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Help us tell the stories that could save Native languages and food traditions

At a critical moment for Indian Country, Native News Online is embarking on our most ambitious reporting project yet: "Cultivating Culture," a three-year investigation into two forces shaping Native community survival—food sovereignty and language revitalization.

The devastating impact of COVID-19 accelerated the loss of Native elders and with them, irreplaceable cultural knowledge. Yet across tribal communities, innovative leaders are fighting back, reclaiming traditional food systems and breathing new life into Native languages. These aren't just cultural preservation efforts—they're powerful pathways to community health, healing, and resilience.

Our dedicated reporting team will spend three years documenting these stories through on-the-ground reporting in 18 tribal communities, producing over 200 in-depth stories, 18 podcast episodes, and multimedia content that amplifies Indigenous voices. We'll show policymakers, funders, and allies how cultural restoration directly impacts physical and mental wellness while celebrating successful models of sovereignty and self-determination.

This isn't corporate media parachuting into Indian Country for a quick story. This is sustained, relationship-based journalism by Native reporters who understand these communities. It's "Warrior Journalism"—fearless reporting that serves the 5.5 million readers who depend on us for news that mainstream media often ignores.

We need your help right now. While we've secured partial funding, we're still $450,000 short of our three-year budget. Our immediate goal is $25,000 this month to keep this critical work moving forward—funding reporter salaries, travel to remote communities, photography, and the deep reporting these stories deserve.

Every dollar directly supports Indigenous journalists telling Indigenous stories. Whether it's $5 or $50, your contribution ensures these vital narratives of resilience, innovation, and hope don't disappear into silence.

Levi headshotThe stakes couldn't be higher. Native languages are being lost at an alarming rate. Food insecurity plagues many tribal communities. But solutions are emerging, and these stories need to be told.

Support independent Native journalism. Fund the stories that matter.

Levi Rickert (Potawatomi), Editor & Publisher

 
 
July 25, 2025 Kaili Berg
Brian Curley, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, officially signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks this week after being selected 92nd overall in the third round of the 2025 MLB Draft.
Currents
July 25, 2025 Native News Online Staff Currents 1855
On Thursday, the National Indians Health Board released the following statement on President Donald Trump's call for the Washington NFL team to change its name back to "Redsk!ns, a term considered as a racial slur to Native Americans:
Opinion
July 25, 2025 CC Hovie Opinion 902
Guest Opinion. I just want to wake up one day without having to deal with another story that reminds me how invisible or disposable non-Natives still think we are. I want to live in a world where we’re not constantly fighting for the basics: to remove racist mascots, to keep our Ancestors’ remains out of museum basements, to protect our kids, our lands, and our lives. Support for Native Nations continues to be cut or ignored; healthcare funding slashed, Bureau of Indian Education budget decimated, Tribal colleges defunded. Sacred sites are opened to extraction and industry while the few staff working inside institutions to make change for Native Peoples are fired or pushed out. And now, even our burial sites are reduced to entertainment.
July 23, 2025 Cheryl Crazy Bull Opinion 1738
Guest Opinion. “In high school, my mascot was the ‘Redskins’ and I had to watch my classmates make posters saying we are going to ‘skin’ our sports opponents. The other teams would make posters that said they are going to send us home on a ‘trail of tears.’” Amanada Anderson (Choctaw) was a college student when she relayed her experiences during the 2014 Student Environment Listening Sessions held by the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (WHIAIANE). It is more than a decade later, and Native youth and college students are still living in a world eager to demean them for the sake of entertainment and stereotype-induced ego boosts.
Sovereignty
July 24, 2025 Kaili Berg Sovereignty 1495
Shinnecock Nation's tribal citizens are taking their fight for aboriginal fishing rights to federal court, aiming to protect the traditional practices that have sustained their people for generations.
July 23, 2025 Levi Rickert Sovereignty 8332
WASHINGTON — Sovereign entities are permitted to nominate individuals or organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee . In keeping with that criterion, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, a federally recognized tribal nation, is exercising its sovereignty and intends to nominate U.S. President Donald J. Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Education
July 24, 2025 Native News Online Staff Education 1356
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), the University for Indigenous Creative Excellence, is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) as its next president, effective August 1, 2025. She will succeed Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation), who will retire on July 31 following a remarkable tenure defined by visionary leadership and institutional growth.
July 24, 2025 Native News Online Staff Education 2994
A “storm” of activity is emerging from Washington in the form of funding cuts and executive orders—upending the lives of Native American communities and students. These actions jeopardize access to the funding, education, and opportunities that have, for decades, supported the progress and success of tribal nations, communities, and individuals.
Arts & Entertainment
July 21, 2025 Native News Online Staff Arts & Entertainment 745
The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) proudly announces the successful conclusion of its 36th Annual Seafair Indian Days Powwow, held July 18–20, 2025, at the iconic Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. This year’s event was one of the most highly attended in Powwow history, drawing over 20,000 attendees and featuring more than 300 dancers representing tribes from across the United States and Canada.
July 19, 2025 Shaun Griswold Arts & Entertainment 2463
Summer memories of running with cousins in Zuni mud — all the weekends I spent at my Auntie Paula’s home on the Zuni Pueblo — return as I read Joseph Lee’s book Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity .
Health
Environment
July 26, 2025 Levi Rickert Environment 278
A new episode of In the Margins , a PBS Utah series hosted by Harini Bhat, Ph.D, explores the long-standing water challenges facing Indigenous communities in the Western U.S. and the promise of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a solution. For centuries, tribes like the Shoshone, Paiute, Ute, and Goshute cared for water as a sacred, shared resource. But settler expansion in the 1800s diverted waterways, disrupted ecosystems, and led to violent conflict. Later policies, like the 1922 Colorado River Compact, excluded tribes entirely, laying the groundwork for today’s disparities. Native households remain far more likely to lack access to running water. Meanwhile, environmental crises like the shrinking Great Salt Lake are worsening public health risks, particularly for Indigenous and other marginalized communities. The film highlights how Indigenous-led solutions grounded in TEK, like a Shoshone wetland restoration project returning 10,000 acre-feet of water to the lake,offer hope. It also points to recent wins, such as California’s 2024 law integrating TEK into conservation policy. Produced with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, In the Margins centers stories often left out of history. Native News Online spoke with Bhat where she explored the inspiration behind the Earth Day episode on Indigenous water access and stewardship in Utah. Harini also discussed the historical roots of water injustice, the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a solution, and how storytelling can elevate overlooked histories. Can you introduce yourself and explain what inspired you to create this episode of In the Margins on water access and Indigenous stewardship? My name is Harini Bhat. This is actually my second career, my first was in pharmacy, with a doctorate specializing in hematology-oncology. During COVID, I started posting science and history videos, basically the footnotes of history and science that people don’t always talk about. That eventually led me to PBS, who were working on In the Margins, a show also centered around those forgotten or untold stories. For the Earth Day episodes, we really wanted to spotlight stories that people don’t know about but absolutely should, like water, and how it’s been stolen from Indigenous communities. A lot of that stems back to the Gold Rush, which marked a big turning point. That’s when settlers really began taking water from the people already living here, especially around places like Utah. That history was the foundation for this episode. How did you decide which parts of that history, like the Bear River Massacre or the Colorado River Compact, to include? We wanted to focus on stories specific to Utah that still have an impact today. Working with our amazing researchers and writers, we chose the ones with the strongest connections to current water issues. One goal of In the Margins is to show how history is still shaping our world, why it matters in 2025. So things like the Navajo Nation being 67 times more likely to lack access to running water than white households, that's the kind of statistic we center to help people understand this isn’t just history. It’s still happening. What drew you to explore Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, as part of the solution? TEK is so exciting to me, especially now that it’s being acknowledged again. For so long, there’s been this stigma that Indigenous or “ancient” knowledge isn’t scientifically valid. But TEK absolutely is, and it always has been. Indigenous communities have always known this. We wanted to end the episode on a hopeful note, yes, heavy things happened, but what’s being done now? TEK was that positive takeaway for us. As a pharmacist turned storyteller, how does your background influence how you approach stories like this? Pharmacy is very interdisciplinary, biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, and I’ve always loved that. I also love history, and I think context is everything. If you don’t know the history of something, you’re more likely to repeat mistakes. Whether it’s a science TikTok or a PBS episode, I always want to give people that foundation: what happened, how it impacts us now, and why it matters. What was the most surprising or eye-opening thing you learned while working on this episode? I didn’t do the expert interviews myself, but I read and listened to all of them. What really struck me is just how much of this is still happening, and at what scale. People like to believe these issues are in the past, but they’re not. They’re happening in our backyards, right now. That’s why we focus on those jarring statistics, they help people understand the scope. We do table reads with the whole team to make sure we’re getting the tone right, especially since I’m not Indigenous. Authenticity is everything. The episode features experts like Heather Tanana (Diné) and Brigham Daniels. How did their perspectives shape your understanding of these issues? Their insights made me realize how much of our water law and policy stems from the Gold Rush. That era was basically a free-for-all, and the consequences, ecological and cultural, are still unfolding. We talked about this during our table reads while the LA wildfires were happening, and I kept thinking about all the chemicals from the fires seeping into the water and how that’s going to affect ecosystems long-term. But there are also hopeful developments, like Chinook salmon returning in California thanks to dam removals. These expert voices spark real change. What do you hope viewers, especially those outside the West or unfamiliar with Indigenous history, take away from this episode? I hope they don’t take their water for granted. My parents used to ask, “Do you even know where your water comes from?” Just the fact that it flows from a tap and is clean is a privilege. I want people to think about where their water and food come from, and how that connects back to TEK and Indigenous stewardship. Not everyone has the same access, and that’s something we need to acknowledge and work to change. What role do you think storytellers like yourself play in elevating Indigenous knowledge and voices, especially for younger audiences? It’s so important. Young people aren’t watching traditional TV anymore, they’re using TikTok as their search engine. So we have to meet them where they are. Working with PBS Digital lets us do that. This isn’t being taught in schools, I didn’t learn it, and I doubt most kids are now. But if a student sees one of these videos and decides to study climate science or Indigenous foodways, that’s huge. That’s why we do this. Is there anything else coming from In the Margins or from you personally that we should look out for? We’re still rolling out the rest of the In the Margins season. The Utah episodes were part of a special Earth Day series. Looking ahead, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and we’re planning a series to spotlight the voices that actually built this country, many of whom have been sidelined. One upcoming episode is about yellow fever and how disease outbreaks shifted national burdens in unjust ways. We want to continue exploring how history shaped America, and who it left out.
July 14, 2025 Native News Online Staff Environment 7449
U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), along with U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), have introduced the Tribal Access to Clean Water Act, a bill aimed at significantly improving access to clean water in Tribal communities through major investments in water infrastructure.