JAMES SMITH CREE NATION, Saskatchewan—On a recent day in this small community on the Canadian prairie, people gathered in the school gym listening to traditional indigenous drums and mournful music at back-to-back funerals. Outside, people huddled in groups, crying and smoking. It has been two weeks since this territory of 2,000 people became the scene … Read more
The Miakan-Garza Band, a Native American tribe local to Central Texas, is renewing calls for the University of Texas to “return” ancestral human remains to the tribe — more than six years after its original request. The Miakan-Garza Band first requested three sets of ancient human remains located at UT’s Texas Archeological Research Laboratory in … Read more
It was the last resolution of the day but it was a stunner. The Oglala Sioux tribal council voted in an historic decision Sept. 7 to purchase 40 acres of Wounded Knee land from Jeanette Czywczynski for $500,000 – a move that now puts almost all of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark site under … Read more
They were neighbors, friends and family, mothers, aunts and uncles, as old as 78 and as young as 23. Elders who had so much to share and young people just beginning their life’s journey. All but one are from the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, victims of one of the largest mass killings … Read more
The National Native Scholarships Providers (NNSP) recently released its first National Study on College Affordability for Indigenous Students. The report, which was funded by Lumina Foundation, found that the main obstacle to completing college for Native students is affordability. The report is the result of a collaboration between the nation’s four Native scholarship providers: the … Read more
This September we are highlighting Native Bruin Angela Mooney D’Arcy (Acjachemem), class of 2004, J.D., Concentration in Federal Indian Law and Critical Race Studies. Angela Mooney D’Arcy is Acjachemem. Her Nation’s ancestral homelands include the area also known as Orange County, California. She has been working with Native Nations, Indigenous people, grassroots and nonprofit organizations, … Read more
NORTHSTATE, Calif. — On Tuesday this week, Aug. 29, Assembly Bill No. 1314 was passed by a vote of 6-1. The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency to request the Department of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to activate a “Feather Alert,” if specified criteria are satisfied with respect to an endangered indigenous person … Read more
Democrat Mary Peltola is set to make history as the first Alaska Native in Congress – while thwarting the attempted political comeback of former Gov. Sarah Palin – by winning a special House election, according to unofficial ranked-choice voting results released Wednesday by the state Division of Elections. Her unlikely bid for the House was … Read more
The village of Tewa, Ariz., recently ramped up its skating scene. Kids living on the Hopi reservation get to drop in on a new halfpipe in the town’s first ever skate park thanks to a team of five teens known as Skate264. “There wasn’t really any place to skate down here. Most of the surrounding … Read more
Next month Nasa will send a new crew into space. And for the first time there will be a Native American woman aboard. Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann, of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, will be mission commander – responsible for all phases of flight. She will go to the International Space Station … Read more