HUD Proposes Expanded Support For Tribal Housing Counseling Services

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Housing Counseling is announcing today that it published a proposed rule in the Federal Register outlining housing counselor certification requirements for housing counseling conducted in connection with the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) and the Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) programs. The proposed rule seeks to expand Tribal participation in HUD-approved housing counseling by removing unique impediments to counselor certification. When final, HUD expects that the rule will help expand the number of certified housing counselors serving Tribal communities.

“This proposed rule is important to strengthening the participation of Tribes and Tribal organizations in HUD’s housing counseling program,” said Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner Julia Gordon. “Having counselors who understand the unique needs of those residing in Tribal communities will help increase access to homeownership for Tribes whose members have long been underserved by the mortgage market.”

When Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, it required that all housing counseling conducted under HUD programs be carried out by HUD-certified housing counselors. In furtherance of HUD’s government-to-government relationship with Tribal Nations, HUD delayed the applicability of this certification requirement to HUD’s Native American Housing Programs so that it could conduct consultation with Tribal leaders. This consultation was to ensure that the unique needs and conditions of Tribal Nations were considered in HUD’s execution of its certification responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank statute.

The proposed rule was developed following multiple Tribal consultation and listening sessions where Tribes provided input and feedback on HUD’s existing housing counselor certification requirements and the ways in which they should be tailored to meet Tribal needs.

“It is thanks to the outstanding partnership with HUD’s Office of Native American Programs and the strong engagement by Tribal representatives during the consultation sessions that we have arrived at a set of proposals to more fully integrate the unique needs of Tribal entities into our housing counseling certification and approval processes,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Counseling David Berenbaum.

Based upon feedback received from Tribal entities, HUD is proposing to:

• Adjust certain components of HUD’s current housing counselor certification exam specifically for Tribes, including adjustments for distinctions in fair housing laws pertaining to Tribes and the unique status of trust land;
• Recommend additional training for counselors who become certified to provide housing counseling for the IHBG and ICDBG programs;
• Modify study materials for housing counselor certification examinations to account for tailored content specific to Tribes; and
• Require that housing counseling that is funded with or provided in connection with IHBG or ICDBG funds is performed by individuals who are HUD certified.

HUD is encouraging public comments on the proposed rule through March 27, 2023, via the submission methods outlined in the Federal Register. HUD intends to conduct additional Tribal consultation before issuing a final rule in the future.

HHS Launches New Maternal Health Resources for Native Communities

Washington, D.C.— On Thursday, December 1, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra attended the White House Tribal Nations Summit where he discussed the Department’s commitment to address mental and maternal health in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. As part of HHS’ commitment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) launched a new Hear Her campaign segment that works to improve AIAN maternal health outcomes by raising awareness of life-threatening warning signs during and after pregnancy and improving communication between health care providers and their patients. The Hear Her campaign centers on the stories of women who have experienced pregnancy-related complications.

“American Indian and Alaska Native women are two times more likely than White women to die of complications related to pregnancy,” said Rear Admiral Felicia Collins, M.D., HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and OMH Director. “Through the CDC and OMH partnership, we have expanded the existing Hear Her campaign to create culturally appropriate resources that amplify the experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native women, while giving them tools to advocate for their health and well-being during and after pregnancy. The campaign also emphasizes the importance and role of health care providers in providing respectful care.”

“We are immensely grateful to the women who have shared their powerful stories through the Hear Her campaign, and to the families and communities that have supported them,” said Wanda Barfield, M.D., Director of CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health. “By generously and bravely sharing what they went through, these women are helping to improve outcomes for mothers and future generations.”

In the United States, more than 700 women die each year as a result of complications due to pregnancy. The CDC estimates that more than 80% of these pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Disparities exist for pregnancy-related deaths and are noticeably high for Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women. For American Indian and Alaska Native people, ongoing and historical trauma due to colonization, genocide, forced migration, and cultural erasure contribute to health inequities, including pregnancy-related deaths and other maternal health conditions. Consequently, American Indian and Alaska Native people are more likely to have underlying chronic health conditions, and they face systemic barriers to care including higher rates of poverty and needing to travel long distances to receive quality health care services.

Given the maternal health disparities that AIAN people and communities experience, it is a priority for CDC and OMH to reach tribal communities with resources. In January 2021, CDC and OMH distributed a “Dear Tribal Leader Letter” to inform tribal leaders across the nation of our intention to develop resources to serve American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Later, CDC held in-depth interviews and focus groups with American Indian and Alaska Native pregnant and postpartum people, support people, and health care providers, to better understand their needs and how the Hear Her campaign might serve them. In January 2022, the National Indian Health Board hosted a discussion session to share an update on the formative work and offer an opportunity for public input on plans for developing resources. In October 2022, CDC held a pre-release partner briefing with the Area Indian Health Board Directors and other public health practitioners. That briefing offered another opportunity for community input before the resources were finalized and completed.

CDC and OMH have worked to include the voices and perspectives of American Indian and Alaska Native people throughout the development of the campaign and will continue to do so over time. As the campaign moves forward into implementation, the focus will be on building capacity for tribes and tribal serving organizations to implement the campaign and improve maternal outcomes.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works 24/7 protecting America’s health, safety and security. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or from human activity or deliberate attack, CDC responds to America’s most pressing health threats. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and has experts located throughout the United States and the world.

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority and American Indian and Alaska Native populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. Through its demonstration projects, OMH supports the identification of effective approaches for improving health outcomes and promotes the dissemination and sustainability of these approaches.

CVS, Walgreens Finalize $10B in Settlements over Opioids

By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press

CVS and Walgreens have agreed to pay state and local governments a combined total of more than $10 billion to settle lawsuits over the toll of opioids and now want to know by Dec. 31 whether states are accepting the deals.

States announced final details Monday of settlements that the two largest pharmacy chains in the U.S. offered last month.

The deals are among the largest in a wave of proposed and finalized settlements over opioids in recent years totaling more than $50 billion. Another big pharmacy operator, Walmart, also agreed to a settlement last month for $3.1 billion.

Although lawyers involved in the cases are in line for a cut of the payments, most of the money is to be used to fight an overdose epidemic that has only deepened in recent years.

Opioids have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. in the past two decades, with the most casualties in recent years. The drugs responsible for the bulk of the deaths have shifted from prescription painkillers to illicitly produced fentanyl, which is often being mixed into other street drugs.

In the 2010s, state and local governments filed thousands of lawsuits seeking to hold the drug industry accountable for the crisis. Key drugmakers and distribution companies have already agreed to settlements.

Now, pharmacies, which were subject to claims that they should have realized they were filling too many opioid prescriptions, are following suit.

Under the separate deals, states have until the end of the year to agree to drop claims over opioids against Walgreens and CVS to receive the maximum payouts.

If there aren't enough states participating, the companies can back out.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Monday that California could get up to $510 million in the Walgreens settlement. He said the state is still assessing the terms of the CVS deal.

“To all those struggling with substance abuse disorders, to all those desperately in need of treatment and recovery options _ help is on the way,” Bonta said.

Other states, including Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania, have indicated they're accepting the terms of both settlements.

If there is sufficient sign-on from states, local governments can also sign on to get shares.

The amount awarded to governments is based on their populations and the severity of the opioid crisis there. States will get bigger amounts if more of their local governments agree.

The Walgreens payments could total up to $5.52 billion over 15 years. The CVS payments could reach $4.9 billion over 10 years. Additionally, the companies have announced tentative payments to Native American tribes totaling more than $250 million.

Like other opioid settlements, the agreements call for governments that receive money to use it to fight the drug crisis.

Under the deals, about $1.2 billion would be set aside for lawyers' fees and legal expenses.

The companies also have agreed to monitor, report and share data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions.

“CVS and Walgreens flooded our cities and towns with bottles upon bottles of pills with callous disregard for the suffering their actions caused,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement Monday. “Our settlement mandates significant changes to their business practices, including court-ordered monitoring to ensure the checks and balances that should have been in place all along will now be aggressively enforced.”

Hawaii Volcano Eruption Has Some on Alert, Draws Onlookers

By CALEB JONES and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Associated Press

HILO, Hawaii (AP) _ The first eruption in 38 years of the world's largest active volcano is attracting onlookers to a national park for ``spectacular'' views of the event, and it's also dredging up bad memories among some Hawaii residents who have been through harrowing volcanic experiences in the past.

It was just four years ago that Nicole Skilling fled her home near a community where more than 700 residences were destroyed by lava. She relocated to the South Kona area, only to find herself packing her car with food and supplies this week after Mauna Loa erupted late Sunday.

Officials were initially concerned that lava flowing down the side of the volcano would head toward South Kona, but scientists later assured the public that the eruption migrated to a rift zone on Mauna Loa's northeast flank and wasn't threatening any communities.

Still, the uncertainty is somewhat unnerving.

“It just happened last night, so I really haven't had a lot of time to worry about it yet, basically,” Skilling said Monday. ``And thankfully, right now, it's at the northeast rift zone. But if it breaks on the west side, that's when we're talking about coming into a large populated area. ... That's why I do have a little bit of PTSD.''

Even though there were no evacuation orders, some people decided to leave their homes, prompting officials to open shelters in the Kona and Kau areas. Very few if any stayed in them overnight, Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said, and they would be closing Tuesday.

Despite that, some in the area were preparing for unpredictable changes.

Kamakani Rivera-Kekololio, who lives in the south Kona community of Hookena, was keeping supplies like food and blankets in his car.

``We're being makaukau for anything,'' Rivera-Kekololio said, using the Hawaiian word for ``ready.''

Ken Hon, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said Tuesday that the lava was flowing “not super-fast” at less than 1 mph, though the exact speed wasn't yet clear. It was moving downhill about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Saddle Road, which connects the east and west sides of the island. The flow was likely to slow down about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) from the road when it hits flatter ground.

It was not clear when or if the lava will reach the road. It could hit flatter ground later Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Hon.

``We're not even sure it will reach the highway, but that is certainly the next step in progress if it continues on these trends,'' he said, adding that it's also possible a fissure could open up and drain away some of the supply feeding the flow.

The smell of volcanic gases and sulfur was thick in the air Tuesday along Saddle Road, where people were watching a wide stream of lava creep closer. Clouds cleared to reveal a large plume of gas and ash rising from an open summit vent above the flow.

Gov. David Ige issued an emergency proclamation.

``We're thankful the lava flow is not affecting residential areas at this time, allowing schools and businesses to remain open,'' he said in a statement. ``I'm issuing this Emergency Proclamation now to allow responders to respond quickly or limit access, if necessary, as the eruption continues.''

Hon said lava crossed the Mauna Loa Observatory access road Monday night and cut off power to the facility. It could move toward the county seat of Hilo, he added, but that could take a week or longer.

Meanwhile, scientists are trying to measure the gas emitted from the eruption.

``It's just very early in this eruption right now,'' Hon said.

The eruption is drawing visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is open 24 hours a day. ``The viewing has been spectacular`` especially before sunrise and at night, park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said.

Visitors there are currently able to witness two eruptive events: the glow from Kilauea's lava lake and lava from a Mauna Loa fissure.

``This is a rare time where we have two eruptions happening simultaneously,'' Ferracane said.

People in the northern Hilo neighborhood closest to the Mauna Loa eruption were cautious, but not overly scared Tuesday.

Lindsay Cloyd, 33, said it makes her a bit nervous, but she feels safe and is also in awe of the forces of nature happening in her backyard.

Originally from Utah and living in Hawaii for only a few years, she has never been part of an eruption.

“I feel so humbled and small,” she said, adding that ``it's a profound, incredible experience to get to be here while that's happening.''

Down the street, Thomas Schneider, 38, an optical engineer at the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea, just finished building his new home in the neighborhood.

The threat of lava never came up when he was buying the property, but he'd lived in Hilo for over a decade and knew the risks.

``If you were to look around my property you would see lava rock formations sticking out,'' he said. ``We live on an active volcano, so everywhere is kind of a lava zone.''

Mauna Loa's last eruption came close to his neighborhood but stopped short.

He said he's not afraid.

``I've been waiting since I moved here to see Mauna Loa go off, it's supposed to be spectacular,'' he said. ``It's kind of exciting that it's finally erupting.''

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Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.

Project to Make Indigenous Histories Available Digitally

By JONAH BELECKIS
Wisconsin Public Radio

They can, of course, convey concise and relevant historical information. But they are limited to one point in time, said Kasey Keeler, an assistant professor of civil society and community studies and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That's why Keeler is leading a project, ``Mapping Dejope: Indigenous Histories and Presence in Madison,'' which will make Indigenous history of the area digitally accessible.

``It's a living entity so that it can continuously be updated as needed, providing more information as it comes in,'' Keeler said. ``Then people have their phone right at their fingertips. So, if they see something that sparks interest, they can also dig in more.''

The initiative received a seed project grant from the Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment this year, according to the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology. The maximum amount awarded from these grants is $4,000, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

Other funds are also coming from the School of Human Ecology's Indigenous EcoWell Initiative.

The exact format of the project is not yet fully clear, Keeler said. As of now, they are planning for a digital app and web-accessible version.

Keeler said the project will collect stories from Ho-Chunk Nation members _ and crucially, the funding will help pay them for it.

``Something that is often lost is that folks often expect Native community members to participate in different events without compensating them for their knowledge and for their time,'' she said. ''(Paying them) is so important in doing this kind of work.''

In 2016, Camp Randall Stadium put up a sign at one of its entrance identifying the areas as ``Ho-Chunk Nation Plaza.'' The sign, Keeler said, is big, red and very hard to miss.

It acts as a symbol of the relationship between the Ho-Chunk Nation and the university. She said it's a good reminder for tens of thousands of fans who attend football games about whose land they're all on.

But it didn't come for free. The Ho-Chunk Nation paid about $2 million for the naming rights, she said.

For Keeler, it's important the project gets into the thorny matters of Native history, especially as it pertains to land dispossession and forced removal considering the university sits atop Ho-Chunk land.

``A lot of the goal of this digital project is to push back on colonialism and to really question what we've been taught and what we think we know about this area that we call Madison today,'' she said.

She also said she would like to see more conversation at UW-Madison about moving beyond acknowledging past wrongs into righting those wrongs, such as having tuition waivers for Native students.

Keeler has been at the university for four years. She has taught larger, introductory classes in which she sees a need for students to connect with the landscape around them in Madison. Her own areas of interest include place-making, identity and the names of places.

Part of the story of the land UW-Madison occupies goes back to 1866, when it became a land-grant institution.

Keeler said land-grant institutions have been celebrated for making education more accessible. But accessible for whom?

``It's a really complicated history that myself and some other colleagues at the University of Wisconsin are really trying to dig into and provide resources to folks to learn more about this history,'' she said.

Keeler said the project was ``just barely getting off the ground.'' She is hoping to have a version of the digital map go live in the fall.

Yellowstone Mountain That Honored Massacre Leader Renamed

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) _ A government panel has renamed a Yellowstone National Park mountain that had been named for a U.S. Army officer who helped lead a massacre of Native Americans.

Mount Doane will now be called First Peoples Mountain after the unanimous vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

The 10,551-foot (3,200-meter) peak in southeastern Yellowstone in Wyoming had been named for Lt. Gustavus Doane, who in 1870 helped lead an attack on a band of Piegan Blackfeet in northern Montana.

Doane bragged for the rest of his life about what become known as the Marias Massacre. The attack in response to the alleged slaying of a white fur trader killed at least 173 American Indians, including many women, elders and children suffering from smallpox, Yellowstone officials said in a statement.

Besides being a leader of the massacre, Doane was a key member of a Yellowstone expedition the same year. Yellowstone became the world's first national park in 1872.

Yellowstone officials consulted with 27 tribes on the name change, according to the statement.

``This name change is long overdue. We all agreed on `First Peoples' Mountain' as an appropriate name to honor the victims of such inhumane acts of genocide, and to also remind people of the 10,000-year-plus connection tribal peoples have to this sacred place now called Yellowstone,'' Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier said in a statement Wednesday.

The Piikani Nation's traditional territory covers much of Montana, including the site of the Marias Massacre, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

US Awards $73 Million Contract for Navajo-Gallup Water Project

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) _ The federal government has awarded a $73 million contract to construct pumping plants as part of an ongoing project to bring drinking water to parts of the Navajo Nation and to residents in northwestern New Mexico.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced Friday that an Arizona company earned the contract to build two pumping plants on the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. The plants will be situated near the Navajo community of Sanostee in San Juan County.

They will be part of a network of pipelines and pumping stations that will deliver treated water from the San Juan River.

Biden administration officials touted the contract as a ``significant milestone`` that is a result of the $1 trillion infrastructure deal passed by Congress last year.

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will use about 280 miles (450 kilometers) of pipeline, pumping stations, storage tanks and two treatment plants to deliver water to chapters on the Navajo Nation and the city of Gallup. It's expected to be completed by the Bureau of Reclamation in 2027.

The project is a major component of the nation's water rights settlement agreement on the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico, where officials said over a third of households still haul drinking water to their homes.

Construction was authorized in a federal measure passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in 2009.

Distrust Remains After Navy Report on Tainted Hawaii Water

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and CALEB JONES
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Lauren Wright continues to be leery of the water coming out of the taps in her family's U.S. Navy home in Hawaii, saying she doesn't trust that it's safe.

Wright, her sailor husband and their three children ages 8 to 17 were among the thousands of people who were sickened late last year after fuel from military storage tanks leaked into Pearl Harbor's tap water.

The family has returned to their military housing after spending months in Honolulu hotels, but they continue taking safety measures including taking short, five-minute showers. They don't drink their tap water or cook with it.

A Navy investigation released Thursday blamed the fuel leak and the water crisis that followed on shoddy management and human error. Some Hawaii residents, including Native Hawaiians, officials and military families said the report doesn't help restore trust in the Navy.

``I was at least hoping for some sort of remorse for the families and everybody involved in this,`` Wright said.

She said the ordeal has changed her view on the military from a decade ago when her husband first joined.

``I was the proud Navy spouse, you know, stickers and T-shirts,'' she said. ``I feel like the Navy has failed at what they promised every service member. They failed at a lot of things. And I'm not so proud.''

It's difficult to trust the Navy partly because Hawaii residents and officials for years have questioned the safety of the giant fuel storage tanks that have sat above an important aquifer since World War II, said Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former trustee of the Commission on Water Resource Management.

``Releasing a report saying that they were lying to us is not a step towards building trust,'' he said. ``De-fueling and getting the tanks out permanently, setting aside funds to remediate the water systems all across Oahu and replant our forests _ when I see steps like that happening _ that's a tangible step toward rebuilding trust.''

Some Native Hawaiians said the report only deepened a distrust in the military that dates to at least 1893, when a group of American businessmen, with support from U.S. Marines, overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. More recently, Native Hawaiians fought to stop target practice bombing on the island of Kahoolawe and at Makua Valley in west Oahu.

``There's no proof I should have faith in them,'' said Kalehua Krug, with Ka'ohewai, a cultural organization advocating for a clean aquifer for Oahu. ``They've done nothing but lie for generations.''

Navy officials have said previously they have a lot of work ahead to gain the trust of communities across the island, and in particular Native Hawaiians.

The investigation report released Thursday listed a cascading series of mistakes from May 6, 2021, when operator error caused a pipe to rupture and 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) of fuel to spill when it was being transferred between tanks. Most of the fuel spilled into a fire suppression line and sat there for six months, causing the line to sag. A cart rammed into this sagging line on Nov. 20, releasing 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of fuel.

The report said officials defaulted to assuming the best about what was happening when the spills occurred, instead of assuming the worst, and this contributed to their overlooking the severity of situation.

The spill contaminated the Navy's water system. Fuel didn't get into the Honolulu municipal water supply. But concerns the oil might migrate through the aquifer and get into the city's wells prompted the Honolulu Board of Water Supply in December to shut down a key well serving some 400,000 people. The agency has been asking residents to conserve water because of this and unusually dry weather.

The tanks continue to pose a threat to Oahu's drinking water while they hold fuel, said Ernest Lau, manager and chief engineer of the water utility.

The report saying it will take more than two years to drain the facility is concerning, Lau said Friday.

``The fact that they built this massive facility in three years, so can't they find a way to do all the necessary work in less than two and a half years ... I think it can be done,`` he said, urging the Navy to look at shortening the timeline.

Kristina Baehr, an attorney who represents more than 100 military and civilian families who lodged claims against the Navy, said it was especially troubling to read in the report how pervasive the errors were.

``This is a national security issue,'' she said, noting many of her clients were still experiencing the effects of the tainted water. ``And our families and military communities cannot be mission-ready if the government has made them sick.''

Commerce Dept. Invests $5 Million Through Rescue Plan’s Good Jobs Challenge

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $5 million American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge grant to Lakota Funds, Kyle, South Dakota to create Building Jobs, Building Homes, a construction trades training program for residents of the nine Tribal reservations of South Dakota.

This program will develop a construction trades training program and implement a certified appraiser program, addressing a significant barrier to housing construction on Tribal lands. The program will also support a variety of wraparound services.

“President Biden is committed to ensuring that Tribal communities are provided with the resources they need to diversify and grow their economies,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This EDA investment will create a workforce training program for the construction industry on Tribal lands, helping to address a shortage of housing inventory while providing quality, demand-driven training for Tribal members.”

“The Good Jobs Challenge is bringing together diverse partners and local leaders to advance workforce training programs across the country,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo. “Led by Lakota Funds, this program will bring together Tribal and non-Tribal institutions to create an effective, inclusive workforce training program to support Indigenous people in South Dakota.”

This grant is funded through the American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge. The program awarded grants to 32 worker-centered, industry-led workforce training partnerships across the country. The $500 million program is expanding opportunities for more Americans to access and secure good-paying jobs by investing in innovative approaches to advance worker-centered, industry-led workforce training partnerships.

The 32 awardee projects were selected from a competitive pool of 509 applicants. By partnering with stakeholders such as labor unions, community colleges and industry, these projects will solve for local talent needs, increase the supply of trained workers and help workers secure jobs in 15 key industries that are essential to U.S. supply chains, global competitiveness, and regional development. Through a holistic, integrated partnership approach, these projects will provide tangible opportunities and security for American workers, focusing on serving and supporting a broad range of underserved communities and connecting workers with the training, skills, and support services needed to successfully secure a good job. For more information on the grantees, please visit our fact sheet.(PDF)

The Good Jobs Challenge is part of a suite of American Rescue Plan programs developed by EDA to equitably distribute its $3 billion allocation to assist communities nationwide in their efforts to build a better America by accelerating economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be more resilient to future economic shocks.

About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)

The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation's regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA invests in communities and supports regional collaboration in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.

Students Explore Santa Fe History Through National Cemetery

By JESSICA POLLARD
Santa Fe New Mexican

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ Paul Valdez Depolley gathered a group of high school students at the farthest edge of the Santa Fe National Cemetery to talk statehood, death and the Civil War.

``If the Civil War hadn't come to New Mexico, we would have most likely stayed as a territory,'' said Valdez Depolley, a cultural liaison for the state-chartered New Mexico School for the Arts. ``We could have been Mexicans instead of New Mexicans, which is very interesting.''

He spent much of a recent Tuesday morning explaining Civil War-era rituals of death and burial to students and discussing the historical context of the land the cemetery is built on _ which he noted was home to Indigenous people long before it was dotted with tens of thousands of military gravestones.

The field trip was part of a larger effort in the Santa Fe area to connect students of all ages with stories waiting to be told at the national cemetery, where nearly 68,000 veterans and their spouses are buried _ from the Civil War era onward.

In 2021, Santa Fe Community College contracted with the National Cemetery Administration's New Mexico Veterans Legacy Project to encourage students to research veterans, living and deceased, and record their stories.

The project has culminated in a host of lesson plans available for use by middle school and high school teachers, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

``I never before this thought of using a cemetery as a history,'' said New Mexico School for the Arts history and English teacher Cameron Sperry, who is helping to develop instructional materials centered on the Veterans Legacy Project.

Soon, she said, the instructional materials will be expanded to lower grade levels.

Sperry said she hopes visiting the national cemetery will lead students to ask more questions about the Civil War and the Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

A scavenger hunt she assembled took students to the graves of various soldiers, asked them to identify information on gravestones and led them to areas of the cemetery commemorating Buffalo Soldiers, women in the military and Navajo Code Talkers.

``These are primary sources,'' Sperry said. ``We can go out and learn about things that have happened by looking at a gravestone.''

``It makes it real; these are real people,'' she added. ``It's hard to get that through more-traditional learning.''

Sophomore Evangeline Miranda, 16, who had visited the cemetery previously, was pleased with the experience.

``I think it's really cool that we went here today,'' she said. ``It was more information than I expected.''

Much of the content of the scavenger hunt was ``what you wouldn't learn in a textbook,'' something she enjoyed, Evangeline said.

``I think most of what I learned about is an overall concept of what a lot of these people did,'' said sophomore Caitlyn Bizzell, 15. ``Like Navajo Code Talkers or the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).''

Bringing the stories of war and the people who served in them to students is key for Ken Dettelbach, a Vietnam veteran who helped coordinate the partnership between Santa Fe Community College and the Veterans Legacy Project.

For the last month, Dettelbach has been spending time in history classrooms at New Mexico School for the Arts to teach students more about war and to share his personal experiences.

He answers a range of student questions: Why did you go to war? Did you kill anyone?

He brings photos and letters to share with students.

``They get to see, really, what it means to come back,'' he said. ``And that I give back because I came back.''

Dettelbach said his time in the classroom also has allowed students to further explore the complexities of conflicts the U.S. has been involved in _ with more depth than is usually possible in history classes. In May, he plans to visit classrooms at Santa Fe High School.

The lesson in the cemetery began with taps, a bugle call used in U.S. military funerals, performed by the local Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 996.

Young members of Santa Fe High's Reserve Officers' Training Corps demonstrated a flag-folding ceremony.

It was a meaningful day for Avelino Calabaza of Santo Domingo Pueblo, the Southwest regional commander for National American Indian Veterans and a member of VVA Chapter 996.

Calabaza was an architecture student in 1969, when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. He was 20 _ not far in age from the high school sophomores and juniors wandering among the gravestones Tuesday.

Decades later, he received a diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his time in the military. The experience led him to become an advocate for veterans, including dozens of World War II veterans from the Santo Domingo Pueblo.

War, he said, remains a constant in every part of history.

Calabaza said interactive learning about veterans is important for local students so they can understand ``the hell they went through,'' and how veterans support one another.

``It's very important to actually start respecting a veteran who went through the war and help them if they need support,'' he said.

Native American Student Told to Remove Feather at Graduation

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) _ A Native American student was forced to remove an eagle feather prior to her high school graduation ceremony in northeastern Oklahoma.

Broken Arrow student Lena' Black, who is Otoe-Missouria and Osage, told the Tulsa World the feather was attached to her mortarboard and that she had been told previously that the feather would be allowed because of its cultural significance.

Black said she passed several checkpoints before being approached by a school counselor and a security guard, who tried to forcibly remove the feather.

``I had to take off my cap,'' Black said. ``They kept trying to take it off of me.``

The district's website states that mortarboards are to be without decorations and the confrontation was due to a miscommunication about the required protocols for approval of adding culturally significant items, according to School Indian Education Coordinator Rich Pawpa said.

Other Indigenous students wore regalia during the ceremony, Pawpa said.

Black's mother, Marci Black, said they were not told of any protocols and have received an apology from the district.

``I want this to never happen to another Native student ... they ruined something she has worked her whole life to achieve,'' Marci Black said.

State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister issued a letter in January to state schools asking them to review policies on Indigenous students wearing tribal regalia, feathers and other culturally significant items.

The letter included a 2019 letter from then-Attorney General Mike Hunter that an Indigenous student's right to wear eagle feathers on their mortarboard is protected under the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.

Hawaii Reaches $328 Million Deal with Homelands Waitlist Plaintiffs

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Tuesday that the state has agreed to pay $328 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by 2,700 Native Hawaiians who languished on a waitlist to receive homestead leases and suffered other harms from the mismanagement of the Hawaiian homes program.

Ige said the Legislature must approve the funds for the settlement and then a Circuit Court judge must sign off on its terms for it to be final.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 was meant to provide economic self-sufficiency to Hawaiians by supplying them land. Those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.

But Hawaii has been slow to award leases. An estimated 28,000 people are on the waitlist.

The lawsuit stems from a 1991 law allowing Native Hawaiians to file claims against the state for losses incurred while waiting for a homestead lease from 1959 to 1988. The Legislature created a panel to address claims but the existence of the panel wasn't extended past 1999. So the plaintiffs sued.

The Hawaii Supreme Court in 2020 voted to allow the class-action lawsuit to continue and for damages to be awarded. About 1,000 plaintiffs have died in the two decades since the lawsuit was filed.

Leona Kalima, one of the plaintiffs, said the settlement has the potential ``to change thousands of lives for the better.''

``We're looking forward to it being resolved, finally,'' she said in a statement issued by her attorney.

Carl Varady, an attorney for the plaintiffs, thanked the state officials who worked on the agreement.

``Our appreciation is tempered by the knowledge that nearly a third of the class members will not be with us to witness or celebrate the conclusion,`` Varady said in a statement. ``That conclusion will take some time, to make sure the class members are treated fairly, but we are looking ahead to the final stage when our clients will be compensated for their lost opportunity to obtain a homestead.''

Navajo Energy Company Invests in Carbon Capture Effort

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) _ Navajo Transitional Energy Company has invested in another energy company that is aiming to develop a large-scale platform for carbon capture services.

The deal puts NTEC on Enchant Energy Corp.'s board of directors, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

Enchant Energy is working with the city of Farmington to take over the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station when it is officially abandoned by Public Service Co. of New Mexico later this year. PNM, the state's largest electric utility, has cited concerns over Enchant's financing and ability to make carbon capture technology work there.

``With this investment, NTEC gains a board seat and will utilize their expertise to help the company yield strong investor returns and embrace environmental goals,'' NTEC CEO Vern Lund said in a news release.

State regulators last week said PNM was within its rights to run one unit at the plant through September in an effort to meet peak summer demands and avoid blackouts.

That will change Enchant's schedule to take over the plant but also gives the company three more months to work out deals with the plant's many owners.

Enchant CEO Cindy Crane said she does not oppose PNM's extended operations and also welcomes NTEC as an investor.

``Our shared goals include giving back to our community, while using cutting-edge technology to decarbonize electric power, enabling sustainable development, and demonstrating that CCS can help avoid emissions from existing power plants through retrofits,`` she said. ``NTEC's expertise will be invaluable.''

Enchant first announced in 2019 that it planned to convert the San Juan plant by installing equipment that would capture carbon emissions. That carbon dioxide would then be sent via pipeline to storage sites in New Mexico and Texas where it could be used to help with oil production.

With the investment, Lund said NTEC is furthering its commitment to diversifying its portfolio by acquiring shares in an enterprise focused on addressing the challenge of meeting climate goals through capturing and sequestering carbon emissions from existing power plants and industrial facilities in the western U.S.

The investment was not well received by the Navajo environmental group Dine C.A.R.E, which argued that such carbon capture projects have not been successful in the U.S.

``This does not sound like a financially sound or profit generating investment for a tribal corporation,'' said Robyn Jackson, the group's climate and energy outreach coordinator

NTEC describes itself as a limited liability company organized under the laws of the Navajo Nation. It owns mines in New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana.

When the company was formed in 2013, it was by legislation approved by the Navajo Nation Council and then-President Ben Shelly. That legislation mandated the Navajo Nation's direct involvement in the oversight and management of NTEC through five member representatives.

Currently serving as member representatives are tribal delegates Paul Begay, Nathaniel Brown, Eugenia Charles-Newton, Pernell Halona and Rick Nez.

Brown and Charles-Newton both said they did not know about NTEC's investment in Enchant.

Begay, Halona and Nez could not immediately be reached for comment. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez also did not reply to a request for comment.

French Diplomat Forges Ties with Native American Tribes

HOUMA, La. (AP) _ A French diplomat is working to build ties with French-speaking people in Louisiana in part through strengthening education programs.

Consul General Nathalie Beras, who is based in New Orleans, recently travelled to southern Louisiana to learn more about Native American tribes in that area and that meetings with other groups are planned as well as possible weekend French classes, Houma Today reported.

``Several hundred years ago, French people arrived here, and Louisiana was sold to Americans in 1803. So it was a long time ago, and we still share the culture and the language. Language is much more than only words, this is an identity,'' Beras told the newspaper.

Beras and her team went to Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes and met with French-speaking members of Native American tribes during her outing that took place about two weeks ago. The newspaper said other meetings and visits are also being planned.

Representatives of Tele-Louisiane, a media company that works to preserve the French language and culture in Louisiana, was also along for the trip including the company's CEO, Will McGrew. The company is working with the Pointe-au-Chien tribe to start weekend French classes for local children in the future. McGrew told the newspaper that the company is also ready to assist local school boards if they want to start French-language programs in their areas.

The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana helps promote the French language in schools by partially paying for teachers' salaries.

Beras and her group also toured the waterways around Isle de Jean Charles, a small sliver of land in southern Louisiana that has seen it's land slowly eaten away by coastal erosion.

New Mexican Weaver Joins University Wool Heritage Project

By JESSICA POLLARD
Santa Fe New Mexican

CHIMAYO, N.M. (AP) _ A New Mexico State University initiative aims to help secure the future of a pair of centuries-old practices in the state: herding sheep and weaving their wool into designs, both spectacular and utilitarian.

The Wool Heritage Project's inaugural effort involves producing a 13-pound wool rug, designed by New Mexico State fashion student Savannah Willingham and brought to life by one of northern New Mexico's generational weavers: Richard Trujillo, of Trujillo's Weaving Shop in Chimayo.

The goal of the initiative is to bring attention to two industries, weaving and sheep farming, which advocates say have dwindled in recent years.

The shop where Trujillo completed the rug is packed with handmade wooden two-harness looms, including one built by Trujillo's grandfather more than 100 years ago. Others were bought from families who no longer take part in the weaving tradition.

``A lot of visitors we get have never seen anything like this,'' he said of the setup. ``They're just amazed at the process.''

Trujillo is a seventh-generation Spanish weaver in the village along the High Road to Taos, where in previous centuries families like his would raise sheep and spin their wool into yarn, trading woven textiles for other goods to make a living.

His late father, John Trujillo, opened the shop in the 1950s.

Trujillo himself started learning to weave around the same time most children head to preschool, and while some younger family members are showing interest in the art, ``it's getting harder and harder to find people who are willing to take it up,'' he said during an interview with The Santa Fe New Mexican, taking a break from weaving a colorful table runner on commission.

There are a few weaving shops in Chimayo, where the tradition is still prominent compared with neighboring villages, including Ortega's Weaving Shop and Centinela Traditional Arts.

``We're all pretty much cousins,'' Trujillo said of the people running neighboring shops.

The wool used to make the colorful vests and cloths available at Trujillo's Weaving Shop is harvested and produced from all over, he said. The final products are shipped worldwide, Trujillo said, adding there's notably high demand for woven vests from a shop in Tokyo.

Trujillo is an alumnus of New Mexico State's geography program, and the rug he brought to life features the crimson and white shades of the university's logo.

The wool comes from a flock of roughly 100 New Mexico-bred debouillet and rambouillet sheep of the West Sheep Unit on New Mexico State University's campus, where students raise them as part of the animal sciences program.

Trujillo said the wool was especially soft and fine.

``Fine wool sheep have a long history here in New Mexico because they're able to withstand the harsh desert environment,'' said university animal sciences professor Jennifer Hernandez Gifford, who has helped lead the Wool Heritage Project.

``We really on campus haven't, until this project, really done much with linking back into the fiber arts,'' she added.

Usually, Hernandez Gifford noted, the sheep are shorn annually as part of their upkeep.

But this year, she saved the wool and sent it to a mill in Buffalo, Wyoming, where it was processed into yarn in order to launch this project in cooperation with the university's fashion merchandising and design program.

Using the remaining yarn, the university has made available 80 blanket replicas of the original rug, which is on display at New Mexico State.

The blankets, at 4 pounds each, cost $500. Hernandez Gifford was worried the price might be a deterrent, but 30 have already sold.

Hernandez Gifford predicts that when the sheep are shorn again, another product will be made available for purchase, with proceeds going toward the cost of processing more items.

Hernandez Gifford said that while New Mexico ranks 16th among states for sheep production, the wool mills and the sheep farms that were once more widely prominent have faded in part since the end of a federal wool subsidy during the 20th century.

``The number of sheep in the state has really dwindled,'' she said. ``So that's really is why we have to (mill) out of state. There's no availability anywhere closer . and they do such a great job.''

Sheep didn't start calling New Mexico home until Spanish colonizers brought the particularly resilient Iberian Churra breed with them to the Southwest in the 1500s. Those are likely the sheep Trujillo's family first used for wool for their textiles.

Before that, different groups of Pueblo people practiced weaving baskets and other goods from animal hair, plant fibers and eventually cotton.

The Navajo people living in what is now Arizona and New Mexico acquired sheep from the Spanish, and the resulting livestock called Navajo Churro have since become an integral part of life for their meat and wool.

In the Navajo weaving tradition, fabrics are developed on a frame loom, rather than the standing looms Trujillo's family uses. But Trujillo said both traditions render geometric designs.

Through the 1930 century, the U.S. government called for stock reductions of the sheep on Navajo land, citing concerns about erosion caused by grazing, which has contributed to the Navajo Churro landing on the endangered species list, according to weaving company Tierra Wools co-founder Molly Manzanares.

She favors the sheep for their low-grease wool and natural color variations, which save resources on cleaning and dyeing.

``They're not as domesticated as, say, rambouillet or another kind of sheep,'' she said. ``They're very self-sufficient.''

Manzanares' company holds a flock of hundreds of Navajo Churro near Chama.

Part of the decline in sheep farming, Manzanares said, comes because raising sheep was traditionally a communal effort. Neighboring sheep farmers would work together to protect flocks from predators, mainly coyotes.

``They're hard,'' she said. ``We've been raising Navajo Churro for all these years and trying to bring them back, and finally we're getting in the groove. The drought . has made a big impact.''

Still, the art of weaving in New Mexico plays a larger part in national fashion conversations, said fashion merchandising assistant professor Kelly Coffeen.

``A lot of weavers in the northern part of the state, you don't hear a lot about what they do,'' Coffeen said. ``Some of them work for some of the big designers in New York.''

She added: ``That whole industry is looking for authenticity and looking for ways to be unique. . We have to be aware of that and embrace that for what it is in our state.''

North Dakota Outlines Plan to Restore Native Grasslands

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ The North Dakota Game and Fish Department on Monday unveiled a plan to bring landowners, conservation groups, scientists, and others together to restore native grasslands.

The agency said North Dakota has lost more than 70% of its native prairie, which is essential for wildlife, pollinators, ranching operations and communities. About 60% of the nearly 5 million wetland acres in the state have been converted or lost.

``When we talk about native prairie in the state, we need to acknowledge who the owners and managers of our native prairie are,'' said Greg Link, the department's conservation and communications division chief. ``In most cases, we're talking about ranchers and producers who run livestock on that prairie. We need those folks because they're important in keeping that prairie healthy.''

The so-called Meadowlark Initiative is named after the official state bird known for its unique song. The western meadowlark populations in North Dakota are continuing to decline, wildlife officials said.

The program allows producers to plant marginal cropland back to diverse native perennial grasslands for grazing. Funding is available to establish the grass and to install grazing infrastructure, such as fencing and water. Producers also are eligible to receive rental payments for the first three years as the land transitions from cropland to grazing land.

``This is about keeping working lands working, getting it done on the private playing field, and we know in that arena, we have to come together, we've got to collaborate,'' Link said.

Group Sues Colorado Over Law Banning Native American Mascots

DENVER (AP) _ A North Dakota-based organization representing Native Americans sued Colorado this week for a measure banning American Indian school mascots which was passed last year amid a nationwide push for racial justice following George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis.

The lawsuit by the nonprofit Native American Guardian's Association was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, naming Gov. Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser and Kathryn Redhorse, the executive director of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs. The firm is representing a John Doe, Jane Doe and three other Colorado residents who cite Native American heritage in the lawsuit.

The organization's lawsuit argues that the Colorado law is unconstitutional and ``unlawfully enacts state-sanctioned race discrimination`` against the Native American residents the association is representing.

The Colorado measure, signed into law in June, fines public schools, colleges and universities $25,000 monthly for their use of American Indian-themed mascots after June 1, 2022. The law does not apply to schools on tribal lands and also allows exceptions for schools that had existing agreements with tribes.

The suit argues that the complete erasure of Native American imagery is not beneficial and that the use of positive and respectful Native American symbols and mascots in schools honors the group, helps neutralize offensive stereotypes and teaches the public about Native American history. The lawsuit also states that the use of positive Native American symbolism is a form of ``reappropriation'' or a way to ``reclaim names and images that were once directed at them as insults in order to turn them outward as badges of pride.``

According to the lawsuit, John and Jane Doe, who are of Cherokee and Chippewa descent, attend Yuma High School in northeast Colorado which is home of the ``Yuma Indians.'' The two want their school to continue honoring their cultures and heritage because as the suit alleges, they ``would suffer a hostile environment`` if the Native mascots were banned.

The Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs has identified more than 20 schools across the state for violating the law by using terms such as Savages, Indians and Warriors in their mascot's name.

Spokespeople for Polis and Weiser said they would not comment because the lawsuit is ongoing.

An email sent Thursday to the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs for comment on the lawsuit was not immediately returned.

U.S. Park Service, Tourism Group Partner to Highlight Tribes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The National Park Service has partnered with a tourism association to ensure the contributions, cultures and traditions of Native Americans are incorporated into exhibits and programming at sites across the country.

The park service says it highlights the history of Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians throughout the year. The five-year agreement with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association will expand opportunities, officials said.

Sherry Rupert, the chief executive of the tourism association based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said previous partnerships at individual park sites have boosted awareness of nearby tribes.

She pointed to the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, which stretches 1,200 miles from Nogales, Arizona to northern California. A guidebook has tribal attractions on or near the trail, and a map translates locations into Native languages.

A similar project is in the works at Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail that runs 4,900 miles through 16 U.S. states, from Pennsylvania to Oregon, Rupert said.

``Native American tribes have ancestral connections to public lands that pre-date the formation of the National Park Service by millennia,'' Rupert said in a news release Wednesday. ``These wholly unique perspectives can serve as the foundation for one-of-a-kind cultural content for National Park Service sites.''

In Arizona, 11 tribes associated with the Grand Canyon partnered with the park service to create an inter-tribal cultural heritage site at a historic watchtower at the national park.

The park service said visitors increasingly want more authentic experiences and opportunities to engage with tribal communities and to support Native-owned businesses. The tourism association will host virtual and in-person forums for the park service to hear from tribes.

Park service Deputy Director Shawn Benge said the tourism association's past work demonstrates its understanding of the historic connections tribes have to park sites.

The agency oversees more than 131,000 square miles (339,288 square kilometers) of parks, monuments, battlefields and other landmarks. It employs about 20,000 people in permanent, temporary and seasonal jobs, according to its website.

President Joe Biden has nominated Charles F. ``Chuck'' Sams III to head the park service. If confirmed by the Senate, Sams would be the first Native American to hold the position. He is Cayuse and Walla Walla and a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.

Southern Miss Displays Flags for Native American Nations

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) _ The University of Southern Mississippi is now displaying flags to recognize students enrolled there from six Native American nations.

The flags were dedicated during a ceremony in the student union building. They are for the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the United Houma Nation, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the White Earth Nation of the Ojibwe Tribe.

``At most institutions, the campus union is considered a non-academic `heart' of campus, or the campus `living room,' if you will,'' Denny Bubrig, vice president of student affairs, said in a university news release. ``One of our goals is recognizing the backgrounds, experiences and lives of our students, and in doing this, we want to make sure our community sees the union services, resources, and capabilities as accessible to all.''

Three years ago, the university placed flags in the union to recognize international students.

``Earlier this summer, as we were considering other ways to recognize our students and what they bring to the table, we realized we could do a similar project calling attention to the Native American students in our campus community,'' Bubrig said.

Tammy Greer is a psychology professor, adviser to the Golden Eagles Intertribal Society and co-director for the Center for American Indian Research and Studies. She said she and Native American students at USM are grateful for the effort to recognize their nations.

``I appreciate Dr. Bubrig's work to have our flags displayed in the union and celebrate our Native students,'' Greer said. ``It takes extra effort to look around and notice what is missing, which groups have been left out, and then step up to make sure they are included. And, as we just celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day, this event is right on time.``

Tribes Lose Bid to Block Digging at Lithium Mine in Nevada

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) _ federal judge has denied tribal leaders' bid to temporarily block digging for an archaeological study required before construction can begin for a Nevada lithium mine on what they say is sacred land where their ancestors were massacred more than century ago.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du refused three tribes' request for a preliminary injunction blocking the trenching planned to collect samples near the Oregon state line at the site of the largest known lithium deposit in the United States.

The tribes say their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s at the proposed Thacker Pass site. Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries. Demand for the mineral is expected to triple over the next five years.

Du emphasized in the ruling late Friday in Reno she has pledged to hear and rule on the merits of the case before Lithium Nevada Corp. hopes to begin construction early next year on the mine the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved in January.

She rejected a similar request in July for a preliminary injunction sought by environmentalists who claim the digging would destroy critical habitat for greater sage grouse, an imperiled ground-dwelling bird.

Du said Friday she was ``not unpersuaded by the tribes' broader equitable and historical arguments.'' But she said there was no evidence the bureau acted unreasonably, no evidence the mine was planned on an actual massacre site and that the agency has contingency plans if ``human remains are unexpectedly discovered.''

``In sum, while the court finds the tribes' arguments regarding the spiritual distress that the (digging) will cause persuasive, the court must nonetheless reluctantly conclude that they have not shown sufficiently specific irreparable harm that aligns with the relief they could ultimately obtain in this case,'' Du wrote in denying the temporary injunction.

The company said the government's review of the plans has included ``substantial consultation'' with local tribes that never raised similar concerns, while it spent $10 million on the permitting process for the mine.

The Bureau of Land Management began consultation three tribes in the affected area in October 2018 _ the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe and Winnemucca Indian Colony.

Three additional tribes _ the Burns Paiute Tribe in Oregon, Reno Sparks Indian Colony and affiliated Atsa Koodakuh Wyh Nuwu/People of Red Mountain _ filed the lawsuit in July accusing the BLM of violating historic preservation laws by failing to consult with them about an Historic Properties Treatment Plan guiding the initial archaeological dig required before mine construction can begin.

Du said the People of Red Mountain are not a federally recognized tribe so it has no legal standing.

A specific federal permit for the archaeological dig is still pending. But the Historic Properties Treatment Plan (HPTP) approved by the bureau allows a Lithium Nevada contractor to dig two to 25 holes by hand at each of 21 historic sites and seven mechanical trenches at some 40 meters (131 feet) long on .04 acres (.02 hectare) of an area no larger than one-quarter acre (.1 hectare), the judge said.

She acknowledged the tribes consider the entire Thacker Pass area sacred. But she said the National Historic Properties Act ``does not give the tribes the right to prevent all digging in the entire project area. It merely provides for consultation.''

``There is no question BLM could have done more here,'' Du wrote.

``However, all that the applicable regulations require is that BLM make ... a reasonable and good faith effort,'' she said. ``BLM is not required to consult every Native American tribe on every project it approves.``

Du said government field notes from 1868 the tribes presented as evidence of the massacre ``only describe the scattered remains of `Indians' generally.``

``At least as catalogued in the HPTP, none of these sites are burial or massacre sites; they are primarily locations where the tribes' ancestors gathered obsidian to make arrowheads,'' Du said.

Tribe Wins Major Step Toward Resuming Whaling Off Washington

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) _ An administrative law judge has recommended that a Native American tribe in Washington state once again be allowed to hunt gray whales _ a major step in its decades-long effort to resume the ancient practice.

``This is a testament to what we've been saying all these years: that we're doing everything we can to show we're moving forward responsibly,'' Patrick DePoe, vice chairman of the Makah Tribe on the remote northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, said Friday. ``We're not doing this for commercial reasons. We're doing it for spiritual and cultural reasons.''

DePoe was in high school in the late 1990s when the Makah were last allowed to hunt whales _ occasions that drew angry protests from animal rights activists, who sometimes threw smoke bombs at the whalers and sprayed fire extinguishers into their faces.

Since then, the tribe's attempts have been tied up in legal challenges and scientific review. A federal appeals court ruled in 2002 that the Makah needed a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act; the tribe applied for one in 2005 but still hasn't received one.

On Thursday, nearly two years after he presided over a hearing on NOAA Fisheries' proposal to approve the waiver, administrative law judge George Jordan issued his 156-page recommendation to the U.S. Department of Commerce. He found that the tribal hunts would have no effect on the healthy overall population of the whales, despite an unexplained die-off that has caused hundreds of the whales to wash up on the Pacific Coast since 2019, and which is believed to have lowered their numbers from about 27,000 to 21,000-25,000.

The recommendation, along with a public comment period and further environmental analysis, will inform the department's final decision, though no timeline for that has been set.

As proposed, the waiver would allow the tribe to land up to 20 Eastern North Pacific gray whales over 10 years, with hunts timed to minimize the already low chances of the hunters accidentally harpooning an endangered Western North Pacific gray whale.

While Jordan found the waiver's issuance appropriate, he also recommended additional restrictions that could drastically cut the number of whales the tribe kills _ perhaps as low as five whales over the decade-long waiver period. DePoe said the tribe is reviewing that recommendation but called it a potential source of frustration and further discussion.

The tribe hopes to use the whales for food and to make handicrafts, artwork and tools they can sell.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Animal Welfare Institute oppose the hunts, which many animal rights activists consider barbaric and unnecessary. They argued that NOAA's environmental review has been inadequate, that the Marine Mammal Protection Act may have voided the tribe's treaty right, and that the tribe cannot claim a subsistence or cultural need to hunt after so many decades.

Sea Shepherd said in an email Friday it was reviewing the decision and had no immediate comment.

DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist for the Animal Welfare Institute, said in an emailed statement the organization was disappointed with the recommendation.

``All gray whales ... face critical anthropogenic threats from climate change, ocean noise, oil and gas development, pollution, coastal development, contaminants, bycatch, and ship strikes,'' Schubert said. ``In light of these acute threats, a hunt of these animals is biologically insupportable and inconsistent with the protective provisions of the MMPA.''

There are fewer than 300 Western North Pacific gray whales remaining, Schubert said, and the recommended additional restrictions would not completely eliminate any risk to them.

Evidence presented to the government showed that the Makah, who now number about 1,500 members, have hunted whales for more than 2,700 years. The tribe's 1855 treaty with the U.S. reserved the ``right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds.''

The Makah continued whaling until the 1920s, when commercial whaling had devastated gray whale populations. The whale population rebounded in the eastern Pacific Ocean by 1994, and they were removed from the endangered species list.

The Makah trained for months in the ancient ways of whaling and received the blessing of federal officials and the International Whaling Commission. They took to the water in 1998 but didn't succeed until the next year, when they harpooned a gray whale from a hand-carved cedar canoe. A tribal member in a motorized support boat killed it with a high-powered rifle to minimize its suffering.

DePoe was on a canoe that greeted the returning whalers as they towed in the whale, and his high school shop class worked to clean the bones and reassemble the skeleton, which hangs in a tribal museum.

``The connection between us and the whales is strong,'' he said. ``Tribes across the Northwest have always considered ourselves stewards of the land, stewards of the animals. We're not trying to do anything that is going to add to the depletion of these resources.''

Mankato Professor Named Minnesota's 1st Native Poet Laureate

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ A Dakota scholar, author and artist has been named Minnesota's poet laureate, the first time the honor has been bestowed upon a Native American, the governor's office announced Thursday.

Minnesota State University, Mankato English professor Gwen Nell Westerman is a citizen of her father's people, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in the Dakotas. Her mother's people are from the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

Westerman has written about Dakota history and language. She has won two Minnesota Book Awards for her work about Dakota people called ``Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota.'' Her poetry collection, ``Follow the Blackbirds,'' was written in English and Dakota. Her poems and essays have been published in journals and anthologies across the country.

Westerman is also a fiber artist. She has works in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Great Plains Art Museum, the University Art Galleries at the University of South Dakota and the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota.

Westerman's appointment is chance to ``reflect on our shared history'' and ''imagine the future together,`` said Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe.

``Native people are still here. We have always been here - before Minnesota was Minnesota. And we will continue to be here, long into Minnesota's future,'' Flanagan said.

University of Illinois Adds Native American Issues Adviser

URBANA, Ill. (AP) _ A new administrator at the University of Illinois flagship campus will advise school leadership on Native American issues.

Jacki Thompson Rand was appointed the Urbana-Champaign campus' associate vice chancellor for Native affairs last week. Chancellor Robert Jones pledged that the school will ``go beyond the rhetoric of celebrating Native American history and culture to actually doing it.''

Rand, a professor of history, is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma, The News-Gazette reported. She previously taught at the University of Iowa.

Jones, who's now in his sixth year as chancellor, has pushed the Urbana-Champaign campus to change its relationship with Native American imagery and nations.

Prior projects include campus and community discussions of the retired Chief Illiniwek mascot, creation of the Commission on Native Imagery and ongoing work to build connections with Native American nations.

2,000-Year-Old Bones Found at Indiana Construction Site

COLUMBUS, Ind. (AP) _ Unearthed bones recently discovered at a construction site in south central Indiana are believed to be thousands of years old, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

Construction workers found the human remains in May while digging at the site of a new Bartholomew County judicial building in Columbus, The Republic reported. Archaeologists from the University of Indianapolis analyzed the bones, determining them to be between 2,000 and 3,000 years old.

The bones belong to an adult male, a preteen and an infant, according to the DNR. The bones are thought to be the bones of Native American people of the Adena culture, which existed in the Ohio River Valley as far back as 1000 B.C.

The human bones were found roughly six feet deep and mixed with animal bones. A different settlement was also found around two feet from the surface, consisting of glass, nails and other artifacts dating to the late 1800s or early 1900s.

After archaeologists conclude their analysis, the remains will be turned over to Native American tribes for reburial, the DNR said.

The county building is still set to open in April 2022, but a monitor will be onsite to oversee further construction to ensure any additional human remains discovered are handled properly.

600 to 800-Year-Old Indian Mound Discovered in Baton Rouge

By ELLYN COUVILLION, The Advocate

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ Houses are going up in a new subdivision in the Tiger Bend Road area in Baton Rouge, but the area has been a community before.

An Indian mound recently discovered and identified on the property, which will be preserved and safeguarded, was likely built to honor a leader of Native Americans who called the place home 600 to 800 years ago.

The mound, located on the perimeter of a 75-acre subdivision called The Sanctuary at Tiger Bend, rises a few feet up in a gentle slope from the surrounding ground, in the midst of peaceful woodlands, with a stately tree growing at its top.

``We found baked earth and some dark lumber that could have been a hearth, and we started finding artifacts _ pottery and stone artifacts, tools,'' said Malcolm K. Shuman, the Baton Rouge archeologist whose firm, SURA Inc. Shuman's crew researched the site as a contractor for the developer, in a process that began in 2017.

``It may have been a house or it could have been a temple,'' said Shuman. ``For a small settlement like this, though, I think it was built around an important person's home.''

Shuman, 79, an LSU graduate who holds a masters degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in the same field from Tulane University, said, ``I'm probably the oldest active archeologist in Louisiana, but it's still always exciting.''

Such a research process has been required for certain developments in the U.S. since Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966.

The federal law requires that any development needing a federal permit _ in the case of The Sanctuary, from the U.S. Corps of Engineers _ or receiving federal dollars ``must take into account the effect on cultural resources,'' said Louisiana's state archeologist, Charles ``Chip'' McGimsey.

Such resources are varied and can include archeological sites, cemeteries and historic buildings, he said.

Agencies involved in the efforts to identify and recognize the Indian mound at Tiger Bend include McGimsey's office and the state Historic Preservation Office, as well as the Mississippi Choctaw Tribal Historic Preservation program and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

The developer of the Sanctuary subdivision has placed a historical marker sign in front of the Indian mound that names the site as the Tiger Bend Archaeological Site. The sign says, ``This is a sacred place for American Indians. Please respect and protect for the future.''

The Sanctuary, developed by Corbin Ladner Custom Homes and Developments of Prairieville, says a green area will be preserved around the Indian mound that will be for viewing only and off limits to any type of traffic from residents and non-residents.

``Mounds were purposely built, some in a single episode; some at one time and then added to later,'' Shuman said. ``The radiocarbon tests date this mound to 1300 A.D.''

The Indian mound at Tiger Bend joins similar mounds in Baton Rouge, said state archeologist McGimsey _ two on the site of the Country Club of Louisiana and the two better known Indian mounds on the LSU campus.

Decades ago, there were two located north of the state Capitol building on property that was later developed by ExxonMobil in a plant expansion, said McGimpsey.

Less than 1% of Louisiana, which has some of the oldest Indian mounds in North America _ some dating back 7,000 years _ has been systematically analyzed for cultural resources, he said.

Still, McGimsey said, ``We have identified over 800 Indian mounds here; I know there are many more.''

``Tiger Bend is a perfect example,'' he said. ``If Malcom Shuman had not surveyed it, we wouldn't have found it.''

More Than 200 Bodies Found at Indigenous School in Canada

KAMLOOPS, British Colombia (AP) _ The remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school _ one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

More bodies may be found because there are more areas to search on the school grounds, Casimir said Friday.

In an earlier release, she called the discovery an ``unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.''

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

The Canadian government apologized in Parliament in 2008 and admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages; they also lost touch with their parents and customs.

Indigenous leaders have cited that legacy of abuse and isolation as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.

A report more than five years ago by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission said at least 3,200 children had died amid abuse and neglect, and it said it had reports of at least 51 deaths at the Kamloops school alone between 1915 and 1963.

``This really resurfaces the issue of residential schools and the wounds from this legacy of genocide towards Indigenous people,'' Terry Teegee, Assembly of First Nations regional chief for British Colombia, said Friday.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan said he was ``horrified and heartbroken'' to learn of the discovery, calling it a tragedy of ``unimaginable proportions'' that highlights the violence and consequences of the residential school system.

The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated it as a day school until it closed in 1978.

Casimir said it's believed the deaths are undocumented, although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.

``Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and beyond,'' Casimir said in the initial release issued late Thursday.

The leadership of the Tk'emlups community ``acknowledges their responsibility to caretake for these lost children,'' Casimir said.

Access to the latest technology allows for a true accounting of the missing children and will hopefully bring some peace and closure to those lives lost, she said in the release.

Casimir said band officials are informing community members and surrounding communities that had children who attended the school.

The First Nations Health Authority called the discovery of the children's remains ``extremely painful'' and said in a website posting that it ``will have a significant impact on the Tk'emlups community and in the communities served by this residential school.''

The authority's CEO, Richard Jock, said the discovery ``illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities,.''

Nicole Schabus, a law professor at Thompson Rivers University, said each of her first-year law students at the Kamloops university spends at least one day at the former residential school speaking with survivors about conditions they had endured.

She said she did not hear survivors talk about an unmarked grave area, ``but they all talk about the kids who didn't make it.''

UTTC Pow-Wow to Return to Bismarck Late This Summer

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ The United Tribes Technical College International Powwow and associated events will return late this summer after a year's hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the Tribal Leaders Summit that's traditionally held at the Bismarck Event Center before the outdoor powwow has been called off a second year.

The Bismarck Tribune reports this year's powwow will be the weekend of Sept. 10-12, starting with the grand entry Friday night and continuing through Sunday

Associated events will include Powwow Youth Day that Friday, a golf tournament Friday, a three-day softball tournament and a three-day youth basketball tournament beginning Friday, and the Powwow Thunderbird Run on Saturday.

The powwow put on by the five American Indian tribes in North Dakota typically brings about 10,000 people to Bismarck and boosts the area economy by more than $4 million, according to the college. It attracts dancers from dozens of tribes across the U.S. and Canada and awards more than $100,000 in prize money. It's considered one of the top powwows in the nation. United Tribes uses proceeds to fund student scholarships.

University of Arizona to Help Digitize Native American Oral Histories

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) _ The University of Arizona will join six other schools to help digitize the oral histories of Native Americans collected during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that the project aims to make the histories more accessible to Native communities, tribal colleges and the public.

The universities will use a $1.35 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to translate and index the recordings. The foundation says the recordings and materials span 150 Indigenous cultures and include more than 6,500 recordings of people reflecting on their traditions and experiences living on reservations and attending Native American schools.

The University of Arizona's Arizona State Museum is the storehouse for more than 800 recordings made between 1938 and 1987 focusing primarily on peoples living in the Southwest U.S. and northern Mexico.

Montana House Kills Bill on Native American Voting Rights

HELENA, Mont. (AP) _ The Montana House has killed legislation aimed at making it easier for Native Americans living on reservations to vote.

The bill would have required counties to maintain an alternate election office on reservations and negotiate days and operating hours with tribes. It would put into law the provisions of a 2014 settlement in a voting rights lawsuit that required three counties to open satellite voting offices on reservations twice a week in the month before Election Day.

It would also have put into law guidance issued by the Secretary of State's Office directing other counties with tribal voters to comply with the settlement.

After a week of work, the bill was passed unanimously by the House State Administration Committee. It was endorsd in the House 53-47 on second reading Monday before failing 48-51 on third reading Wednesday evening.

Committee members and Native American voting advocates said the hope the failed effort could be a starting point to improve voting access on reservations, where people can live far from polls and have limited access to vehicles or mail services.

``I think it's a really serious issue that could be looked at over the interim to make it better,'' Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, a Browning Democrat who helped lead the bipartisan working group that developed the compromise legislation, told the Montana State News Bureau. ``We just need to pick up the pieces and keep building on that legislation, and maybe build a better one next session.''

The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy of Crow Agency, said the original bill was scaled back to reduce potential costs to the counties involved.

Andy Werk Jr. , president of the Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes, called into one of the final work sessions to oppose the bill, saying it offered his tribe less than what they were guaranteed under the 2014 court settlement.

Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, a Democrat from Box Elder, switched to a ``no'' vote on Wednesday, saying tribal leadership in his district opposed the amendments.

Republican Rep. Wendy McKamey of Ulm, chair of the committee that crafted the compromise bill, was frustrated with Wednesday's vote.

``I don't know how they could possibly vote against this, I don't,`` she said. ``''Because it requires accountability and it requires cooperation.''

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, EPA Sue Phosphate Mine Company

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ The Environmental Protection Agency and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have each sued a phosphate mining company owned by Monsanto over toxic waste that experts believe has poisoned plants, water and animals in eastern Idaho.

The government entities filed the lawsuits against P4 Production LLC over waste at the Ballard Mine site near Soda Springs earlier this week, along with a proposed clean-up agreement that could settle the case.

Under the proposed agreement, P4 Production LLC wouldn't admit fault, but would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the EPA, the Tribes and other agencies to cover the costs of responding to toxic waste releases from the mining site. P4 Production would also have to make an additional $89 million available to the EPA as a guarantee that the cleanup work will be completed.

The proposed agreement states the cleanup work would include putting a cover on more than 500 acres of the site where waste was left behind, installing barriers to intercept and treat contaminated groundwater and building wetland treatment cells to clean up any contaminated seepage or springs.

William Myers III, the Boise attorney representing P4 Production, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Southeastern Idaho contains large phosphate deposits and there are several mines in the area that have operated by different companies over the last 100 years.

Investigations into the possibility that waste from the phosphate mines in the region could be hurting humans began in 1996, after several horses pastured in the area developed selenium poisoning and had to be put down. Environmental regulators began examining each of the mining sites to determine the impact of any waste.
Ultimately, the investigation found that the mines left dangerous contamination behind, including toxic substances such as selenium, arsenic, uranium, radium and radon. During the last century those wastes have run into the region's water sources, concentrated inside some of the plants in the area and exposed insects and amphibians through the waterways and sediment.

Some of the toxic waste can cause cancer or other illnesses in humans, and investigators found that Native Americans in the area were at risk of being exposed to the toxins at rates far higher than the maximum acceptable levels set by the federal government.

Seasonal ranchers were also deemed at increased risk because they may eat beef from cattle that grazed on plants and drank the water in the region. The investigation concluded that the area was safe for recreational campers and hikers, however, because they likely wouldn't be exposed to dangerous amounts of the toxins.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes has worked with the EPA to monitor and respond to toxic releases from the Ballard Mine when they occur. The Tribes contend in one of the lawsuits that they haven't been fully reimbursed by P4 Production for that work, and they want a judge to order that they be compensated for past and future work at the site.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Asked to Block Statewide Mask Order

By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ A new legal challenge to Gov. Tony Evers' latest mask mandate is before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, filed less than a week after the Legislature struck down a previous order and the governor quickly issued a new one.

Prominent Republican donor Jere Fabick asked the court late Tuesday to issue a temporary injunction to block the mask order Evers issued on Feb. 4, just after the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to repeal an earlier order. Fabick's lawsuit challenging Evers' authority to issue multiple emergency orders remains before the Supreme Court, which heard arguments in November but has yet to issue a ruling.

Republicans and Fabick contend that the Democratic governor exceeded his authority by issuing multiple public health emergencies due to the coronavirus pandemic. Evers tied the mask mandates to each emergency order.

Fabick and the GOP-controlled Legislature argue that Evers must get legislative approval to extend a health emergency beyond 60 days if it's for the same event. Evers contends the changing nature of the pandemic warranted him issuing new health orders.

Fabick's attorneys argued in the filing Tuesday that the Supreme Court needed to take ``immediate action'' to stop the latest order from Evers. Republicans in the Legislature have said they are awaiting a court rule before taking any action to strike down the latest mask order, which runs until March 20.

Nearly 60 organizations opposed repeal of the mask mandate, including groups representing hospitals, doctors, nurses, EMTs, school administrators, businesses, children, unions, Milwaukee schools, American Indian tribes, pharmacists, firefighters, local health departments, senior citizens, churches and dentists.

Fabick is a board member and policy advisor for The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, and also the president of a multistate Caterpillar equipment and engine dealer. He has given more than $350,000 to Republican or conservative candidates in Wisconsin between 1994 and the middle of 2020, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Wisconsin's COVID-19 cases have been trending downward since mid-November. The seven-day average of new cases on Wednesday was its lowest in five months and the state ranks 11th nationally in the percentage of its total population that has received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Wednesday, there were nearly 552,000 positives cases to date and 6,129 deaths. Wisconsin ranked 40th in new cases per capita over the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, Evers announced that the state's first free community vaccination clinic would be at Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville. The clinic will open for vaccinations on Tuesday. It is projected to be able to vaccinate up to 250 people per day, with a goal of ramping that up to 1,000 per day, depending on availability of the vaccine.

The UW Health System reported Wednesday that thanks to wearing masks and other coronavirus precautions, cases of influenza are ``practically nonexistent.'' As of Wednesday, there had been one positive flu test at UW Health. That compares with 1,183 at this point last year and 149 in 2019, the health system said.

Netflix to expand production hub in New Mexico

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Netflix plans to establish one of the largest production hubs in North America with an expansion of its existing studio complex in New Mexico and a commitment to an additional $1 billion in production spending, government and corporate leaders announced Monday.

Ten new stages, post-production services, offices, mills, backlots and other infrastructure would be added to Netflix's growing campus on the southern edge of Albuquerque. Aside from construction jobs, the project is expected to result in 1,000 production jobs over the next decade.

Netflix first marked its presence in New Mexico in 2018, when it announced it was buying Albuquerque Studios and pledged $1 billion in spending over a decade. At the time, government officials saw the move as a transformative victory for a state that has struggled to lessen its reliance on federal funding and oil and gas development.

``I am glad Netflix has chosen to double-down on its commitment to our state, and our partnership will continue to grow for the benefit of New Mexicans across the board,'' Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos pointed to the proximity to Los Angeles, the crew base and local talent as reasons for the continued investment.

``It allows us to be more nimble in executing our production plans while cementing the status of the region as one of the leading production centers in North America,'' he said.

A total of $24 million in state and local economic development funding will be funneled toward the expansion, and industrial revenue bonds will be issued by the city of Albuquerque to help reduce some taxes for Netflix.

The footprint of the production hub will grow with a private land purchase and a lease involving state trust land.

The Albuquerque Development Commission signed off on the proposal Monday. The City Council still must give its approval.

Over the last 20 years, the film and television industry has become an economic force in New Mexico, with direct spending topping $525 million in the last fiscal year.

``This is all outside money coming into the state, which would not be here otherwise,'' state Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes told the commission during a meeting.

She said the partnership with Netflix should send a signal that New Mexico is the place to be for film and television production. Businesses have cropped up around the state to support the industry, she said, and data from the state film office suggests 40% of production budgets go to small, local vendors.

``So it really is trickling through our economy,'' she said.

As part of the proposed investment, Netflix has committed to providing training programs in partnership with the New Mexico Film Office, local universities and industry organizations. Netflix also has committed to supporting Native American, Latino, Black and other underrepresented content creators and filmmakers.

Since coming to New Mexico in 2018, Netflix said it has spent more than $200 million, used more than 2,000 production vendors and hired more than 1,600 cast and crew members.

Netflix is in production in New Mexico on the original films ``The Harder They Fall`` and ``Intrusion`` and is expected to soon begin filming ``Stranger Things 4`` in Albuquerque.

Pennsylvania Town to Remove 'Squaw' From Streets, Trails

FOX CHAPEL, Pa. (AP) _ A western Pennsylvania town council has voted to remove "squaw'' from street and trail names after objections to the word as a derogatory term for Native American women.

The Fox Chapel Council took the action Monday, months after several citizens objected to its use.

The council will develop new names for Old Squaw Trail, Squaw Run Road and Squaw Run Road East by March.

WTAE-TV reported council member Betsy Monroe said the word was a problem.

"The overwhelming evidence that we got from the largest and most respected Native American organizations in the nation demonstrated that there is a fact that this is a slur,'' Monroe said.

Navajo Energy Company to Acquire Shares in Coal Power Plant

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ The Navajo Nation would expand its investment in coal-fired electricity generation as part of a plan announced Monday to acquire more shares in one of the Southwest's last remaining coal power plants.

The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. has negotiated an agreement in which Public Service Co. of New Mexico would divest from the Four Corners Power Plant in 2024 with the tribal company taking over PNM's 13% share. The agreement would call for the utility to pay to $75 million to the tribal company for breaking current coal contract obligations at Four Corners.

If approved by state regulators, the transaction would preserve jobs at the plant and the adjacent tribally owned mine for at least a few more years as the tribe and the Four Corners region _ spanning parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado _ adjusts to a changing energy economy and mandates for more renewable energy.

Many of the workers at the mine and the power plant are Navajo.

The deal also would allow the New Mexico utility a faster exit from coal. PNM already has regulatory approval to exit the neighboring coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in 2022. The workforce there also includes many tribal members.

PNM said in a statement issued early Monday that it plans to file with New Mexico regulators early next year its proposal for abandonment and securitization of the unrecovered investment in the Four Corners plant.

PNM has predicted its customers could collectively save about $100 million on their bills with the utility's exit from Four Corners seven years earlier than planned. However, customers would still pick up the costs of pending liabilities after 2031, plus the cost of replacing Four Corners electricity with other resources.

``This is a major step in our vision to create a clean and bright energy future and achieve our industry-leading goal of emissions-free energy by 2040,'' Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM Resources' chairman, president and CEO, said in the statement.

NTEC officials said the primary goal is to facilitate an orderly and successful exit by PNM, thereby preventing near-term job and revenue losses for the Navajo Nation.

Ensuring the plant remains open until 2031 is ``completely aligned with NTEC's charter and responsibility to preserve jobs and revenue for the Navajo people,'' the company said in a statement. ``The contemplated deal does not increase the planned operating life of the facility and does not increase liability to any of the owners, including NTEC.''

NTEC also said it has kept the Navajo leadership updated on negotiations for the past year.

In an Oct. 16 email, NTEC CEO Clark Moseley indicated that PNM would remain liable for its share of future plant decommissioning and that an audit would be performed to ensure the utility can fund its portion of final mine reclamation expenses.

PNM officials confirmed during a news conference that the utility will retain liability for coal reclamation and plant decommissioning, which could total about $45 million.

NTEC is owned by the tribal government but run independently by a non-Native executive team in Colorado. It has invested heavily in coal in recent years _ acquiring the Navajo Mine in 2017, its current 7% stake in Four Corners in 2018 and three coal mines in Wyoming and Montana last year.

Arizona Public Service Co. is the owner and operator of the Four Corners plant, with a 63% stake. The Salt River Project owns 10% and Tucson Electric Power has 7%. PNM's stake represents 200 megawatts that make up less than 10% of the utility's generation portfolio.

Under New Mexico's Energy Transition Act, PNM must replace its coal and natural gas plants with renewables over the next two decades.

The law also allows the utility to recover investments in abandoned fossil fuel plants through bonds that would be paid off by customers. The bonds could include about $16 million in economic development assistance for the Four Corners area to offset job and tax revenue losses.

``This is a big step for PNM and for New Mexico,'' said Tom Fallgren, vice president of generation. ``Our step out of coal though is not a step out of communities that we have been serving and have been a part of for so long. We will continue to identify innovative ways to support economic development in those areas impacted by this transition.''

An early exit also would meet conditions included in PNM Resources' recently announced plan to merge with Avangrid, a U.S. subsidiary of global energy giant Iberdrola.

Environmentalists have concerns about the Four Corners proposal, saying it would deepen the Navajo Nation's reliance on fossil fuels.

Alabama Archives Faces its Legacy as Confederate 'Attic'

By JAY REEVES

Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) _ Hundreds of memorials glorifying the Confederacy had been erected by the time Marie Bankhead Owen built what may have been the grandest: The Alabama Department of Archives and History, which cataloged a version of the past that was favored by many Southern whites and all but excluded Black people.

Owen used taxpayer money to turn the department into an overstuffed Confederate attic promoting the idea that the South's role in the Civil War was noble rather than a fight to maintain slavery.

Now, amid a national reckoning over racial injustice, the agency is confronting that legacy in the state where the civil rights movement was born. In June, leaders formally acknowledged the department's past role in perpetuating racism and so-called lost cause ideals.

``If history is to serve the present, it must offer an honest assessment of the past,'' Director Steve Murray and trustees said in a ``statement of recommitment.''

Confederate relics have come under renewed scrutiny since the police killing of George Floyd in May sparked outrage about the history of racism in the U.S. The wave of protests that followed toppled some monuments and cities removed others as schools decided to part ways with their Confederate names.

Murray said the department wanted to offer more educational resources after Floyd's killing in Minneapolis and issued the statement after realizing it had to acknowledge ``that our agency was responsible in many ways for some of the intellectual underpinnings of the development of systemic racism in Alabama.''

``The response has been overwhelmingly positive,'' said Murray. Aside from acknowledging its racist past, the agency recommitted itself to recruiting additional minority staff and telling a more complete history is the state in the future.

Self-taught genealogist True Lewis, who is Black and was born in Pennsylvania, was apprehensive when she first visited the agency about two decades ago to search plantation records for information about her ancestors, who were enslaved in southeast Alabama. Workers were helpful, she said, but the only other people in the building who looked like her were on the janitorial staff.

``You always had that feeling of, `You aren't supposed to be in this space,''' Lewis said.

The agency's recommitment was meaningful to her because it acknowledged sins of the past.

``It was like they heard my whisper when they said that,'' she said.

Founded in 1901, the year Alabama adopted a white supremacist constitution that's still in effect, Archives and History opened with Owen's husband, Thomas Owen, as its first director. Located in the state Capitol, where Southern delegates formed the Confederacy in 1861, the department focused on gathering Confederate records and artifacts.

With the country's first publicly funded, independent archive, Alabama soon became a national model for collecting public records, according to retired Auburn University historian Robert J. Jakeman, who wrote about Marie Owen. Other states of the old Confederacy followed suit.

``What Owen did definitely started a chain reaction across the Southern states,'' said Daniel Cone, who teaches at Auburn and wrote about Tom Owen.

Marie Owen took over the department in 1920 after her husband's death. The agency already had amassed far more items than it could safely store or catalog, and the problem got worse under ``Miss Marie.''

In a more spacious, white-columned building dedicated in 1940, Owen led the agency even more in the direction of becoming a storehouse of cultural items and Confederate relics that excluded the history of the Black people enslaved on Southern plantations, following her pattern of extolling the Confederacy and disregarding minorities.

The Ivy League-educated historian John Hope Franklin, an African American, wrote of meeting Owen during his first research visit to Montgomery in the mid-1940s in his autobiography ``Mirror to America,'' published in 2005. Owen used a racial slur in asking whether he'd seen a Black man from Harvard who was supposed to be in the building.

``Before I could recover myself sufficiently for a reply, a voice reached us from the outer room. It was the secretary, who could hear everything, since the door was open. `That's him, Mrs. Owen, that's him,''' Franklin wrote.

The agency, which includes a museum, began changing after Owen retired in 1955. But generations of schoolchildren remember it in large part for its Civil War displays, which included old weapons, flags and uniforms.

Edwin Bridges took over as director in 1982 and began shifting the department's focus away from the ``lost cause.`` Today, its museum displays tell more a complete history that includes Native Americans, the horrors of slavery, the Civil War and the modern civil rights movement, which began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and '56.

Some have questioned whether the department would jettison its Confederate holdings, considered among the most extensive in the nation, but Murray said that won't happen.

``We see the process as being one of broadening the scope of our effort and our work, telling a full story of Alabama's history,'' he said.

A bust of Marie Owen is located prominently in the Archives and History building, and Bridges said she and her husband deserve credit for what they built, even with its flaws.

``They were driven to focus on Southern history, Confederate history, because that is what white leadership, the white voters of Alabama, cared about from the 1920s through the 1970s,'' Bridges said.

Historians are watching to see whether the department further breaks with the legacy of Owen and pro-Confederate narratives or falls back toward the long-accepted path in a mostly white, Republican-controlled state.

Frazine K. Taylor, a former employee of the department and the first Black president of the Alabama Historical Association, said making the statement ``took courage,'' but Archives and History still needs a more diverse staff and additional collections to tell the ``complete story'' of Alabama.

``In the next year, we'll look back and see if some of that has been accomplished or it was just something that was said at the time, at the heat of the moment,'' Taylor said.

 

Northern Arizona Military Site Eyed for Economic Development

BELLEMONT, Ariz. (AP) _ A low-profile military base first established during World War II is being eyed as a potential site for future economic development projects in northern Arizona.

Pending legislation in Congress would allow the U.S. Army to transfer about 4.7 square miles (12 square kilometers) of land at Camp Navajo to the state Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

The sprawling installation at Bellemont about 11 miles (16 kilometers) west of Flagstaff is currently used and run by the Arizona National Guard, which is part of the state Department of Emergency and Military Affairs.

The transfer is a provision in the annual defense authorization bills approved by the House and Senate. Those bills essentially must be melded on final version to be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature.

A bipartisan trio of Arizona lawmakers _ Republican Sen. Martha McSally and Democratic Reps. Tom O'Halleran and Ruben Gallego _ worked to include the Camp Navajo transfer in each chamber's bill.

Transfer supporters say management of the land by the state would make it easier for businesses to locate in and around Camp Navajo.

The legislative process has taken nearly five years after originally starting with the help of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.

``This is like a miracle to have this happen,'' said Julie Pastrick, president of the Northern Arizona Military Affairs Council and CEO of the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce.

The land transfer would encourage private investment in the area ``and that will definitely shape the future and that landscape,`` Pastrick said. ``We have fought for economic diversifications for so long.''

Arizona already has a large defense industry, but most of its jobs are centered in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.

Camp Navajo's location along a both a major rail line and Interstate 40 makes it an attractive location for many businesses.

Camp Navajo itself could be an asset because many of its nearly 800 concrete igloo bunkers built to store munitions and other sensitive material could be useful to defense industries.

Travis Schulte, legislative liaison with the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, said the transfer also could contribute to forest restoration.

Last year, Northern Arizona University tested the viability of a wood chipping operation at Camp Navajo and showed that it could be profitable. The college took materials from local forest thinning efforts and shipped and sold them to a company in South Korea.

Schulte said authorization of the land transfer would be followed by surveying , finalization of exactly which acres would be included and a detailed study of environmental factors and economic development opportunities.

According to the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, Camp Navajo was established in 1942 as the Navajo Ordinance Depot to support U.S. forces fighting Japan in the Pacific during World War II. Its name changed to the Navajo Army Depot in 1965, Navajo Depot Activity in 1982 and Camp Navajo in 1993.

The installation has been under the Arizona National Guard's operational control since 1992. The Guard and other military service branches use the site for training.

 

Maine Groups Get Help Assisting Marginalized During Pandemic

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ A Maine organization is distributing more than $200,000 in grants to benefit marginalized communities during the coronavirus pandemic.

Maine Initiatives said the funding boosts bring the total amount it has provided to more than $500,000. The group has given the grants to more than 50 organizations.

Maine Initiatives said one of the grants is going to Cambodian Community Association of Maine, which is delivering food to immigrant families affected by a coronavirus outbreak at a food processing facility in the state. Another is designed to aid the Wabanaki Women's Coalition in its effort to support Native American women who are victims of domestic abuse.

Maine Initiatives said the organizations it is supporting ``understand what a moment of crisis requires and they are adapting and organizing to respond.''

Company's Bid to Build Dams on Tribal Land a Step Closer

TUBA CITY, Ariz. (AP) _ Federal regulators have accepted a Phoenix-based company's application for a preliminary permit to look further into building hydro-powered dams on tribal land.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission confirmed the acceptance in a letter Tuesday to Pumped Hydro Storage LLC, opening the door for public comment on the controversial proposal on the Navajo Nation.

The move by the commission gives the company three years to study the site in Big Canyon west of Tuba City but doesn't authorize land disturbance.

The company developed the idea after getting pushback for initially floating projects on the Little Colorado River. Manager Steve Irwin said he received overwhelming criticism that building dams on the river would disrupt the habitat of the endangered humpback chub. The company secured preliminary permits to study those sites but will scrap the proposals if the Big Canyon project goes forward.

The Big Canyon proposal includes four dams to generate electricity using groundwater. The canyon is a tributary to the Little Colorado River.

Environmental groups, including the Grand Canyon Trust, believe the project will threaten the water and habitat along the river.

The proposal to move water between upper and lower reservoirs to generate power when the demand is high would need the blessing of the Navajo Nation. Tribal President Jonathan Nez has previously said he would not support development without the approval of nearby Navajo communities.

 

Activists Work to Increase Montana Reservation Census Count

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ Native American activists are working to increase the number of Montana reservation residents counted in the 2020 national census.

Outreach workers hired by Montana Native Vote are promoting participation in the upcoming federal count, The Billings Gazette reports.

U.S. Census Bureau officials hope to increase the number of applications to work on Montana's seven reservations from 775 already received to 1,500.

Outreach efforts include distributing census pledge cards, which are postcards filled out by residents to be mailed to them as reminders shortly before the census begins April 1.

During the past decade, the state received about $2,000 per year in federal money for every resident counted in the 2010 census, The Montana Complete Count Committee said.

Census projections show Montana could gain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives if its residents are fully counted.

Representation for Native people is at risk of being diluted if they are undercounted, Montana Native Vote Program Manager Ta'jin Perez said.

``It gives away their political voice, their power to advocate what's important for their communities and their families,'' Perez said.

 

Rangers' Videos Share Yellowstone's Wonders During Crisis

By MICHAEL WRIGHT

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) _ In the middle of the 17th minute of the Facebook Live video, Mark Miller reached for his guitar.

The park ranger, fully clad in green and gray, had been laying out the history of Yellowstone National Park, which he was standing in. He had talked about the Native American tribes that called the park home, the Lewis and Clark expedition and John Colter, the first European to explore what would become the world's first national park.

Miller had talked about how some didn't believe Colter's stories of the future Yellowstone and how the mountain man was ridiculed. And Miller had asked the audience _ stuck at home all over the world _ to contemplate why people explore new places.

Now it was time for a song.

``Once there was a mountain man with strange stories to tell ...,'' Miller sang, beginning a tune he wrote called the ``Mountain Man Tribute Song.''

It's meant to honor the likes of Colter and Jim Bridger and the tribes who called the area home first, crediting them with recognizing the value of Yellowstone.

Two-and-a-half joyful minutes later, he put the guitar down and picked up his history lecture somewhere in the 1860s.

The video, posted to Yellowstone's Facebook page in early April, was the second in a series the park's education rangers have been producing while the park is closed to visitors. Twice a week, rangers have used the videos to explain complex science and history to people, giving them a window into the park.

``It's a way to share the wonders of Yellowstone in this time we're all in,'' Miller said.

The series grew out of the ashes of canceled educational programs. Bob Fuhrmann, supervisor of Yellowstone's youth programs, said 30 school groups were scheduled for programs in the park this spring and would have encountered rangers like Miller. But with the closure, the programs were all canceled.

So Fuhrmann and the staff who were going to work on those programs had to adapt. They shifted their focus to enhancing the park's ``distance learning'' offerings, including live virtual visits with classes on different online platforms and recording some of their programs.

Facebook Live became one of the tools they were using for that. Fuhrmann said it gets their work in front of more eyes _ not just teachers and students.

``It's a great way to engage with a larger audience in an easy way,'' Fuhrmann said.

The first Facebook Live video featured two rangers standing in the snow outside the Albright Visitor Center, talking about the ways animals adapt to winter. Since then, rangers have given presentations on birds, geysers, bison, the microbes inside the park's thermal features and more.

A lot of people tune in. The video of Miller talking and singing through the park's history has been viewed more than 120,000 times, and the comments come from all over the world.

``Watching from Mississippi,'' one commenter wrote.

``Thank you for bringing Yellowstone to Germany!'' wrote another.

Some weren't strangers.

``Your Mom and Dad watched you from Minnesota, Ranger Mark!''

Miller has been a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone since 2017. He lived a couple different lives before that. The native Minnesotan first worked in the wood products industry for about a dozen years, then in ministry and Christian music for about a dozen years. He worked on staff at a few large churches and produced records and wrote songs under the label Vineyard Music.

He and his wife hit ``empty nesthood'' in their 40s and decided to move west. He picked up seasonal ranger jobs at a few different parks before landing in Yellowstone three years ago. He's been here ever since.

He's been stationed at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone the past few summers. He'd been hired as a seasonal education ranger for the spring educational programs, which is how he finds himself in front of the camera for some of the Facebook Live videos.

His songwriting talent has been handy. He had written part of the ``Mountain Man Tribute Song'' to sing at evening programs at the canyon and developed it further this spring. He has another called ``Hey Bear'' _ more than a few Facebook commenters requested that song during his live video.

``It's part of my creativity, and like all of us education rangers, we're in a period where we're needing to get more and more creative in providing educational opportunities for people all around the planet,'' Miller said.

The sight of a park ranger holding a guitar surely convinces more people to stop scrolling. At the end of the video, after he'd traced Yellowstone's history to its designation as a park in 1872, Miller was asked what his favorite song is.

He picked the guitar back up and launched into one just about everybody would know.

``Give me a home,'' Miller sang, ``where the buffalo roam...''

 

US Grants Navajo Nation Authority to Use Unassigned Airwaves

PHOENIX (AP) _ The federal government is giving the Navajo Nation temporary authority to use unassigned airwaves to provide wireless broadband service over the tribe's sprawling reservation that includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The Federal Communications Commission said its wireless telecommunications bureau granted the requested authority for 60 days to help the tribe's emergency response to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the commission, the authority should help the tribe ``during this challenging time`` as reservation residents work from home and increasingly rely on telemedicine and remote learning.

Many residents in remote areas without broadband service sit in vehicles parked near local government centers, fast-food restaurants and grocery stores to connect to Wi-Fi.

 

President Nixon and the Sacred Lake: Bill Preserves History

By MORGAN LEE
Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ It was 1970, the U.S. president was Richard Nixon and members of a small Native American community in northern New Mexico traveled to Washington to press their case for reclaiming a sacred alpine lake from federal control.

The story of the return of Blue Lake and 75 square miles (195 square kilometers) of surrounding national forest land to the people of Taos Pueblo _ finalized with Nixon's signature in December 1970 _ is being retold 50 years later, as tribal leaders and state legislators look for ways to preserve documentation and memories of the landmark victory for indigenous rights.

A legislative proposal would devote $350,000 from the state general fund to help preserve photographs, transcripts and news articles and develop exhibits and educational lessons about the campaign to reclaim Blue Lake, a site prized as an integral part of Indian pueblo culture and ceremonial traditions. The lake is perched in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) above sea level at the headwaters of the Upper Rio Grande.

Bill sponsor Sen. Bobby Gonzales, a Democrat from the adjacent town of Taos, described the decades-long effort to reclaim the Blue Lake site _ culminating in the halls of Congress _ as a battle of persuasion and public relations. The area first fell under direct U.S. management as forest land in 1906.

In testimony to a state Senate panel, Taos tribal council member Gilbert Suazo said the return of Blue Lake was a turning point in his people's history. He said it's a milestone in the 20th century Indian rights movement toward greater autonomy in governance and education.

``It was not like a radical kind of thing. It was actually a tribal cause, a tribal matter, and that's the way we worked it,`` said the former Taos Pueblo governor, who testified before a congressional committee in the summer of 1970.

A breakthrough came after a meeting with U.S. Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr., a newly elected New Mexico Republican who would go on to serve as Interior secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

``I'll look into it, I'll let you know''' was the initial answer, said Suazo, a man in his mid-20s at the time. ``And then he actually wrote a letter back. ... He said, `I will do what my heart tells me to do and I will support this.'``

Taos claims to ancestral lands were competing for attention with movements to reclaim land grants dating back to the Spanish-colonial era and Mexican rule.

``He was a Hispanic congressman, and there were Hispanics that were against the return. For him to step out like that was very significant,'' Suazo said.

Newly proposed state legislation would provide funding for commemorative celebrations, a short documentary film and educational materials that eventually may reside at a heritage center at Taos Pueblo.

 

Tribes Break Ground on Hatchery That Aims to Restore Salmon

MILTON-FREEWATER, Ore. (AP) — The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation has broken ground on a long-awaited hatchery in the Walla Wall River basin.

During a ground-breaking event at the South Fork Walla Walla Chinook salmon spawning facility outside Milton-Freewater,

Tribal Board of Trustees Vice Chair Jeremy Wolf said at the ceremony last week that the spring Chinook hatchery, a more than $20 million project funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, is anticipated to open in the spring of 2021.

It could bring more than 2,000 adult salmon back to the Walla Walla Basin by 2025, he said. According to the BPA, it could eventually return 5,000 adult salmon to the basin each year.

“This is going to benefit the entire system of Walla Walla, and the whole state,” Wolf said.

It’s a project that has been a part of an overall comprehensive program related to the health of fish and water in the Walla Walla Basin for more than 30 years now. The site already has a spawning facility for salmon and steelhead released into the Umatilla Basin, and the addition of an onsite hatchery will allow the tribes to localize the egg-rearing process.

 

Prisoners Raising Money for Native American Crime Victims

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ Prisoners at the South Dakota State Penitentiary are trying to raise money and awareness about Native American women who are crime victims.

The non-profit organization. `Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women' says Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic.

The inmates made 200 pairs of earrings and made $5,000 which they donated to Urban Indian and Health of Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

Connie Hopkins, vice-president of prisoner support, tells KELO-TV the money will be used in a variety of ways to bring awareness to what some say is an epidemic when it comes to Native American women.

``It's going to help them get more media out there or pay for fliers or to help people travel to go look for these women,'' Hopkins said.

The U.S. Department of Justice found that American Indian women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average.

 

Senators Want to Restore Native Plants to US National Parks

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) _ A pair of U.S. senators believes restoring native plants in national parks around the country could help beautify and improve some of America's most beloved public places.

The effort is led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington. They've called the bill the Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act and said it would encourage the National Park Service to increase use of native plant materials on land the service stewards.

The use of native plants would benefit wildlife, human health and the environment, Collins and Cantwell said. Collins said the proposal would be especially beneficial for Acadia National Park in Maine.

``Acadia's native plant communities includes many species such as the blueberry barrens near the mountain summits, the towering white pines in older forests, and the cranberry bogs along Northeast Creek that contribute to Maine's iconic landscape,`` Collins said.

 

Greta Thunberg's North Dakota Photo is at National Library

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ A photo of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at a Native American reservation in North Dakota has been archived at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Shane Balkowitsch, who took the photo, preserved the image on a glass plate and titled it ``Standing For Us All.'' Balkowitsch told the Bismarck Tribune that it's his ``most important work to date.''

The photo shows 16-year-old Thunberg looking into the distance during a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It was preserved using a method known as ``wet plate collodion,'' which involves wetting glass with various chemicals before inserting the plate into a camera and developing the photo.

``I wanted to give nature its due respect on the plate,'' Balkowitsch noted.

The photographer said the image ``wasn't supposed to happen,'' but it's the one that Thunberg chose to share with the world. Thunberg posted it on Twitter when she left North America on Nov. 13.

Balkowitsch had heard Thunberg would be at the reservation and made plans to meet her there, since she wasn't able to come to his studio. He recalled being told he only had 15 minutes.

Library of Congress visitors can request to view the plate. Balkowitsch said the plate will outlast any other printed photograph of Thunberg because it's made using silver, which does not fade over time.

``This plate will be here long after her and I are gone,`` he said.

Another image, a close-up Thunberg's face, will be featured at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.

___

Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com

 

Father, Son Plead Guilty in Black Market Eagle Trafficking

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) _ A father and his adult son have pleaded guilty in South Dakota to federal charges in a widespread case that offered a glimpse into the illegal trafficking of eagles and other protected birds.

Troy Fairbanks and his son, Majestic Fairbanks, were among 30 people and pawn shops indicted in 2017 as part of a two-year investigation into the black-market trade of eagle carcasses, eagle parts and feathers.

Prosecutors say they found more than 100 eagle carcasses or eagle parts in the Fairbanks' Rapid City home, according to the Rapid City Journal.

Eagle heads or wings can fetch hundreds of dollars, though sellers sometimes exchange the eagle parts for other animal parts, such as bear claws, buffalo horn caps or animal hides. The eagle parts are often used in Native American-style handicrafts.

Undercover investigators say they purchased protected bird parts from suspects in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Iowa.

Troy Fairbanks pleaded guilty in federal court in Rapid City to wildlife trafficking conspiracy, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Majestic Fairbanks pleaded guilty to violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which is punishable by up to one year in prison. Last month, Majestic's brother, Troy Young Fairbanks, pleaded guilty to violating that act.

 

Art Exhibits at Albuquerque Airport Draw Attention

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Albuquerque's airport is getting international attention for its current display of art.

The Sunport's Lowriders and Hot Rods Car Culture exhibit has landed a spot on the latest list of top airport exhibits in the world by the quarterly publication ArtDesk.

The current exhibit features an array of photos and a 1964 Chevy Impala.

The airport also has a permanent collection of more than 100 pieces that include Native American, Hispanic and Southwestern works overseen by Max Baptiste, who has taken on the airport's newly added role of art curator.

Baptiste tells Albuquerque television station KRQE he's not surprised about the recent recognition since New Mexico is what he describes as ``an amazing arts community.''

He says the aim is to create a sense of pride and that airports are a great spot for doing that.

 

Native American Football Enjoys a Rebirth in South Dakota

By STEPHEN GROVES
Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ When the Kul Wicasa Oyate of Lower Brule High School meet the Crow Creek Chieftains in the first All Nations Football Conference championship in South Dakota, only one team will fulfill its dream of claiming a league title.

But for many players in this new Native American league, where students defy both athletic and socio-economic statistics and dream of playing in a championship game at ``the Dome'' at the University of South Dakota, simply getting onto the field has provided a personal victory.

Tribal schools in South Dakota formed their own 9-man league this year, a move that coaches and players say has rejuvenated the sport in Native American communities statewide. Some coaches saw their existing teams grow by two-thirds; two schools are fielding their first teams ever.

Supporters say the teams are giving students a reason to stay in school and out of trouble, and communities are coming together to rally around the teams. Reservations in South Dakota suffer from high rates of crime and drug use, and many schools struggle to keep students from dropping out.

``There's a lot of negative stuff that goes on on the rez,'' said Scott Obago, Lower Brule's 17-year-old quarterback. ``Staying at practice, staying with friends keeps you away from all that stuff.''

Football has historically been played widely by Native Americans, dating to the days of greats like Jim Thorpe. But in recent years, many smaller schools found themselves overmatched by schools with larger rosters and bigger players.

Leonard ``Yamni'' Jack, the athletic director at Lower Brule, said reservation schools often don't have the money to build weight rooms, fields, and equipment needed to compete with better-funded public schools. Participation in football also sometimes suffered on reservation schools, where basketball is king and some potential players didn't want to risk injury.

Last year, the Lower Brule staff came up with a plan to form their own league, open to schools with at least 50% Native American students and to both Native American and non-Native American athletes. Twelve schools joined, including two that had never had a football team.

Organizers say the first season was a success. Two schools from Nebraska are planning to join next year.

``Football has been reinvigorated in the tribal communities,'' Lance Witte, Lower Brule's superintendent, said.

With fewer injuries than in previous years when they were part of statewide competition, coaches have seen a surge in interest. Lower Brule coach Zeke Prado said some of the students who tried out had never played football, and he relished the chance to teach them new skills and encourage them to keep their grades up, so they would be eligible to play.

The team's success this year has also been a source of pride and involvement from the community. The rivalry between tribal schools can be intense because many of the athletes have relatives and friends who go to schools that may be separated by just a few miles. Jack, the athletic director, said the pep rally before the championship game drew the most parents he's ever witnessed.

It's not just the winning teams that call the new league a success.

Takini High School in Howes formed a team for the first time this season and didn't win a game. But coach Donald Schroeder said he's expecting more students to come out next year _ including a few girls.

``We could have something here really special,'' Schroeder said.

 

Native American Population Grows in Clark County

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Nevada's Clark County has one of the fastest growing Native American populations in the country but local leaders say they're struggling to receive the recognition they deserve.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that between July 2017 and 2018 the number of Native American people living in the county that includes Las Vegas grew at a faster rate than any other large county in the nation. In fact, among counties with populations of 20,000 or more, Clark County had the fastest annual growth rate of Native American people in three of the past five years.

Experts told the Las Vegas Review-Journal more Native Americans are moving to Clark County because of its strong economy, employment opportunities and proximity to reservations in Arizona, Utah and Southern California.

Rulon Pete, the executive director of the Las Vegas Indian Center, has seen an uptick in demand for his nonprofit's employment programs for Native Americans. Unemployment rates on tribal lands are higher than the U.S. average, and Pete said many of the 150 to 200 people he assists each year have moved to seek employment in construction, health care and hospitality.

``Vegas presents itself as a place you can be able to have a good paying job and where people can sustain a decent lifestyle,'' said Pete, who is a member of the Cedar Band of Paiutes in Utah. ``They stay around and find out there are better opportunities here, and they spread the news back home.''

Today about 50,000 people who self-identify as Native American live in Clark County, according to census statistics. Close to half are multiracial and most live in urban areas. Census officials report less than 1,000 live on reservations for the county's two federally recognized tribes, the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe and the Moapa Band of Paiutes.

Despite the population growth, Native Americans still represent only about 2% of the county's population.

Pete and others say they feel like they are still fighting to be recognized by the community at large.

That was the feeling in September, when the Clark County Commission punted voting on a resolution to designate the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Commissioners disagreed whether to hold the new celebration on the same day as Columbus Day, a reasoning some Native Americans see as a continuation of their historic marginalization.

Similar measures have been adopted by state and local governments across the nation, some of which have opted to stop celebrating Italian explorer Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas.

``The (Columbus Day) celebration was the discovery of America, but there were millions of people who were here,'' said Las Vegas resident Mercedes Krause, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of South Dakota who serves on Nevada's Commission on Minority Affairs. ``I think it's a step toward recognition. We are here. We're part of our community.''

County Commissioner Tick Segerblom said he plans to improve the proposal and try again next year.

___

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

 

New Chairman Brings Tribal Perspective to Business Group

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Mike Canfield is the first tribal member to serve as board chairman for a business advocacy group that covers New Mexico's largest metropolitan area.

Canfield is a member of Laguna Pueblo and will lead the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

As CEO of Indian Pueblos Marketing, Canfield previously led an ambitious effort to reshape the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center with $70 million in new development. He also headed the Laguna Industries manufacturing operation.

He tells the Albuquerque Journal that as the chamber's board chairman, he wants to give a voice to a perspective that hasn't always been well represented in Albuquerque's business community.

``We have a lot of (tribal) community members here, in business and otherwise, and it's nice to have that perspective,'' he said.

Canfield took over in July. Since then the chamber has moved into a new downtown office, revamped its logo and website and thrown support behind a bond measure that would, among other issues, establish a homeless shelter that supporters say would help address persistent crime and homelessness issues.

Canfield said it's important as tribal members to be involved where they can.

In 2017, the state's 19 pueblos brought more than $608 million into New Mexico, according to a study conducted by the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Canfield's focus has been on helping businesses as well as working with chamber staff on city-wide issues.

Terri Cole, president and CEO, said the Albuquerque chamber looks at its mission a bit more broadly, focusing on systemic issues that affect the city's business community.

Cole said the chamber has identified ``bold issue groups,'' or BIGs, facing the city: public safety, downtown transformation and education reform. She said the chamber has partnered with a wide variety of groups to make headway on each of those issues.

``We focus on making the community a better place,'' Cole said. ``So being community-minded is a priority.''

Canfield said he also wants to work on addressing Albuquerque's persistent negative image. While he acknowledged that Albuquerque still has significant problems, he said he'd like to work on positive messaging, broadcasting some of the elements that make Albuquerque unique, rather than harping on negative aspects of the city.

``We're not Denver, we're not Phoenix, we're not Dallas, and I don't think we ever want to be,'' Canfield said.

 

Finland Agrees to Return Native American Remains to Tribes

CORTEZ, Colo. (AP) _ Finland has agreed to return to Native American tribes ancestral remains and artifacts taken more than a century ago from what is now Mesa Verde National Park in the Southwest United States.

The White House announced the agreement during a news conference in Washington on Wednesday. The agreement involves the remains of about 20 people and 28 funerary objects.

The remains and items were excavated by a Swedish researcher in 1891 and later became part of the collection at the National Museum of Finland.

U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says President Donald Trump and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto acknowledged the sanctity of the items to the two dozen tribes that are culturally connected to the Mesa Verde region.

That list includes tribes in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Texas.

 

Michigan State Students Push for Multicultural Meeting Space

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) _ Michigan State University students are advocating for a new multicultural facility on campus to house minority organizations and provide meeting spaces and resources for students from marginalized communities.

University data indicates MSU welcomed its most diverse class to date in fall 2018. And yet minority organizations are spread across campus in small basement offices, according to the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students, which represents black, Latino, Native American and Asian student groups.

``Some of the spaces we have been provided with, like the Mosaic, can only fit about 72 to 76 (people),'' said Sarah McConville, an MSU junior and chief diversity and inclusion officer for the Residence Halls Association. Culturas de las Razas Unidas _ which aims to promote Latino/Chicano awareness at MSU _ has hosted more than 100 attendees at its meetings, she said.

``They don't understand why our spaces aren't enough,'' McConville said.

McConville, an organizer for Students for a Multicultural Building, told the Lansing State Journal that she started a petition last spring to win support for an inclusive facility to serve as a collaborative space where members from all communities can meet, grow and learn.

Dr. Terrence Frazier, vice president of MSU student affairs and services and interim director of Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions, said he supports the idea of a multi-ethnic center.

``A lot of the organizations are centered in the Mosaic in the union or OCAT and across campus,'' said Frazier. ``Having a building would be an additional resource to come together and learn about one another and have a more informal way of networking.''

The drive for such a center on campus dates back to the 1960s, according to the Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions website.

Miracle Chatman, another student working for the establishment of a multicultural center, said she hopes the efforts of Students for a Multicultural Building achieve their long-held goal.

``There have been students in the past who have advocated for the building, but it died out,'' Chatman said.

The organization is examining how other schools, such as University of Michigan, opened their multicultural spaces. The group is preparing an official proposal to present to MSU's administration, Chatman said.

Information from: Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com

 

Researchers Search For Bigfoot In Kisatchie National Forest

By MELINDA MARTINEZ

Alexandria Town Talk

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) _ In the middle of Kisatchie National Forest, a Bigfoot researcher who calls himself ``Tex-La'', lets out four howls in an area that he and another researcher, Claude, say has visible signs of Bigfoot activity.

Several seconds go by with only the sounds of insects heard all around.

Then, it happens. In the distance, four howls answer back.

Tex-La and Claude discuss the howls and from which direction they came. Tex-La then calls out again with another four howls. After several more seconds, those howls are also answered back.

It is up to those that hear the howls to decide for themselves if they believe the howls came from Bigfoot, a forest animal or a human.

``It is what it is. If you choose to believe that's great. If you choose not to believe, that's great, too,'' said Tex-La.

He recorded the howls and will study them later. He says everything has its own distinct sound _ even Bigfoot.

Claude and Tex-La have left audio devices camouflaged in the trees. Sometimes cameras are left to record nighttime activity. Those recordings, which are hours long, are studied and analyzed.

To avoid harassment and ridicule from those who don't believe in Bigfoot, Tex-La and Claude from Baton Rouge don't want to disclose their full names or the locations in Kisatachie National Forest where they are researching.

``A lot of people don't want to come forward because they don't want to be intimidated,'' said Tex-La about other Bigfoot researchers.

Most don't like to discuss their interest in Bigfoot for fear of repercussions in their jobs or social standings in the community. They also want to avoid those who want to prank them. And Tex-La has had his share of pranks played on him over the years.

``It's something you have to approach with an open mind,'' said Tex-La about researching Bigfoot.

Kisatchie National Forest spans 600,000 acres across Central Louisiana. Tex-La and Claude are investigating an area between Georgetown and Jena where there have been reports of Bigfoot sightings.

Claude does research during the day when he can see tracks, but there are times when he might do a night trek.

``Finding a spot is the luck of the draw,'' said Claude. ``This area here is in the middle of highly visible eyewitness activity.''

Claude said he got fairly good results at the first place he researched. He was able to get photos of a Bigfoot tracks in that area.

``Nothing remarkable, nothing to write home about. But they were _ to my way of thinking _ good tracks.''

But Claude doesn't claim to be an expert.

``Anybody that claims to be an expert is full of it,'' he said. All evidence is based on circumstances.''

Claude became interested in researching Bigfoot while he was at Jedediah Smith State Park in Northern California. While sleeping in his vehicle, he could smell one that was trying to look in through a dark window.

It was the stench that permeated the vehicle that woke him.

``It smelled like 50 gallons of stale urine and an old pile of wet dogs,'' said Claude. ``This is about the most rank odor you can imagine.''

He awoke from a sound sleep wondering what could smell that bad.

As he sat up, he said aloud, ``What is that odor?''

``And suddenly, it disappeared,'' he said. He realized that odor outside his vehicle belonged to Bigfoot.

``That really piqued my curiosity,'' said Claude of the encounter. ``So when I got back here _ realized I didn't have enough money to go roaming back to California again _ I looked up `Bigfoot in Louisiana' and this area is one that's shown predominately over the years, Bigfoot sightings and things like that.''

On this trip, Claude and Tex-La hike to an area where they have found signs of what could be Bigfoot activity.

Some signs of Bigfoot that they look for include twisted tree limbs wound around other tree limbs and marker formations make from branches and sticks.

``There are a lot of interesting tree formations that don't normally occur in nature,'' said Claude.

One such formation involves a ``tree teepee'' he came across. It involves four trees with three bent towards the fourth.

``Limbs are twisted and wrapped around each other,'' said Claude pointing to the section where the trees come together.

Sometimes the way the branches are twisted together could indicate that it is a marker or barrier.

Claude said it could also be a way to get other animals to move to a certain area.

``Bigfoot can make its own game trail,'' said Claude. ``It's interpretative.''

``One thing you have to look out for is the way they are pulled down and pinned so they don't stand up,'' said Claude.

Bigfoot roam, said Claude, and migrate to where game are. Claude and Tex-La said there is also a water source close to the area.

Another sign Claude observed were sticks forming an ``X'' lying on a branch. Another sign includes three parallel sticks lying perpendicular to another stick.

``It's one of the first things I noticed,'' said Claude. ``It is typical of a symbol that Bigfoot uses.

``It's the small things you really have to look for. They are too conform to be natural for the most part.''

Other signs Claude and Tex-La notice include the packed-down pine straw and leaves in the area. This could be from Bigfoot walking in the area, explained Claude.

There is no crunching sound made here as there is in other parts of the forest where the pine straw and leaves aren't packed down, Claude pointed out.

In another area, Tex-La found a tree that looks as if it had been pulled down on purpose. The tree's bark bears an abrasion that Tex-La said could have been made by a hand that was holding the tree while pulling it down.

``You have to be analytical and skeptical of everything you see,'' said Claude.

He does his homework to figure out if trees can naturally do some of the things he's seen or if the weather were a factor.

``You have to be educated yourself,'' said Claude.

He has also left gifts such as a jar of peanut butter hanging eight-feet from a rope in a tree next to a trail, which Claude says is used by Bigfoot.

The peanut butter jar has been hanging in a tree for a while.

``It's a little disappointing that a squirrel or something didn't get it,'' he said.

Asked why he left peanut butter for Bigfoot, Claude replied, ``All animals like peanut butter.''

On previous excursions, he's left apples that were nibbled on by other forest animals.

Tex-La and Claude say there are different species of Bigfoot around North America.

The one in Louisiana is said to be about 6 to 7 feet tall with dark shaggy hair like a sheep dog.

Tex-La said there are primates on other continents, so why couldn't there be one like Bigfoot living in North America?

Even Native American tribes have their own lore and names for Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

But he said people don't want to believe there is a 6-foot gorilla roaming the woods where they camp, hunt or hike.

People reason that if Bigfoot were real, there would be deer or other animal carcasses lying around the woods because Bigfoot would have to eat.

But Tex-La counters with: ``How many dead deer carcasses have you seen walking through the woods?

``There's been scat found with parasites only known to be in primates,'' he said.

Also, a Bigfoot group he belongs to has had DNA samples collected from hair that indicate it is primate in origin.

Sometimes people who walk along a trail may hear something that sounds as if they are being followed, said Tex-La. He explains that this could be Bigfoot shadowing or escorting the hiker.

``To make sure you leave,'' added Tex-La.

But Bigfoot isn't the only reason researchers head into the forest.

``A lot of times it's nice to get out and enjoy what God gave us,'' said Tex-La. ``It makes us get out and explore.''

About 90% of a Bigfoot researcher's time is spent walking in the woods looking for evidence, he said.

After 20 years of research, Tex-La said he still don't know everything. He goes by what he reads or what he views on YouTube.

He says the evidence is there to support that Bigfoot does exist but the world wants more proof.

``It's going to take a body for the world to accept it,'' said Tex-La. Even scientists will want a body.

``But they'll still be skeptical,'' he added.

``It may never be solved in our lifetimes,'' said Tex-La about the Bigfoot mystery.

It is up to the individuals to make up their own minds about about whether to believe in the existence of Bigfoot.

Information from: Alexandria Daily Town Talk, http://www.thetowntalk.com

 

Scorsese Visits Osage Nation Ahead Of Filming

PAWHUSKA, Okla. (AP) _ Director Martin Scorsese has visited Oklahoma and met with the principal chief of the Osage Nation to discuss filming his upcoming adaptation of ``Killers of the Flower Moon.''

The Tulsa World reported that Scorsese and others involved in the film met with Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and other Osage representatives for about two hours to discuss how the movie will accurately portray the tribe's culture, history and language.

The movie is an adaptation David Grann's nonfiction book ``Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.'' It documents the 1920s slayings of wealthy Osage tribal members after the discovery of oil on their land.

Standing Bear said Scorsese told him Robert DeNiro will play cattleman William Hale. Leonardo DiCaprio is also set to star.

 

Protest Decries Plan to Detain Migrant Kids at Oklahoma Base

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) _ More than 100 demonstrators are protesting in withering heat outside of an Oklahoma Army base against the Trump administration's plans to detain migrant children there.

Japanese Americans and Native Americans are among those taking part in SaturDAY's march to Fort Sill and rally in front of one of its entrances. Demonstrators are chanting ``Close the camps'' and carrying signs with messages including ``Human Rights Matter'' and ``Liberty and Justice For All.''

The protest comes after a similar rally on June 22 .

Fort Sill was used to house hundreds of Japanese and Japanese Americans by the federal government during World War II. The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement recently announced plans to temporarily detain up to 1,400 migrant children at the base near Lawton, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City.

Fort Sill was also used to house migrant children in 2014 during the Obama administration.

 

Moon Landing, Women's Suffrage Exhibits Open in Bismarck

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ New exhibits on the moon landing and women's suffrage are opening at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck.

The Bismarck Tribune reports that bbjects commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing will be on display until the end of July. The exhibit includes fragments of moon rocks and small state flags that were flown to the moon.

The women's suffrage exhibit will be open until summer 2020. Women first gained the right to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was enacted. American Indian women were granted voting rights with citizenship in 1924.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com

 

Red Rock Canyon Crowding Has Land Managers Studying Changes

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Federal land managers are considering several ways to address overcrowding at a scenic natural area just a 30-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, entrance fee station upgrades and a cutoff road to return motorists to the visitor center without driving an entire 13-mile one-way loop are among options being studied.

Officials say they're also working to boost cellphone coverage and provide public Wi-Fi service at the visitor center and entrance station.

Visitor numbers have exploded in recent years. More than 3 million people visited Red Rock Canyon in 2018. Before 2013, it never logged 2 million in a year.

The area features hiking trails and rock-climbing routes, towering red and white sandstone cliffs, sheltered canyons with waterfalls, Native American petroglyphs and geologic features.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

 

Political Opposition Grows To Nuclear Waste Storage Plan

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Plans by a New Jersey-based company to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors in the New Mexico desert is running into more political trouble, as some of the state's top elected officials are raising red flags.

Congresswoman Deb Haaland became the latest member of the delegation to weigh in Friday, sending a letter to the U.S. Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The first-term Democratic lawmaker suggested existing railways weren't built to withstand the weight of the special casks that would be used to transport the high-level waste from sites around the country to southeastern New Mexico.

Haaland said there are no plans for new construction or renovations as part of the project proposed by Holtec International and that cities and states shouldn't bear the cost of the infrastructure improvements needed to ensure safe transportation.

``I believe such a facility poses too great a risk to the health and safety of New Mexicans, our economy and our environment,'' Haaland wrote.

Holtec is seeking a 40-year license from federal regulators to build what it has described as a state-of-the-art complex near Carlsbad.

Holtec executives say the project is needed because the federal government has yet to find a permanent solution for dealing with the tons of spent fuel building up at nuclear power plants.

Members of a U.S. House subcommittee visited Southern California earlier this month for a hearing that centered on the need for a permanent disposal option and the 3.5 million pounds (1.59 million kilograms) of nuclear waste stranded at a defunct nuclear power plant in that state.

The topic of storing nuclear waste will be on the agenda again when the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meets next week.

The development of a proposed long-term storage site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain was halted during the Obama administration, although the Trump administration has moved to restart the licensing process despite stiff resistance in Nevada.

Haaland in her letter echoed the concerns of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. Without a permanent repository, they say the waste could end up stuck in the state indefinitely.

``There must be an open and transparent process that allows for input on what's best for our entire state,'' Heinrich said.

Congressman Lujan said broad support from the state, local communities and any affected Native American communities should be a requirement of any interim storage site.

Holtec spokeswoman Joy Russell said Friday the company appreciates the views of the elected officials and will continue to work with local leaders to ensure it meets all regulatory requirements.

In her letter, Haaland pointed to past studies done by the Energy Department when it was considering Yucca Mountain. She said modeling predicted rail accidents at a rate of 1 in 10,000 shipments.

She also said the agency has found that a severe accident involving one cask of radioactive waste has the potential to contaminate dozens of square miles and result in hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs.

State and industry officials also have concerns about potential effects on oil and gas development, as Holtec's proposed site is located within the Permian Basin _ one of the world's most prolific energy production regions.

 

Exchange: Shoshone Artist's Work Inspires Tribal Activism

By JENNIFER KANE
Reno Gazette Journal

RENO, Nev. (AP) _ There's an American Indian man in oversized reflective sunglasses sitting in the center of a painting. Over his shoulder, there's a mess of dated electronics stacked under a cluttered television set. On the other side, a figure is immersed in a spiritual ritual below an eagle and a sky of billowing clouds.

The painting is a self-portrait of Jack Malotte, a Shoshone and Washoe artist who grew up on the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony reservation and has since made a career of creating prints, posters and paintings that have inspired both environmental and social activism nationwide.

``It's what my living room looked like then,'' the Reno native said of the piece entitled, ``It's Hard to be Traditional When You're all Plugged In.'' ``I was going to sweat lodges, but then too I had all these tangled cords in my home. I drew myself in between these two worlds.''

Much of Malotte's work, now on display at the Nevada Museum of Art, is often about juxtaposition, whether it's tradition versus modernism, or nature and technology.

``While his work celebrates the beauty of the Great Basin landscape, it also tackles important issues related to land use, natural resource extraction, militarization, and legacies of colonialism,'' Nevada Museum of Art David Walker said of Malotte.

Walker called Malotte one of the most significant working artists in Nevada today.

Malotte's depiction of himself in the 1983 ``Plugged In'' self-portrait is stone-faced, but the artist himself is large and jovial. He has thick silver hair and a warm smile. It's hard to tell he harbors any bitterness at all, until you look at his work, which is often dark, biting commentary on how modern technology and military policy have had an impact on Native American culture and livelihoods.

The Nevada Museum of Art this week is opening ``Jack Malotte: Sagebrush Heathen,'' an exhibition that will include many of his earliest works, some of his more recent works and even a mural painted by Malotte this past week on the museum's south wall. The exhibition runs through Oct. 20.

``I'm always trying to figure out how to mix it up,'' said Malotte.

Malotte has been creating art since he was a child. He grew up always doodling, he said, and always admiring his uncle, a draftsman for the local power company in the 1960s.

Inspired, Malotte took drafting classes in high school and went on to study art at what is now the California College of the Arts in Oakland. he spent summers as a wildland firefighter, taking in rare glimpses of untouched Western landscape that later informed his technicolor skies and mountains.

``When you're out there all the time, that's all you think about,'' Malotte said, explaining that nature was always top of mind during his youth.

It wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that his art, and his love for the great outdoors, met a greater purpose. Malotte at the time began to ally himself with variety of grassroots organizations, many of them intent on bringing environmental justice to Native American tribes: Western Shoshone Sacred Lands Association, Seventh Generation Fund and various nuclear testing resistance groups.

From campaigning to preserve Pyramid Lake to protesting toxic waste dumping in the Mojave Desert, Malotte put powerful images to the issues that continue to be hotly debated today. Many of his landscapes feature the horizons of the Great Basin.

``Jack's work brings powerful visual representations to the vision and voices of the Indigenous rights movement. We proudly wear his work on t-shirts, and adorn our posters, publications and letterhead with his graphics,'' said Debra Harry, a gender, race and identity program professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. ``His work transmits our call to protect our land and treaty rights, stop militarization, and promote self-determination.''

Malotte's style was distinct. The colors were molten, taken straight from a Nevada sunset. His media was mixed -- watercolors, ink, acrylic, whatever gets the job done. He used paint splatter, bold text, but also traditional Native American patterns and symbols, such as the eagle, moon and whirlwinds, or what he calls ``that spirit that follows me.''

In many paintings, Malotte depicts environmental travesties: sewage spilling into rivers, birds of prey soaring alongside military jets, and lava-red mushroom clouds exploding in a high desert.

In other works, he depicts stark realities of daily life on the reservation. In one piece, a billboard with a Native American man drinking ``Pow Wow Beer'' hovers above the scene of a car crash in the desert, a tossed beer can spilling onto the roadway.

Malotte wasn't exactly primed to be the visual voice for all Native Americans. Malotte's grandmother used to discourage him from playing with children who were of different tribes, particularly children who were Paiute, even though the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony was made up of three tribes: Shoshone, Washoe and Paiute.

But Malotte knew better. He played down by the river with those kids, and they all grew up talking a little bit of all three languages, not knowing which words were Shoshone and which were Washoe or Paiute.

``My generation, we didn't see ourselves as one or the other,'' said Malotte. ``We saw ourselves as one tribe.''

When Malotte looks at his own work, he can't remember a lot of it. He's produced so much of it, he'd guess thousands of pieces. And he's still creating, as evidenced by the ink under his nails and the paint on his T-shirt.

He not sure what to hope for the future of the environment, but he's happy in his home of two decades now, Duckwater, a community west of Ely. It's 290 miles (466 kilometers) from Reno.

It's wide open, but not without proximity to sites that cause him heartache. He's only a short drive to a number of open-pit gold mines and military installations. A weapons ammunition storage facility and the nation's largest nuclear test site are several hours away. He can see military jets flying over from his home.

``I hope we can keep it together,'' he said.

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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com

 

Montana's Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force Named

HELENA, Mont. (AP) _ Attorney General Tim Fox has appointed 11 members to the Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force.

Montana lawmakers created the task force to identify jurisdictional and communication barriers among law enforcement agencies that prevent adequate investigation of missing Native Americans and ways to improve collaboration.

The task force also will oversee a grant program to fund efforts by tribes to identify, report and find missing Native Americans.

The task force members include representatives of all eight Montana tribes along with Deputy Attorney General Melissa Schlichting, the Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager Jennifer Viets and a Montana Highway Patrol trooper.

The task force is scheduled to hold its first meeting on June 11 in Helena. The next day, the Montana Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office are holding a missing persons training in Helena.

 

Interior Secretary, Tribes Meet Amid Drilling Fight

CHACO CANYON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, N.M. (AP) _ U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt met with leaders of the Navajo Nation and Pueblo tribes at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park on Tuesday, saying the remote, ancient site that's been central to a yearslong dispute over oil and gas development had "blown him away.''

The meeting at the site near the northwestern corner of New Mexico came at the urging of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich. He has sponsored legislation with other members of New Mexico's all-Democratic congressional delegation to establish a formal buffer zone around the park held sacred by tribes.

Oil industry representatives say robust protections already are in place within the park and beyond, while Berhardt underscored during his tour that the Interior's Bureau of Land Management has a "complex mission'' of managing a range of land uses.

Berhardt's meeting with Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Acoma Pueblo Governor Brian Vallo and others marked his first visit to the park. The Farmington Daily Times reported that he said he expected it would have some influence on the decision-making process as the BLM and Bureau of Indian Affairs work on revamping the resource management plan for the San Juan basin, which includes Chaco Canyon. A draft is expected in a few months.

"This was a major, major effort by humanity and we need to be thoughtful about that,'' Bernhardt said of the cultural site.

A thousand years ago, Chaco had been an economic and ceremonial hub for the ancestors of Pueblo people, whose present-day villages are situated throughout much of New Mexico.

A world-heritage site, the park's stone walls, staircases and other architectural remnants stand against a backdrop of cliffs and rocky outcroppings. Smaller archaeological sites and individual Navajo Nation family allotments can be found beyond the park's boundaries.

Accessible only by rough dirt roads, Chaco takes effort to reach, and supporters say they want to protect the sense of remoteness that comes with making the journey.

The bill that supporters say will protect the Chaco area's archaeological and sensitive landscapes would halt new oil and natural gas lease sales on federal holdings within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) buffer zone around the park.

The Bureau of Land Management in recent years has deferred leasing parcels within that zone, but those who support the protections say legislation is needed to formalize that practice and put it into law.

In January, the Interior's Bureau of Land Management had quietly confirmed on its website that it would push forward with the sale of nine parcels within the informal buffer zone before eventually reversing the decision.

 

After Long Journey, Bear Spared by Governor Returns Home

By HOLLY RAMER

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ A bear whose life was spared two years ago by New Hampshire's governor has returned to her home turf near Dartmouth College after traveling thousands of miles since her relocation last June.

The state's Fish and Game Department had decided to euthanize the female black bear and three of her young offspring in 2017 after repeated problems with them feeding from trash and bird feeders culminated with two bears entering a home in Hanover. But after a public outcry, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu ordered the animals relocated instead.

The three yearlings were moved that year, and one of them was killed by a hunter in Quebec, Canada, within a few weeks. The mother bear, dubbed "Mink'' by locals, left town to mate and wasn't captured until last year, after she returned with four new cubs last spring. She was tagged, fitted with a tracking collar and moved about 120 miles (193 kilometers) north to a sparsely populated location near the Canadian border.

But last week, Mink made it back to Hanover after traveling a looping route through New Hampshire and Vermont. Andrew Timmins, the bear project leader with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, said Monday that he's been in regular contact with the governor's office and a local bear rehabilitator - and all agree there's no need to take further action at this time.

"This bear has shown us where she wants to be, so let's see if we can do a better job coexisting with her by being more vigilant with food attractants,'' Timmins said.

Officials favoring euthanasia had argued the animals were no longer afraid of humans and likely would find new neighborhoods to frequent if moved, or would eventually find their way back to Hanover.

"We certainly had seen that in other bears in the past. It actually took her longer than we've experienced in the past,'' Timmins said, referring to Mink's journey home.

According to her tracking collar data, Mink spent the winter in a den in Pomfret, Vermont. She was back on the move by April, crossing the Connecticut River to get back to New Hampshire less than two weeks ago. Authorities have gotten few calls about the bear in the last year, and none reporting any trouble, Timmins said. As Mink currently has no cubs, it's possible she may spend more time away from downtown Hanover in search of a mate.

"My sense is she'll wander off and find another bear to hang out with,'' said Sununu, who stands by his decision to intervene.

"We always knew there was a chance that she was going to come back. Fish and Game has been tracking her, and we just hope the people in those towns understand their responsibility in not feeding the bear or unintentionally attracting the bear,'' he said. "In talking to Fish and Game, it's understood that they're going to treat that situation as they would with any bear, making sure that health and human safety is first.''

Sununu isn't the first governor to get involved in wildlife issues.

In 2011, then-Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed an executive order to temporarily block the impending slaughter of hundreds of Yellowstone National Park bison. The Democrat worried transporting the animals could spread disease to Montana livestock. Two years ago, current Gov. Steve Bullock cited Schweitzer's order when he, too, blocked the slaughter of hundreds of Yellowstone bison during a dispute with the state Department of Livestock over plans to ship 40 bison in a quarantine program to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

In Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources in 2011 planned to euthanize an orphaned fawn from a chronic wasting disease area before Republican Gov. Scott Walker intervened. Two years later, he told the agency to find less controversial ways of handling captive deer following a public outcry when agents seized and euthanized a deer from a Kenosha animal shelter.

More recently, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy campaigned on ending the state's bear hunt in 2017. Since taking office, the Democrat has only curtailed hunting on state-owned land, which accounts for about 40% of the area where black bears are hunted. Murphy said he lacks the unilateral authority to end the hunt and would have to work through the regulatory process.

And just last week in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown slapped down the state wildlife department director's stance backing a proposal to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list. Brown, a Democrat, told federal officials she wanted to "clarify and correct'' Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Curtis Melcher and declare the state and its agencies oppose the proposal.

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Associated Press writers Matt Volz in Helena, Montana; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, and Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon, contributed to this report.

 

Catawba Indian Nation Revives Festival

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) _ The Catawba Indian Nation is bringing back the Yap Ye Iswa, or Day of the Catawba, festival after a 12-year hiatus.

The free festival is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Catawba Cultural Center.

The festival dates back to 1990 as a way to connect the tribal and non-tribal communities with the Catawba Indian Nation.

Festival-goers will get a taste of the tribe's culture through performances by drummers and dancers to authentic Catawba songs. There also will be traditional art by Catawba artisans, pottery and beadwork demonstrations and traditional Native American food.

The Herald reports the Catawba Indian Nation is the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina. Its reservation sits on about 700 acres (1.09 square miles) east of Rock Hill.

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Information from: The Herald, http://www.heraldonline.com

 

New Mexico Students Help Redesign Jemez Historic Site

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) _ A group of New Mexico college students is helping redesign the Jemez Historic Site visitor center using multimedia tools.

New Mexico Highlands University announced this week that 15 of its media arts students are creating floor-to-ceiling video projections of historic images and oral histories at the Native American site. The students also are adding interactive touch-screen computer tablets that focus on artifacts and an event called ``Light Among the Ruins.''

Supervisory archaeologist Ethan Ortega says the students used oral histories and texts written by Jemez tribal members to create the new components.

The Jemez Historic Site includes the stone remains of a 500-year-old village and the San Jose church, which dates to 1622.

It is located at Jemez Springs, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Albuquerque.

 

Bill Making Casino Nights for Charities Lawful Gets Final OK

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ A bill heading to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's desk makes clear charities aren't breaking the law by holding occasional casino ``game nights'' as fundraisers as long as they follow new restrictions.

The House agreed 95-17 on Monday to changes the Senate made on legislation making legal what some nonprofits already have been doing.

Bill supporters say enforcement of the current ban on these events has been uneven, and it would be better to allow nonprofits and some employers and trade associations to hold them, with alcoholic drinks permitted and prizes awarded by raffle. The bill still only applies east of Interstate 26 to comply with Cherokee casino agreements.

Cooper vetoed a casino night measure in 2017, worried it could attract video poker. Lawmakers say those concerns have been addressed.

 

Artificial Reef to Protect Historic Native American Mounds

MONTEGUT, La. (AP) _ An artificial reef has been created near the Louisiana coast to protect several historic Native American mounds from erosion and rising sea levels.

NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports the Montegut reef was built this month by the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and volunteers. About 200 tons of oyster shells were collected from New Orleans-area restaurants and repurposed to build the partially submerged reef.

This is the second such reef built in Louisiana by the coalition, which started its oyster shell recycling program in 2014. In 2016, the coalition used about 4,000 tons of recycled shells to build a half-mile-long reef in St. Bernard Parish.

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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com

 

Pace of Bering Sea Changes Startle Scientists

By DAN JOLING

Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska’s northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.

Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages. But not this year.

In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into “snow cone ice” that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on Feb. 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house.

“This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February,” Keyes said in a phone interview.

Winter storm surge flooding is the latest indication that something’s off-kilter around the Bering Strait, the gateway from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Rapid, profound changes tied to high atmospheric temperatures, a direct result of climate change, may be reordering the region’s physical makeup. Ocean researchers are asking themselves if they’re witnessing the transformation of an ecosystem.

The Bering Sea last winter saw record-low sea ice. Climate models predicted less ice, but not this soon, said Seth Danielson, a physical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“The projections were saying we would’ve hit situations similar to what we saw last year, but not for another 40 or 50 years,” Danielson said.

Walruses and seals use sea ice to rest and give birth. Villagers use sea ice to hunt them. Sea ice is the primary habitat of polar bears. Algae that clings to the bottom of sea ice blooms in spring, dies and sinks, sending an infusion of food to clams, snails and sea worms on the ocean floor — the prey of gray whales, walruses and bearded seals.

Sea ice also affects commercially valuable fish. Sea ice historically has created a Bering Sea “cold pool,” an east-west barrier of extremely cold, salty water at the bottom of the wide, shallow continental shelf. The wall of cold water historically has concentrated Pacific cod and walleye pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea.

“It tends to extend from the Russian side to the northwest,” said Lyle Britt, a fisheries biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It kind of comes down almost like a little hockey stick shape … through the center of the southeast Bering Sea.”

However, when Britt and other NOAA researchers last year conducted annual fish and ocean condition surveys, they got a big surprise: For the first time in 37 years, they found no cold pool.

Researchers found high concentrations of Pacific cod and walleye pollock in the northern Bering Sea. But the species that was supposed to be there, Arctic cod, was hardly found.

More than half the fish landed in U.S. waters come from the North Pacific, and most are caught in the Bering Sea. Chad See, executive director of the Freezer Longline Coalition, a trade association of vessels that target Pacific cod using baited lines, said members caught their quota last year but had to travel farther north.

“Does that mean that the stock is declining, is suffering because of the warming temperatures? Or is it that they’ve moved north and it’s still a vibrant fishery?” See said.

It’s too soon to conclude that atmosphere and ocean changes are due simply to climate change, said NOAA physical oceanographer Phyllis Stabeno, who has studied the Bering Sea for more than 30 years. The southern Bering Sea since 2000 has undergone multi-year stanzas of low and extensive ice, she said.

When sea ice in November began forming as usual, she expected a bounce-back this winter. Instead, warm winds in February mostly cleared the northern Bering Sea of sea ice through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea.

“We’re in winter,” she said. “This is all supposed to be frozen.”

Formation of the cold pool is again in doubt. It could return in the future, but temperatures are trending upward with the rate of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.

Scientists say figuring out the ocean physics is far less of a challenge than projecting the biological ramifications.

“We sort of opened up this whole Pandora’s box of not really knowing how the ecosystem as a whole is going to adjust to that,” Danielson said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service early last summer detected trouble. Resident called with reports of emaciated and dead seabirds.

Common murres, which can use up fat reserves and starve after three days without eating, fly hundreds miles to find fish schools or krill but were washing up dead on shore. Forktail storm petrels, fulmars, shearwaters, kittiwakes, auklets and puffins also died.

No one can say why. Seabird experts wonder whether the presence of more pollock and Pacific cod, which have voracious appetites and are far more efficient hunters of forage fish than seabirds, was a factor.

Dean Stockwell, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a specialty in phytoplankton, said the ocean changes have the potential to affect plant life at the bottom of the food web but it’s too soon to know.

Of immediate concern is whether warmer water will allow harmful algae containing toxins to stay viable long enough for shellfish to eat them and pass toxins to marine mammals and people. Toxins are being carried to the Arctic, Stockwell said.

“The question with global warming types of things is, ‘Can it get a foothold? Can they do damage?’” he said.

Seabird experts wonder if toxins played a role in recent seabird deaths by affecting their ability to forage.

No one has connected the dots, said Britt, the NOAA fisheries biologist.

“At the moment, nobody’s sitting with in-hand a comprehensive research study that covers the birds and the mammals and the fish and the zooplankton all in one synthesized report,” he said, adding that it will take researchers more time to figure out what’s going on.

Meantime, Kotlik resident Keyes is researching climate change effects in her coastal village of 650 as project coordinator for a team working under a Bureau of Indian Affairs program.

The absence of sea ice since mid-February meant taking land routes to visit nearby villages, she said. And seal hunters this spring found bearded seals to harvest but not near the village.

Like the cod fishermen, “They had to go farther north,” Keyes said.

 

Walz Administration Renews Challenge to Line 3 Oil Pipeline

By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ Gov. Tim Walz said Monday that his administration has renewed its challenge to a regulatory panel's approval of Enbridge Energy's plan to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline across northern Minnesota, saying he wants to let the legal process play out.

Walz told reporters the Commerce Department refiled its appeal last week with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which had dismissed earlier appeals in the case on procedural grounds. The independent Public Utilities Commission last month gave its final reaffirmation of its earlier approvals of the project, clearing the way for the department and the environmental and tribal groups to refile appeals that began under previous Gov Mark Dayton's administration.

``We think that that appeal should simply be heard, and that's fair,'' he said.

The Democratic governor said the state's appeal doesn't delay the timeline for the permitting process for or construction on the replacement pipeline because the state isn't seeking an injunction. Regulators have told Enbridge that they expect to certify all remaining state permits by November. The company hopes to put the new pipeline into service in the second half of 2020.

Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge wants to replace Line 3, which was built in the 1960s, because it's increasingly prone to cracking and corrosion. Native American and environmental groups argue that the project risks oil spills in pristine areas of the Mississippi River headwaters region, and that the Canadian tar sands oil that the line would carry accelerates climate change.

Enbridge said in a statement that it believes the courts will affirm the commission's decisions, ``which were made in accordance with the law based on full and complete evidence developed and presented over years of open and transparent regulatory and environmental review processes.''

Walz was critical of lawmakers who've tried unsuccessfully to prohibit the state from spending taxpayer money on the appeal, calling their efforts ``a gross violation of the separation of powers.''

The legal issue at the heart of the Commerce Department's appeal is whether Enbridge provided legally adequate long-range demand forecasts to establish the need for the project. The Public Utilities and Enbridge say the company did. Walz said the statutory language is ambiguous, and that there would no basis for the state's appeal if lawmakers clarified the statute.

House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt said Republicans are ``incredibly disappointed'' by the decision to pursue a further appeal against a new pipeline that would be the ``safest, most environmentally friendly way'' to transport the oil and would create jobs and increase property tax revenues for communities along the route.

``What the governor is trying to do is play both sides,'' Daudt said. ``I think he's trying to say that, `Well this is ultimately going to happen, but I can at least tell the people that were against it I was with them.' And to me that's a failure of leadership.''

 

Congressional Panel to Tour Chaco Canyon, Hold Hearing

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ Members of Congress are gathering in Santa Fe this month to hold a hearing on the impact of oil and gas development on sites that tribes consider sacred.

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing takes place April 15 at the state Capitol.

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is the chairman of the subcommittee, and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland is the vice chairwoman.

They'll be joined by other Democratic leaders in the days leading up to the hearing to tour Chaco Culture National Historical Park near the Navajo Nation, and to meet with tribes and environmental advocates.

Native American leaders repeatedly have called on federal officials to ban oil and gas exploration around Chaco Canyon. The site features massive stone structures and other remnants of an ancient civilization.

 

State's Gambling Future Uncertain, Despite Federal Action

By SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The gambling debate in Connecticut is far from over, even though the federal government finally approved a planned satellite tribal casino in East Windsor.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont still has the challenging task of trying to negotiate a wide-ranging gambling agreement that doesn't violate the revenue-sharing agreement between the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the state of Connecticut.

Lamont says he would ``love to work something out with the tribes'' that would include sports betting and other forms of gambling.

Lamont has met privately with both tribes and MGM Resorts, the casino company that says it wants to build a casino in Bridgeport and also offer sports betting. Lamont says he has also met with other sports betting companies.

Lamont says he hopes to avoid litigation, but MGM has promised to challenge the East Windsor casino.

 

ND Lawmakers Approve Eagle Feathers, Plumes at Graduations

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ The North Dakota Legislature has approved a bill that would allow American Indian students to wear eagle feathers or plumes at school graduations.

The Senate passed the House bill 45-0 on Monday.

Fargo Democratic Rep. Ruth Buffalo, the bill sponsor, says American Indians view the eagle feather and plumes as a symbol of honor and pride.

The North Dakota School Boards Association supports the legislation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates the National Eagle Repository to provide Native Americans with eagle carcasses, parts and feathers.

 

Lawmakers Mull Eagle Feathers, Plumes at Graduations

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ American Indian students in North Dakota would be allowed to wear eagle feathers or plumes at school graduations under a measure considered by the Legislature.

Fargo Democratic Rep. Ruth Buffalo, the bill sponsor and member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, told the Senate Education Committee on Monday that some schools in the state forbid the practice of wearing eagle feather and plumes, which are Native American symbols of strength, honor and pride.

They are presented by families or elders to recognize major accomplishments, Buffalo said.

``Students should not have to worry about whether they will be allowed to celebrate their heritage,'' said Buffalo, the first female Native American Democrat elected to the state Legislature.

``Embracing our indigenous culture and identity are essential to our survival,'' she said.

The House passed the bipartisan tribal regalia bill 90-2 last month. The Senate committee did not take immediate action on Monday.

State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler and the North Dakota School Boards Association and State Superintendent support the legislation, ad

South Dakota passed similar legislation last year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates the National Eagle Repository to provide Native Americans with eagle carcasses, parts and feathers.

Carol Two Eagles, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, told lawmakers that schools that forbid the practice are violating students' First Amendment Rights.

North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission Director Scott Davis, who also is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, called the legislation ``long overdue'' and it recognizes a ``long, long, long-standing custom for us.''

Davis said in an interview he gets complaints each spring from Native American parents who have been told their children can't wear eagle feathers or plumes at high school graduation.

Sheridan McNeil, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, said her son, Drayton Kary, will wear an eagle feather given to him by his late father at his high school graduation in Bismarck this spring.

``It sends a positive message and shows our youth and the people of North Dakota who we are,'' said McNeil, who's Dakota name translated means ``Respects the People Woman.''

 

Vienna to Take State Grant Money to Build Amphitheater

VIENNA, Ill. (AP) _ The southern Illinois city of Vienna will use $360,000 in state grant money to build an amphitheater as well as shower facilities at Tunnel Hill park.

The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reports that construction is expected to begin this summer on a project that will include a wooden amphitheater for events such as concerts and possibly interpretive history lessons related to the forced relocation of Native Americans called the Trail of Tears that reached its midway point in Vienna.

The bathroom and shower facilities will be built for the Tunnel Hill 100 race in August.

The project is one of 89 across Illinois sharing in $28.9 million from the state that will allow communities to acquire open space and develop and improve recreational facilities.

 

Montana Tribes Could Access Coal Fund Loans under Proposal

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) _ Montana lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow Native American tribal governments to take out loans from the state Coal Tax Fund for infrastructure projects.

Non-tribal local governments already have access to the fund, which loaned $20.6 million last year.

The Missoulian reports the bill by Democratic Rep. Shane Morigeau of Missoula would make the state's seven federally recognized tribes and the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe eligible, too.

The Montana House Appropriations Committee heard the bill on Monday.

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes council member Carole Lankford says tribal governments have few chances to impose taxes or issue tax-exempt bonds. She says the loan program would allow tribes to accomplish more.

Morigeau says the addition of the tribes would not affect other governments' ability to access the funds.

 

Judge Won't End Decades-Old Everglades Cleanup Oversight

By CURT ANDERSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer

MIAMI (AP) _ A federal judge on Monday refused to end a decades-old court order that oversees water quality and environmental restoration in the sensitive Florida Everglades.

Miami U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno rejected a motion by the South Florida Water Management District to end a decree signed in 1992. Among other things, the order sets thresholds for the amount of phosphorous in the Everglades, an ingredient in fertilizer from the vast sugar-growing regions to the north that promotes unhealthy plant growth in the sprawling marsh.

Moreno said among his reasons for denying the water district's motion is that its governing board is being largely replaced by new Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made the environment a top priority. The judge also said it would require a full evidentiary hearing on complicated scientific and environmental issues to end the decree.

``This is the right thing to do at this time,'' Moreno said at a hearing. ``There's really no harm, is there?''

The order allows the water district to file the motion again in the future. The decree is not involved with other water problems that plagued Florida coasts last year, including red tide outbreaks and algae blooms.

The water district and sugar growers say the decree is outdated, thwarts projects that would benefit the Everglades and has been superseded by subsequent state and federal laws that guarantee restoration would continue. The projects include vast reservoirs that cleanse water flowing south from sugar farms before it flows into the Everglades.

``Twenty-seven years is enough. It's enough because it's unnecessary,'' said water board attorney Brian Accardo.

The U.S. government, environmental groups and the Miccosukee Indian tribe disagree, saying the decree is key to pursuing potential violations and ensuring the cleanup projects get built. They say it should remain in place until the Everglades has achieved an environmental balance close to its historical makeup. The Miccosukee reservation is in the Everglades.

``The decree is essential to protect the Everglades,'' said Anna Upton, attorney for the Florida Audubon Society. ``We're not there yet. We've come a long way.''

The decree arose out of a 1988 lawsuit filed by the U.S. against the water district claiming high phosphorous discharges were threatening the long-term future of the Everglades. The state and water district contended the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was equally responsible by moving polluted water into the area.

In 1992, the consent decree was signed involving the federal and state entities, setting goals for reducing phosphorous as well as the levels of water at the right times needed to keep the ecosystem healthy.

A key point in the settlement talks came with then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat, showed up at a court hearing in 1991 and said: ``We want to surrender. I want to find out who I can give my sword to.''

Florida Department of Environmental Protection attorney Charles DeMonaco said about $2 billion has been spent to date on Everglades projects, with another $1 billion in the pipeline over the next four years. He said the state would also like to see the consent decree end, but only when there is an agreement on how success would be measured.

``We don't want to fight anyone. We want to end it,'' DeMonaco said.

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Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

 

Massachusetts Tribe Opposes Tribal Land Bill in Congress

AQUINNAH, Mass. (AP) _ A Native American tribe on Martha's Vineyard says it is opposed to federal legislation aimed at securing land for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Aquinnah said in a Jan. 22 letter that a bill introduced by Democratic U.S. Rep. William Keating would have an adverse impact on the tribe's ability to acquire additional ancestral land.

The Cape Cod Times reports that Keating in a statement said his legislation is tailored specifically to make sure the Mashpee tribe is protected from having its land removed from a trust.

The bill would end ongoing litigation challenging the Mashpee tribe's reservation. Aquinnah Tribal Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais says her tribe should be included in the legislation.

Keating's office says it will work with the Aquinnah tribe to address concerns.

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Information from: Cape Cod (Mass.) Times, http://www.capecodtimes.com

 

Oklahoma Tribal, Congressional Leaders Praise Bill's Passage

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma tribal leaders and members of Congress are applauding the final passage of bill that will end a blood-quantum requirement they have long considered discriminatory.

The Stigler Act Amendments of 2018 were given final approval in the U.S. House last week, and the bill is now awaiting President Donald Trump's signature. The legislation applies to citizens of five Oklahoma tribes: the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations. It ends a requirement for holders of tribal allotment land from those tribes to have a certain percentage of tribal blood.

The Oklahoman reports the bill was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, a Moore Republican and Chickasaw Nation citizen. The rest of Oklahoma's GOP delegation co-sponsored the measure.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker also praised the bill's passage.

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Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com

 

Japan's Whaling Decision Could Affect Alaska Native Whalers

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) _ Japan's decision to leave the International Whaling Commission could have consequences on subsistence whaling by Alaska Natives.

Alaska's Energy Desk reports Japan announced last month that it's leaving the commission to resume commercial whaling for the first time in 30 years.

John Hopson Jr., chairman of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, says Japan has been a ``strong ally'' in helping Alaska Native whalers obtain their hunting quota for the animals.

The international commission sets the quota for subsistence whaling. The commission approved a rule change last year that made the renewal of aboriginal subsistence whaling automatic.

Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission lawyer Jessica Lefevre says Japan's absence on the commission could shift the balance of power, possibly leading to the automatic renewal rule being challenged.

 

New Mexico Politics, Immigration Make Headlines in 2018

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ New Mexico Democrats solidified their power over state government during the midterm elections as a long-held GOP congressional seat in a key border district was flipped by a political newcomer and voters sent one of the nation's first Native American congresswomen to Washington.

Politics dominated New Mexico headlines in 2018 along with an economic turn-around fueled by oil and gas and efforts by the Trump administration to address illegal immigration and bolster security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

With Republican Gov. Susana Martinez marking the end of her two-term tenure, attention was on the race for her successor as two of New Mexico's congressional representatives faced off for the top office. Michelle Lujan-Grisham defeated Republican Rep. Steve Pearce as part of a Democratic sweep that included legislative seats and judicial races.

Las Cruces attorney Xochitl Torres Small won New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District to join fellow Democrats Debra Haaland and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan in forming the first all-minority, three-member U.S. House delegation in New Mexico's history. Haaland, a former New Mexico Democratic Party chairwoman, is a Laguna Pueblo member. Lujan is member of one of New Mexico's storied political Hispanic families.

Democrats also expanded their majority in the state House of Representatives, building upon a decades-long history in which the party has dominated New Mexico's political scene.

Here are other top stories of the year:

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BORDER WALL AND IMMIGRATION

A $73 million contract was awarded to a Montana company in February to design and build replacement fencing along a 20-mile section of the international border in southern New Mexico, prompting a lawsuit by environmentalists.

The work continued as New Mexico deployed fewer than 200 troops to the border at President Donald Trump's request to fight what he called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

Immigrant advocates voiced opposition to the increased security and raised concerns about the treatment of migrants. In one case, a transgender woman from Honduras died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sparking claims that she was not provided adequate medical care. In December, a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died after she and her father _ along with a group of 163 migrants _ were detained after crossing the border in a remote area in southern New Mexico.

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ECONOMIC TURN-AROUND

New Mexico marked another year of record oil production, resulting in an economic boost and a significant budget surplus. That means state lawmakers and the next governor will have more options as they set spending priorities for the next fiscal year.

Prompted by previous investments from some of the largest energy companies in the U.S., oil production in New Mexico was on track to surpass 200 million barrels for the year. Federal geologists also released an assessment showing portions of the Permian Basin have the potential to double the nation's onshore oil and gas resources and keep the boom going if prices remain favorable.

With the addition of more than 18,000 jobs over the year, New Mexico saw the largest percentage drop of any state in its unemployment rate from November 2017 to November 2018.

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EDUCATION SETTLEMENT

It was billed as a landmark ruling that could reshape New Mexico's education system and how it gets funded. A state district judge in July ruled that New Mexico was violating the rights of at-risk students by failing to provide adequate funding for public schools.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2014 by advocacy groups and school districts that accused the state of failing to meeting constitutional obligations to provide a sufficient education for all students.

The case highlighted the plight of English-language learners, Native American youth and students from low-income families.

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UNM SPORTS CUTS

The University of New Mexico came under great scrutiny as regents voted twice to eliminate the popular men's soccer team along with other sports as a means to get spending under control within the troubled athletics department. The decision sparked public outcry.

The fiscal concerns came as the university also grappled with fallout from an ongoing investigation into questionable spending and violations of the state's transparency laws .

A report released by the state attorney general's office pointed to emails in which former Athletics Director Paul Krebs appeared to direct employees to destroy emails and documents related to a 2015 Scotland golf trip fundraiser where the university used around $25,000 in public money to cover private donors' expenses.

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CLERGY SEX ABUSE

New Mexico's largest Roman Catholic diocese dropped a bombshell in November, announcing it would seek bankruptcy protection after spending more than $50 million over the years to settle hundreds of lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy members.

Archbishop John Wester, leader of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, said he had been contemplating the action for years but that the archdiocese had reached a tipping point and he wanted to ensure there would be resources to provide compensation for victims. He described the filing as an equitable thing to do as church reserves dwindle.

National watchdog groups and attorneys for victims have said the move suggests otherwise. They pointed to money spent by the archdiocese on lawyers in recent months and the tens of millions of dollars in real estate that was transferred to parishes in recent years, effectively reducing the amount of assets held by the archdiocese.

More lawsuits claiming clergy abuse were filed in 2018. Church officials expect there will be more.

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VIOLENCE AGAINST NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN

The high rates of violence that have victimized numerous Native American for decades received heightened attention in 2018 as concern grew about the cases of missing and murdered indigenous women _ including in New Mexico.

Federal officials, lawmakers and advocates called for more robust investigations into missing persons cases and the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs ended the year with a hearing that focused on the deaths and disappearances of Native American women.

Democrat Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said factors compounding the crisis include poor coordination among the multiple law enforcement agencies tasked with investigating crimes on Indian reservations. He and other senators also shared concerns over a lack of government data to measure the scope of a problem.

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NEW MEXICO COMPOUND

The search for a Georgia boy led authorities in August to raid a ramshackle compound on the high desert plains of Taos County. They found 11 hungry children living in filth, a dirt tunnel, arms and ammunition, and five adults related to a well-known imam from New York.

The body of 3-year-old Abdul-ghani Wahhaj was found days later during a second search. Authorities said the boy, marked for an exorcism, had been denied medical treatment that he needed for seizures and other ailments.

The adults were initially detained by authorities on suspicion of child neglect. They remain in federal custody on firearms and conspiracy charges. A federal grand jury indictment alleges a man in the group helped train children for potential attacks on schools, law enforcement agencies and other institutions.

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PLUTONIUM FUTURE

The federal agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile recommended in May that the production of the plutonium cores that trigger nuclear warheads be split between South Carolina and New Mexico. Officials said the plan would boost the resiliency and flexibility of weapons manufacturing by not relying on a single site.

Production of the cores had been based at Los Alamos National Laboratory _ the northern New Mexico site where the atomic bomb was developed decades ago _ since the 1990s. However, none have been turned out in years because of a series of safety lapses and concerns about a lack of accountability.

U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, both New Mexico Democrats, had pushed to keep the work at Los Alamos, given the hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in federal funding at stake.

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DEADLY CRASHES

Two passenger bus crashes resulted in a dozen people being killed and nearly 50 injured in accidents on New Mexico's highways.

The first crash came in July along Interstate 25 just north of Albuquerque. Authorities say a bus driver tried to avoid hitting a car that had just slammed into the back of a pickup truck, but instead rolled on its side and was sideswiped by a semi-truck. Three women were killed, and 24 people injured.

The second crash happened in August east of Gallup. Nine passengers were killed, including an infant born prematurely as a result of the collision. Police said a semitrailer going in the opposite direction lost the tread on its left front tire, veered across a median and smashed into the bus. Twenty-five people were injured.

In April, Jennifer Riordan, a well-known figure in New Mexico community relations and communications died after fellow Southwest Airlines passengers said she was partially sucked out the window of a flight bound from New York to Dallas. The jet's engine had blown in midair and shrapnel hit the plane. She left behind a husband and two children.

In January in northern New Mexico, a key Zimbabwe opposition leader died in a fiery helicopter crash along with his wife and three others. Roy Bennett had won a devoted following among Zimbabweans for passionately advocating political change.

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DROUGHT

New Mexico farmers and water managers wrapped up the year hoping that El Nino would develop and save them from what could otherwise be another dry winter.

The Rio Grande marked some record-low flows in 2018, prompting federal officials to partner with the largest water utility authority in the state and others to keep the river from drying up at least through the Albuquerque stretch.

Elephant Butte, the state's largest reservoir, dipped to just 3 percent of capacity at the end of September. While there was a slight uptick since then, that marked the lowest level since the early 1970s.

Federal drought maps shows the situation has improved in a small portion of northern New Mexico and along the Rio Grande corridor, but the Four Corners region and the southern Colorado mountains that feed the river are still stuck with extreme to exceptional drought.

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Associated Press writer Mary Hudetz contributed to this report.

 

After-School Program Helps Native American Students Succeed

By BLAIR EMERSON
The Bismarck Tribune

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ Graduation rates for Native American students in North Dakota have lagged behind those of white students by about 20 to 30 percentage points for the past decade.

Eight years ago, a local nonprofit sought to change that by starting a program for Native American students, aimed at boosting their academic performances, while also providing them a safe place to go after school.

Youthworks' New Direction program has shown great success with Native American students in Bismarck-Mandan.

``We're really looking to positively impact these young people, and it started because of the graduation rates,'' said Mark Heinert, program manager at Youthworks. ``But our reality is this: We're giving young people the opportunity to have a place they feel comfortable in, where they belong.''

The New Direction program serves 40 to 50 students each year. Students come from Bismarck High School, South Central High School, Century High School, Legacy High School and Mandan High School.

For four days a week after school, the students get rides to and from Youthworks, assistance with their homework, help with accessing services in the community and a daily meal, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

There are program mentors, typically Native American college students, who assist students with schoolwork. The program is a component of the Youth Cultural Achievement Program, which was developed in 2008 to reduce the number of Native American youth entering the juvenile justice system.

Students are referred to the program by a parent-family liaison at their school, a school counselor or social worker, a parent or a Youthworks staff member. Students in the program often have had adverse experiences in their lives, such as dealing with family issues, are in residential or foster care or have jumped from one school to the next, often resulting in an unstable education.

The program, funded by Missouri Slope Areawide United Way, has shown positive outcomes. Last year, 78 percent of youth in the program who attended after-school sessions 16 or more times passed their core classes. Seventy-eight percent of students showed academic improvement.

Though the outcomes have been good, the program is more than just providing academic support, said Pauletta Red Willow, coordinator of the Youth Cultural Achievement Program. These students need ``constant reinforcement,'' she said.

``Especially dealing with the statistics in Bismarck-Mandan for Native youth, like the high rates of juvenile calls for the police, there's a lot of substance use in our communities,'' as well as trauma and loss, Red Willow said.

``It's about giving them that sense that, you can do this, and building up their esteem,'' Heinert said.

For Julie Middletent, a sophomore at Legacy, the program has helped her make new friends, in addition to improving her grades. She switched from Bismarck High to Legacy the first semester of her freshman year, because her mother wanted her to attend the same school as her brother.

She saw her grades improve last year, increasing to As and Bs. She now has more time to get her homework done during the after-school program, and the mentors are helpful.

``I always look forward to coming here, because I get to see everyone from different schools,'' the 15-year-old said. ``I know everyone here. We're all friends, almost like family.''

Middletent said she plans to go to college and get a degree in business and become an accountant to help the tribe in which she's enrolled, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com

 

Quapaw Tribe Acquires More Land in Kansas

QUAPAW, Okla. (AP) _ The Quapaw Tribe has acquired additional property in southeastern Kansas after gaining approval from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The tribe obtained about 210 acres (85 hectares) of Cherokee County grassland near the Oklahoma border, the Joplin Globe reported. The land is now part of the federal Quapaw Tribal Trust, giving the tribe governing authority.

The tribe faced opposition from the Cherokee County Commission and the Kansas attorney general's office over concerns the land would be used for gambling. The tribe owns Downstream Casino Resort in nearby Quapaw, Oklahoma.

The Quapaw Tribe had received a legal opinion from the National Indian Gaming Commission in 2014, determining the Kansas property could be used for gambling operations.

But John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw Tribal Business Committee, said the tribe will use the land for agriculture and has no plans to expand its casino. The Quapaw Tribe already owns land in Cherokee County from a deal in 2006, which is used for grazing animals.

``We don't have any plans to expand upon our gaming operation, so we're just excited to have that land,'' Berrey said. ``We'll continue to graze our purebred bison herd and cattle on it. We'll keep it nice, clean and environmentally in shape for our future generations to enjoy.''

The state attorney general's office couldn't be reached for comment by the newspaper.

Berrey said the property acquisition ``brings more of our Oklahoma reservation, or what was at one time our reservation, back into our ownership and under our jurisdiction under federal statutes.''

The tribe owns about 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) in Oklahoma and Kansas, Berrey said.

 

University Program Training Native American Educators

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ The University of Mary is getting more federal funding to continue an effort to boost the number of Native American teachers and administrators on and off reservations across North Dakota.

The Bismarck school got a $1.1 million grant from the federal Education Department two years ago to start the Native American Educational Leadership Program. It's doing so through a consortium that involves the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and its community college in Belcourt.

Fifteen students have graduated with bachelor's degrees in education from the community college, and 12 more will do so in the spring, The Bismarck Tribune reported.

``When you think about that, 27 teachers ... to go into our Native communities, that's huge,'' said Carmelita Lamb, associate dean of the University of Mary's Liffrig School of Education and Behavioral Sciences.

``That has always been something that I felt was important _ to get people of that community to commit to the children of that community,'' she said. ``Those are going to be the ones that stay.''

The university has received a second grant totaling $1.4 million to sustain the program through 2023. The school will enroll another 20 to 24 students in the program in January.

Samantha Gourd, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa who currently lives on the Spirit Lake Reservation and teaches second grade in Devils Lake, will finish her master's in elementary education through the program in the spring.

``I think that whenever you're Native American teaching another Native American, you kind of understand those dynamics more,'' she said.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com

 

Fort Berthold Reservation Landowners to Sue Oil Company

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ A group of landowners from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is accusing a crude oil company of trespassing in a lawsuit that seeks compensation for a pipeline that crosses their land.

Former Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation chairman Tex Hall recently announced a federal lawsuit against Andeavor, formerly known as Tesoro, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Andeavor recently merged with Marathon Petroleum.

A pipeline that transports crude oil to the Marathon Petroleum Mandan Refinery crosses 64 acres (26 hectares) within the reservation, Hall said. The tribe owns about 26 acres (10.5 hectares) of the land, while the rest is owned by landowners or allottees, he said.

The company's easement agreement with the allottees expired in 2013 and talks to re-negotiate fell apart, according to Hall.

The lawsuit alleges the company is trespassing by operating the pipeline without authorization from landowners or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

``All of these landowners have finally decided enough is enough,'' Hall said, adding that about 450 landowners are affected.

Destin Singleton, a spokeswoman for Marathon Petroleum Corp., declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The complaint seeks a jury trial to determine compensation for trespassing and other damages. The lawsuit also requests $128 million to be put into a constructive trust for the plaintiffs and allottees.

The group filing the complaint also wants a cease-and-desist order for the operation and the immediate removal of the pipeline.

``There's a huge amount of money with this size of pipeline going through,'' Hall said. ``They have the revenue and they're not negotiating in good faith. They left us no choice.''

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com

 

Chicago's Field Museum Plans Revamp of Native American Hall

CHICAGO (AP) _ Chicago's Field Museum plans to revamp its Native American exhibits with the help of American Indians over the next three years.

Museum president Richard Lariviere tells the Chicago Tribune that its Native North American Hall faces a much needed renovation of displays dating mostly back to the 1950s. He says the project will allow the museum to better tell the history of Native Americans.

Pokagon (poh-KAY'-gun) Band of Potawatomi Indians cultural director Marcus Winchester says the displays are essentially old beadwork or baskets that don't tell the stories of Native Americans. The Pokagon Band is based in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana.

Museum officials also want to employ Native American workers to help interpret the exhibits and make presentations.

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Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com

Thousands of Native Voters in North Dakota Getting Free IDs

Phyllis Young, Lakota People's Law Project. (Photo Credit: Lakota People's Law Project)

By BLAKE NICHOLSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ Efforts by American Indian tribes in North Dakota to provide free identification with street addresses to thousands of members in advance of Tuesday's election are cutting into the number of Native Americans who could potentially be turned away at the polls for lack of a proper ID under recently tightened state rules.

The free programs launched with the help of groups including the Lakota People's Law Project and the Four Directions nonprofit so far have provided more than 2,000 voters on four reservations with the proper credentials. The effort to ensure a strong Native American vote comes amid uproar over what some believe is an attempt to suppress their votes.

``We're at our best in crisis,'' said Phyllis Young, an organizer on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for the Lakota People's Law Project, adding that the issue ``is only making us more aware of our rights, more energized, and more likely to vote this November.''

Stricter voter ID rules are taking effect after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this month allowed the state to continue requiring street addresses, as opposed to other addresses such as post office boxes. Street addresses have never been important in the Native American culture, and many tribal members aren't aware of their address, don't have a provable one because they're homeless or stay with friends or relatives, or can't afford to get an updated ID with a street address assigned through the statewide 911 system.

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Spirit Lake Sioux also alleges that the 911 system on reservations is ``characterized by disarray, errors, confusion, and missing or conflicting addresses.'' It seeks to have the residential address requirement ruled unconstitutional as it applies to Native American voters, and asks for an emergency order while the lawsuit proceeds barring the state from enforcing the requirement on Native Americans on or near reservations or who are at risk of disenfranchisement.

The nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice notes the lawsuit seeks a more limited injunction, something an appeals court indicated in an earlier lawsuit might be a more successful tactic.

State officials say not requiring street addresses could lead to people voting in the wrong district and to fraud.

The Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit filed by Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa members in 2016 sent tribes scrambling to make sure tribal members' voices will be heard , especially in the high profile U.S. Senate race between Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer and Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp.

Changes to North Dakota's voter ID laws came just months after Heitkamp's win by fewer than 3,000 votes with the help of Native Americans in 2012, though Republicans say that had nothing to do with updates aimed at guarding against voter fraud. American Indians make up about 5 percent of North Dakota's population.

The Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Standing Rock Sioux, Spirit Lake Sioux and Three Affiliated Tribes all have launched programs to provide free IDs with street address to tribal members in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

As of Tuesday, the programs had provided 1,050 IDs on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, more than 380 on the Spirit Lake Sioux Reservation and 440 on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Three Affiliated Tribes had provided only 140, but the program had just been launched the day before.

The total of more than 2,000 IDs is approaching half of the roughly 5,000 Native Americans that U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland has said don't possess a qualifying voter ID under state rules. He based the figure on research by UCLA and University of New Mexico professors who have been expert witnesses in several voter ID cases across the country.

Tribes believe the number is much higher, perhaps even double the judge's estimate, though they base it in part on anecdotal evidence. They plan to continue issuing free IDs through Election Day, including stationing people at the polls to help those without qualifying ID on at least two of the four reservations.

The effort is largely being financed through donations. The Native American Rights Fund has given the four tribes a total of $50,000, and a GoFundMe site set up by the Standing Rock Sioux had raised more than $200,000 from more than 4,300 donors as of mid-day Wednesday.

Alexis Davis, 19, chairwoman of the Turtle Mountain Youth Council, has an ID with a residential street address but said many of her friends do not. The voter ID issue has made them more resolved to be a part of the election process, she said.

``It's like, oh you want to make this harder for me? Oh, you want to take away my rights?'' she said. ``It's like, no, now I'm going to fight that, and I'm going to be more resilient, and I'm going to make sure that I'm going to go vote.''

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This story has been corrected to show that the number of IDs is more than 2,000, rather than more than 2,400

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Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake

 

Michigan, Tribal Partners Digitally Preserving Petroglyphs

CASS CITY, Mich. (AP) _ Michigan's state archaeologist says more than 100 ancient rock etchings at Sanilac Petroglyphs State Park are being digitally preserved through a partnership with tribal groups.

MLive.com reports that the Michigan Department of Transportation is using special technologies to scan the Native American petroglyphs and build digital models of them that will help document the site and track its preservation.

The project comes a year after vandals damaged some of the petroglyphs at the 240-acre park that's about 85 miles (135 kilometers) north of Detroit in Cass City.

State archaeologist Dean Anderson says some of the stone etchings could date back as much as 1,400 years. He says the bows and arrows depicted in some of the etchings were first used as technology across the Great Lakes region about that time.

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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press:MLive.com, http://www.mlive.com

 

Maine Tribes Get Assistance to Improve Public Safety

PLEASANT POINT, Maine (AP) — Three American Indian tribal groups in Maine will benefit from more than $100 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice designed to improve public safety in native communities around the country.

The grants are also intended to assist victims of crime, stop violence against women and support youth programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Aroostook Band of Micmacs and Penobscot Nation are both slated to receive about $900,000 for programs that address violence against women. The Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Tribe is scheduled to receive about $750,000 for justice and drug and alcohol abuse programs.

The grants are being awarded to 133 American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages are other tribal groups.

 

Officials Warn Arizona Dam Could Fail and Flood Village

PHOENIX (AP) _ An earthen dam in Arizona's southern desert could fail and flood a small village because the lake behind it is swollen with runoff from the remnants of Tropical Storm Rosa, officials said Wednesday.

Ali Chuk, a Native American community with 162 people on the Tohono O'odham (TOH'-oh-no OH'-tum) Nation reservation, was being evacuated Tuesday night, the tribe's public safety department said in a statement.

No further details were available Wednesday on the evacuations. Tribal officials planned to inspect the dam and lake by helicopter.

Water levels were within a foot (0.3 meters) of topping Menagers Dam, which could give way and flood Ali Chuk, the National Weather Service said.

The area near the Mexico border got between 3 and 5 inches (8 to 13 centimeters) of rain on Tuesday. Flooding from runoff made roads impassable.

There were no reports Wednesday of additional rain.

The tribal safety department said 30 people had been evacuated from another village on the reservation because of flooding.

Elsewhere in the state, forecasters warned of more possible flooding in Phoenix and other areas.

The weather service said up to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain had fallen in parts of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, and that flash flooding was expected.

A separate flash flood warning was issued for Yavapai County north of Phoenix due to high water in a creek in Cornville and for a small part of the Tohono O'odham (TOH'-oh-no OH'-tum) Nation's reservation in Pima County in southern Arizona.

The weather service said a record 2.35 inches (5.97 centimeters) of rain had fallen at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport as of Tuesday night.

That made it the rainiest October day since records have been kept, topping the 2.32 (5.89) inches recorded on Oct. 14, 1988.

It also marked the eighth-rainiest day in Phoenix history for any date.

The storm was also expected to dump rain on Utah and Colorado.

 

Haskell to Celebrate Native American Vets of World War I

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) _ Haskell University's Cultural Center and Museum is planning to celebrate Native Americans who served in World War I.

The center's director, Jancita Warrington, said 415 Haskell students, faculty and alumni enlisted in the war, even though they could not claim citizenship until six years after the war ended.

The celebration, ``Keeping Legends Alive,'' will be held Sept. 21 and 22, hosted by the center and the city of Lawrence.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the event will include a celebration of veterans, a powwow and several other activities. It also will remember the 1926 dedication of Haskell Memorial Stadium, which was one of the biggest events in the city's history.

At the time, Haskell Institute was a boarding school for Native American children. It became accredited in 1927.

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Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com

 

Last Reminder! L.E.A.D. Institute Conference Begins 9/26

Agenda Finalized!
Last Reminder: L.E.A.D. Conference is Sept. 26-27, 2018

First Nations Development Institute will hold its 22nd Annual First Nations L.E.A.D. Institute Conference at Morongo Casino & Resort in Cabazon, California, September 26-27, 2018. (Invitation-only pre-sessions will be held on September 25.) Register now to reserve your space. This is the last notice we're sending.

For 38 years, First Nations has worked with Native nations and organizations to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities. As an extension of this mission, the L.E.A.D. Conference is designed to help emerging and existing leaders in Indian Country network, grow professionally, share ideas and learn new skills related to asset-building.

Training Tracks Offered

• Track 1: Language & Cultural Revitalization
• Track 2: Strengthening Tribal & Community Institutions
• Track 3: Protecting Natural Resources

Attendees have the option of attending sessions in just one track, or they may customize their experience by selecting from any of the sessions that interest them.

Who Should Attend

• Native American nonprofit professionals
• Native Americans interested in launching or expanding nonprofit and/or philanthropic organizations
• Tribal leaders or those who work in tribal organizations
• Anyone interested in Native American nonprofits and philanthropy
• Anyone interested in Native American food sovereignty
• Tribal economic development professionals

Please go here for more information: http://www.cvent.com/d/fgq84t

Alaska Looks for Panelists to Discuss New Roads in Forest

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Alaska Gov. Bill Walker's administration is looking for Alaska residents to serve on an advisory committee that will discuss the Alaska shape the future of the Tongass National Forest.

KTOO-FM reports the U.S. Forest Service announced last month that it would be considering building new roads in the wilder parts of the Alaska forest.

The committee will discuss which areas in the Tongass, the largest national forest in the United States, could have new roads. Alaska's congressional delegation has said having enough access to timber and mining opportunities is a priority.

The governor's office says it's seeking applications for a ``diverse'' panel of up to 13 people, including Alaska Native regional corporations and tribes, local governments and environmental groups as well as interests from tourism, mining, energy, timber and fishing.

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Information from: KTOO-FM, http://www.ktoo.org

 

Boston Celtics Star Irving Honored by Mother's Sioux Tribe