January 05, 2026
Opinion. Even after retiring from the U.S. Senate in 2005, former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who passed away on Dec. 30, 2025, remained a familiar presence in Indian Country. He was easy to spot in the crowd — at White House Tribal Nations Conferences during the Obama administration, at the National Congress of American Indians State of Indian Nations address in Washington, D.C., and at Indian Gaming Association conventions.
Currents
Welcome to the first Monday of 2026! Here are some stories you may have missed over the weekend:
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. We enhance ourselves with glasses and contacts and even canes and crutches, and we think nothing of it. But what if we enhance ourselves with technology that makes us not just up to normal performance, but better than normal human performance—or with different capabilities than a human?
Opinion. Even after retiring from the U.S. Senate in 2005, former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who passed away on Dec. 30, 2025, remained a familiar presence in Indian Country. He was easy to spot in the crowd — at White House Tribal Nations Conferences during the Obama administration, at the National Congress of American Indians State of Indian Nations address in Washington, D.C., and at Indian Gaming Association conventions.
Sovereignty
On Monday, President Donald Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have expanded and clarified the Miccosukee Tribe’s land in Florida’s Everglades. The veto appears to be in retribution of the tribe’s opposition to “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention center, located near Miccosukee ancestral tribal land.
The Oneida Nation, located in Green Bay, Wisc., is seeking legal advice on how to disengage from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts after learning that one of its subsidiaries was awarded more than $6 million in federal agreements, prompting sharp criticism from tribal members and Native advocates.
Education
On Dec. 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education said it will begin administrative wage garnishment for borrowers with defaulted federal student loans in early 2026, marking the first resumption of such collections since the pandemic-era pause that began in 2020.
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.
Arts & Entertainment
Watermark Art Center will welcome several artists from the Naytahwaush community in a collaborative exhibition titled Minwaajimowinan — “Good Stories” — on view Jan. 9 through March 28, 2026. The public is invited to an afternoon reception for the artists from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14. Live music will be performed by Doyle Turner and Jayme Littlewolf.
Museums Alaska has announced its 2025 Alaska Art Fund and Collections Management Fund grant recipients, awarding $208,440.15 to 12 museums and cultural organizations across the state.
Health
Environment
As salmon return to the headwaters of the Klamath River for the first time in more than a century, the newly formed Klamath Indigenous Land Trust and PacifiCorp announced the purchase of 10,000 acres in and around the river’s former reservoir reach. The deal is one of the largest private land purchases by an Indigenous-led land trust in U.S. history.
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.