Trahant Reports

Summary:

Fifty years ago last week the federal government’s experiment with a policy called “termination” was crushed at the ballot box on the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state. Termination was a policy that was designed to end the United States government’s role in Indian affairs. The vote on May 8 was not close.No other tribe anywhere in the United States had to deal with the termination policy again.

American Indians and Alaska Natives had a tough time during the pandemic and faced a disproportionate impact. But there is a brightspot: Vaccinations. As Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flangan said: “We know how to do this.”

This might be a moment for a new climate conversation.

Jade Begay, who just was appointed to a White House advisory council on environmental justice, says a rethinking could “liberate us” from dependency on fossil fuels and create a space for practices that are more harmonious.

The Biden administration announced a plan to spend $$2 billion to supplement third-party billing within the Indian health system. This is a big deal and perhaps a step toward Medicaid reform and changing the way the Indian healthcare system is funded.

A new film explores the story of John Peabody Harrington. He was an ethnologist and linguist who spent more than fifty years conducting exhaustive research that preserved some 150 languages (including detailed notes with more than 1 million pages).

A few years ago a Senate report pegged the unmet infrastructure needs in tribal communities at $50 billion. Now the federal government is about to spend a lot of money … but there is still a much longer “to do” list.

Indian Country Today is on a new path. The 40-year-old newspaper is no longer owned by the National Congress of American Indians. In fact, the Associated Press’s headline was cool. “News outlet Indian Country Today has a new owner: itself.”

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has made history by taking office. But the thing is … Haaland is not alone. The administration of President Joe Biden has made a number of key appointments across government, including, most recently, Janie Hipp, as the general counsel for the Department of Agriculture.

As we begin the “what’s next?” after the pandemic, Indian Country Today’s experience moving into a new studio has lessons for all. Innovations? Yes. But first be safe.

SUMMARY

The latest coronavirus relief package has a couple of more steps before it becomes law. But that path is now clear. This legislation does more to address poverty, especially child poverty, than any law since the 1960s and the Great Society or 1930s and the New Deal.