May 13, 2025
SPRINGFIELD — Amid the annual bustle at the Illinois Capitol during the legislative session’s midpoint, a sea of color and singing filled the rotunda on a sunny March day.
Currents
Native Vote. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), endorsed Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, a tribal citizen of the White Earth Nation, for U.S. Senate in a video today, adding to the growing list of support.
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Opinion
Opinion. This Mother’s Day, Native News Online honors Native mothers — the life-givers, the culture-keepers, the women whose strength holds our nations together.
Guest Opinion. On Saturday, May 3, 2025, the citizens of Cameron County officially voted to name their city “Starbase” in an overwhelming victory of 212-6 votes. So the company town of SpaceX is an official city in Texas, now. Next, the city hoped to control its beach.
Sovereignty
The San Carlos Apache Tribe welcomed a May 9 federal court decision that temporarily halts the U.S. government’s plan to transfer Oak Flat—sacred Western Apache land within the Tonto National Forest—to Resolution Copper, a company backed by Chinese interests.
A federal court has issued an order halting the U.S. government’s plans to transfer Oak Flat—the most sacred site of the Western Apaches—to a multinational mining corporation for destruction. In the case Apache Stronghold v. United States , the government recently indicated it could hand over the land as soon as June 16, 2025, to Resolution Copper, a mining company with Chinese ownership, which intends to transform the sacred site into a massive copper mine. This would effectively end Apache religious practices tied to the land. Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Western Apaches, other Native communities, and allies, filed an emergency motion to pause the transfer while the case awaits review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Education
Bella Garcia, a senior at Clovis High School in California and a citizen of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians, has spent her senior year pushing back against school officials who say she can’t wear her full tribal regalia at graduation.
Two students making waves in Indigenous art and filmmaking were honored this week as winners of the 2025 Tribal College Journal (TCJ) Student Art and Film Contest.
Arts & Entertainment
Chickasaw Nation Productions’ feature films “Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher” and “Te Ata” are now available on the streaming service Peacock.
This month, The HISTORY Channel will debut a two-night documentary event, Sitting Bull, airing May 27 and 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Health
Environment
On Wednesday, NDN Fund announced the successful closing of a loan with the Native Conservancy, an Indigenous-led land trust based in Alaska’s Copper River Delta. As the impact investment arm of NDN Collective, NDN Fund provides braided capital—combining financing with capacity and power-building support—to Indigenous-owned and led businesses working to strengthen their communities.
The California Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials today approved AB 362, a bill that would require the State Water Resources Control Board and regional water boards to consider the impacts of proposed water projects on tribal communities. The measure, introduced by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino), also mandates that state and local water boards establish water quality standards that protect tribal water uses, where applicable.