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Ginger and David One Spot have opened up their campground on the Tsuut'ina Nation near Calgary this month to teach families traditional ways of handling, smoking and packaging wild meat.

The post Preserving the force of Navajo language: Dubbing ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ appeared first on Cronkite News - Arizona PBS.

The executive council of the Nunatsiavut government has rejected the NunatuKavut community council’s claim to land in Labrador.

A flash flood of misconduct inquiries in opioid litigation across the country is rapidly engulfing Endo Pharmaceuticals and threatening to inflict considerable damage on the professional reputations of its Arnold & Porter attorneys, according to legal filings, court proceedings and interviews.

An Alabama federal judge has shipped to arbitration a woman's proposed class action claiming an Oglala Sioux Tribe-owned company charged excessive interest for online loans, saying her own win against the company didn't allow her to pursue her broader claims in federal court.

Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency appear ready to quickly act to cut methane emissions, from considering new fees on emitters to strengthening regulatory standards in different industries.

Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) will now require students accessing university facilities to be vaccinated.

In a letter by interim University President Tamarah Pfeiffer, she states, “all students accessing any Haskell facility in-person must receive either a single-dose Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine… or both doses of a two-dose FDA- authorized or approved vaccine no later than December 1, 2021.” All new students “…enrolling for the first time after December 1, 2021, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to accessing any Haskell facility in person.”

The letter added, “Haskell will consider accommodation requests of students who are unable to get vaccinated due to a documented medical condition that would prevent the administration of a COVID-19 vaccination or a sincerely held religious belief on an individualized basis.”

This student mandate comes a week after all faculty and staff were ordered by federal mandate to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Faculty and staff must be vaccinated by October 15.

HINU is working in cooperation with the Haskell Indian Health Center for making vaccination and testing available on campus.

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Full mandate for students here

The post Vaccination mandate for in-person students appeared first on The Indian Leader.

A Trump-era rule narrowing the reach of the Clean Water Act will go back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers, a California federal judge ruled Thursday, without addressing whether the rule should be vacated because an Arizona federal judge has already axed it.

Three Ontario First Nations voters say that issues like climate change and clean drinking water are top of mind for them in Monday's federal election. 

Systemic oppression and wage theft are nothing new to Native people, especially women. That’s in the words of Marisa Page (Pawnee, Ponca, Comanche), the development officer of First Nations Development Institute, a nonprofit that assists tribes and Indigenous peoples in economic development.

Members of the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta have voted in favour of ratifying a $150-million settlement with Ottawa.

Pow Wows are happening again in some areas! Many are still having to cancel or change their dates, so check back to our calendar often! 2021 Pow Wow Calendar Check the list below for the latest Pow Wows added to.....

The post Pow Wow Calendar Update – September 17, 2021 appeared first on .

A D.C. federal judge handed the Navajo Nation a win in its suit accusing the U.S. Department of the Interior of withholding forestry program money, ruling that the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act requires an updated funding contract.

The Environmental Protection Agency has retracted the Trump administration's attempt to clarify how to comply with an important U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding groundwater pollution permitting, stating that the proper parties weren't consulted before the guidance reducing clean water protections was issued.

A cultural gathering at a Manitoba First Nation this weekend will give men an opportunity to open up about their traumas and will aim to instill a sense of confidence in the participants.

Current restrictions on how lawyers structure their businesses stand in the way of meaningful access to justice for many Americans, so states should follow the lead of Utah and Florida and test out innovative law firm business models through regulatory sandboxes, says Zachariah DeMeola at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

The Quebec government is slowly moving forward with recommendations laid out in the Viens commission, a landmark report two years ago that documented the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples in the province. 

Three northeastern Ontario First Nations will host a ceremony Saturday to symbolically ask the children buried at residential schools if it's OK to search for their graves.

White House: Vice President Harris Hosts a Conversation About Native American Voting Rights

Some people with stakes in Indigenous voter rights are looking to the Native American Voting Rights Act to help address voting and election problems for Oklahoma tribes.

“This legislation greatly improves the tools and resources available to help Native Americans exercise their right to vote, which is especially important for those living in rural areas,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, said when he introduced the bill to the House [H.R.5008] alongside U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, on August 13.

Native Organizers Alliance is a volunteer group known for helping to organize and build Indigenous community leaders and groups. One primary objective has been getting Native voters registered for tribal, state and national elections.

Advocating for tribal nations and tribal people through participation in the political process is one of the most important choices we can make. #AaronPayment #NativeVote #NAVRA https://t.co/B76drm9oNO

— indianz.com (@indianz) August 31, 2021

The alliance serves several tribes and states across the nation, including Oklahoma. Jennifer Bailey, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe, volunteers there when needed.

Bailey hopes the Native American Voting Rights Act will address some of the long-standing concerns she’s had for voting participation in her own tribe.

“A lot of them don’t trust the voting process,” Bailey said. “They feel like it’s built against them. In reality, it is the voter suppression that’s a tactic to refrain Native Americans from actually voting and exercising their rights to vote. Voting rights is a trust responsibility by the federal government to the Native Americans. It’s a constitutional right for everybody.”

Indianz.Com Audio: Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary Deb Haaland: Native American Voting Rights

Victoria Holland, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, said only a small portion of eligible voters in her tribe actually vote.

“I am sure this would also be reflected in national elections,” Holland said. “While there are several reasons this could be, lack of access shouldn’t be one of them.”

​Holland is an attorney with Devol and Associates, working with several Oklahoma tribes. She said she supports the Native American Voting Rights Act because it addresses obstacles that can make voting inaccessible to Indigenous people.

Besides the obvious – lacking trust in the federal government after centuries of cultural and physical genocide – Bailey said, additional obstacles in Oklahoma hamper tribal voting.

The main complaint of Native voters, Bailey said, is that tribal identification cards often aren’t an acceptable form of ID to enter the polls or register to vote. Many tribal members don’t have a state-issued ID.

“I think this (bill) is just going to be something that will potentially increase voters for Native Americans in Oklahoma,” Bailey said.

The voting rights bill addresses voting problems on reservations and tribal service areas. Another obstacle to Indigenous voters is that some states, including Montana, require a physical address to register to vote. Many tribal citizens who live on tribal land have mail delivered to a post office box.

Other states prohibit hand-delivering other people’s ballots. Indigenous residents of reservations often share cars, sometimes needing family members or friends to deliver the ballots for them or their families.

The bill, if passed, would allow states to implement polling places near tribal land or service areas, and tribes would have a say in where to put them. Tribes also will be notified directly of the number of voting locations in their communities, Bailey said.

Funding is another area the bill is supposed to address, Bailey said. A $10 million allowance is built into the bill for a Native American Voting Rights Task Force grant, which is meant to help make voting easier for Native people.

A.J. Ferate of Counsel, Spencer Fane LLP, a law firm in Oklahoma City, said he is willing to hear more about the voting rights bill to learn the nuances of its impact on Indian Country.

But in his two years practicing election law, including working with several Oklahoma tribes, he doesn’t think the real issue in getting Indigenous people to vote lies in state or federal elections.

The problem, he said, lies in the integrity of voting in many of the communities.

“What is a concern to me is the voting structure, the voting systems, the integrity of voting within Indian Country,” Ferate said. “I feel like that’s significantly more of a concern that needs to be addressed.”

He said the lack of separation of powers in some tribal governments can cause problems in keeping certain structures of the government accountable.

“That’s one of the difficult things I see across tribes,” Ferate said. “These judges hold their jobs because the chief appointed them, or the chief hired them. And the chief has the power to remove them. That’s the meaningful problem right? I mean, if you’re hired to be a Supreme Court justice, and the tribe is one of the parties you are hearing arguments against, even these judges feel like their jobs are in jeopardy if they were to go against the tribe.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland participate in a meeting on Native voting rights in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House on July 27, 2021. Photo by Lawrence Jackson / White House

Although these issues exist on some level in all governments, on the federal level, Congress has seen historic changes in the political participation and inclusion of Indigenous folks.

Bailey called the recent appointments of Native people to key federal positions, including Deb Haaland as secretary of the Interior, a promising sign.

For Holland, it’s a testament to Indigenous resiliency.

“Anytime there is an Indigenous person in high-ranking capacity I think that is just a testament to how far, and how resilient, Indigenous people are,” Holland said. “There was a time, not long ago, where Indigenous people were supposed to be terminated. We weren’t supposed to be here today, but we are. We are doing important things and it’s inspiring.”

Note: Thumbnail photo by National Congress of American Indians (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Gaylord News is a Washington, D.C.-based reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Cronkite News has partnered with OU to expand coverage of Indigenous communities.

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.

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Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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The writer, broadcaster and arts leader spoke to Shelagh Rogers about his new memoir, Unreconciled.