September 24, 2021
This weekend and next week, Indian Country is stacked with so many cool cultural happenings that you may have to take a couple days off to take it all in.
Currents
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes legislation to address the slaughter of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee massacre a century ago.
Las Vegas, Nev.—A woman from the Lummi Nation in Washington has been found alive in Las Vegas after her family filed a missing persons report with various law enforcement agencies. Reatha Finkbonner was on vacation while in Las Vegas with her fiancé and friends when she went missing on September 3, 2021.
LAS VEGAS — What began as a vacation to Las Vegas has turned into another case of a missing Indigenous woman. Missing is Lummi Nation tribal citizen Reatha May Finkbonner, 30, who went to Las Vegas with her fiancé and friends.
WASHINGTON — Keeping a campaign promise to Indian Country, the White House announced on Wednesday that it will host a 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit this fall. While the exact date is yet to be announced, the summit will take place during the week of November 8, 2021.
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Every ten years, states redraw the community lines for both Native and non-Native lands within their borders. This process is known as redistricting. These imaginary lines determine election districts, and the way that they are drawn can have a...
Opinion
OPINION. Understandably, Americans are ready to get on with their lives. Since the first Covid-19 death was announced in the United States 19 months ago, the nation, along with tribal nations, have wanted to get back to their routines of their normal lives by returning to restaurants, shopping, casinos, and going back to school.
Thanks to a recorded interview made public by Pulitzer Prize-winners Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, we’ve learned that former President Donald Trump now has other culprits to vilify in his Big Lie. “Indians that got paid to vote in different places” has been added to his roster of delusion.
Sovereignty
TULSA, Okla.—Negiel Bigpond is a Yuchi elder, an Evangelical pastor, an Indian boarding school survivor and an activist. Since 2003, he’s worked with Sam Brownback—the former U.S. Senator, Kansas Governor and present U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom—to pursue a formal apology from the mouth of the United States president for atrocities committed against Native Americans.
You might recognize Rebecca Nagle’s voice from Season 1 of her podcast This Land, produced by Crooked Media, where she told the story of a landmark court case—McGirt v. Oklahoma—that determined how much of Oklahoma is tribal land.
Education
PIERRE, S.D. — Facing bipartisan pressure and calls for her resignation by the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition , South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told the state Department of Education to postpone controversial changes to its social studies standards for up to one year to allow for more public input.
BISMARCK, N.D.— A mom and educator from North Dakota has released a children’s book aimed at answering why many Indigenous boys and men have long hair. Bear’s Braid , Native author Joelle Bearstail’s first book, was inspired by experiences her son had while attending school in Bismarck, N.D.
Arts & Entertainment
This weekend and next week, Indian Country is stacked with so many cool cultural happenings that you may have to take a couple days off to take it all in.
LOS ANGELES — Documentary film studio XTR announced on Tuesday it is making Lakota Nation vs. the United States , a feature-length documentary chronicling the Lakota Indians’ present-day quest to reclaim the Black Hills.
Health
Environment
LOS ANGELES – The Wupatki National Monument in Arizona will get a new conservation and management plan thanks to a $1.3 million grant from Getty Foundation to the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.
MADISON, Wis.—Six tribes are suing the state of Wisconsin for its planned November wolf hunt, claiming the proposed hunt violates the tribes’ treaty rights.