December 14, 2025
Opinion. Late last Monday afternoon, my daughter sent me a text with a link to a Topeka, Kansas television station story with the headline, “Prairie Band lands $30M contract for ICE ‘mega centers." As a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, I felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach.
Currents
The Tribal Leadership Council Board of Directors has appointed James Craig III, a council member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, to the Tribal Leadership Foundation Committee, the organization announced.
From Our Partners
For generations, many Native families have relied on community knowledge, not institutions, to guide their financial lives. That wisdom remains essential.
As First American Capital Corporation’s (FACC) influence expands across Wisconsin, it is through strong community partnerships that connect Native entrepreneurs with business loan options, education and resources for success.
Across the country today, museums are being forced to reckon with the truth. For centuries, most mainstream museums were built from taking — taking objects, taking stories, taking lands. They displayed the Ancestors of Native Nations under the banner of “education,” while silencing the very Peoples those Ancestors came from.
Opinion
Guest Opinion. The judiciary should be above reproach and when a judge falls from grace, it is alarming. When the judge comes from the highest court in a state, it is cause for particular alarm.
Opinion. Late last Monday afternoon, my daughter sent me a text with a link to a Topeka, Kansas television station story with the headline, “Prairie Band lands $30M contract for ICE ‘mega centers." As a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, I felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach.
Sovereignty
WASHINGTON — With tribal leaders in attendance Monday afternoon at a meeting of the Treasury Tribal Advisory Committee (9TTAC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service announced the finalization of two long-awaited tribal tax regulations.
WASHINGTON — After more than three decades of pressure from tribal governments seeking relief from IRS uncertainty, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service on Monday announced that two long-awaited tribal tax regulations have been finalized — a historic move tribal leaders say removes major barriers to economic development and self-governance in Indian Country.
Education
It’s a scene straight from a Dickens novel: a family sits around the table on Christmas Day with an empty chair amongst them and a somber air. Except this isn’t the Victorian classic, it’s real life for far too many Native families and no well-intentioned spirits to save the day. The epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in the United States that has existed for years continues unabated. And while Native students deal with the same end of semester pressures and holiday stresses as other students, they’re more likely to also be living in a state of fear or mourning for a relative who may never make it home.
Submissions for the sixth annual Tribal College Blanket Design Contest, hosted by American Indian College Fund and Pendleton Woolen Mills, are open from now until January 15, 2026 .
Arts & Entertainment
Late Hollywood icon Rob Reiner's final project was” Wind River: Rising,” a sequel to Taylor Sheridan’s 2017 film set on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. The film, which Reiner served as an executive producer on, is in post-production and has no set release date, according to IMDB .
Vision Maker Media (VMM), a leading source of media by and about Native Americans since 1976, has named filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald, members of the Blackfeet Nation, as recipients of the 2025 Frank Blythe Award for Media Excellence. The award, named for VMM’s late founder, recognizes individuals or organizations that advance Indigenous media opportunities by engaging and empowering Native American and Alaska Native creators. The MacDonalds will receive $2,000 for professional development.
Health
Environment
President Donald Trump has signed a resolution backed by members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation to revoke restrictions on drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope.
Nearly 900 acres of land have been returned to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation in California. The land borders Yosemite National Park -- one of the most visited National Parks—— and the Sierra National Forest.