March 04, 2023
The Department of the Interior is taking action to restore wild and healthy populations of American bison, along with the prairie grassland ecosystem. On Friday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) issued a Secretary’s Order that allocates over $25 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to fund the restoration.
Currents
LANSING, Mich.— Two state Senators in Michigan have introduced bipartisan legislation that would ensure Native American children can benefit from guardianship assistance, including permanent placement with guardians instead of temporary foster care.
From Our Partners
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Opinion
Guest Opinion. Today, I share with you the story of my experience on the ground during that monumental moment. I’ll talk about the way things unfolded and how those weeks under siege were the first domino in a series of events that catapulted our movement into the international spotlight — and also eventually led to the formation of the Lakota People’s Law Project.
Opinion. Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on February 27, 1973 by the American Indian Movement (AIM).
Sovereignty
WASHINGTON—Leaders of the country’s largest intertribal religious organization met this week with federal officials and urged them to uphold Native rights to use peyote in religious ceremonies.
In a bipartisan and bicameral move, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives today reintroduced legislation to amend the Act of June 18, 1934 — known as the Indian Reorganization Act.
Education
Tamarah Pfeiffer, Ph.D., a tribal citizen of the Navajo Nation, has been appointed as the president of Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI). SIPI, a public tribal land-grant community college in Albuquerque, New Mexico. is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The community college offers programs ranging from liberal arts to pre-engineering.
A private liberal arts college with strong ties to the nation’s flagship Indian boarding school is looking to right a historic wrong by opening a center devoted to contemporary Native American and Indigenous studies.
Arts & Entertainment
Kirsten C. Kunkle (Muscogee Creek Nation) fell in love for the first time when she was 12 years old. She remembers exactly where she was: the Toledo Opera Association in Toledo, Ohio.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Muskogee Creek) will receive the 2023 Harper Lee Award at the Monroe Literary Festival on Saturday, March 4, 2023.
Health
Environment
Two Midwest tribes are getting a $6.5 million boost from the U.S. Department of Energy to launch electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure on their tribal lands.
The National Congress of American Indians announced Thursday that it had acquired ownership of the well-known “Crying Indian” anti-pollution public service announcement (PSA) advertisement that first aired on Earth Day in 1971.
