Buffalo's Fire

MARYSVILLE, Wash. — Starting this fall, school and tribal leaders plan to “decolonize” Tulalip Heritage High School. Years ago, educators and the Tulalip Tribes started a small learning community tying the classroom to traditional learning styles. The goal was for Indigenous students to see themselves in the...

Some warn that more than 3,000 Indigenous languages may be lost by the end of this century. To stop this erosion, the United Nations launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022. A number of organizations worked on the global initiative, including the Institute on Collaborative Language Research, or CoLang.

NASA Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann will be traveling to the International Space Station and, if chosen, is on route to potentially being the first woman on the moon. Nicole Aunapu Mann will be making history as the first Native woman to fly into space this fall. Mann, enrolled in Wailacki...

Conservation easement ensures public access, recreation and sustainable timber harvest will continue on lands in Northwest Montana. WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today announced the establishment of the Lost Trail Conservation Area in Northwest Montana as the 568th and newest unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This expansion – the first unit for the Refuge System under Secretary Haaland’s leadership – is the culmination of a 20-year locally-led effort to conserve important big game corridors and recreational areas in the region and a model for the Biden-Harris administration’s ongoing efforts to conserve and restore our nation’s lands and waters.

Registration Open for 2022 National Tribal Broadband Summit. WASHINGTON — A coalition of federal agencies today announced next steps as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s all-of-government approach to addressing how to close the digital divide and increase internet access across Indian Country and the Native Hawaiian Community. The Department of the Interior and the Institute of Museum and Library Services are partnering with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) for the 2022 National Tribal Broadband Summit, taking place virtually throughout the month of September.

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation announced the list of tribal member candidates for the nation’s tribal business council election, according to the tribes election board notice released on July 30. The MHA Nation, located on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, has four seats available on the...

Corporate leaders of Marathon Petroleum’s Tesoro High Plains Pipeline continue their ninth year of trespass on allotted lands on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The company does not have a right of way on these lands, yet has financially enriched its shareholders while transporting oil through the pipeline between 2013 and 2020.

As Tim Giago entered his final hours, the Thunder Beings filled the yet-dark sky above the Black Hills early Sunday morning. I sat outside watching these brilliant horizontal flashes of lightning fill the air. A gentle rain later fell. The Thunderers, the Beings who embody lightning, thunder and rain, hold...

PHOENIX — In a way, college basketball coach Rob McClain attended one of the premier Native prep basketball tournaments around in search of himself. McClain, a 6-foot-5 former division 1 guard from the Muscogee Nation, credits the. Native American Basketball Invitational for helping open doors to his stellar college...

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Washington — The ancestors would have known the drumming, the songs and the languages that echoed across the landscape in San Juan Island National Historical Park, located in an archipelago in the Salish Sea between mainland Washington State and Vancouver Island. The First Peoples were displaced...

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe recently achieved a majority Native voter district for electing the members of the Lyman County Board of Commissioners. However, the board in place decided not to instate the landmark district in time for the November 2022 election. So, the tribe and several individual members filed a federal Voting Rights Act complaint, which is set for preliminary injunction hearing July 26.

ANADARKO, Oklahoma — A journey like no other began at last Saturday for survivors of U.S. Indian boarding schools. Young and old, descendants and survivors crowded into the gymnasium of Riverside Indian boarding school in Anadarko, Oklahoma, to share their experiences as the kickoff to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Road to Healing tour.

If the U.S. ever hopes to be in right relationship with the lands and waters it has seized, it must first restore its relationship with Indigenous peoples. We are not in a healthy relationship with the natural world. Perhaps that much has finally become clear to the settler cultures in the West. Record-setting wildfires and a drought with little end in sight are physical warning signs of how toxic our relationship with our non-human relatives has become. These symptoms demand immediate evaluation and treatment. But in order to come up with the necessary solutions, the people and elected leaders of the West, and of the United States, and of the world, must accept a simple truth: None of this was inevitable. These conditions are the product of a series of choices rooted in the genocide, displacement and political marginalization of the land’s original peoples.

The United States Supreme Court has limited the scope of its historic McGirt decision. In a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that the state of Oklahoma has concurrent jurisdiction and the ability to prosecute non-Natives when the victim is Native and the crime is committed on tribal land.

Scott Satermo announced his candidacy for the tribal chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota on June 14. The candidate’s top priority is to listen to the needs of tribal citizens. The MHA Nation’s Tribal Business Council is headquartered on the Fort Berthold Reservation in...

*UPDATED ADVISORY*Recognizing the enthusiasm of this announcement, the information in this advisory is now reportable. The contact information has also been updated. Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary Newland to Visit Oklahoma on “Road to Healing” to Meet with Federal Indian Boarding School Survivors and Descendants. WASHINGTON — On July...

(MANDAREE, N.D.)— First, I thank and acknowledge Thomasina Mandan for running for District 4A House, we know the difficulties and challenges we face running for any office. Thank you to all who voted for me in the June primary election, I am grateful for your support. I’m very excited to move forward and will again ask you to vote for me in the November 8th, General Election.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The issue already went to the Supreme Court but supporters of two sides of the debate argued again last week over the definition of tribes vs. Alaska Native corporations. At the mid-year conference of the National Congress of American Indians, the Yup’ik village of Akiak submitted...

At age 25, LaRenzo W. Roanbear already has set his sights on a career in electoral politics. A Northern Cheyenne and first-year law student at the University of Montana, Missoula, he plans to one day planning to run for Congress eventually. That is why he is pleased about the opportunity...

Editor’s note: Author Frances McCue is co-founder of Pulley Press, which is publishing the recently discovered poems of the late Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller. Proceeds will benefit the Wilma Mankiller Foundation. This is the story of how the poems were found. Indian Country Today. We were driving to Mankiller...