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CLARK: A Native American Take on Independence
This weekend we celebrate our nation's 232nd birthday. But it's not a celebration for everybody, especially for many of the Indian tribes who lived on this land long before the Founding Fathers got here. So how is the Fourth of July handled on sovereign Indian lands?  Native Voices5/25/2013
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OP/ED: 'Invisible' Urban Indians
(Washington) -- Urban Indians are not new to the urban scene, as New York Times reporter Timothy Williams suggested in his article, "Quietly, Indians Reshape Cities...
5/24/2013
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Wendell George: Sharing Colville Tribes culture and history
(Washington) -- My wife, Barbara, and I both graduated from Wenatchee High School. I moved to Wenatchee from the Colville Indian Reservation when my Dad, Moses, took a...
5/22/2013
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Haudenosaunee Grand Council Reiterates Position on Elected Councils
(New York) -- Greetings from the Chiefs, Clanmothers, Faithkeepers, and people of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, People of the Longhouse.
5/20/2013
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ECOFFEY: Making small sacrifices without recognition
(South Dakota) -- There are many people who get credit for their service to our communities. Activists, journalists, politicians, and academics are well known in Indian...
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GIAGO: South Dakota Public Radio flunks on two counts
(South Dakota) -- It is ironic that when experienced reporters familiar with Indian Country are replaced by new reporters or broadcasters with little or no experience in...
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TRAHANT: Federal spending worsens as time passes
(Washington D.C.) -- Indian Country has already been hit hard by the sequester. Lacey Horn, treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, recently told National Public Radio that...
5/19/2013
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COOK: Native Leaders Need to Put People, Not Politics, First
(New York) -- Dear Readers: Too often we simply accept that tribal governments (as opposed to our traditional governments) have elected representatives—presidents...
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D'ERRICO: Ignorance, Law, Genocide: Is There an Excuse?
(USA) -- There's an old saying, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." It means the law applies whether or not you know the law exists. It's based on the...
5/13/2013
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TRAHANT: Repeal health care law? Again? So now what?
(Washington D.C.) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has scheduled a vote Thursday to repeal the Affordable Care Act (including the permanent authorization of the...
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WALN: School Boards are responsible for the mental health of students
(USA) -- May is designated as Children’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Balanced children are mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually healthy. Schools...
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OP/ED: Payment to American Indians inadequate`
(Tennessee) -- At the most recent Native American conference of the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform, held in April in Nashville, among...
5/11/2013
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D'ERRICO: Imbalance of Terror: The Boston Bombings and Other Mindless Acts
(USA) -- The Cold War was described as a "balance of terror" maintained by the opposing nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union.
5/10/2013
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ROSS: Student Loans, Big Decisions, and Staying Hungry: Advice for Graduates
(Washington) -- We are firmly in graduation season. All of my graduations happened at least a decade ago, so I barely remember them. I do vaguely remember my law school...
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NEWLAND: Tribes and the Michigan Wolf Hunt
(Michigan) -- The Michigan Natural Resources Commission has approved a wolf hunting season here in Michigan, just one day after Governor Snyder signed legislation...
5/9/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: Renewing the Sacred and the Importance of Place
(USA) -- Many tribal nations remember and perform ceremonies at sacred places that are not on their reservations. Do Indians have any spiritual claims to their ancient...
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JENNINGS: When the Last American Indian Dies
(USA) -- Anthropology has from the beginning been influenced and dominated by European males. They set the criteria of hierarchically ordered level descriptions, giving...
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KILLSBACK: Iron Man 3 Blasts Sand Creek
(Arizona) -- The majority of mainstream Americans know little to nothing of the violent and unjust history of the colonization of Native America. Anytime such truth is...
5/7/2013
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HOPKINS: Obama Should Protect Citizens' Health, not Monsanto’s GMOs
(North Dakota) -- Welcome to the laboratory-rat cage, folks. We’re all being experimented on by Monsanto and the federal government.
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SCHILLING: Exploring the Political Exploitation of Blood Quantum in the U.S.
(USA) -- Arica L. Coleman is an assistant professor of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware. She is African American and Native American (Rappahannock),...
5/6/2013
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Ecoffey: Confronting the dangers of instant Indians
(South Dakota) -- One of the greatest dangers to Native American communities is the Indians created by the elite institutions of higher learning.
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RUSSELL: Myths American Indians Live and Die By
(Texas) -- The mythical narrative taught by the colonists is that progress is an inevitable march in one direction. In the debate over the Texas annexation treaty, the...
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TRAHANT: Indian Country left behind as jobs evaporate
(Washington D.C.) -- Wall Street celebrated last week’s jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment fell to 7.5 percent and that 165,000...
5/3/2013
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ROSS: Mother's Day, Superwoman Complex, and Getting Better: Loving Native People Better, v. 2
(Washington) -- Disclaimer: Zero research went into this piece (except for watching decades and decades of Native boys growing up under incredibly loving Native moms)....
5/1/2013
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HARRIS: In Support of the Indian Child Welfare Act
(Washington D.C.) -- I am outraged by Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. As a lifelong civil rights activist, I remember the struggle to pass the Indian...
4/30/2013
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NEWCOMB: A Muddled Analysis of Johnson V. M’Intosh
(California) -- The difficulty of accurately analyzing the 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. M’Intosh is well demonstrated in an article published by...
4/29/2013
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TRAHANT: Congress quickly fixes the wrong problem
(Washington D.C.) -- Last week was a perfect illustration of the broken structure that is the United States government. Congress cannot pass a budget. It can barely pass...
4/27/2013
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RUSTYWIRE: Dancing With the Bears
(Utah) -- Old Man Toponotes would sit in this ‘84 Chevy pickup, wearing a faded brown cowboy hat that had seen more youthful days.
4/26/2013
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Ecoffey: Native Sun News is a forum for Native writers
(South Dakota) -- Throughout history Native people have been forced to endure the misappropriation of essentially every aspect of our culture and life by mainstream...
4/25/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: The Challenge of Mixed-Blood Nations
(USA) -- Countries with indigenous nations usually also have mixed-blood nations composed of people of indigenous descent and other nations or races.
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U.S. Colonialism: The Cornerstone of U.S. Indian Policy
(California) -- Indian nations have been dealing politically with the imperial momentum of the United States ever since the 13 British colonies along the Atlantic...
4/24/2013
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KADER: Economic Growth is Vital to Reservation Life
(New York) -- The recent legal decision in the case of King Mountain Tobacco versus the State of Washington has become quite the topic in reservation business...
4/23/2013
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NEWCOMB: Origins of the Foedus ('Federal') System
(California) -- In Indian country it is commonplace to say that the United States Constitution was at least partly inspired by the Confederacy of the Haudenosaunee.
4/22/2013
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GIAGO: Remembering Al Neuharth, South Dakota newsman
(South Dakota) -- A man dressed in black and silver approached me at a newspaper convention in San Francisco 30 years ago. He held out his hand and said, “Hi, Tim...
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TRAHANT: Austerity & Termination are twin ideologies
(Washington D.C.) -- If you look at the failed history of termination -- the idea of ending the federal-treaty relationship with tribal governments -- there were two...
4/21/2013
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LAMAR: Bitcoins: Wagering Virtual Currency on Virtual Gaming
(USA) -- The virtual currency, bitcoin, recently gained attention as its trading value topped copy40 US per coin on April 2. Most of the hoopla surrounding the news...
4/20/2013
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DELAUNE: Elizabeth Warren, Heidi Heitkamp, Markwayne Mullin and Us
(Georgia) -- To paraphrase one of the trite banalities she compulsively invoked throughout 2012, the spiritual godmother of the Occupy movement has telegraphed a...
4/18/2013
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FORQUERA: American Indians are moving to cities
(Washington) -- Seattle is more typical of the urban Indian experience [“Reservation-system questions raised as Indians head for cities,” front page, April...
4/16/2013
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PEMBER: Diabetes Watch: It Is Possible to Break the Sugar-Salt Addiction
(USA) -- At this time, I was finding that there were several things I could no longer do—or was too embarrassed to do—because of my size.
4/15/2013
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ROSS: Loving Native People Better, Vol. 1: Pop Quizzes and Friends (and Family) Like These
(Washington) -- POP QUIZ: Think of a list of 5 people whom you do not like or who irritate you. Ethnically, are most of those people on that list 1) Native American, 2)...
4/10/2013
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GOMEZ: History in the making at tribal vineyard
(California) -- In this column a year ago this month, I shared with you a bit of history in the making as we embarked to become one of the few tribes in the country to...
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RUSSELL: The Indian Holocaust and the Hopi Nation
(Arizona) -- Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou, a Parisian auction house that I’m sure perceives itself as catering to only the “best people,” is about...
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TRAHANT: Modern budgets are more stories than spread sheets, but numbers still matter
(Washington D.C.) -- Modern budgets in the federal government are more stories than spread sheets. Consider the three competing budgets for 2014. The House budget is...
4/9/2013
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McKEOWN: You Can’t Convey What You Don’t Have
(USA) -- On Friday, April 12, Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou in Paris is scheduled to auction 70 Native American masks dating between 1880 and 1940. The auction...
4/6/2013
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Native Empowerment: One State at a Time
(Montana) -- The Montana voter registration and mobilization program started by Western Native Voice in 2011 had a large impact on the 2012 election.
4/3/2013
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Camp: Native nations and the rise of self-governance
(Oklahoma) -- The unmistakable resurgence of Native nations within the United States this past 40 years is often credited simply to self-governance.
4/2/2013
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COLUMN: Native studies is falsely advertised
(South Dakota) -- Whenever I tell people I’m from northern Illinois, I tend to hear one of two questions: “What brought you to South Dakota?” or...
4/1/2013
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TRIMBLE: The wonderful remarkable life of an Oglala centenarian
(South Dakota) -- Several years ago I was visiting with Teri Dameron, federal funding and management consultant here in Omaha. Teri is a member of the Brewer tiyospaye...
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Yeagley: An American Indian perspective on political correctness
(Washington D.C.) -- The times are changing, but the culture war drags on with no end in sight. Year after year, we hear the same rhetoric from different faces on...
3/29/2013
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KADER: Traditional and Religious Believers Are Not Terrorists
(USA) -- The labeling vogue of past generations was often to term both traditional and religious groups in Indian country as offbeat, sometimes as renegades, and...
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ROSS: In Honor of Women’s History Month: Just a Few of My Female Indigenous Inspirations
(Washington) -- Within Indigenous communities, the women lead. They lead in our homes and our society, whether elected or not – that tradition has continued for...
3/28/2013
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RUSSELL: Sovereignty and Slime
(USA) -- The interplay between law and language is fascinating. “Blood quantum” started without the modern racist connotations in early English cases...
3/27/2013
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Rights vs. Identity: Divisions Run Deep Over Hickory Ground
(Alabama) -- The recent arrest of Wayland Gray, a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen, has set off a firestorm of criticism against the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
3/25/2013
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TRAHANT: Next year: Huge changes ahead for Indian health system (including some new money)
(Washington D.C.) -- Three years ago, on March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act. The bill also included the permanent...
3/24/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: The Case for Indigenous-Based Education
(USA) -- The most critical and radical contemporary approach to schooling today is culturally based education. Its virtues and drawbacks are many.
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CHAVERS: Shattering Education Myths
(New Mexico) -- In a controversial book called Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools—And Why It Isn't So...
3/23/2013
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Guest Commentary: On Card Carrying Indians and Those Indians Who Don't
(Michigan) -- This is the historical trauma no one wants to talk about. We, as Native people, take it as a badge of honor that we have been issued cards qualifying us as...
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Guest Commentary: The Attack on Indigeneity
(Maine) -- I recently read a response to one of the many degrading Native American images circulating in the mainstream media. The statement said that when these...
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Coyote Thoughts: Getting to Ten
(New Mexico) -- Stereotyping is one of the worst aspects of the Trickster. While we typically think of stereotyping as a fixed, overgeneralized belief about a particular...
3/22/2013
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KADER: Modern Ancestry and Historic Trade Routes
(New York) -- “Our unborn grandchildren will look back at our era and be either thankful for our efforts or they will never speak our names as their ancestors,...
3/21/2013
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PEMBER: Remembering Raymond Thundersky, Roving Artist-Clown of Cincinnati
(Ohio) -- Some people thought he was a great Mohawk chief, some thought he had royal blood, some thought he was Jesus and some just thought he was crazy.
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RUSSELL: Elders Are Our Strength
(Texas) -- Elders suffered terribly during the Great Depression. I did not live then, but I am among the last generation schooled by the people who lived it. I know my...
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TRAHANT: Senate approves spending bill, House vote today (before the opposition gains traction)
(Washington D.C.) -- The Senate yesterday passed a Continuing Resolution funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year. That measure now goes to the House and...
3/20/2013
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TRAHANT: Dangerous talk from the Capitol: Evidence that more money does improve Indian health
(Washington D.C.) -- Idaho’s Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican, asked a critical question Tuesday. It’s one rarely asked, let alone, answered. The question:...
3/18/2013
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NEWCOMB: Our Originally Free and Unbaptized Existence
(California) -- There are some things we have not very often thought about or reflected upon because we have lacked the vocabulary necessary to name and think about...
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TRAHANT: Austerity has limits. Will Congress notice?
(Washington D.C.) -- Three words to think about as we near the next budget fight on Capitol Hill: Austerity has limits. As I have written often, I view the austerity...
3/17/2013
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PEMBER: A 'Digital Wigwam' Explores the Trauma of Indian Boarding Schools at the Family Level
(Ohio) -- In the fall, journalist and ICTMN contributor Mary Annette Pember displayed an installation called Digital Wigwam at Thunder-Sky, Inc., a gallery specializing...
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McKosato: How trains changed life for the Indians
(New Mexico) -- The Indian and the Iron Horse go way back. America’s railroads (especially the Transcontinental Railroad) and trains in general are still...
3/15/2013
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KADER: The DEC and Mohawk Treaty Rights Challenged
(New York) -- As an enrolled member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (SRMT), I have been made aware of yet another dilution of scant tribal rights and the absolute failure...
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HOPKINS: My Past Lives Relived for You
(USA) -- I never planned to be a failed journalist or a hack writer. Seriously, in my youth, I had big plans that included wealth, women and worldwide fame.
3/14/2013
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RUSSELL: Habemus Papam: Why We Should Care About the Selection of the New Pope
(Texas) -- Why care about who heads a fantasy world of wealthy child molesters? We have to. From the time Constantine made Catholicism the state religion of the Roman...
3/13/2013
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ROBERTSON: Institutional Discrimination Against Indigenous Culture
(Oklahoma) -- During the Spring 2013 semester, Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University (NSU) cancelled three 1-hour-credit college courses based on Indigenous...
3/9/2013
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CHAVERS: Eliminating the Stanford Indian Mascot
(California) -- I got my notice of admission to graduate school at Stanford University in March 1970. I was so happy about it that I took the letter to the Native...
3/7/2013
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TRAHANT: Spending fight quietly moves to Senate
(Washington D.C.) -- The House, as expected, passed the Continuing Resolution to fund government for the rest of the year. H.R. 933 now moves to the Senate for...
3/6/2013
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DANIELS: It’s not a right-of-way, its a wrong way
(Minnesota) -- Recently I wrote a series of articles on rights-of-way across Indian lands. Each of these articles were meant to help Indian land owners to better...
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TRAHANT: House could vote today on next budget phase
(Washington D.C.) -- Congress is already moving away from the sequestration fight into the next one, a resolution to fund the government for the remainder of the year....
3/4/2013
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TRAHANT: Pennies on the dollar? Sequester will close schools, reduce teachers, shortchange dreams
(Washington D.C.) -- Over the weekend the Republican line on the sequester was honed to a simple idea: It’s only a couple of pennies, two-and-one-half cents out of...
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TRUER: Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
(Minnesota) -- In his introduction to Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, author and professor Anton Treuer says that he spent most of...
3/3/2013
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TRAHANT: State of Indian Nations: 'A Moment of Real Possibility'
(Idaho) -- National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel began his annual report, State of Indian Nations, with a simple exclamation.
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LEFTHAND: Let's Make Navajo Nation the 51st State
(USA) -- This is probably not a new idea; most ideas are not. So let’s say it’s an idea that’s time has come about again. The idea is to make the...
3/1/2013
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TRAHANT: There is no shortcut to avoid the sequester
(Washington D.C.) -- There is no shortcut to end the sequester. It's here because there are real, deep divisions about the nature of the problem. Those divisions...
2/28/2013
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TRAHANT: Austerity begins self-destructive course
(Idaho) -- And so austerity begins across the United States. On March 1, a few hours from now, the federal government will officially sequester funds that have already...
2/27/2013
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TRAHANT: Republicans Cave on Violence Against Women Act; Is the Sequester Next?
(Idaho) -- This is not a headline that any political party wants to read: “House GOP Caves: Violence Against Women Act Impasse Finally Broken.” The shape of...
2/26/2013
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TRAHANT: Real numbers, competing plans, and 3 days
(Washington D.C.) -- The sequester begins in three days -- and lawmakers (fresh from vacation) are working on competing proposals to do something.
2/25/2013
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TRAHANT: Four days, a month of chaos, and new levels of incompetence in federal governance
(Washington D.C.) -- The sequester begins in four days and Congress is set on a do nothing course. Not that anyone is happy about it. The White House over the weekend...
2/24/2013
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Honesty and Crimes: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
(Colorado) -- One of my favorite things to do each month – besides taking a shower – is to read the Crime Waves section of The Four Corners Free Press in...
2/23/2013
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GALANDA: The Indian Land Consolidation Plot Thickens
(Washington) -- There were several revelations from the Department of the Interior during its tribal consultation in Seattle last week. Interior officials successfully...
2/22/2013
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TRAHANT: Sequester clock ticks: fix-this, fix-this, fix-this
(Washington D.C.) -- The sequester is now a week away. (And the next budget crisis, the expiration of the Continuing Resolution that funds the government, is only a...
2/21/2013
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TRAHANT: A budget line that reflect divide in politics: Early learning. Spend. More. Now.
(Washington D.C.) -- Perhaps no federal program represents the ideological divide over spending more than Head Start. Head Start is a comprehensive early-learning...
2/20/2013
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TRAHANT: Federal budget sequestration is unappealing, unattractive, and now nine days away
(Washington D.C.) -- At a news conference Tuesday President Barack Obama called the sequester a “meat-cleaver approach” to budget cutting. It designed with...
2/17/2013
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HOPKINS: Who Does NCAI Represent?
(USA) -- This past Thursday, Jefferson Keel, President of the National Congress of American Indians, delivered the 11th Annual State of the Indian Nations Address.
2/14/2013
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ENNIS: A Letter From a Former Foster Child
(Minnesota) -- I have worked with over a thousand foster youth in the past 20 years. Thanks to Facebook and other social media sites I am able to stay in contact with...
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D'ERRICO: Neanderthals in Our Future?
(USA) -- International Science Times reports that a Harvard Medical School professor, George Church, has reconstructed Neanderthal DNA and is looking for "an...
2/13/2013
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TRAHANT: State of the Union: A North Star that guides the country toward a growing economy
(Washington D.C.) -- Let’s jump right to the big questions: Did President Barack Obama’s State of the Union do anything to resolve the deep differences in...
2/11/2013
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HOPKINS: Suicide as Genocide
(USA) -- Genocide has found a new disguise: that of adolescent suicide. According to the Indian Health Service, Natives who fall between 10 and 24 years of age have the...
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TRAHANT: Sequestration will cost tribes $130 million; plus 800,000 fewer IHS outpatient visits
(Washington D.C.) -- Tuesday night President Barack Obama will lay out his case that Congress ought to reverse the $1.2 trillion worth budget cuts that are beginning...
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MASTEN: Remove Klamath dams for salmon, tribes
(California) -- Dam removal is needed to save the salmon on the Klamath River and restore California's salmon fishing industry; however, the newly renewed Klamath...
2/10/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: Indian Education: What Are the Options?
(California) -- Indian communities are searching for education that suits the needs of their children and futures. They may not know precisely what they require. But...
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GIAGO: Signing off after more than 30 years of columns
(South Dakota) -- We all, eventually, reach that point in our lives when it is time to move on. For more than 30 years I have spent each Sunday morning listening to...
2/8/2013
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TRAHANT: Inching closer to a deal ... or not
(Idaho) -- I have been traveling for a project all week, so I have missed the back and forth of every proposal and counter proposal to avert the sequester. That’s...
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RUSSELL: Inside the Fortress Courthouse
(Texas) -- The Sue & Chew is the new wave of courthouse snack bars. The food is bad enough to fend off the temptation to hang around longer than you must, but not so...
2/4/2013
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Tim Giago: Separating the mixed-bloods from the full bloods
(South Dakota) -- Racism isn’t just confined to individuals. Sometimes democratic governments are guilty of it. Take the case of the Japanese Americans confined to...
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TRAHANT: A (Canadian) penny for your thoughts
(Idaho) -- I was in Vancouver last week for a couple of days and I went out of my way to not spend any cash. I paid for my hotel with a credit card, used a cell phone...
2/3/2013
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NEWCOMB: John Collier and Indigenous Peoples’ Contributions to the World
(California) -- John Collier was the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945, during the New Deal era of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When Collier...
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All Over Your Face: Confessions of a Former Social Media Junkie
(New Mexico) -- It has been roughly two months since I deactivated my beloved Facebook account. I’d been wanting to do so for some time and had told myself I was...
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Introducing Captain Gary Lockee, Reluctant Lumbee War Hero
(New Mexico) -- When I was a teenager, I was friends with Miss Lula Lockee. She was born about 1900, just a few years after my grandmother.
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Moving Them Up the Mountain
(Utah) -- Tomorrow is Saturday. She will rise early to go high in the mountains, a place called Lake Canyon way up in the Uintah’s South of the Duchesne River.
2/2/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: Indian Identity and Assimilation
(USA) -- Indigenous identities have become multiple and more complex, and some more hostile, at the beginning of the 21st century. Many contemporary indigenous nations...
2/1/2013
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HOPKINS: Native American Ghost Stories
(North Dakota) -- Once upon a time, Natives gathered around a campfire to share stories. While these tales were used to educate, instill values, and preserve culture and...
1/31/2013
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TRAHANT: Will bad news delay the sequester?
(Washington D.C.) -- Will bad news delay the sequester? Wednesday the government released the fourth quarter’s Gross Domestic Product, the output of goods and...
1/30/2013
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DANIELS: Negotiating Oil and Gas Leases in Indian Country
(Minnesota) -- The current oil & gas (O&G) boom has created sweet and sour ripples throughout Indian Country. O&G has been a blessing in this cycle of...
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TRAHANT: Sequester will rip apart higher education in Indian Country; disinvestment in the young
(Washington D.C.) -- I had better not bury the lede: The sequester is going to rip apart higher education in Indian Country. It’s going to be ugly, folks, and...
1/29/2013
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TRAHANT: Medicaid funding is Indian health system’s ‘new reality’ and it can continue to grow
(Washington D.C.) -- The Indian Health Service faces, what IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux calls, a “new reality” requiring a business model to match this era.
1/28/2013
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GIAGO: Was the Indian Reorganization Act good or bad?
(South Dakota) -- This is a story that deserves to be repeated again and again. It was 75 years ago on June 18, 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act became the law of...
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WHITE FACE: Deadly dose of uranium for soldiers
(South Dakota) -- There is a situation brewing in western South Dakota that has quite a few people concerned about the safety of soldiers in the SD Army National Guard....
1/25/2013
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CHIEF ALLAN: Public artifact removal is more like looting
(Idaho) -- As you know, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's aboriginal territory spanned nearly 4 million acres and for thousands of years the people of the Coeur d'...
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DANIELS: Your Great-Great Grandmother Wasn't a Cherokee
(Minnesota) -- Once, at a tribal consultation meeting, Larry Echo Hawk, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, asked me to join him for lunch. Upon learning that I was a...
1/23/2013
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TRAHANT: Debt ceiling ‘suspension’ makes severe spending cuts even more likely
(Washington D.C.) -- House Republicans are expected to vote later today on a plan to “suspend” the debt ceiling (instead of raising it by a set amount).
1/22/2013
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TRAHANT: Making the case for progressive austerity, and a new push for health care reform
(Washington D.C.) -- The next four years will be defined by austerity. President Barack Obama, indeed, the country, will jump from one economic crisis to another. And...
1/21/2013
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GIAGO: Eulogies for three great leaders in Indian Country
(South Dakota) -- Perhaps there are many people in America who do not know of the three great Native Americans I am about to eulogize, but all three passed away within...
1/20/2013
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McKOSATO: Intense debate: Who is Indian?
(New Mexico) -- The issue of tribal citizenship is arguably the most equivocal topic in Indian Country today. The whole concept of blood quantum is as ambiguous as it is...
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Tim Giago: Eulogies for three great leaders in Indian Country
(South Dakota) -- Perhaps there are many people in America who do not know of the three great Native Americans I am about to eulogize, but all three passed away within...
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Roberta Jamieson: Education equality the key to First Nations future
(Canada) -- We are at an important crossroads in our country. The Idle No More movement has shown itself to be grassroots and growing. Young indigenous people are...
1/18/2013
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TRAHANT: Debts to be paid? The House Republicans and their ‘Native American effort’
(Washington D.C.) -- Are House Republicans about to begin a Native American voter initiative? The New York Times reports that Oregon’s Greg Walden, chairman of the...
1/17/2013
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Gilio-Whitaker: Indian Self-Determination and Sovereignty
(USA) -- If ever a concept grabbed hold of hearts and minds in Indian country in the past couple decades surely it would be that of sovereignty. Native people talk about...
1/16/2013
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CHAMPAGNE: The Challenge of Protecting Sacred Land
(California) -- We have tried treaties. We have tried court cases. We have tried state and federal legislation. In all cases, the results have been mixed. How should...
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GOMEZ: Care for land a long tradition
(California) -- With the beginning of 2013, I thought it a good time to reflect on our tribal concern for the environment and some of the programs and policies we have...
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TRAHANT: Big. Bad. Ugly. Budgets.
(Washington D.C.) -- Four words to describe the finances of the United States: Big. Bad. Ugly. Budgets. Numbers are thrown around that are so huge that the very mention...
1/14/2013
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GIAGO: The destruction of Wounded Knee by AIM in 1973
(South Dakota) -- In a couple of weeks flyers will be strewn across the Pine Ridge Reservation asking the residents to honor the “Liberation of Wounded Knee in...
1/13/2013
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TRAHANT: The check isn’t in the mail
(Idaho) -- We all have a story about waiting for a check from the Treasury. It could come from managing a tribal program, being an entrepreneur waiting for a contract,...
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OP/ED: A Historic and Monumental Resolution Regarding the Year of the Dakota
(Minnesota) -- On Friday, December 14, 2012, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution titled “The Year of the Dakota: Remembering, Honoring and Truth-...
1/11/2013
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BLOG: Native women fail to find justice
(Montana) -- In 2005, two Native American women in Oklahoma were kidnapped, blindfolded, and raped by three non-native men. Because they were blindfolded, they didn'...
1/10/2013
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RUSTYWIRE: Native-Born
(Arizona) -- There was a small white envelope waiting for me when I got home. It was a subpoena, and it said be at the Federal Court Building at 8 a.m. and don't be...
1/7/2013
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DANIELS; Another change – but this time one for the better!
(Minnesota) -- Well, it’s finally official as the new regulations for 25 C.F.R. § 162 (“new regulations”), including residential, business...
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GIAGO: Incompetence overwhelms at Bureau of Indian Affairs
(South Dakota) -- When measuring incompetence in the federal government where does one begin? An excellent starting point is with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The...
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TRAHANT: Austerity / Behind door number three: Calamity
(Washington D.C.) -- The goal of this blog is to help tribal leaders, and tribal communities, prepare for the austerity ahead. Over the next few weeks I want to explore...
1/6/2013
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Mark Charles: Working towards reconciliation with Native people
(USA) -- Reconciliation is never easy, which is why it doesn't happen very often. Reconciliation is not something that can be checked off of a list. It is not a...
1/4/2013
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PEMBER: Tiny Horrors: A Chilling Reminder of How Cruel Assimilation Was—And Is
(Kansas) -- For such small objects, the child’s handcuffs are surprisingly heavy when cradled in the palms of one’s hand. Although now rusted from years of...
1/3/2013
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DANIELS: Part 1 – Don’t ask, don’t tell still exists in Indian Country
(Minnesota) -- This article is the first in a series of issues concerning rights-of-ways across Indian lands. This issue is probably the most misunderstood or confusing...
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TRAHANT: Austerity: A context for the budget fights ahead
(Washington D.C.) -- It's important to remember that austerity is a global trend, not a national one. Countries across the globe are spending less on government,...
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What Is the Role of an Indian Artist?
(USA) -- What is the role of an artist? What is the role of an Indian artist? And by Indian I mean Native American, Indigenous, etc. -- choose your terms, by your decade...
1/2/2013
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ARMENTA: President highlights tribal governance
(California) -- In my last column, I discussed some of the events at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C., last month. Tribal government leaders...
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TRAHANT: The deal, the mess, and a look ahead
(Washington D.C.) -- President Barack Obama said his priority was keeping the current income tax rates in place for most Americans. The deal that passed Congress...
1/1/2013
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DANIELS: Better save some of your Cobell, Tribal Trust, and Keepseagle Settlement money
(Minnesota) -- Sitting here at 1:00 AM just wondering what this year, 2013, will bring to Indian Country. Currently watching the Senate vote on the budget deal and it...
12/31/2012
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DANIELS: Negotiating Oil & Gas Leases in Indian Country
(Minnesota) -- The current oil & gas (O&G) boom has created sweet and sour ripples throughout Indian Country. O&G has been a blessing in this cycle of...
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GIAGO: 'Wiping away the tears' after Wounded Knee 1890
(South Dakota) -- It was just six days after the horrible massacre of nearly 300 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee and the news was spreading not only...
12/30/2012
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Charles Trimble: An urban Indian Christmas in the Bay Area
(Nebraska) -- There are readers of my columns whom I have never met, but have come to know and enjoy as though I have known them for years.
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NEWCOMB: Book-land and Folk-land
(California) -- In 1987, while I was staying at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawai’i, I had a strange dream. In my dream I encountered several priests...
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OP/ED: American Indian Untouchables and the 2012 White House Tribal Leaders Summit
(New Jersey) -- Dear Indian Country Today Media Network Editor & Staff, I recently read the article by Rob Capriccioso "Obama Does It Again: White House Tribal...
12/29/2012
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HARJO: 2012 Hall of Fame and Mantle of Shame Awards
(Washington D.C.) -- HALL OF FAME: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for winning second terms by a whopping 332 electoral votes to 206 for Republican...
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MONTEAU: The Politics of Diversion
(New Mexico) -- In the 2012 Elections the GOP allowed itself to be led down a path that was based on a strategy that white people could be galvanized to vote Republican...
12/24/2012
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GIAGO: The Olympics of Indian basketball in South Dakota
(South Dakota) -- It started out in 1977 as a tournament to bring American Indian teams together and prepare them for the long season ahead. It has gone where no one...
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DANIELS: From Paternalism to Maternalism by the stroke of a pen
(Minnesota) -- Recently I wrote about the new Code of Federal Regulations and the change to leasing of Indian trust land. Now I want to go a little further into recent...
12/23/2012
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Guest opinion: Indian Country will suffer if U.S. goes over fiscal cliff
(Montana) -- The fate of the Indian Health Service in Montana probably isn’t the foremost issue on the minds of budget negotiators in Washington working to avert...
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Tim Giago: The Olympics of Indian basketball in South Dakota
(South Dakota) -- It started out in 1977 as a tournament to bring American Indian teams together and prepare them for the long season ahead. It has gone where no one...
12/22/2012
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RUSSELL: Against Liberty
(Texas) -- Everything is not a matter of opinion and all opinions are not equal. In the U.S., we frame all policy arguments in terms of liberty, and since we don’t...
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RUSTYWIRE: They Will Come See Me
(Arizona) -- Going home for Christmas is sometimes hard to do when there isn't enough beso (money) for gifts. It would be nice to go home and bring all the things...
12/21/2012
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DANIELS: Some say good, some say bad – I say make it good
(Washington D.C.) -- On January 4, 2013, the new 25 C.F.R. Part 162 regulations (Comparison of Changes here) will take effect and once again, tribes and individual...
12/20/2012
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ARMENTA: White House hosts tribal governments
(California) -- Two weeks ago, I and other leaders of America’s Native governments had the opportunity to participate in the White House Tribal Nations Conference...
12/19/2012
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DANIELS: Everyone wants to talk – but no one wants to listen
(Washington D.C.) -- On December 1, 2011, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior (DOI), issued Secretarial Order No. 3317, charging the Departmental Agency Directors...
12/18/2012
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KADER: Inner Voice and Environmental Action
(New York) -- On December 11, 2012, Kanietakeron (Larry V. Thompson) of Akwesasne, an area in Indian country also known as the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, made an...
12/17/2012
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GIAGO: 'There are no words to describe it' - Wounded Knee
(South Dakota) -- While trying to talk about the tragedy at Newtown, Connecticut, last week it was said over and over by different individuals, “There are no words...
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VOWEL: The Natives Are Restless. Wondering Why?
(Canada) -- Although thousands of indigenous people all over Canada rallied together under the banner of Idle No More on December 10th, there has been very little media...
12/15/2012
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RUSSELL: Assimilating the Terminators
(Texas) -- To say that American Indians, First Nations, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians live in tension with the colonial states of North America is both a truism and...
12/9/2012
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D'ERRICO: Sacrificed to Civilization
(USA) -- Civilization, in a standard dictionary, is "the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced." The dictionary...
12/8/2012
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CHAMPAGNE: Culture and Indigenous Nationality
(USA) -- A remarkable feature about indigenous nations is that they have continued after more than 500 years of colonial efforts to assimilate and dismantle them.
12/6/2012
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LAMAR: Minnesota Tribes See Prescription Drug Use Leading to Heroin Addiction
(Minnesota) -- Sometimes when you make a prediction, you hope that you're wrong. More than a year ago, I sounded a warning that prescription painkiller addiction,...
12/5/2012
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Cedric Sunray: White House Indians keep policy of segregation
(Washington D.C.) -- On November 28, I received a call from Charles Galbraith, the associate director for intergovernmental affairs at the White House, after numerous...
12/4/2012
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OP/ED: The Need for Broadband Internet Is Great
(Arizona) -- We, as American Indians, have a great need. It has been here for quite some time and on many levels: economic, educational, health, entertainment and a...
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BLOG: Siblings in Science: Breaking Boundaries in Indian Country in the Name of Native Pride and Native Science
(North Dakota) -- Growing up in an urban environment was not easy for us. A lot of nights we weren’t sure whether or not we would eat dinner. It was in the...
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D'ERRICO: Shadows and Light: The Edward Curtis Legacy
(USA) -- Edward Curtis was a star at the start of his monumental work, "The North American Indian." At the halfway point, his fame had vanished, though his...
12/3/2012
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NEWCOMB: The City of True Peace—and Euphemisms
(California) -- In Sir Arthur Helps’s book The Spanish Conquest in America (1855), we find a memorable and heart wrenching story of Spanish cruelty and treachery....
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RUSSELL: 'FBIs'—Full-Blooded Indians—Face the Most Anti-Indian Racism
(Texas) -- FBIs (Full Blooded Indians) get weary of hearing about the vicissitudes facing mixed-blood Indians, for understandable reasons. FBIs bear the brunt of anti-...
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Tim Giago: Indian Country remains out of sight and out of mind
(South Dakota) -- Native Americans fit nicely into that media box labeled “Out of sight; out of mind:” And if not out of sight, then badly portrayed.
11/27/2012
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HARJO: Makers, Takers and Gifts
(Washington D.C.) -- When the seemingly endless election season finally ended, winners and losers had little time to celebrate their victories or lick their wounds...
11/26/2012
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GIAGO: Playing both sides against the middle in US politics
(South Dakota) -- Thankfully we will have a slight respite of two years before the mid-term elections roll around. It is time for all Native Americans to scrutinize...
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JONES: Disney: Fantasy American History
(Florida) -- At Walt Disney World you can have the world at your convenience, cultures of the world with many native cultures from abroad. At Epcot Center you can have...
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Trimble: A shameless promotion for my book 'Iyeska'
(South Dakota) -- This column is a shameless promotion to get you to read my Book, “Iyeska” I’ve often been told by different people, “You ought...
11/24/2012
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On Forgiveness: Let the Grudge Go for Community Change
(New Mexico) -- A typical meeting between two Native people for the first time goes something like this: “What tribe you from?” “I’m a Blackfeet...
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ROBERTS: Thanksgiving Takeaways
(Colorado) -- For most Americans, Thanksgiving has been as a celebration of giving, a day of thanks—thankful to be surrounded by family and friends.
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WAR JACK: A Thanksgiving Reflection: Lies!
(USA) -- In 1637 Governor of Massachusetts declared the first Thanksgiving to celebrate the return of the men from the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children.
11/23/2012
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Domestic Violence: When Will We Learn?
(USA) -- Pretend you are a bank president, your bank has just been robbed at gunpoint, one worker has been assaulted and injured, employees’ lives have been...
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NEWCOMB: Fear and Loathing of History on Thanksgiving
(USA) -- On November 19, the Drudge Report linked to a story about a Native student group at the University of Virginia, a group that decided to deal with the...
11/21/2012
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ROSS: Divisiveness, Drunken Pilots And Kim Kardashian: A Pigeon-toed Indian Pontificates About The 2012 Elections
(Washington) -- I think airport conversations–when you’re waiting for your flight–are the most interesting conversations you can have. The reason why?...
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Native author takes on Pilgrim narrative
(Oklahoma) -- Thanksgiving traditions consist of a cornucopia of early American influences, the origins of which vary from one culture to another.
11/20/2012
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CLIFFORD: What Native American Heritage Month Means to Me
(South Dakota) -- You know you come from a nation of oppression when a month has to be dedicated to your heritage. It’s the only way the rest of the country will...
11/15/2012
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PEDRI: Cultural Appropriation: More Than Meets the Eye
(USA) -- Like many of us in Indian country, I caught the latest Victoria’s Secret atrocity that followed closely on the heels of Gwen Stefani’s big blunder....
11/11/2012
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RUSSELL: Election 2012: Shot at and Missed
(Texas) -- The battle is over, and pundits now stroll to the battlefield and shoot the survivors. I have used this bully pulpit to urge that Indians bloc vote only when...
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BROWN: Victoria’s Secret Flap: Nothing Says Native American Heritage Month Like White Girls in Headdresses
(Minnesota) -- There is something insidiously ironic about being American Indian during the fall of the 21st century. It all starts with Columbus Day to mark our “...
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KILLSBACK: Today’s American Indian Activism
(Arizona) -- The negative representations of American Indians have recently caught national attention in the news and on the Internet. As a professor in American Indian...
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OP/ED: Regarding Peter d’Errico’s Column on American Flags at Pow Wows
(USA) -- ICTMN columnist, Peter d’Errico, addressed the issues of American flags at pow wows, and the meaning of “warrior” as opposed to “soldier...
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TOM: A Veterans Day Message
(Arizona) -- Many Native American teenagers are planning their future and want to make a difference—I believe that. The Native American people have—time and...
11/8/2012
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Cultural Appropriation: A Different Perspective
(South Dakota) -- My perspective on cultural appropriation will always be different than most of the outspoken folks in Indian country. I did not grow up on a...
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CHAMPAGNE: Captured Criminal Justice In Alaska Native Villages
(Alaska) -- Criminal justice administration in the state of Alaska is very centralized. It is also very ineffective. Throughout the 49th state, high rates of domestic...
11/7/2012
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CHARLES: My (Native) Vote
(Arizona) -- My early voting ballot is almost complete. I have done my reading, finished my research, and ignored a sufficient amount of robo-calls and attack ads. I...
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KADER: Election-Season Tidings
(USA) -- The ballot box has been emptied for the 2012 election in the United States. I have followed the presidential candidates and issues raised along this year’...
11/6/2012
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TRIMBLE: A political kiss of death from Lakota columnist
(South Dakota) -- I’ve followed with interest the editorial confrontation between columnist Tim Giago and Lakota educator and scholar Ryan Wilson over whether it...
11/5/2012
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CREE: Heitkamp an Asset for Indian Country
(North Dakota) -- Several Indian tribes in North Dakota will soon pay more attention to the many energy resources we have in this state and on tribal lands.
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GIAGO: Heart disease and diabetes invade Indian Country
(South Dakota) -- One day I was scheduled to go into surgery at the Rapid City Eye Institute for a detached retina and while I was on the gurney hooked up to monitors...
11/2/2012
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PEMBER: Climate Change Threatens the Ojibwe’s Wild Rice Harvest
(Wisconsin) -- It’s difficult to imagine a year without manoomin on the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin. That wild rice—“food that grows on...
11/1/2012
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LADUKE: Pro Life and Not a Planet Baker: Why I’m voting for Barack Obama
(Minnesota) -- Let’s start big. It’s official. Climate change is no longer a topic of the presidential election banter. Since pretty much no one has...
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