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VALANDRA: The Vern Traversie Case: Rapid City, Then and Now
I read with great interest the opinion piece written by Lise Balk King entitled, “Vern Traversie and the Worst Place to Be an Indian.” I was born and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota, attending the public schools and experiencing much of what Lise writes of from her point of view.  Native Voices5/25/2013
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FOXWORTH: New Food Regulations Should Not Proceed Without Tribal Consultation
(Colorado) -- There is a thriving movement in Indian country focused on food sovereignty and increased control of local food systems. Like other assets in Indian country...
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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...
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