camping, and traveling to the obsidian cliffs along the coast.

Wilson’s grand plan is to establish a film center for Native people, where they can learn how to make original films.

“At this point I broke the ice, so to speak, and it’s time for the tribes to step in. If they want this to happen I’m here, but it’s too big for this little old lady. But that was the dream.”

Wilson says she’s working with Native grant and business writers to make the film center a reality.

Lake Mead, the nation’s largest man-made lake and reservoir, in April 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act earmarked $320 million to fund the planning and construction of critical water infrastructure projects across Indian Country in consultation with the Bureau of Reclamation.

But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio in the conclusion of his two-part series, it remains unclear how many of those federal dollars – if any – will be clawed back by President Donald Trump.

Uncertainty is rippling from top to bottom, although President Trump just tapped Ted Cooke to be the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

Daniel Cordalis (Navajo) runs the Tribal Water Institute at the Native American Rights Fund.

“They’re still building out the political roster at Interior quite a bit.”

Settlements are hugely important legal frameworks for tribes in securing their water rights by basically turning paper claims into guaranteed acre-feet allocations – along with the funding mechanism needed to do so.

Such agreements, largely bipartisan, can only be ratified by Congress.

“And of course, tribal waters are not the president’s priorities. It’s not uncommon. That being said, I think we have an Interior secretary who is sympathetic and supportive of tribes.”

During his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was hopeful he can deliver results for all along the Colorado River.

“I got some good understanding and good exposure to this, but I think you can count on that we’re going to look for a collaborative solution that serves everyone.”

But even if Sec. Burgum is behind tribes, getting the GOP-controlled Congress onboard could still be challenging.

Cordalis says slashing federal dollars may have a trickle-down effect stalling Indian water settlements.

“Congress is very much on the president’s playbook about cutting costs, reducing the budget and doing things and requiring, for lack of a better word, offsets.”

There are 39 federal water settlements with tribes. Here’s where they’re located.(Map: Chelsey Heath and Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

The biggest offset of them all would be the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement for Navajos, Hopis, and San Juan Southern Paiutes. It’s worth $5 billion, an expense that the federal government incurs.

“Where do you offset that and who’s going to do it? That’s the concern here, these settlements have big price tags.”

Cora Tso (Navajo), a senior fellow researching tribal issues at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, is slightly more optimistic. She thinks the Trump administration sees this settlement for three tribes in northeastern Arizona as an economic driver.

“For the most amount of acres and the largest populations of tribes in the country.”

The first Trump administration ratified the nation’s most expensive Indian water settlement to date – valued at $1.9 billion.

“That tells me, at least from the federal perspective, the first Trump administration understood the investment in Indian water.”

But that all happened before Trump began focusing on so-called government efficiency.

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A public records request in a Missing Indigenous Persons case in North Dakota has revealed unusual footage.

As reported this week in Buffalo’s Fire, 77 hours of surveillance footage from the Mandan Police Department shows 20-year-old Renzo Bullhead (Standing Rock Sioux) approaching a railroad bridge, headed east towards Bismarck, N.D. on March 16.

But in footage not previously seen by the public, a large splash in the Missouri River appears on the opposite side of the bridge, roughly 20 minutes after Bullhead passes by the first camera.

Since Buffalo’s Fire posted the story on its website and social media venues, the new footage has generated calls for further investigation into Bullhead’s disappearance.

The Mandan Police Department has not responded to emails asking what they make of the disturbance in the water.

From atop the Hoover Dam, a view overlooking the Colorado River cutting through Black Canyon in April 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

While Arizona, neighboring states, the federal government, and Mexico are negotiating over a dwindling supply of water from the Colorado River, another key stakeholder is tribes.

Thirty in all, trying to either ratify their rights or safeguard their allocations to the West’s most precious water resource.

KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports how the tribes’ seats at the negotiating table are being shaped by the second Trump administration.

More than two-thirds of the Colorado River Basin tribes are from Arizona.

They all need to negotiate with the federal government to essentially get what they want.

Unlike states, tribes were historically excluded from these dialogues, but lately their engagement in defining the future of the Colorado River has been celebrated.

“All of those tribes are in very different places and there’s no one size fits all. And what’s going to work for one tribe is probably going to not work for most of the other 30.”

Scott Cameron, currently the top-ranking Interior Department official on Colorado River matters, reiterated his agency’s commitment to tribal consultation this month at an annual water conference in Boulder, Colo.

“So we really need to have these conversations on a one-on-one basis, that having been said, trying to negotiate with 37 people in the room is a lot more complicated than negotiating with seven.”

Gila River Indian Community President Steven Roe Lewis during President Joe Biden’s 2024 visit.

So far, tribes seem fairly content with the Trump administration’s recent and frequent communication – a sentiment shared by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community during an annual Tucson, Ariz. water conference last month.

“We’ve already made significant progress with the new administration, and we’re more optimistic than ever that they’re listening and seriously considering new proposals.”

At the same time, the federal agency responsible for refereeing talks has also made notable cuts – gutting roughly 4% of all Interior staff – and potentially shaping its water priorities for years to come.

“I’ve heard on calls that about 25% of the workforce is now gone from Reclamation in general, and so just for water in the West, that’s significant.”

Cora Tso (Navajo) researches tribal issues at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.

When pressed to confirm how many Bureau of Reclamation employees were lost, the Interior Department repeatedly said it does “not comment on personnel matters”.

Tomorrow we’ll bring you part two of this special report on water access and tribes.

And on this day in 1868, a Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Jean De Smet, met with Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota to negotiate a peace treaty.

Meeting with the famed chief at his encampment along the Powder River in present-day Montana, de Smet was not able to sway Sitting Bull to sign a treaty. But the chief did send one of his delegates to Fort Laramie in Wyoming to sign a treaty which allowed whites to travel and settle in designated areas.

De Smet died in 1873, three years before Sitting Bull and his forces defeated General Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the LIttle Bighorn.

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