National Native News

A legislative push to place the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEUs) in every South Dakota school has died on the Senate floor.

Lawmakers say now is time to change course.

SDPB’s C.J. Keene has more.

In what represented a relatively strong push to mandate the program in the state, the proposal was ultimately trounced on the Senate floor on a vote of 7-28.

Many of the no were from lawmakers concerned with potential changes to education and the qualification of educators to teach these lessons.

State Sen. Tamara Grove (R-SD) from Lower Brule said it was a challenge to sit through that vote.

“Just being really vulnerable, it was really personal. You’re not supposed to get attached to your bills like that, but I did, so it was a hard loss, but I’m okay. That compels you forward, and that is why I’m not quitting.”

Sen. Grove says she believes in the OSEUs and their power to improve state-tribal relations.

“My mind was on the exchange students kind of theory of if you know people from across the waters, you’re less likely to go to war with them. A big part of the divide in the state of South Dakota is because we don’t understand each other. We don’t know each other.”

That sentiment was echoed by State Sen. Red Dawn Foster (Oglala Lakota/D-SD).

“If you talk to college students to this day, they’ll say they weren’t aware there were nine tribes in the state of South Dakota, and how the state boundaries became a fact, and the fact reservations and tribal nations supersede the state and federal government. How can you know your neighbors if you don’t know the history?”

Sen. Grove says she is now working on a non-legislative push via the Department of Education to further incorporate the OSEUs into schooling.

(Photo: Brian Bull)

Native Americans needing help with addiction and substance abuse have an option opening this month in the town of Sheridan, Oreg.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports on the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde’s new residential treatment facility.

“It really turned out amazing, we did a blessing ceremony on Friday.”

With dark wood decor and soothing tones of gray and green, the Main Street Recovery facility is spacious and calming.

Operations director Jennifer Worth shows where clients will sleep, meet, do chores, and get “wraparound” services.

“Having full access to counseling, group, case management, any other hands-on services that a tribal member may need.”

Worth says any Native American 18 or older can be helped here, if they are medically stable and beds are available.

“Other things we’re working on is hopefully adding a sweat lodge in the back.”

Kelly Rowe is the executive director of tribal health services for the Grand Ronde.

She says like their opioid recovery clinics in Salem and Portland, the Sheridan facility integrates Western medicine with Native practices.

“Culture is medicine for us. Making sure that we don’t lose sight of who we are as a people, and how we want our tribal members – as well as other Natives – to feel that they’re part of something bigger and that we’re here for them.”

The recovery center will be taking a few clients next week.

Up to 18 beds are on-site, in an area adjacent to the Grand Ronde reservation.

Part of a major $6 billion opioid settlement helped fund the Main Street Recovery facility.

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Tribal leaders from across the country are providing testimony in Washington, D.C. this week on American Indian and Alaska Native programs.

Three hearings are being held in the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.

Tribal leaders Tuesday morning mentioned how the Trump administration’s recent actions, including the federal hiring freeze and layoffs, threaten essential services in Indian Country.

Tribal leaders are raising concerns about federal funding for health care, law enforcement, education, and other services and programs.

While tribal leaders are calling on the federal government to uphold tribal trust and treaty obligation, Chief J. Allan of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is also urging for strong leadership.

“All I’m asking for is for leadership to come together and work this out.”

Chief Allan echoed funding needs for tribal programs, which he said have been historically underfunded, and urged the subcommittee to address tribal concerns.

The hearing continues Tuesday afternoon and hearings Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the subcommittee, there were an unprecedented number of requests, requiring a third day to accommodate around 100 tribes and tribal organizations.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM)

The state of New Mexico announced Monday that state agencies are launching support initiatives to help people recently dismissed from their federal employment, as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal workforce.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) says the state is committed to supporting people into transitioning into new career opportunities.

The initiative includes recruitment events, online resources, and access to education and training opportunities.

Online resources offer information about unemployment insurance, job search, and career support, and answers to frequently asked questions.

Recruitment events will take place in the state in the next few weeks featuring employers ready to hire, including the state, private businesses, and local municipalities.

New Mexico’s Congressional delegation has been advocating for the protection of federal employees, including those serving Indian Country.

Angie Wilson, director of the Reno-Sparks Tribal Health Center, led an effort in collaboration with Nevada Health Link, the state’s health insurance marketplace, to create a tribal sponsorship program that allows tribes to purchase health plans for community members. (Photo: Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez / KFF Health News)

A new sponsorship program in Nevada is seeking to get more tribal citizens covered and protected from accumulating debt from uninsured medical care.

Alex Gonzalez has more.

According to reporting from KFF Health News, while some tribes already participate in Nevada Health Link’s program, they’re wanting to get more on board.

The initiative allows tribes to buy health insurance through the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Advocates, such as Jim Roberts with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, contend the sponsorship model increases access to coverage by giving Native folks a chance to search for medical care outside the tribal care system.

“I think sponsorship programs bring case management to that process, to allow people to understand what their options are so that they can get enrolled. Left to their own devices, this is a segment of the population that might not traditionally enroll in Medicaid or in an insurance program.”

Roberts adds that because sponsorship in some tribes isn’t limited to just enrolled tribal members, it can impact whole communities. But he is worried that under the Trump administration, enhanced tax credits for marketplace enrollees will sunset by the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them — meaning premiums could go up significantly.

Proponents say the sponsorship program is making a difference for Native American patients, but more work is needed to build community trust.

While Nevada Health Link used Washington state’s program as reference, Roberts says the Silver State’s approach is different.

“But in terms of Nevada really getting behind it and asking the QHPs [qualified health plans] to work with tribes to set these up, I think that is unique.”

Roberts wants to remind folks they won’t lose their Indian Health Service coverage by participating in the sponsorship program, but will rather help fill in vital gaps in the health-care system.

“By providing resources that can then get billed for the care that they’re receiving, and likewise those resources can be used to expand care to the tribal population as a whole, then it’s a win-win situation.”

This story includes original reporting by Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez for KFF Health News.

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2024 MMIP Summit. (Photo courtesy Yurok Tribe)

The Yurok Tribe and the Pala Band of Mission Indians are hosting this year’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Summit in Pala, Calif., which will take place Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is the third year the summit will be held.

The event brings together tribal leaders, advocates, lawmakers, and law enforcement to address MMIP in the state.

Yurok Chairman Joseph James says the summit addresses the root causes of the MMIP crisis, which he says is an unfortunate issue that negatively impacts every Indigenous person in the state.

This year’s summit will feature a youth panel, cultural sharing, and testimony from families.

Topics include sex trafficking, the implementation of a statewide missing Indigenous person alert, and culture as healing.

According to the tribe, California has the fifth highest rate of MMIP cases in the U.S.

The summit is intended to help identify actionable tribally driven solutions to combat MMIP.

Members of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California burn piles in an overgrown area near Dresslerville, Nev., to promote new willow growth, a key resource for traditional basket making. (Courtesy Washoe Tribe)

The devastation from January’s Los Angeles wildfires is a reminder that extreme wildfires burn year-round.

The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California is working to reintroduce intentional, cultural fire meant to restore forest health – and reduce explosive fires.

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

It’s a sun-splashed afternoon in a forest near South Lake Tahoe, where large fir and pine trees stretch into the clear blue sky, and dozens of tribal members are eager to learn about cultural burning.

But first, they have to learn how to control and put out fires.

That’s why a group is huddled around a heavy-duty water pump with two thick fire hoses connected to it.

One hose is in a tub of water the size of an above-ground pool, and the other is unraveled a few dozen yards away.

Jeremy Miles Placencia, a U.S. Forest Service forestry technician, leads the demonstration.

“We have everything connected. We have our discharge hose. Now we can set up the fuel line.”

And then Placencia revs up the water pump, which roars like an angry lawn mower, echoing through the forest.

Water pushes through the extended hose, like a snake coming to life.

Now, participants can practice spraying pressurized water as if they were putting out a fire.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Jeremy Miles Placencia, left, demonstrates how to use a water pump at a fire training hosted by the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. (Photo: Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau)

One person soaking up that knowledge is 30-year-old Kyle Tabor-Cooper (Nooksack) originally from Washington state.

He now lives in Northern Nevada and is engaged to a member of the Washoe Tribe.

“I’ve met a lot of people that have inspired me to get into this training and just show me a different kind of way with cultural, intentional fire.”

Cultural fires are restorative, not destructive.

They’re typically done on a smaller scale to take care of traditional medicine plants or other cultural resources that rely on fire, as Rhiana Jones, director of the Washoe Tribe’s environmental protection department, explains.

“For example, the Washoe Tribe, our first two burns were burning a willow patch. Washoes are famous for their baskets, making beautiful baskets. So when you burn the willows, they grow back better, straighter, with less secondary nodes.”

But the Washoe Tribe wasn’t allowed to intentionally burn for more than a century. That’s because of longtime colonial federal policies that prioritized suppression – or putting out fires as soon as they start.

Jones said that has hurt tribes, and the health of many forests.

A mountain range covered in a smoky haze. In the foreground, there is a stand of burnt-out pinyon pines. In the middle ground, there are rolling hills of cheatgrass, which borders patches of surviving pinyon forest.

The Pine Nut Mountains on Washoe tribal lands, bathed in smoke from the Mosquito Fire in 2022, used to host many acres of pinyon pine forest.

Pinyon pines are threatened by climate change-driven drought, wildfire, heat, and invasion by insects.

“Fire suppression is like Indigenous culture and Indigenous people suppression as well. They were not interested in, I think, learning from Indigenous people.”

But that has started to change over the last decade.

Now, many federal fire officials say decades of keeping fire off the land caused a buildup of highly flammable dead trees and brush, turning many forests into a tinderbox.

And rising temperatures and drier conditions are adding even more fuel.

A 2021 study led by UCLA found that climate change has been the main driver of the increase in fire weather in the West.

“Climate change has had a huge effect, with respect to drought, increase of pests and pathogens, and then increase of wildfire. So, we’re having these catastrophic, huge wildfires coming through that we can’t keep up with.”

Global nonprofit The Nature Conservancy has worked with tribes to help restore that balance.

The group, which was at the Washoe Tribe’s training, brings together trained burn bosses and Indigenous fire practitioners to work and learn side-by-side, according to Brandon Cobb (Cherokee), a program manager with The Nature Conservancy.

“A lot of what we’re doing here is trying to return to that different style of fire that allows us to actually promote our ecosystems, promote our cultures.”

Cobb noted it’s important younger generations become educated and trained on stewarding their homelands.

“As Indigenous people, it took almost 500 years to nearly eradicate us. And in order to rebuild to what we once were, it will take at least 500 years.”

Back near the water pump, Tabor-Cooper is motivated to be a part of that change.

“I feel like there’s a lot of purpose in this kind of line of work (smiles).”

Through the hands-on training, Tabor-Cooper gained qualifications to fight fires with federal and state agencies and the Washoe Tribe, and work on cultural burns with tribal members.

The Nooksack tribal member already got a taste of what it’s like.

He recently observed a cultural burn in a meadow meant to restore medicinal plants like elderberries, an experience that inspired him even more.

“The possibilities and the opportunity and what the future holds seems so much brighter. Introducing a relationship with fire that isn’t just bad.”

Tabor-Cooper said he’s excited to carve out a career in fire, and pass that torch of knowledge down to his future children.

This story was originally produced for our new climate show, “Our Living Lands,” a collaboration of the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, and Native Public Media.

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U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says U.S. Health And Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy has pledged to preserve the Indian Health Service (IHS).

Alaska Public Media’s Liz Ruskin reports.

Sen. Murkowski says she reached Sec. Kennedy by phone last weekend.

“He was given a mandate to make a 10% reduction across the board throughout Health and Social Services. And after we had our conversation, he committed to me that there were going to be no reductions at IHS on his watch. It was important to have that line of communication.”

Murkowski voted for Kennedy’s confirmation despite her disapproval of his decades-long campaigns to undermine trust in vaccines.

She defended that vote by saying she has to find a way to work with top officials in the Trump administration to represent her constituents’ concerns, and she says Kennedy’s IHS pledge shows her approach is already paying off.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), ranking Democrats on subcommittees that oversee funding for the Department of the Interior, are urging the Trump administration to reinstate terminated Indian Affairs employees.

They’re also calling for the federal hiring freeze to be lifted, and to rescind early retirement offers.

In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum Thursday, the lawmakers ask the administration to “instead work to strengthen and grow Indian Affairs staff to best meet the needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives.”

They say many of the Indian Affairs programs tribal communities rely on are already underfunded and understaffed, and that the administration’s actions are damaging, implemented without tribal consultation, and put vital Indian Country services at risk.

(Courtesy Sun Bear Industries)

Wisconsin tribal nations are working toward energy autonomy.

They’re using renewable energy and creating economic opportunities, as Judith Ruiz-Branch reports.

Tribal nations have historically faced challenges to own and control their own electricity, even though a significant number of plant and utility infrastructure are in close proximity to reservation lands.

Isaiah Ness founded Sun Bear Industries after witnessing disproportionate opportunities in the renewable energy space.

“There’s not much disparity in the type of person that was receiving solar. It was one of those things that you could see the common trend very easily. ”

Ness now helps Indigenous and minority communities in Wisconsin to build renewable energy infrastructure with an emphasis on intersecting cultural appreciation and economic opportunities.

The Menominee Nation is working to achieve energy sovereignty by 2035.

Part of that vision began with their solar elder project which was created to ensure elder community members are never without power during outages.

Ness says reservations typically have high power demands, and having autonomy over that is key.

“It makes more sense for them to have on reservation power-producing plants and facilities that are also sourced from clean energy. And then for them to be able to reinvest into their own community. And so this concept of virtuous cycle how far and how many cycles can we make out of $1 that is injected into renewable energy.”

Community partnerships and grants have been a crucial component to the progress Indigenous communities have made thus far.

The Inflation Reduction Act allocated about $400 billion toward climate initiatives with a large portion dedicated to renewable energy projects through tax incentives and grants for tribes.

Uncertainty looms on whether programs like these will be included in proposed spending cuts under the Trump administration.

This story was produced with original reporting from Robert Chappell for Madison 365.

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Photo: Entering Black Hills National Forest on Route 87 at Black Hills National Forest. (daveynin / Flickr)

In South Dakota, the Senate passed a resolution Wednesday to promote the long-term health and viability of the Black Hills National Forest.

SDPB’s C.J. Keene reports.

Brought by State Sen. Randy Deibert (R-SD) from Spearfish, the bill was widely supported, though that does not mean it went without questions.

State Sen. Red Dawn Foster (Oglala Lakota/D-SD) questioned issues like tribal involvement in the long-term forest plan and the treatment of old growth trees.

Sen. Deibert was quick to quell concerns.

“The tribes have a cooperative agency status that is above and beyond the local governments, so they will have a seat at the table on any action taken in the Hills. Now, the old growth – that’s part of the management plan too. They have guidelines in the management plan too when they do a harvest to acknowledge that growth and other unique situations.”

The Black Hills are considered sacred in Lakota culture, and Indigenous people have historically been underrepresented in decision-making for forest management.

(Courtesy Navajo Nation Council / Facebook)

On Wednesday, members of the Navajo Nation Council joined Utah state officials and lawmakers at the state capitol in Salt Lake City to celebrate a water rights settlement.

The Utah-Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement grants the Navajo Nation a water allocation of 81,500 acre-feet per year with rights to both surface and groundwater from the Colorado River within Utah.

The settlement also includes significant funding for water infrastructure development.

Navajo council members say this comes after years of advocacy and will provide Navajo communities with essential needs like brining running water to homes.

According to the tribe, there are about 6,000 residents on the Utah side of the Navajo Nation and about half of them live without running water.

Dancers from a dozen North Slope villages recently gathered for the biannual festival Kivġiq in Utqiagvik, Alaska.

Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more.

Susan Patkotak was not allowed to participate in Iñupiaq dancing growing up. But last week, the 19-year-old performed in front of hundreds of people and received a standing ovation.

It was a new dance she created that told a story of reconnecting to the tradition.

“It’s about how I wasn’t allowed to dance when I was younger.”

Patkotak is a member of Barrow Dancers, one of 11 dance groups that took part in Kivġiq.

The event, also known as the “messenger feast,” brought together at least 700 participants.

It included a running race, gift-giving, sharing Indigenous food and, most importantly, Iñupiaq dancing.

For performers like David Elavgaq, it was a chance to reconnect with relatives and friends and uplift each other through the traditional art form.

“It’s healing for us coming out of the long, dark winter days.”

Kivġiq is a longtime tradition held during the years of successful harvests, when coastal Iñupiaq tribes would trade their catch and products with their inland neighbors.

The tradition was discontinued in the early 20th century because the church viewed Iñupiaq dancing as pagan.

The festival finally restarted in the late 1980s.

This year’s acts included traditional ceremonial dances like the box drum dance.

The legend behind it describes the Mother Eagle teaching Iñupiaq people to drum and celebrate.

The event also featured some brand-new dances – including the one from Patkotak with the Barrow Dancers.

Patkotak only started dancing two years ago, and for a while it was hard for her to be left out of the practice.

The lyrics of the song she performed at the recent festival describe the joyful feeling of being a part of the dancing tradition.

“We create songs and dances to express ourselves and to express our stories.”

Patkotak dedicated her dance to elders and everyone who yearns to reconnect to their culture.

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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)

A Lake Superior tribe in Wisconsin says a Canadian energy firm’s plans to reroute an oil and gas pipeline will violate its water quality standards under the Clean Water Act.

Danielle Kaeding has more.

Energy firm Enbridge wants to reroute Line 5 after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued the company in 2019 to shut down and remove the pipeline from its lands.

Line 5 carries up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario.

Federal regulators signed off on the tribe’s water quality standards in 2009.

Bad River Tribal Chair Robert Blanchard says the reroute would harm the tribe’s resources.

Earthjustice attorney Stefanie Tsosie represents the tribe. She says it’s possible blasting bedrock to install the pipe could unearth elements that could become hazardous when exposed.

“The blasting materials themselves could be hazardous and introduce hazardous components to the water.”

She says those may include PFAS, mercury, or other chemicals.

An Enbridge spokesperson says the company is confident the project will not significantly impact water quality or exceed the tribe’s standards.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on the Senate floor February 13, 2025. (Courtesy C-SPAN)

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has introduced a bill that would officially designate North America’s highest mountain as Denali, its Koyukon Athabascan name.

The legislation would require that any reference in U.S. laws, maps, or other records refer to the mountain as Denali.

This comes after President Donald Trump’s executive order to change the name back to Mount McKinley.

Sen. Murkowski spoke about the mountain on the Senate floor last week, saying for Alaskans it will always be Denali.

She says her action follows the Alaska State Legislature, which recently moved a resolution urging the administration and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to maintain the name Denali.

And as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, the fight to preserve the name is an old battle.

If she were alive, Poldine Carlo would probably sing her Denali song to protest President Trump’s executive order.

Carlo was in her late 90’s when she performed her Denali song at a Denakkanaaga elders and youth conference.

She had greeted President Barack Obama with the same song, when he visited Alaska in 2015, the summer his administration changed the name back from McKinley to Denali.

“It just felt so good and it was healing.”

Angela Gonzalez remembers when Poldine sang the song for President Obama.

In her Athabascan Woman Blog, she wrote about it and the joy she felt over the return of the ancient name.

“Just a feeling of a great land and untold stories from our ancestors.”

Gonzalez’s maiden name is Yatlin, which means “runner”, and refers to her family’s long history of trading goods.

“We definitely traveled a long ways.” where the mountain was part of a long network of trails that went all the way from Siberia to California – and Denali, which means tall one in her Koyukon Athabascan language, was an important landmark.

“We were people who traded everywhere. We have artifacts from other locations.”

Gonzalez says no matter what the president does, Denali will always be Denali.

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(Photo: Angel White Eyes / NDN Collective)

After nearly 50 years in prison, Leonard Peltier is free to go home.

He was released Tuesday morning from a federal prison in Florida.

Former President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of the Indigenous activist last month, for his role in a 1975 deadly shootout with FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Peltier, an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, will reside on his tribal homelands in North Dakota, serving out the remainder of his sentence in home confinement

The Indigenous organization NDN Collective is bringing him back home.

In a statement, Peltier said, “Today I am finally free. They may have imprisoned me, but they never took my spirit.”

He also thanked his supporters saying he looks forward to seeing his friends, family, and community.

NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen in a statement said Peltier never gave up fighting for his freedom so they never gave up fighting for him.

Many see Peltier as a symbol of racism and oppression against Native Americans by the justice system.

While the move to free Peltier has drawn applause from members of Congress and groups like Amnesty International, it has been opposed by law enforcement officials.

On Wednesday, NDN Collective is hosting an event to celebrate his return home, and a community feed in Belcourt, N.D.

The event will be live streamed.

Peltier is 80 years old and is said to be in poor health.

Listen to today’s Native America Calling for more on Leonard Peltier’s journey

Tuesday, February 18, 2025 — Native American activism marks victory with Leonard Peltier’s release

The chairman of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes delivered the State of Tribal Nations address to the Montana Legislature on Monday.

Justin Gray Hawk says tribes in the state are healthy, strong, and resilient.

He began the speech by highlighting some successes he says lawmakers and the state have supported in Indian Country, including a water settlement, economic ventures, and a tax sharing agreement.

Gray Hawk says bills tribes have supported are funding for law enforcement, addressing missing and murdered Indigenous people, and expanding Medicaid.

He says among issues tribes will continue to advocate for are Indian education, protecting tribal hunting and fishing rights, and bringing back bison to tribal lands. Gray Hawk ended his speech by encouraging partnerships with tribes.

“This is an important time to come together. It is important to remind ourselves and our surrounding communities that together we are greater than the sum of our parts.”

There are seven reservations and 12 tribes in Montana.

Las Vegas Paiute Tribe 24th Annual Snow Mountain Powwow in 2012. (Photo: Tomás Del Coro / Wikimedia)

Nevada’s only sitting Indigenous legislator has introduced a bill to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day on what she calls the “correct day” – the second Monday in October.

The bill was heard last week, as Alex Gonzalez reports.

Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) issued a proclamation designating August 9 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Nevada, but Assemblymember Shea Backus (Cherokee/D-NV) says it doesn’t pay Indigenous communities the recognition or respect they deserve.

She says AB144 would align both dates – as is celebrated across the nation.

“Indigenous Peoples Day isn’t just about a day of recognition, it is about placing Indigenous voices at the forefront of decisions that shape the future of this state. It is this deep cultural connection that has shaped the character of the state of Nevada, and should be celebrated.”

Backus says opponents of the bill see it as an attempt to remove Columbus Day, a federal holiday, from the books.

She rejects that notion, and says the second Monday in October could instead be shared between both holidays.

Assemblymember Richard DeLong (R-NV) questioned the precedent the change of date could be setting for the state.

“Under state law, there are no overlaps. This would be the first time that the state ever decides to have a period of observance that you have two of them coinciding on the same day. So in that sense, it is unique and different.”

But backers of the bill say banks and other establishments already recognize the October date both as Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day, and see the bill as a formality to codify the joint recognition into law.

Nearly 1,000 Indian Health Service (IHS) layoffs were rescinded Friday, as tribal organizations from across the country advocate to protect the federal workforce serving Indian Country.

The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

More than a dozen tribal organizations sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management and the administration on Friday, urging for the protection of federal employees serving Indian Country.

The letter raises concerns about what they say would be devastating impacts on essential services in tribal communities, including critical service disruption to healthcare and emergency services, and jobs with ripple effects on local economies.

The groups are calling for full exemptions for employees in the Indian Health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and other federal offices that support tribes.

The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) is among organizations to sign the letter.

The NIHB told Native News Online on Sunday that the IHS layoffs were rescinded “thanks at least in part to advocacy by the many Tribal organizations.”

ICT reports new health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. verbally rescinded the IHS layoffs Friday evening.

Tribal organizations are reminding officials that tribes have unique political status, and the government has trust and treaty obligations.

A patient at the IHS Fort Belknap Hospital in Harlem, Mont. receives a COVID vaccination on April 6, 2021. (Courtesy IHS)

A recent report shows that in rural counties home to large numbers of American Indians, including in Montana, people are more likely to rely on Medicaid for health insurance across all age groups.

Kathleen Shannon has more.

About 23% of Montanans rely on Medicaid for their health coverage. But the four counties with the highest rates – roughly 40% – are all home to American Indian reservations.

That’s according to a report from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families on Medicaid’s role in rural areas.

Executive Director Joan Alker says that’s a national pattern.

“This is important because if Congress moves ahead to make large cuts, these areas and Indian Country more generally will be in big trouble.”

Alker says documents leaked from the House Budget Committee show it’s considering cuts to Medicaid between $200 billion and $2.3 trillion.

She adds the cuts are not a “foregone conclusion.”

Jason Smith, executive director of the Montana Consortium for Urban Indian Health, says Medicaid doesn’t just cover individuals, it also helps reimburse health centers like his.

“I would say the UIOs, particularly, had a lot of revenue coming from Medicaid. So it’s really a great secondary source of funding that has helped their organizations run and provide services for the communities.”

As of January, more than 14,000 American Indians in Montana were enrolled in Medicaid expansion.

A Poetry in the Park event commemorating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women on May 1, 2024. (Photo: Brian Bull / KLCC)

An effort to improve response to reports of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in Oregon is underway in the state legislature.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

State Rep. Tawna Sanchez (Shoshone-Bannock, Ute, and Carrizo descent/D-OR) is building on a 2019 MMIP bill she sponsored, that created talking sessions between tribal communities and state agencies, including the Oregon State Police (OSP).

That led to improved training and a tribal liaison in the OSP.

Now Rep. Sanchez has a bill that aims to have Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes and urban communities partner up with another state agency.

“It’s asking that we put a sort of intervention kind of situation in the Oregon Health Authority. They’ve already got established prevention models that they’ve used, they already have the ability to get out to community.  They already have the ability to bring folks into sort of that thought process of, like, ‘How do we fix this?’”

The bill is currently in front of the legislature’s budget-writing committee with an estimated price tag of $500,000 per year.

She’s concerned about whether federal funds could be tapped, given the uncertainty about the future of federal spending.

As the new chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was one of the featured speakers at the National Congress of American Indians winter summit in Washington, D.C. this week.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, she encouraged tribes to stand up for their rights.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she’s worried about President Trump’s executive orders to shut down programs that promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

She says the administration must not be allowed to apply these initiatives to tribes.

“This is a different category altogether, folks.”

Murkowski says this needs to be made clear to the new administration.

“The federal government is charged with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust toward Native Indian tribes, and it’s that trust responsibility that we’re talking about here.”

Murkowski told the group she was encouraged by a directive from the Interior Department that says the president’s DEI initiatives do not override the Department’s pre-existing legal obligations to tribes.

But the senator says she does appreciate the administration’s desire to make government more efficient.

“But how we achieve it, matters. It matters.”

Murkowski says, above all, the administration needs to follow the law.

The senator drew the most reaction from the crowd, when she compared the current political climate to boating in the rough seas of Southeast Alaska, when it’s not easy to find safe harbor.

“I think we got people vomiting off both sides of the boat. It’s kind of tumultuous right now (laughter).”

Murkowski says she’s heard that some tribes have had trouble accessing their federal money.

She encouraged them contact her Indian affairs committee, so it can keep track.

The Senator also noted that the president’s Department of Government Efficiency should look to tribes and their success in using tribal compacts, a self-governance mechanism that has saved the federal government the millions of dollars.

U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids (D-KS), Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), and Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) sent a letter this week to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum raising concerns about Indian education.

In the letter, they outline their opposition of the president’s order “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families.”

They’re concerned it would dismantle the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).

The U.S. lawmakers wrote, “the U.S. government has both trust and treaty responsibilities to provide Tribal education services, led by the BIE under the Department of the Interior.”

The lawmakers say the BIE administers funds for hundreds of schools and programs, and for Native communities there are few to no other options.

They also emphasize the schools provide culturally informed educational opportunities and language programs.

The lawmakers are urging Burgum to engage in formal tribal consultations and ensure that BIE programs are fully funded.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been sworn in as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Indian Health Service (IHS).

Sec. Kennedy has promised to elevate Indian health in HHS.

During his confirmation hearing in January, Kennedy committed to addressing Indian health care.

“I’m going to bring in a Native at the assistant secretary level. I’d like to get him actually designated as an assistant secretary for the first time in American history, to make sure all of the decisions that we make in our agency are conscious of the impacts on the First Nations.”

In a social media post, the Indian Health Service said, as the 18th largest public health care system in the United States, it looks forward to working with Kennedy with its efforts to strengthen health care services, expand access, and improve health outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The IHS provides health services to more than two million American Indians and Alaska Natives in 37 states.

A bill, which would mandate the teaching of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEU), has advanced from the Senate Education Committee in the South Dakota Legislature.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s C.J. Keene reports.

The bill was brought by State Sen. Tamara Grove (R-SD) from Lower Brule.

She says the move is in the spirit of “resetting” state-tribal relations.

“I am honored and blown away for all seven of the Senators to stand with me on (SB) 196. To really lean into the rest that the good chairman from Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate called for is just unbelievable.”

Under the administration of former Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), state-tribal relations saw many polarizing moments – including Gov. Noem saying Native children “don’t have any hope.”

That culminated in the then-governor’s banishment from every reservation in South Dakota.

In the State of the Tribes speech to lawmakers, Sisseton Wahpeton Chairman J. Garrett Renville said this moment was a chance to reset that relationship.

Sen. Grove says teaching these lessons in all public schools is a meaningful step toward reconciliation.

“A big part of what (Native peoples) carry has been the rejection and the abandonment – those kinds of heart wounds. It’s part of the healing process, right? It says we want to move forward, and we want to be more inclusive about how we’re doing our education.”

The OSEUs teach Native culture, traditions, and history.

The standards were developed by a team of educators and experts in culture, history, oral traditions, and language in collaboration with the state’s education department.

The bill will next be heard on the Senate floor.

(Courtesy Brenda White Bull)

In the New Mexico Legislature, a bill that would prohibit school boards from banning tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies in the state unanimously passed its first committee this week.

As Jeanette DeDios reports, it stems from an incident that happened last May in the city of Farmington, N.M.

A Native American high school graduate was told to remove their embellished graduation cap that had an eagle plume and beads.

Farmington Municipal Schools later released a statement clarifying the district’s policy that caps and gowns could not be altered.

The student was given a generic cap for the remainder of the ceremony.

New Mexico Secretary for the Indian Affairs Department Josett Monette from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa discussed how important wearing regalia is for Native American students.

“It’s our way of honoring the accomplishment. It’s our family’s way of honoring our accomplishments. And I think it means something to be able to represent who we are as Native people.”

During the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee hearing, State Sen. William Sharer (R-NM) from Farmington suggested defining what regalia is and questioned whether this bill could affect the first amendment.

“What about other groups? I know this one clearly talks about Native American, but what if somebody wanted to support Christopher Columbus? What if somebody wanted to put a swastika on their head for First Amendment rights.”

Bill co-sponsor State Sen. Benny Shendo Jr. (Jemez Pueblo/D-NM) says the intent isn’t to exclude anybody but to reaffirm Native Americans students’ sovereign rights.

“We’re the only group of people as federally recognized tribes that are named in the Constitution. No other group of people is. That’s why this relationship and what we do, we’re not excluding anybody. We’re exerting our right to be who we are, that this country identified from the very beginning.”

State Sen. William Soules (D-NM) recommended giving the bill an emergency clause so it would go into effect in time for this year’s graduates in May. 

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