November 28, 2025
Indigenous actor Elaine Miles says she was walking to a bus stop in Redmond, Wash. when four men wearing masks and vests labeled “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement” stepped out of two unmarked black SUVs and demanded her identification, according to an account she shared on social media and in reporting by The Seattle Times.
Currents
Happy December. Here are some of the stories you may have missed during the long Thanksgiving weekend:
From Our Partners
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. On November 19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that, as a result of the government shutdown, it would not release its October jobs report —the first time in the report’s 77-year history that it would not be published. As a result, businesses, state and local governments, and the Federal Reserve (which will decide this month whether to adjust interest rates) are now left without a clear view of the nation’s economic situation.
Opinion. During last year’s Idaho election, a Republican state senator lost his composure when a candidate forum turned to the topic of racism.
Sovereignty
SAN FRANCISCO — About 2,500 people were ferried from Pier 33 to Alcatraz Island before dawn Thursday for the annual Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering and commemorates the 1969–71 occupation of Alcatraz by Native activists.
This past April, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians formally reclaimed its ancestral name, now identifying as the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation.
Education
In wake of Tuesday's announcement that the Trump administration is dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, the American Indian College Fund is warning that the Trump administration’s plan to transfer more than a dozen federal education programs to other agencies could jeopardize Native students’ access to critical services and undermine the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations.
Little Priest Tribal College has received a $5 million gift from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation (Yield Giving), the largest donation in the institution’s history since its founding in 1996.
Arts & Entertainment
The metal cattle guard hits with a loud thump, introducing miles of bumpy clay-red dirt roads that bring me closer to my return from the city to family in Zuni Pueblo.
This Native American Heritage Month, Native News Online is celebrating by sharing our favorite Native American actors, movies, TV shows, books, chefs, musicians, artists, and fashion designers. In Hollywood, Native actors are rewriting the narrative and proving that authentic representation matters.
Health
Environment
Leaders of the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan and the conservation group Chilkat Forever are warning the new owners of the Palmer mine project that they will face “sustained and unyielding opposition” if they pursue hardrock mining in the Chilkat Valley.
Two South Texas tribes and a local environmental group are calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke a federal permit for a proposed export terminal at Donnel Point, saying new environmental and cultural findings invalidate the original approval.