Category Archives: Native Americans

Indigenous and Alaska Native women could face escalated violence if Roe is repealed

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They are also two to three times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy than white women, according to the CDC

The repeal of federally protected abortion rights would result in an increase in violence experienced by Indigenous women, girls and all those who birth, predicted the director of one of the leading research institutes on Indigenous and Alaska Native people across the US.

“The only option we have right now if this was to be overturned, is to provide the limited resources and support, but it will be limited, especially initially. As a direct result our people are going to suffer,” Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, told the Guardian.

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Statue of Native American ballerina destroyed and sold to recycling center

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Outcry after thieves in Oklahoma chopped statue of Marjorie Tallchief into pieces and sold parts to recycling center for $250

Thieves have destroyed a statue of a Native American ballerina and sold the broken parts to a recycling center in Oklahoma for about $250.

Last week, thieves chopped the statue of Marjorie Tallchief into pieces, prompting outcry among residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tallchief was an American ballerina, primarily in the 1940s and 50s, and a member of the Osage Nation.

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Indigenous nations sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering

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The suit charges that diluting Indigenous power violates their voting rights and will handicap tribe members who run for office

Days before a new legislative map for North Dakota was set to be introduced in the state house, leaders of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation sent a letter to the governor and other state lawmakers urging them to rethink the proposal.

“All citizens deserve to have their voices heard and to be treated fairly and equally under the law,” they wrote, arguing that the proposed map was illegal, diluting the strength of their communities’ voice.

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Native American tribes reclaim California redwood land for preservation

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Group of 10 tribes inhabiting the area since thousands of years will be responsible for protecting the land dubbed Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ

The descendants of Native American tribes on the northern California coast are reclaiming part of their ancestral homeland, including ancient redwoods that have stood since their forebears walked the land.

Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit conservation group, announced Tuesday that it is transferring more than 500 acres (202 hectares) on the Lost Coast to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council.

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‘Heal the past’: first Native American confirmed to oversee national parks

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The confirmation of Charles F Sams III marks a symbolic moment for many Indigenous communities

Charles “Chuck” F Sams III made history this week in becoming the first-ever Native American confirmed to lead the National Park Service.

Sams, an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, received unanimous consent by the US Senate on Thursday after being nominated by Joe Biden in August.

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‘We feel pride’: old Western gets new life dubbed in Navajo language

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Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars is the latest to be dubbed in the Indigenous language set to premiere on 16 November

Manuelito Wheeler isn’t sure exactly why Navajo elders admire Western films.

It could be that decades ago, many of them were treated to the films in boarding schools off the reservation decades ago. Or, like his father, they told stories of growing up gathered around a television to watch gunslingers in a battle against good and evil on familiar-looking landscapes.

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Activists hold rally on Indigenous Peoples’ Day outside White House – video

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Hundreds of protesters led by Indigenous activists have demonstrated in front of the White House to demand that Joe Biden stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare the climate crisis a national emergency. The rally was held for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Police moved in to break up the protest near the White House and made several arrests

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‘They don’t include Native voices’: tribes fight to ensure their votes count

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As the Native American population grows to the largest in modern history, groups say it’s vital that they organize to make sure they’re not left out of the redistricting process

In a small unadorned conference room in the North Dakota state capitol, Collette Brown, a representative for the Spirit Lake Nation, stood up on 26 August to testify on behalf of the 7,559 members of her federally recognized tribe.

Speaking to a largely white, male Republican committee of lawmakers, she explained what Native American communities stand to lose with redistricting if the legislature decides to draw legislative boundaries that split Native American communities or create areas that have at-large representation, instead of single-member districts.

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‘Heartbroken’ Osage Nation leaders decry sale of sacred Missouri cave with ancient artwork

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Indigenous leaders had hoped to purchase the land, which is home to 1,000-year-old drawings and was auctioned off for $2.2m

A Missouri cave containing Native American artwork from more than 1,000 years ago was sold at auction Tuesday, disappointing leaders of the Osage Nation who hoped to buy the land to “protect and preserve our most sacred site”.

A bidder agreed to pay US$2.2m to private owners for what’s known as “Picture Cave,” along with the 43 hilly acres that surround it near the town of Warrenton, about 60 miles (97km) west of St Louis.

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Lake Tahoe ski resort changes name to remove racist and misogynistic slur

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Resort will be called Palisades Tahoe after consulting with Indigenous groups over longstanding name

A popular ski resort at California’s Lake Tahoe has changed its name to remove a racist and misogynistic slur after consultations with local Indigenous groups.

The resort, known as Squaw Valley since 1949, will be called Palisades Tahoe, the business announced on Monday.

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No water, no life: running out of water on the California-Oregon border

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Paul Crawford’s crops are dying. Salmon sacred to Frankie Myers’ Native American tribe are slipping away. Along the California-Oregon border, the climate crisis is worsening a water crisis decades in the making – leaving farmers and indigenous communities scrambling to keep their traditions alive.

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My relatives went to a Catholic school for Native children. It was a place of horrors | Nick Estes

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After the discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former school for Native children in Canada, it is time to investigate similar abuses in the US

There is so much mourning Native people have yet to do. The full magnitude of Native suffering has yet to be entirely understood, especially when it comes to the nightmarish legacies of American Indian boarding schools. The purpose of the schools was “civilization”, but, as I have written elsewhere, boarding schools served to provide access to Native land, by breaking up Native families and holding children hostage so their nations would cede more territory. And one of the primary benefactors of the boarding school system is the Catholic church, which is today the world’s largest non-governmental landowner, with roughly 177 million acres of property throughout the globe. Part of the evidence of how exactly the church acquired its wealth in North America is literally being unearthed, and it exists in stories of the Native children whose lives it stole, which includes my own family.

The full magnitude of Native suffering has yet to be entirely understood, especially when it comes to the nightmarish legacies of American Indian boarding schools

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Where the buffalo roam: world’s longest wildlife bridge could cross the Mississippi

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Conservationist aims to replace old bridge with bison preserve, benefiting environment and spotlighting Indigenous history

Between Iowa and Illinois, spanning the only stretch of the Mississippi River that flows from east to west, sits an exhausted 55-year-old cement bridge. Each day 42,000 cars drive across the ageing structure, which is slated to be torn down and replaced.

But when Chad Pregracke looks at the bridge, he has a different vision entirely – not an old overpass to be demolished, but a home for the buffalo to roam.

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What is sovereignty? A conversation about American colonialism

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Jacqueline Keeler, the author of a new book on standoffs with the government, tells Jason Wilson why the colonial relationship on which the US was founded needs to be renegotiated

In 2014, the writer Jacqueline Keeler started the #notyourmascot hashtag, a social media campaign highlighting the way sports teams use Native Americans mascots to perpetuate racist caricatures. In her current work, she investigates people who are falsely claiming Native ancestry for personal gain – including Susan Taffe Reed, the Native American program director who turned out not to be Native American.

“In all of this, the central issue is our domination by a colonial government,” she says.

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Blackfeet tribe gives surplus vaccines to First Nations relatives in Canada

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Effort by illustrates the disparity with which the US and its northern neighbors are distributing doses

The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana has provided about 1,000 surplus vaccines to its First Nations relatives and others in Canada, in an illustration of the disparity in speed at which the US and its northern neighbor are distributing doses. While more than 30% of adults in the US are fully vaccinated, in Canada that figure is about 3%.

Among those who received the vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing were Sherry Cross Child and Shane Little Bear, of Stand Off, about 30 miles (50km ) north of the border.

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‘An indescribable moment’: Indigenous nation in US has right to lands in Canada, court rules

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Canada’s supreme court decision on the Sinixt people could affirm hunting rights for tens of thousands

For decades the Rick Desautel had been told by courts and governments that his people no longer exist in Canada.

But Desautel and others in his community in Washington state have long argued that they are descendants of the Sinixt, an Indigenous people whose territory once spanned Canada and the United States.

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The Apache war against copper mining: ‘this is an act of desecration’ — video

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Chí’chil Biłdagoteel - otherwise known as Oak Flat, Arizona – is regarded as sacred ancestral land by the Apache people. With the territory at risk of being sold for copper mining to a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, resident Wendsler Nosie has set up a protest movement from his tipi, alongside his daughter and granddaughter. With no support from the courts, Wendsler and the community are anxiously hoping the Biden administration will pause the land transfer. With religious freedom and environmental protection at risk, they await the call with further news


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‘She’s representing all of us’: the story behind Deb Haaland’s swearing-in dress

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The skirt, a traditional Native garment, outshone everything in the Eisenhower building – and there is a story of empowerment and survival behind it

It was a dress that triggered a flood of headlines. Standing in front of Vice-President Kamala Harris with her right hand raised, Deb Haaland was sworn in last week as the secretary of the interior dressed in a long rainbow ribbon skirt adorned with a corn stalk, butterflies and stars.

Related: Making history in style: Deb Haaland wears Indigenous dress at swearing-in

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‘Closing a portal to the Creator’: fresh setback for attempt to prevent destruction of US holy land by miner

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A federal judge rejects Apache tribal members’ request to halt the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper mining company

Efforts to prevent a sacred Native American site from being destroyed by a copper mine received a setback yesterday, when a federal judge rejected Apache tribal members’ request to halt the site’s transfer to a a multi-national mining company.

While US district judge Steven Logan acknowledged that the mine would “close off a portal to the Creator forever and will completely devastate the Western Apaches’ lifeblood”, he said the activist group Apache Stronghold lacked legal standing in the case since it represented tribal individuals rather than a tribal government.

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Indian country showed up to beat Trump. How can you show up for Indian country?

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Instead of celebrating a false Thanksgiving narrative, listen to and share the countless Native American stories that aren’t being told

The day after the 2020 presidential election, a graphic from CNN dominated my Facebook newsfeed. Illustrating voter turnout, it included the phrase “something else” to refer to voters who are not white, Latinx, Black or Asian.

Many Native Americans, quick to unite around a reason to laugh, responded with their own graphics and memes, playfully and sarcastically congratulating themselves.

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