Tribe leaders seek more autonomy
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- American Indian tribes want to move toward more self-governance, but red tape and foot-dragging by federal agencies continuously throws a wrench in their attempts, tribal leaders testified Tuesday.
The Myth of Voter Fraud
(NEW YORK) -- Missouri and at least 19 other states are considering passing laws that would force people to prove their citizenship before they can vote. These bills are not a sincere effort to prevent noncitizens from voting; that is a made-up problem.
Reservation deaths highlight tension with sheriff
(CALIFORNIA) -- The tribal chairman's message to his members in the hours after deputies killed two suspects in a running gunbattle on the Soboba Indian Reservation was clear: Don't trust the sheriff's department.
Pair slain after casino attack
(CALIFORNIA) -- A man and woman who opened fire on security guards at the entrance of Soboba Casino were killed in a shootout after fleeing into the hills of the reservation, authorities said Tuesday.
Sheriff: Slain suspects shot at police choppper
(CALIFORNIA) -- A man and woman opened fire on guards at an entrance to an Indian reservation and fled into the hills, where they were killed in a gun battle with sheriff's deputies and a SWAT team, authorities said Tuesday.
Cherokee council approves suspension of cigarette tax
(OKLAHOMA) -- The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council passed a measure this week that would remove the tribe’s tax from cigarette carton sales. The act, passed unanimously at Monday evening’s regular meeting, suspends the 50-cents-per carton tax the tribe takes in on cigarettes sold by smoke shops that are outside the state’s exception rate zones.
Obama, Clintons, Kennedys plan South Dakota visits
(SOUTH DAKOTA) -- South Dakota Democrats have a lot to look forward to this week, starting Wednesday with former President Bill Clinton's return visit to Pine Ridge, and continuing Thursday with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's second visit to South Dakota in a week.
MT tribes announce support for Obama
(MONTANA) -- The Crow Nation and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation say they endorse Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Obama Endorsed by Crow Nation, Ft. Peck Tribes
(MONTANA) -- The Obama campaign announced today the endorsements of the Crow Nation and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Ft. Peck Reservation. Tribal leaders cited Sen. Obama’s commitment to Indian Country and to the issues facing its residents.
Judge issues pre-trial order in Cobell trust case
(CALIFORNIA) -- The June 9 trial to resolve the Cobell v. Kempthorne Indian trust fund case is quickly approaching. Judge James Robertson intends to put a dollar figure on the money owed to hundreds of thousands of Individual Indian Money (IIM) beneficiaries.
Residents reaching out to Indian reservation
(MONTANA) -- As the forlorn wind blows through a desolate prairie, it is often filled with overwhelming despair. The deteriorating schools, which lack adequate books makes it hard for residents to break the cycle of poverty.
Appeals court rejects Chief Illiniwek suits
(ILLINOIS) -- A state appellate court has upheld the dismissals of a pair of lawsuits that claimed the University of Illinois broke state law when it eliminated its controversial Chief Illiniwek mascot.
School board forms committee to quell Indian mascot uproar
(CALIFORNIA) -- Carpinteria High School's warrior mascot could be staying. The Carpinteria Unified School District board decided Tuesday night that a committee will be formed to make a recommendation on Native American imagery on the school campus.
Tribe donates money to tornado victims
(OKLAHOMA) -- The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe is donating $5,000 to the victims at Picher, Okla., and $5,000 to the tornado victims north of Seneca. “This is not limited to Indian people or tribal members. This is for all victims,” said Chief Paul Spicer said.
The Longest Walk 2 Takes Oklahoma By Storm
(OKLAHOMA) -- The Longest Walk 2 (LW2) Southern Route forged ahead through pouring rain and thunderstorms this week to reach Tulsa since reaching Oklahoma on May 3, 2008.
Navajo Nation Gulf War veterans honored
(ARIZONA) -- The Department of Navajo Veteran's Affairs, Western Navajo Agency Veterans Organization recently hosted a workshop to address federal benefits for veterans and their dependents.
Woman sentenced to 10 years in 1998 infant death
(NORTH DAKOTA) -- A federal judge, choked with emotion, sentenced a woman Monday to 10 years in prison for leaving her newborn son alone for about two weeks to die, then putting his body in a suitcase in a ditch near her home.
Lower Columbia steelhead fishing season is delayed
(OREGON) -- Lower than expected returns of Columbia River spring chinook salmon have delayed the opening of a recreational steelhead fishery scheduled to open Friday from Buoy 10 to the Interstate 5 Bridge.
Congress Votes to Stop Stockpiling Oil
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Groping for a quick response to rising gas prices, Congress voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to order the Bush administration to stop depositing oil in a national reserve even though lawmakers predicted the impact for consumers would be modest at best.
ANWAR: Senate rejects GOP oil drilling plan
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Senate has rejected a Republican energy plan that calls for opening an Alaska wildlife refuge and some offshore waters to oil development. Supporters of the measure couldn't get the needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic-led filibuster threat.
TERA to provide a boost for energy development
(COLORADO) -- Native nations' energy development may get a boost with the greater tribal control provided under final regulations for tribal energy resource agreements presented to the public April 29 by the BIA.
Polar bear added to endangered species list
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Bush administration today designated the polar bear as threatened with extinction, making the big arctic bear, whose fate clings to shrinking sea ice, the first creature added to the endangered species list primarily because of global warming.
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Let us live lightly on the Earth
(NORTH DAKOTA) -- There’s a never-ending search in Grand Forks for a place to put our refuse. The response has been “Not in my backyard”; and, unfortunately, we’ve heard that a time or two in the past few years.
"Red is Green"
(CALIFORNIA) -- Joanelle Romero ("The Girl Called Hatter Fox") is touting a new PSA to do what the "crying Indian" one did for the previous generation.
Becoming an economic guru
(ARIZONA) -- Jamie Fullmer has been there. As the former chairman of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, he knows exactly what it's like to try to strengthen a tribe's economic future while coping with the constraints of tribal leadership.
Nisqually tribe plans development at Lacey
(WASHINGTON) -- The Nisqually tribe has purchased another 30 acres of commercial property at Lacey, bringing its landholding at Hawks Prairie to 40 acres at a cost of about $20 million.
Maryland Indian tribes get state holiday
(MARYLAND) -- Dozen of members of Maryland Indian tribes, some in native dress, stood behind Gov. Martin O’Malley on Tuesday as he signed into law a bill designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as American Indian Heritage Day, a new state holiday.
TIM GIAGO: Finding an Indian role model in life
(SOUTH DAKOTA) -- In the spring of 1976, 32 years ago, I had an actor named Will Sampson as my guest on the weekly television show I hosted, "The First Americans," which aired each Sunday morning on TV in Rapid City, S.D.
OP/ED: Kickapoo invest in the future
(MISSOURI) -- For far too many years, the American Indian has been reduced to talking about geographic boundaries of reservation lands as if these property lines somehow define the Indian experience.
Open house opens doors for local Indians
(CALIFORNIA) -- The California Tribal TANF Partnership that operates in Jackson is one of 17 Northern California sites offering assistance to American Indian families, but for the past four years it has operated under the radar.
Tribe opens lion hunt
(NORTH DAKOTA) -- The Three Affiliated Tribes has opened a special mountain lion hunting season on a portion of the Fort Berthold Reservation, for the second time in two years.
Native American hot shot crew battles fires
(MONTANA) -- The Chief Mountain Hotshots are elite firefighters based in Browning and are ready at a moment's notice to travel and suppress fires before they get out of control.
Lawyer criticizes appeals court decision in eagle case
(WYOMING) -- A specialist in American Indian law says a federal court ruling in the case of a Wyoming man who shot a bald eagle for use in his tribe's Sun Dance follows a pattern of decisions that profess respect for American Indian religion while punishing individual tribal members.
Browning child's death investigated
(MONTANA) -- The shooting death of a 3 year old Browning girl is now being investigated by federal officials. Mya Angel Pepion died of a gunshot wound on Thursday, May 8th, but the nature of the shooting has not been disclosed..
Open house opens doors for local Indians
(CALIFORNIA) -- The California Tribal TANF Partnership that operates in Jackson is one of 17 Northern California sites offering assistance to American Indian families, but for the past four years it has operated under the radar.
Foster care should respect heritage
(WASHINGTON) -- In Washington today, there are more than 10,000 children in foster care. They will spend an average of two years in care, and nearly half (42 percent) will move three or more times.
Native past preserved for future
(NEBRASKA) -- Two people, separated by decades, ponder the same moccasin. One, likely a woman, used glass beads to create a colorful mosaic that turned plain leather into something of value, something worth saving.
‘Love the Bread’
(OKLAHOMA) -- Indian tacos might not be a staple of the American Indian diet, but they are known throughout Indian Country as a delicious entrée. For some it's all about the frybread.
Innovators with Native connections
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- In the fall of 2007, Smithsonian magazine published a special issue titled "37 Under 36: America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Science." Whenever I see a roundup like this, I wonder how diverse it is. Specifically, does it include a Native component?
Mystery of the crystal skulls
(USA) -- The latest Indiana Jones movie is based on a crystal skull found in Maya ruins. Here's the history and science behind the fiction.
Oklahoma Indian Mission children’s choir opens worship
(TEXAS) -- The clear a capella sounds of children singing “Amazing Grace” spread through the Fort Worth Convention Center as the children’s choir of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference opened Sunday worship at the United Methodist General Conference on April 27.
Vatican: OK to believe in aliens
(VATICAN CITY) -- Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
Review of "Bravestarr"
(CALIFORNIA) -- Previously I reported on "Bravestarr," the TV series about the futuristic marshal of the planet New Texas. Now I've seen "The Best of Bravestarr" DVD, which includes the movie "Bravestarr: The Legend" and five episodes of the show.
"The Mysterious Cities of Gold"
(CALIFORNIA) -- Indians finally started appearing in TV shows in the 1980s. Of course they were supporting rather than lead characters, and the shows were stereotypical. But something is better than nothing, right?
"Nakia"
(CALIFORNIA) -- The 1970s were even worse than the 1960s. Other than a "Last of the Mohicans" mini-series, the only series about Indians was the short-lived "Nakia."
Pix of the 2008 FAITA awards
(CALIFORNIA) -- Check out the studly Indian men and sexy Indian women who attended the First Americans in the Arts awards ceremony this year.
Burt Reynolds as "Hawk"
(CALIFORNIA) -- In the 1960s, about the only Indians on TV were faithful Indian sidekicks. The one exception was the short-lived "Hawk."
"Renegade"
(CALIFORNIA) -- Amid the 1990s shows that most people know about--"Twin Peaks," "Northern Exposure," "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"--there's this oddball that no one ever talks about.
Powwow Dreams
(NEW MEXICO) -- Thousands of people from hundreds of tribes and cities gathered to see the tradition, culture and clothing at one of the biggest powwows in the world, the Gathering of Nations.
Ways of Ancient Mexico Reviving Barren Lands
(MEXICO) -- Jesús León Santos is a Mixtec Indian farmer who will soon plant corn on a small plot next to his house in time for the summer rains. He plows with oxen and harvests by hand.
Jacoby Ellsbury Is a Catch
(SOUTH DAKOTA) -- What's not to like about the young Navajo baseball player with dashing good looks and quick feet? Anyone? Anyone? Jacoby Ellsbury, 24, an outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and hero to many Natives across the nation, is at it again. Will the future all-star (yeah, I said it) please stand up?
Noted lawyer hired in bison case
(COLORADO) -- An Austin, Texas, businessman who faces charges that he killed at least two bison and set in motion events that caused the death of 30 others has hired one of Colorado's most successful lawyers to represent him.
Edwards, NARAL back Obama in big setback for Clinton
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Former Sen. John Edwards Wednesday endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, throwing his stature as a populist champion of the working class behind a onetime rival whose failure to appeal to such voters has been his chief political weakness through the late primary season.
Edwards gives long-awaited endorsement to Obama
(MICHIGAN) -- Democrat John Edwards has given his long-awaited endorsement to Barack Obama. It's a major boost from a former presidential rival as Obama tries to shrug off Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is determined to press ahead.
Republican Election Losses Stir Fall Fears
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Republican defeat in a special Congressional contest in Mississippi sent waves of apprehension across an already troubled party Wednesday, with some senior Republicans urging Congressional candidates to distance themselves from President Bush to head off what could be heavy losses in the fall.
Democratic Victory May Be a Bellwether
(MISSISSIPPI) -- A Democrat won the race for a GOP-held congressional seat in northern Mississippi yesterday, leaving the once-dominant House Republicans reeling from their third special-election defeat of the spring.
Democrats win again in a Republican stronghold
(MISSISSIPPI) -- Forget West Virginia. The election that pros in both parties were watching tonight was a special House faceoff in Mississippi -- and the results could not be worse for the GOP.
Cheney Makes Appearance for House Hopeful
(MISSISSIPPI) -- Vice President Cheney traveled to this Memphis suburb on Monday in an eleventh-hour effort by the Republican Party to hang on to a U.S. House seat that it has long held but that appears at risk of becoming the third Democratic gain this year.
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