UNITED STATES

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Co-written by James Cadotte and Jared Nally

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Head Women’s Basketball Coach Adam Strom (Yakama Nation and Quinault Indian Nation), brings over 20 years of coaching experience to Haskell Indian Nations University(HINU). Haskell Athletics is hopeful he will bring the university a championship in his upcoming seasons.

Strom was announced as the new Women’s Head Basketball Coach on May 4, by the Haskell Athletics Department. The department acknowledges his loyalty to his previous programs that would bring stability to the recent turnover of coaches. 

Strom has coached 15 years of high school basketball and has also coached 5 years at Yakima Valley College. He said with his past experience at the collegiate level he has the “… ability to recruit quality student-athletes with the emphasis on student.”

Prior to the start of the season, Strom said he played an active part in recruiting students for the upcoming season. He looks forward to bringing success to the program with success not necessarily being measured with championships, but given his background, Haskell Athletics is confident in his ability to win. 

“We anticipate he will make our department proud and bring a championship back to Coffin Sports Complex and the Fightin’ Indians!” Haskell Athletics said in their May 4 announcement.

The Women’s Basketball Program has its first match-up on October 28. This will be their first official game after sitting out the 2020-21 season.

The post Spotlight on Head Women’s Basketball Coach Adam Strom appeared first on The Indian Leader.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Nine years and nine days after a Native American woman was brutally beat to death with an empty liquor bottle, police in North Carolina arrested a suspect on Thursday and charged him with first-degree murder.

Southern Arizona tribe announces vaccine incentive First Americans Museum set to open in Oklahoma This year’s Miss Navajo Nation recently crowned

The post Friday, September 17, 2021 appeared first on National Native News, by Antonia Gonzales.

Cronkite News Video by Simon Williams: Insurrection Resurrection

WASHINGTON – Fences, cameras and barricades went up around the Capitol early Thursday, as federal and local police braced for possible violence at a Saturday rally defending those who were arrested in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Organizers of the “Justice for J6” rally said they expect as many as 700 people – but if anyone is coming from Arizona, they were not saying. GOP Reps. Paul Gosar of Prescott and Andy Biggs of Gilbert, who took part in rallies this summer for the January 6 “political prisoners,” did not respond to repeated requests for comment this week.

While organizers were promising a peaceful event, police were preparing for the worst, putting outside police agencies and the National Guard on standby, monitoring internet activity and setting up the fencing around the Capitol grounds and the Supreme Court.

“We are here to protect everyone’s First Amendment right to peacefully protest,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement earlier this week. “I urge anyone who is thinking about causing trouble to stay home. We will enforce the law and not tolerate violence.”

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Curtis Henry mans an armored vehicle outside the fenced-in perimeter of the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, as police gear up for this weekend’s rally. Photo by Diannie Chavez / Cronkite News)

There were no such preparations on January 6.

That’s when thousands of protesters left a “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House and marched to the Capitol, where Congress was in the process of certifying the Electoral College vote that confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. They were met by outnumbered Capitol Police officers behind waist-high, movable metal barricades who were quickly overwhelmed.

The mob breached the Capitol, sending members of Congress and the vice president scrambling for safety. In the hours of confrontations with police that followed, hundreds of people were injured, five people died and the Capitol sustained about $1.5 million in damages.

More than 600 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, including seven from Arizona, according to the Justice Department. It is those people who are the subject of Saturday’s rally, whose organizers have called the defendants “political prisoners.”

This is an “effort to raise awareness of this tragedy of this grave violation of civil rights of hundreds of our fellow Americans,” said Matt Braynard, executive director of Look Ahead America, which is organizing Saturday’s event.

Workers erected fencing overnight at the Capitol, along with concrete barriers and surveillance cameras ahead of a Saturday rally that law enforcement officials fear could lead to violence. Photo by Diannie Chavez / Cronkite News

It is not the first such event Braynard’s group has organized. In late July, it hosted events at the Justice Department and the D.C. Jail where members of Congress, including Biggs and Gosar, told camera crews they were pressing for information on the treatment of those arrested in connection with January 6.

At the July 27 event at the Justice Department, Gosar said those “arrested for illegal acts on January 6 deserve to be treated fairly,” referring to them as “political prisoners.” Biggs echoed that, saying most of those arrested for their part in the deadly insurrection were “peaceful protesters.”

Despite the violence of the January 6 attack that Saturday’s event will highlight, Braynard said in a tweet that this weekend’s rally will be “a 100% peaceful event in support of the nonviolent offenders from January 6th who have been charged.” Organizers have asked those planning to attend the rally to not wear clothing – or use signs – that show their political affiliation.

“Anyone not honoring this request will be assumed to be an infiltrator and we will take your picture, find out who you are, and make you famous,” Braynard tweeted.

But Capitol Police are still preparing for the possibility of violence. In addition to reinstalling the fence that just came down in early July, the department has also “asked the Department of Defense for the ability to receive National Guard support should the need arise on September 18.”

Many of the tourists wandering around Capitol Hill on Thursday said they were not aware of the upcoming protest, and did not know why the fences were up.

Diego Treviño, a tourist from Mexico who was visiting Washington for the first time, said Thursday that he was surprised to see the Capitol barricaded. He said he was disappointed that he did not have a chance to see the Capitol in more detail, because of the security measures.

“It’s a little bit weird,” Treviño said. “Why is it closed if it’s a really touristic thing?”

Metropolitan Police are among the local police departments that could be called on, along with the National Guard, to assist U.S. Capitol Police this weekend. Photo by Diannie Chavez / Cronkite News

Despite the presence of fencing and video cameras, however, the mood on Thursday was mostly relaxed. A small contingent of police patrolled the Hill, while others appeared to be checking out positions for Saturday. Unlike this spring and summer, there was no razor wire on the fences and gun-toting soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

But Manger said the fence won’t be up forever. If everything goes well on Saturday, he said, the fence should “come down very soon after.”

“We want to reassure everyone these are temporary measures to ensure everyone’s safety,” Manger said. “We are extremely grateful for the support we continue to receive from the local community and our congressional stakeholders as we carry out our critical mission.”

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

Military police stand by their cars outside the Capitol, which was surrounded by fencing and other protective measures in advance of Saturday’s rally to support people arrested in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Photo by Diannie Chavez / Cronkite News

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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 Indian Child Welfare Act has been upheld in dozens of court decisions as a vital federal protection for Native adoptees and foster children. That string of wins ended when a Texas district court judge ruled the more than 40-year-old law unconstitutional. A subsequent federal appeals court agreed that at least parts of ICWA are unconstitutional. Long considered by legal experts as the gold standard of adoption law, ICWA faces its most significant legal challenge. We’ll examine how we got here and who is behind the legal efforts to dismantle ICWA.

The post Monday, September 20, 2021 – ICWA: Federal protections for children under constant legal pressure appeared first on Native America Calling, by Art Hughes.

Patients have better outcomes when they don’t have to confront cultural barriers. A 2020 study by Penn Medicine researchers found patients prefer medical professionals of the same race or ethnicity. But Native doctors and nurses are in short supply. We’ll hear about the importance of Native medical professionals and efforts to recruit more of them into the industry.

The post Tuesday, September 21, 2021 – Recruiting Native medical professionals appeared first on Native America Calling, by Art Hughes.

Diné musician Klee Benally calls his latest set of creations “performance art intervention.” It’s called “Appropriation” consisting of 13 tracks and is a stance against cultural genocide. It’s set to some very energetic sounds and brought further to life with strong vocals. The former Blackfire guitarist and vocalist writes: “The music and accompanying propaganda was created for collective disruption of the dehumanizing forces attacking Indigenous existence.” We visit with Klee to find out why he’s calling out settler colonial order.

The post Wednesday, September 22, 2021 – Music Maker: Klee Benally appeared first on Native America Calling, by Art Hughes.

Native people are over-represented in the number of people with disabilities. The U.S., Census finds almost a quarter of the Native population has a disability. At the same time they are underserved when it comes to treatment because of inadequate funding, staff shortages or bureaucratic barriers. There are efforts to both reduce the number of Native people with disabilities, and find ways to improve the lives of those living with disabilities.

The post Thursday, September 23, 2021 – Doing right by Native people with disabilities appeared first on Native America Calling, by Art Hughes.