NTI-Telescope Protesters Oppose US Attorney Pick for Hawaii

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Some Native Hawaiians are objecting to President Joe Biden's choice for U.S. attorney in the 50th state, saying Clare Connors treated dozens of elders like criminals when her office prosecuted them for blocking a road while protesting the construction of a telescope in Hawaii.

``She has acted aggressively towards the Hawaiian people during all of our stand for Mauna Kea,'' said Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the protest leaders.

Pisciotta and other Native Hawaiians who oppose the telescope believe the summit of Mauna Kea is sacred. They say building the Thirty Meter Telescope on the state's tallest mountain would further desecrate a place already defiled by a dozen other observatories.

The 38 Native Hawaiian elders prosecuted for obstruction were in their 60s through 80s and many of them are community leaders. Four were found not guilty in August. One was found guilty last month after a separate trial, fined $500 and sentenced to one day in jail, which he won't have to serve if he avoids further violations for the next six months. The other cases are pending.

Pisciotta said she's concerned about Connors being named U.S. attorney because Native Hawaiians have been deprived of their land and their right to self-determination since the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

``I think of her as a danger to many situations in Hawaii because she doesn't have to seem to have the compassion or the aloha that is needed considering our political situation,'' Pisciotta said.

Connors, Hawaii's state attorney general since 2019, said she is honored by the nomination but declined to comment further on the pending confirmation process.

However, Gary Yamashiroya, a spokesperson for Connors, said prosecutions of the protesters arose ``from a deliberate effort to block access to Mauna Kea for the purpose of preventing lawful construction of a project permitted by the Hawaii Supreme Court.''

``Blocking a public road is a crime and the Department of the Attorney General will prosecute such conduct consistent with its duty to uphold the rule of law,'' Yamashiroya said.

U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, both Democrats, recommended Connors to Biden. Spokespeople for both senators declined comment on the Native Hawaiian opposition to Connors' nomination, referring to a joint statement that they issued when the appointment was announced on Sept. 28.

That statement said she was exceptionally well-qualified and that they were confident she would serve the people of Hawaii well.

Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, and multiple prior U.S. attorneys for Hawaii have also praised her nomination, as have attorneys Connors worked with in private practice.

U.S. attorneys are the chief federal law enforcement officers in their districts.

The Thirty Meter Telescope would be one of the world's largest optical telescopes. The $2.4 billion observatory is being planned by universities in California and Canada with participation from the governments of China, India and Japan.

The Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory planned to begin construction in 2019, a year after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled the project had a valid permit.

But protesters, who identify themselves as ``kia'i,'' or protectors of the mountain, began camping out on and near the lone road to the Mauna Kea's summit in July 2019.

Demonstrators remained even after the arrests of the elders, with their numbers at times reaching into the thousands.

By December 2019, the Thirty Meter Telescope consortium said it wasn't prepared to go ahead with construction because the state and Hawaii County hadn't shown they could provide ``safe, sustained access'' to Mauna Kea. TMT said it didn't want to put its workers, the people of Hawaii and protesters at risk. A small group of protesters remained until March 2020, when they left amid coronavirus concerns and confidence TMT wasn't going to build immediately.

The observatory has selected a site in Spain's Canary Islands as a backup site if it's not able to build in Hawaii. But the nonprofit organization has said it still prefers Mauna Kea, where the weather is among the world's best for viewing the skies.

State Officials Narrow Suburban Chicago Casino Bids to 2

CHICAGO (AP) _ A new casino in Chicago's south suburbs is one step closer.

State regulators have narrowed the number of proposals down to two, with one near the border of Homewood and East Hazel Crest and another in Matteson, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The backers are due to make a presentation to the Illinois Gaming Board in the coming days. The final selection for the casino license will happen next year.

The casino is part of a major gambling expansion that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in 2019 and will add six casinos to the state's current 10. Casinos proposals in Rockford and Williamson County have received initial approval. There'll also be one in Danville. Chicago is seeking proposals for a massive casino and pushed back the deadline for proposals to Oct. 29.

The Matteson bid is led by Hinsdale businessman Rob Miller and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a Native American tribe which runs nearly two dozen casinos. They're proposing a $300 million venue which would include a 123,000-square foot casino and a 200-room hotel.

``We are pleased and extremely excited,'' Matteson Village President Sheila Chalmers-Currin. ``I think the Gaming Board saw the commitment to diversity and the community in this project.''

The proposal for the Homewood area is led by Alabama-based Wind Creek Hospitality, which is part of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which runs several casinos nationwide. They're pitching a $300 million, 64,000-square-foot casino with a 21-story hotel.

``This development promises to be the best in and for the entire Southland region _ with job creation, economic and community investment, sustained operational excellence, and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in all phases of construction and operation,'' Wind Creek CEO Jay Dorris said in an email.

Separately, the state regulators are looking at two finalists for a new casino license in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan.

Series Based on Hillerman Novels to be Set on Navajo Nation

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ Production of a six-episode television series based on crime novels by the late author Tony Hillerman is underway in New Mexico, the State Film Office announced Tuesday.

A psychological thriller set in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, ``Dark Winds`` centers on two Navajo Nation police officers trying to solve a double murder in the Four Corners region.

It's a production of AMC Networks.

Hillerman's acclaimed books featuring officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee were characterized by vivid descriptions of Navajo rituals and of the vast reservation.

The series will be shot on the actual reservation, in Santa Fe and other locations through November. It's expected to premiere next year, the State Film Office said.

``We are ecstatic that AMC is being so intentional about telling this story in an authentic way by creative talent whose work speaks for itself, with a Native American director from New Mexico, as well as Native American writers, actors, and locations,'' said Amber Dodson, the Film Office's director.

Chris Eyre, who directed the movie ``Smoke Signals,'' is directing the pilot. The series stars Zahn McClarnon, Noah Emmerich and Kiowa Gordon.

Hillerman died in 2008.

Judge Won't Let San Francisco School Mural Be Covered

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ The San Francisco school board violated state law when it voted to cover up a 1930s mural that critics said is racist and degrading in its depiction of Black and Native American people, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo said the board failed to conduct an environmental impact review before it voted in 2019 to cover up the sprawling mural at George Washington High School that depicts the life of George Washington, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The 1936 mural was painted by Victor Arnautoff, one of the foremost muralists in the San Francisco area during the Depression. In addition to depicting Washington as a soldier, surveyor and statesman, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot (149-square-meter) mural contains images of white pioneers standing over the body of a Native American and slaves working at Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

New Deal scholars have argued that Arnautoff, a Russian-born communist and social critic, critically depicts unsavory aspects of American history in his work. But as early as the 1960s, some students at George Washington High School have argued that the mural's imagery is offensive and racist.

Supporters argued it could play a role in educating people about America's racist past and covering it up would be censoring art and history.

The board first moved to paint over the entire mural but later decided to cover it with panels or curtains. The projected cost of the project has mushroomed to about $900,000, the Chronicle said.

In her ruling, Massullo said the board was required to order an environmental impact review that included studying alternatives before making its decision.

``The hallmark of our system is that whether it concerns the President of the United States or a local school board, the rule of law _ the process _ is more important than the result,'' Massullo said in her ruling.

She said ``a result-oriented board was determined to take down all 13 panels'' of the mural and ordered the board to set aside its votes.

``California as a matter of long-standing public policy places enormous value on its environmental and historical resources,'' she wrote in her ruling.

District officials told the Chronicle that they were reviewing the decision. Members can't take any further action until at least September.

The ruling is the latest setback for a board that has been plagued by scandal and controversy. After a public outcry, the board this year suspended plans to strip 44 schools of names ranging from U.S. presidents to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The effort was blasted for historical inaccuracies and shoddy research as well as poor timing.

The board also has faced numerous lawsuits, a looming budget deficit and public outcry about getting children back into classrooms after months of online learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

California Ethnic Studies Debate: Whose Stories Get Told?

By JOCELYN GECKER
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Race and ethnicity can be tricky topics to discuss, especially in the classroom. But the California Department of Education had no idea how heated the debate would get when it set out to draft a model ethnic studies curriculum for high schools statewide.

The process took over two years, multiple versions, and drew nearly 100,000 public comments.

In one ongoing conflict, Jewish and pro-Arab groups have accused each other of discrimination and trying to silence each other's histories.

Several authors of the original draft have demanded their names be stripped from the final version, saying it's watered down and substandard. Their draft was criticized for taking a left-wing, biased and a politically charged view of history, including terms like ``hxrstory'' and ``herstory.'' It defined capitalism as a system of oppression and drew complaints from Jews, Koreans, Sikhs, Armenians and other ethnic and religious groups who said it left out their American experiences.

This week, the State Board of Education is expected to approve the final draft, an 894-page tome whose own history illustrates the challenges of crafting an ethnic studies curriculum at a time of racial reckoning and national division.

It also highlights some of the difficult questions educators will face in an era when America is redefining its heroes and asking whose stories should be told. More than three-quarters of California's 6.2 million public school students are nonwhite.

``We've worked to bring justice to what we believe the ethnic studies movement to be about,'' state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond told reporters.

The ethnic studies movement has its roots in California, where students protested in the late 1960s at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley to demand courses in African American, Chicano, Asian American and Native American studies.

The proposed course materials focus on those four groups so students can ``learn of the histories, cultures, struggles, and contributions to American society of these historically marginalized peoples which are often untold in U.S. history courses.''

There are four chapters with more than two dozen lesson plans that schools can pick from to fit their student communities.

It suggests conversations on the Black Lives Matter movement could start with a local or national incident of police brutality. Other lessons ask students to study poetry and art by Japanese Americans put in internment camps during World War II to better understand their trauma. Another urges students to interview Korean Americans and Blacks who were in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots to examine tensions that exploded into deadly violence.

An appendix features lesson plans on Jews, Arab Americans, Sikh-Americans and Armenian Americans who are not traditionally part of an ethnic studies curriculum ``but have experienced oppression and have a story to tell,'' Thurmond said.

Those groups also objected loudest to being left out or misrepresented in the original draft, completed in spring 2019 and immediately panned. It was written by a committee of ethnic studies teachers and professors appointed by the Department of Education after a 2016 state law that passed the Legislature with opposition from Republicans.

California's legislative Jewish Caucus complained it included content that denigrates Jews and erased the American Jewish experience. It cited course materials that referred to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which is anti-Israel, as a global social movement but left out ``any meaningful discussion of anti-Semitism.''

Pro-Arab groups and several of the original authors have asked for their names to be removed from it and are drafting a competing curriculum.

Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in San Francisco, says education officials bowed to political and right-wing pressure.

``They have not only relegated a whitewashed Arab American lesson plan to an appendix, alongside a pro-Israeli Jewish lesson plan, but they have also gutted the entire curriculum,'' Kiswani said during a recent webinar. Others criticized the removal of Palestinian narratives.

Nadine Naber, an Arab studies expert and professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, called it an effort ``to silence our histories and our stories,'' which she called ``colonialist tactics of elimination.''

Democratic Assemblyman Jose Medina, a member of both the Latino and Jewish legislative caucuses, was among those who supported expanding the curriculum beyond people of color. Still, he says the latest draft is a vast improvement on the original and ``strikes the balance that is needed.''

Amid the controversy over the curriculum, his bill last year to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The original law did not define what the course materials should include, which gave the initial drafters no clear direction, said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat and academic who created an ethnic studies program at San Diego State University in the 1970s.

In the absence of clarity ``it got very, very complicated and contentious,'' said Weber, a former lawmaker who has authored separate legislation to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement throughout the California State University system. The first-in-the-nation proposal sailed through the Democratically controlled legislature last August without controversy, partly she says, because it focuses on the four core ethnic groups and didn't try to please everyone.

``There was plenty of pressure for me to add a whole bunch of other people. I chose not to. I stuck to what was defined 50 years ago as ethnic studies,'' Weber said. She sees the model curriculum an adequate starting point that will ``begin a process of opening the eyes of kids.''

Archaeologists Dig Hilltop Over Plymouth Rock One Last Time

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) _ Archaeologists are giving a grassy hilltop overlooking iconic Plymouth Rock one last look before a historical park is built to commemorate the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who once called it home.

Braving sweltering heat, a team of about 20 graduate students enrolled in a masters program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston began excavating an undeveloped lot on Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, this week.

The National Historic Landmark site _ which contains the first cemetery used by the Pilgrims after they arrived from England in 1620 and was a Wampanoag village for thousands of years before that _ has been poked and prodded numerous times over the past century.

But now, as historical organizations reboot pandemic-stalled plans to construct a permanent memorial they're calling Remembrance Park, this could be the last chance to mine the soil for Native and colonial artifacts.

``Cole's Hill is among the most sacred land we've got,`` said Donna Curtin, executive director of the Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum, which owns the tract. ``We want to make it more than just a grassy, empty lot. We want to engage people. And the archaeology is deeply wedded to the site.``

David Landon of UMass-Boston's Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, who's leading the effort, said he's confident his team will recover items of interest from the site.

``You don't always get the opportunity to do work at sites that are so significant,'' he said. ``We know we're going to find stuff _ there's no question about that. Anytime you start digging in Plymouth, you find interesting stuff.``

Less than 48 hours into the excavation, which is scheduled to run through July 1, the team recovered what Landon calls ``the debris of daily life``: a few Wampanoag artifacts, broken pieces of 1800s pottery, and the bones of cows and pigs _ leftovers of a colonist's dinner.

There are hopes for more. A few small homes once stood on the area where they're digging, including an early 1700s mariner's house.

To be built atop the hill overlooking Plymouth's waterfront, Remembrance Park originally was conceived to mark 2020's 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim's 1620 arrival, the founding of Plymouth Colony and the settlers' historic interactions with the Wampanoag people. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit, idling many commemoration events as well as construction.

The newly reimagined park will highlight three periods of epic historical challenge: The Great Dying of 1616-19, when deadly disease brought by other Europeans severely afflicted the Wampanoag people; the first winter of 1620-21, when half of the Mayflower colonists perished of contagious sickness; and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Linda Coombs, a Wampanoag tribal leader and activist, said she's glad attention is being paid to what's largely a forgotten chapter of history.

``People are unaware that the Great Dying happened,'' she said. ``At school, you're pounded with the story of 50 Pilgrims dying during their first winter. But during the Great Dying, about 50,000 Wampanoags died, as well as who knows how many other tribal people to the north in what's now Maine. It's kind of nice to see those numbers lined up side by side.''

Construction is expected to begin late next year or early in 2023 on the park project, said Curtin, whose Pilgrim Hall Museum is partnering with Plymouth 400 Inc., a nonprofit group.

``We want to create an interpretive space here where people can engage,`` she said. ``The park is intended to acknowledge and preserve what we've all lived through in 2020. It's an opportunity to bring the past and present together in ways we never could have foreseen.''

If the archaeologists make any transcendent finds, Landon said he's confident they'll be given more time to complete their work, if only because the townspeople share a sense of stewardship over Plymouth's rich history.

``We'll learn what we need to learn from the site before any construction takes place,`` he said.

Quila Selling Interests in Copper and Gold Deposits

MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Aquila Resources says it's selling its interests in copper and gold deposits in northern Wisconsin to a start-up company for about $5.8 million.

The Toronto-based company plans to focus on building its Back Forty mine near the Menominee River. If approved, Aquila would receive nearly $2.5 million in cash and an ownership share of the new company worth about $3.3 million.

Aquila spokesman Dave Carew says additional details about the buyer will become available once the parties reach a definitive agreement within the next 45 days.

Carew says the buyer intends to raise additional money for exploratory drilling at the Bend and Reef sites, as well as publicly list its company on a Canadian stock exchange, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

Aquila first explored the Bend and Reef mineral deposits in Taylor and Marathon counties about a decade ago. According to the state Department of Natural Resources, the Reef deposit in Marathon County contains 454,000 tons (411,861 metric tonnes) of high-grade gold reserves while the Bend deposit in Taylor County contains about 4 million tons (3,628,736 metric tonnes) of mostly copper and gold.

Environmental groups, Wisconsin tribes, and those living near the mineral deposits are concerned sulfide mining will impact water quality or quantity.

DA: No Jail Time for 7 in New Mexico Monument Vandalism Case

By CEDAR ATTANASIO
Associated Press / Report for America

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ Seven of the protesters charged with tearing down a historical marker in the Santa Fe plaza last fall have agreed to a diversion program that will spare them jail time, the district attorney said in a statement Thursday.

As part of the deal, they agreed to perform community service and participate in restorative justice mediation.

``The Obelisk case defendants meet the criteria I set out for diversionary programming. We have reached a resolution after months of careful investigation and negotiation between defendants, their attorneys, and my office that ensures justice while working toward community healing,'' said District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, in a statement citing a promise to divert non-violent and first-time offenders.

The restorative justice program aims to ``shape a resolution that is agreeable to all parties'' between defendants and victims, DA spokeswoman Jennifer Padgett Macias said. Police, city employees and other community members will be invited to join the program.

Defendant and art gallery owner Steven Fox did not accept the deal.

Around 40 people participated in the destruction of the stone obelisk Oct. 13, as part of a nationwide protest against atrocities committed against Indigenous people.

The monument was erected to honor Union troops who battled the Confederacy during the Civil War and fought with Native American tribes.

One face of the monument honors ``heroes'' who died in battle with ``savage Indians.'' The word ``savage'' was chiseled out by an activist in the 1970s and never replaced.

Statues of Spanish conquistadores long venerated by many in New Mexico's Hispanic community have been removed from public view in the past year out of fear they too would be destroyed.

___

Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.

Northern Nevada Tribe Co-stars in Peter Gabriel Music Video

RENO, Nev. (AP) _ Drummers and dancers from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in northern Nevada are among more than two dozen artists worldwide who appear in a music video remake of a song rock musician Peter Gabriel first recorded four decades ago protesting racism.

Gabriel recently re-released the 1980 song, ``Biko,'' which the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer originally wrote as a tribute to South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who was killed in police custody in 1977.

``For us to be included in this project, it's such an honor,'' tribal Chairwoman Janet Davis told the Reno Gazette-Journal. ``This song is still very relevant. People all around the world are still oppressed and the racism that once was hidden has come back to the surface. We have a long way to go.''

The video features dancers dressed in traditional Paiute regalia stepping to the beat of the drum, being pounded by a local drum group. The scenes were filmed at the powwow grounds at Big Bend Ranch in Wadsworth, about 30 minutes east of Reno.

Others who appear on the video include world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Cape Town Ensemble, Beninese vocalist and activist Angelique Kidjo, Sebastian Robertson, and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello as part of Playing for Change's Songs Around the World initiative.

Tribal member Dayann Harrison, who has been dancing since before she can remember, said she was in awe of the video. It seamlessly weaved together so many different types of dance and song, from Japanese drumming to bagpipe to her own traditional Paiute style of dancing.

``It made me feel really proud. There's a lot of focus on the larger tribes in the country, not just in the news but in history books,'' said Harrison, who is seen dancing in a teal and purple dress. ``This is a reminder that we're still here.''

For Wakan Waci Blindman, a drummer featured in the video, he had no idea the video would be seen by so many. On YouTube, it has close to 600,000 views.

``We're kinda way out here. There's a lot of people that it would have been easier to get to,'' Blindman said.

Blindman, who has been playing the drum since he was about 12, learned about the opportunity through a friend who'd seen a casting call from a Los Angeles group called Playing for Change. The group, which filmed the video, enlists musicians to shed light on global and national human rights issues.

He signed up his drum group, Echo Sky, and a film crew from Southern California visited in October for about an hour of filming. Neither Blindman nor most of the tribal members had heard the song before, but they learned the beat quickly and played and danced to a recording, which is seen in the video.

Blindman's mother and 5-year-old daughter are seen dancing in the video. Music is a binding cultural thread in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Blindman said, and is for all members, no matter how young or old. The drum, he said, is the heartbeat of that music, of Mother Earth.

The video, originally released on National Human Rights Day in December, was promoted this month in honor of Black History Month, according to Playing for Change's website. The segment filmed on Pyramid Lake Paiute land was filmed on Indigenous Peoples Day, otherwise known as Columbus Day, Blindman said.

``The fact that this is being played around the world, and the world will see us, I didn't think it'd be so big,'' Blindman said. ``It means the world.''

Park Service Denies 2021 Fireworks at Mount Rushmore

Source: AP - AP Wire Service

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) _ The National Park Service has denied South Dakota officials' request to shoot off fireworks over Mount Rushmore again this year.

Fireworks returned to Mount Rushmore last year for a Fourth of July celebration that included a campaign stop by then-President Donald Trump. It was the first time Mount Rushmore has hosted a fireworks show since 2009.

But NPS Regional Director Herbert Frost wrote a letter to state tourism officials on Thursday saying the NPS would not grant their request for fireworks again this year, KOTA-TV reported on Friday. The denial was first reported by political website The Hill.

Frost said the parks service is still evaluating the risks from the 2020 show and he's concerned about both the park and employees' safety. He added that the service's tribal partners expressly oppose fireworks at the monument and the large crowds such an event would draw would make social distancing difficult if not impossible.

Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted in response that the best place to celebrate America's birthday is Mount Rushmore.

OFCCP Announces Commitment to Native American Workplace Inclusion

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and its Indian and Native American Employment Rights Program (INAERP) are committed to supporting federal contractors’ efforts to foster outreach and inclusion of Native Americans in the workplace.

In September 2019, OFCCP conducted a successful Native American Outreach Town Hall event and identified three action plan items to increase program awareness, provide compliance assistance and identify contractor resources. The agency made these deliverables a priority for Fiscal Year 2020 and is pleased to announce the new INAERP landing page, which highlights the following:

The new page highlights the following:

1. The Indian and Native American Employment Rights Program has updated its webpage to easily find information and resources to assist contractors with their outreach efforts with Native Americans.

2. A list of “Best Practices” was added for creating an inclusive workplace for Native Americans that includes strategies to make your diversity and inclusion programs successful. It also includes an excellent reference of stakeholder resources.

3. Also added is the new “Indian Preference Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)” that responds to stakeholder questions received during the town hall event. The FAQs will be updated regularly to add new questions received from stakeholders.

OFCCP’s INAERP staff are available to answer questions and help employers locate Native American recruitment sources that align with employment needs. Contact INAERP directly at 1-844-206-1836 or OFCCP-INAERP@dol.gov.

To learn more, click here.

Arizona County Leads in COVID-19 Cases on Navajo Nation

Arizona's Apache County has now surpasses neighboring McKinley County in New Mexico as having the most COIVD-19 cases on the Navajo Nation.

Health officials reported 141 additional COVID-19 cases with eight additional deaths on the tribe's sprawling reservation that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

Officials reported a total of 3,632 positive cases and 127 deaths as of Thursday, with preliminary reports indicating that approximately 515 people have recovered from COVID-19.

Tribal officials said Apache County had 948 positive cases as of Thursday, while McKinley County had 928. Arizona's Navajo County had 757 cases and New Mexico's San Juan County had 428. Six other counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah had smaller numbers.

McKinley County's outbreak prompted a since-ended lockdown of the city of Gallup.

Tribal officials said the Navajo Nation's total cases newly include 99 cases that were added this week and that previously weren't reported due to jurisdictional challenges and ``longer than normal verification processes.``

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Pandemic Scuttles Market for Folk Artists From 50 Nations

By MORGAN LEE

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ Artists and artisans from more than 50 nations will lose a key source of income and engagement after the International Folk Art Market canceled its annual open-air bazaar in New Mexico due the coronavirus pandemic, event organizers said Tuesday.

Market CEO Stuart Ashman announced the suspension of this year's June market in Santa Fe that typically brings together about 160 overseas artists for a three-day brokered sale of textiles, paintings, jewelry and other items.

The coronavirus has derailed all three major summer arts markets in Santa Fe, including Santa Fe Indian Market, that are engines of the local economy and support a vast cottage industry across the American Southwest and internationally.

Ashman said his organization is brainstorming about ways to provide a financial lifeline to faraway artists that might involve charitable giving, sales or online storytelling _ even as its own boutique for pop-up consignment sales and artists' presentations in Santa Fe has been closed by a statewide shutdown order for nonessential businesses.

``We're really mindful of what this means to the artists most of all,'' Ashman said. ``We as an organization are going to survive ... but we're really concerned about the well-being of the artists _ not just their health but their financial stability.''

The folk art market puts an emphasis on international cultural exchange, providing language interpreters for non-English speakers along with a crash course in entrepreneurship for first-time vendors.

Ashman said folk artists return home with an average of $14,000 _ a significant sum in developing or war-torn economies.

New Mexico health official have reported nearly 800 COVID-19 infections and 13 related deaths across the state of 2.1 million residents.

Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber is bringing together organizers of the city's three largest summer art markets this week for a meeting that could generate a coordinated online presence to help sustain artists and artisans, Ashman said.

The coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over New Mexico's vibrant arts scene, shutting down world renowned public and private museums devoted to things such as low-rider car culture to Georgia O'Keeffe paintings, while scuttling classes at the federally chartered Institute for American Indian Arts college.

Wells Fargo Third Major Bank to End Arctic Oil Investment

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Wells Fargo & Co. became the third major U.S. bank to announce it will not support financing for oil and gas projects in the Arctic.

The bank identified the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Alaska's North Slope as an area where it will not invest, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

Well Fargo joined The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the decision not to provide future investment funding for Arctic oil projects.

Well Fargo said the decision was ''part of a larger 2018 risk-based decision to forego participation in any project-specific transaction in the region.``

``Our policy applies only to project finance in the region,'' the San Francisco-based bank said in a statement. ``We have ongoing business relationships with numerous companies involved in the oil and gas industry in the Alaska Arctic region and expect to continue those relationships long into the future.''

The disclosure comes as the Trump administration takes steps to lease tracts in the refuge's coastal plain, setting the stage for drilling approved by Congress in 2017.

Conservation groups and Gwichin tribal members have pressed banks to reject support for investments in the refuge as part of a larger plan to combat climate change.

Other Alaska leaders, including Inupiat tribal leaders, have urged the banks to refuse those pleas, citing Alaska's environmental standards and the state's economic dependence on oil development.

Some oil industry professionals in Alaska expressed concern that reduced financial support for Arctic drilling could threaten future projects.

Goldman Sachs announced its policy in December, and JPMorgan followed in February.

Alaska leaders angered by the Goldman Sachs decision removed the bank from the state's billion-dollar bond plan. The administration of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is also reviewing JPMorgan's relationship with the state.

Tribal Police Take Over Duties from Bureau of Indian Affairs on Pine Ridge

RAPID CITY, S.D (AP) _ Tribal police have taken over law enforcement duties from the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Tribal Police Chief Robert Ecoffey told the Rapid City Journal said the tribe wasn't getting ``enough resources in terms of manpower'' from the BIA.

The move is allowed under the 1975 Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act, which allows tribes to manage federal programs that impact their communities.

Charles Addington, director of the BIA's Office of Justice Services, said the agency supports the move.

Tribal officers will take control of the BIA's $1.3-million budget, property, equipment and responsibilities, which include investigating higher-level crimes on the reservation, Addington said.

Ecoffey said the BIA allocates nine positions to the reservation and nine of his officers have now been promoted to detective. Two of them will focus exclusively on drug investigations and the department will maintain 53 officers in addition to the nine detectives.

Ecoffey said the BIA agents were good at their job, but there just weren't enough of them. Recently, there have been just two agents as some have retired and the BIA hasn't filled the open positions due to the transition.

New Leader of Indigenous Museum is Educator, Tribe Member

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) _ The new executive director of a museum dedicated to the indigenous people of Maine is a professional educator and member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor will be led by Christopher Newell, the museum's trustees announced this week. The museum documents Wabanaki culture, history and art.

Newell was born and raised in Indian Township, Maine, and worked for five years as education supervisor for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut. He also served as senior adviser on the documentary Dawnland, which focused on the Maine-Wabanaki State Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Abbe Museum was founded in 1926 and is also the site of the annual Abbe Museum Indian Market in Bar Harbor.

Native American Curriculum Rolls Out in Oregon Classrooms

By JORDYN BROWN
The Register-Guard

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) _ This month, Oregon's Department of Education finally rolled out the first pieces of new statewide curriculum on the history and culture of Native Americans in Oregon after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 13 in 2017 with the hope of remedying years of incomplete or inaccurate teachings.

This school year is the first time districts are required to implement the change in classrooms _ but the curriculum is not yet available for all grades.

Because the department is ``behind,'' it decided last week to do a soft roll-out this year with a hard implementation starting this summer, said April Campbell, the advisor to deputy state superintendent on Indian education.

But despite the delay in full implementation, local educators are excited for the positive impact the new curriculum will have on Native communities in local schools when it arrives.

``It just warms my heart and makes me happy. It makes me smile,'' said Brenda Brainard, who is a member of the Confederated Tribe of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. ``Having worked in Indian education for 25 years, I never thought this would happen _ I never dreamed.''

SB 13 is short and clear in its purpose: to ensure that all of Oregon's public schools have curriculum related to ``the Native American experience in Oregon, including tribal history,'' according to the bill language.

Rachel Hsieh teaches fourth grade at Malabon Elementary School in Bethel School District. While waiting for the state's new curriculum, she and other fourth grade teachers at the school researched and dove deep into social media to find books highlighting Native American culture and history while still being suitable for young readers.

Here are some of the books related to tribal history she has in her classroom:

. ``At the Mountain's Base'' by Traci Sorell

. ``Bowwow Powwow'' by Brenda J. Child

. ``Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, A Navajo Code Talker's Story'' by Joseph Bruchac

. ``Fry Bread, A Native American Family Story'' by Kevin Noble Maillard

. ``Gaawin Gindaaswin Ndaawsii, I Am Not A Number'' by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

. ``Go Show the World, A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes'' by Wab Kinew

. ``In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse'' by Joseph Marshall III

. ``Many Nations, An Alphabet of Native America'' by Joseph Bruchac

. ``Nibi Emosaawdang, The Water Walker'' by Joanne Robertson

. ``The People Shall Continue'' by Simon J. Ortiz

. ``Unstoppable, How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army'' by Art Coulson

This encompasses the history of topics such as sovereignty issues, Native culture, treaties and current events. The teachings must be historically accurate, ``culturally relevant,'' and community-based.

This law follows similar mandates to teach tribal history enacted in Washington state in 2015 and Montana in 1999.

The state department's responsibility per the law was to work with the nine Native American tribes in Oregon to develop 45 lesson plans across all disciplines and grades, Campbell said. . The department also is required to provide professional development trainings to school districts about how to teach this curriculum.

The laws says districts are responsible for implementing in their schools a minimum of 15 of the 45 lessons available.

Although the curriculum is not yet available for all grades, the lessons that are available _ for fourth, eighth and 10th graders _ were put out by the department this month.

``We were hoping to have all 45 lessons up before the beginning of this school year and now we're just putting up some of the lessons this month,'' Campbell said.

There was supposed to be a hard rollout of the material _ which is distributed through the department website _ this year.

The primary delay on the curriculum development was due to extra time working with Native leaders to create the ``Essential Understandings of Native Americans in Oregon,'' which are nine foundational topics, such as as sovereignty, treaties, genocide and identity, they decided the curriculum should be built on.

The law only states that the implementation of the curriculum must first start during the 2019-2020 school year, but does not dictate any other deadline within that year.

``We're encouraging districts to look at the lesson plans as they can,'' she said. ``We've been doing professional development since last summer. ... There's still a significant need to continue to do professional development,'' so more will be provided this summer.

The state developed the curriculum with the input of Native leaders for 18 months, Campbell said.

``It's a 50,000-foot level (look) _ critical, essential concepts that they wanted to make sure lesson plans were aligned to,'' she said. ``These concepts are sovereignty, identity, federal laws and policies and genocide. So those essential understandings were developed with the intent as a framework as the lesson plans were created.''

They purposely tried to form the curriculum around unraveling stereotypes and misconceptions about Native Americans and provide professional development that would reinforce to educators why this is important and instrumental in teaching a full image of history.

Native American curriculum can be taught in every class, educator Brainard said, beyond just social sciences and history.

As the director of the Natives Program in Eugene School District for 25 years, Brainard has taught on topics such as Native American dance in physical education classes, Native foods in health, basket weaving and totem carving in art, and native storytelling in language arts.

Last year she taught more than 500 lessons across all disciplines and grades, she said.

The history piece is, of course, still a major pillar of lessons, Brainard said. There's still much to be taught on topics such as restoration and termination, Native American housing, tribal comparisons and, of course, the expedition of Lewis and Clark.

``So much of our history here in Oregon, but for the whole United States is always East looking West,'' she said. ``It's this magnificent expansion, and we rarely look at the West viewing what happened to the East.

``I always tell my students, that I want to be very clear that I think Lewis and Clark (are) heroes _ but so is Sacagawea,'' Brainard said. ``There are some inaccuracies, but there are also missing points _ the wonderful contributions of the Indians, of the Native indigenous people that were here.''

Bethel School District also has been working on incorporating tribal history since last year ahead of the state's rollout.

Rachel Hsieh teaches fourth grade at Malabon Elementary School. A teacher for 10 years, she has taught at Malabon for six, and worked this year to integrate conversations about tribal history with the direction of curriculum developed by Oregon's Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

``A lot of times, students still come in with pictures of braids and feathers and not a lot of clothing, so we do a lot of `What do Native Americans look like?''' Hsieh said, about dispelling stereotypes.

She has introduced new reading materials, territory map projects and information about Oregon's nine tribes.

``Kids just come in and are naturally so open-minded,'' Hsieh said. ``I think it's our grown ups who have a harder time. ... Kids see the injustices faster.''

Incorporating accurate Native American history and curriculum has helped students understand and recognize those injustices and struggles, she said.

While some districts, such as 4J and Bethel, already have been bringing a Native American perspective into some classrooms ahead of the law, there is still an anticipation and excitement among teachers and students for the new curriculum.

``We've been talking about it for two years now, and our students are just hungry for it,'' Brainard said. ``The Native students, they're just waiting for it.''

Students keep asking ``When is it going to happen?'' she said.

Since the curriculum hasn't rolled out in entirety yet educators haven't seen what kind of impact it may have, but are already hearing from students that they're excited about it. Native students also say they are ready to see themselves in Oregon's history.

``Our students perpetually say, `Where's my place? In this history, where are we?''' Brainard said.

Hsieh has heard some of the same comments from students, which is why she has worked to incorporate perspective and materials by not only Native Americans, but also African Americans and Asian Americans.

``My classroom is very diverse so it's important for me to make sure they know they have a spot in the world and belong,'' she said. ``A lot of our curriculum just isn't made with diverse perspectives ... To me, to not do this would feel like a disservice. So to me, it wasn't an option not to (teach the tribal history).''

Hsieh and Brainard are heartened by the fact that this curriculum will eventually be implemented in all grades and be more comprehensive than it has been in the past.

``Indian students say Indian history is taught fast. It's like one day or one minute or one class, and so the balance has been very lopsided,'' Brainard said. ``And in addition to requiring authentic and accurate Native American history, this law put the focus on local tribes. So, it will give a real opportunity for students to understand the contributions and the fact that tribal people are still here right now ... right where they live.''

Educators hope Native students will be able to see themselves in the history of Oregon and the U.S., and foster their own sense of identity as a Native student included in school discussions and activities.

``Having grown up in a kind of town where my tribe was _ Coos Bay _ it always talked about everybody else, and there was never a place for me,'' Brainard said. ``I am so excited for our children to hopefully have the opportunity to find their place. I'm so happy the curriculum is finally out. It's almost not real.''

Pine Ridge's Tokata Iron Eyes Turns Superhero in Marvel Show

By TANYA MANUS
Rapid City Journal

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) _ Marvel's Hero Project is out to prove that superheroes live among us. One of those superheroes is activist, public speaker and high school student Tokata Iron Eyes of Pine Ridge.

Tokata, 16, is featured in a recent streaming episode of Marvel's Hero Project. Her superhero moniker is ``Thrilling Tokata.'' The show is available exclusively on Disney+. Marvel Entertainment, the powerhouse behind superhero movies and comics, launched this new non-scripted reality series to showcase ordinary kids accomplishing extraordinary things.

``It's a very surreal thing. Disney is a huge media outlet and there's not a lot of representation for indigenous communities anywhere. It's such a profound honor,'' Tokata told the Rapid City Journal. ``It shows progress in a special way. We deserve to be the heroes of our own stories again.''

Marvel's Hero Project highlights 20 kids ages 11 to 16. Some are overcoming disabilities. Some, like Tokata, are activists. Some see problems around them and find creative solutions, such as growing an urban garden to feed the hungry. In every episode, Marvel surprises these young heroes who dedicated themselves to performing selfless acts of bravery, kindness and betterment by welcoming them into Marvel's Hero Project.

``These kids are really special, and totally typical. They're all regular kids who decided to do something and are passionate about something, and that's all it takes,'' said John Hirsch, executive producer for the series. ``With the encouragement of their families and love of their families . these kids are changing the world. It's awesome, awesome, awesome to see.''

Tokata is included in Marvel's Hero Project to empower indigenous youth. Last fall, Tokata gained international attention when she invited Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to western South Dakota. The teens appeared together at a climate rally and march in Rapid City, at Standing Rock High School in North Dakota and on the Pine Ridge Reservation, speaking about climate change and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Tokata's environmental activism began years earlier. Tokata was 12 when she spoke in a video, advocating for action in Standing Rock Sioux Nation's battle against the proposed route of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The video helped start the ``Rezpect Our Water'' social media campaign, which played a role in attracting thousands of national and international visitors to Standing Rock to fight the pipeline.

``For me, public speaking was an accessible way . to stand up for myself and our people and our rights,'' Tokata said. ``In general, I would consider myself a representative of indigenous youth. I feel like our perspective needs to be included in conversations. For a really long time, we didn't have any say.

``I think the real message (of my episode) is really indigenous people and young people's stories are so important and they need to be told. They are so instrumental to building a world everybody would want to live in,'' she said.

Tokata continues to hold rallies, host letter-writing campaigns and make videos to raise awareness. Her goal is to inspire and empower other indigenous youths to be heard. Yet she's also a junior at Red Cloud Indian School, and she's thinking about college and tentatively planning a career in which she continues public speaking.

Filming for Tokata's Marvel's Hero Project started in January 2019. It continued for six months, mostly on the Pine Ridge Reservation, at Tokata's home and school, in the community and at some of Tokata's speaking engagements.

Each episode ends with a reveal, as Marvel surprises the kids with their very own comic book in which each kid is immortalized as a superhero. Tokata's comic book will be available for free starting Jan. 17 in Marvel Unlimited and the Marvel Digital Comics Store. The online comic book has an audio description option for visually impaired users.

Tokata received physical copies of the comic book she can share with friends. Later, she was presented with a framed copy of her comic book cover, Hirsch said.

``Some of the best editors in Marvel are working on the show. With Tokata's comic . we were really careful in creating a comic book using one of her favorite stories and incorporating that into her comic book,'' Hirsch said. ``She appreciated it and her family appreciated it.''

In December, Hirsch traveled to Pine Ridge to show the episode to Tokata and her family. Her father is Chase Iron Eyes, a Native American activist, attorney, politician and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Her mother, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, is an Oglala Lakota. She's a pediatrician at Standing Rock, and an environmental activist.

``It was cool,'' Hirsch said. ``Her family appreciated it and thought it was done in the right way, and that to us as producers was the most meaningful thing of all. . I think she knows the episode could be a big deal for her community and that's what it's all about for her.''

``When we got to see the episode for the very first time, it was very beautiful in the way it merged these two worlds I've been living in of being a spokesperson and being a kid,'' Tokata said. ``It's show a true portrait of who I am and what life looks like.''

Tokata believes her episode highlights the resiliency of indigenous people and the value of young people's ideas.

``That trauma and those deep hurts weren't very long ago. Those were our grandmas and great-grandparents. To recognize the strength of these communities is imperative,'' Tokata said.

``One thing that should always be said . is we need to start listening to our children in all capacities. We're at a stage in this world where we need everyone's voices and stories listened to. We need to really start recognizing each other on a very human basis . if we're going to create real change together,'' Tokata said. ``Being able to recognize the power children have in their dreams and the ability to care and be compassionate, those are skills the adult world is often lacking.''

3 Plead Guilty in Case of Native American Jewelry Knockoffs

PHOENIX (AP) _ Federal prosecutors say two retailers and a third person face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty in a conspiracy to import jewelry knockoffs made from the Philippines and then misrepresent the goods as made in the United States by Native Americans.

Laura Marye Wesley, 32, pleaded guilty in U.S. District court in Phoenix to conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges while Waleed Sarrar, 44, and Christian Coxon, 46, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, prosecutors said.

Wesley admitted having jewelry made in the Philippines and then arranging to have it smuggled into the United States and delivered to retail outlets in multiple states, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Sarrar misrepresented imported jewelry as made by Native Americans at his store in Scottsdale, Arizona, while Coxon made similar false claims involving his store in San Antonio, Texas, the statement said.

Group Wants Custer's Name Removed from Bismarck Park

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ A group is working to rename Custer Park in Bismarck because of the ``historical trauma'' it says is associated with its namesake, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Custer, as a military officer, served during the Civil War and fought against Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 1860s and 1870s before leading his men to death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. He spent several years stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln in Mandan before his death.

Two Bismarck women representing the group say the Native American community has negative views of the Custer name.

``What we want to do is come together as one whole community and begin that healing process,'' said Ali Quarne, the mother of two Native American children.

1. Angel Moniz, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, said she was born in Bismarck and was ``baffled`` after she moved back in 2005 to find places in the area named after Custer, according to the Bismarck Tribune.

The two women said they are representing a few hundred people in the community who support stripping Custer's name from the park. The Park Board will consider the request.

 'Baby Shark' Creators Plan Navajo Version of Popular Video

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ Creators of the popular video ``Baby Shark,'' whose ``doo doo doo'' song was played at the World Series in October and has been a viral hit with toddlers around the world, are developing a version in Navajo.

Pinkfong, a brand of the South Korea company SmartStudy, announced last week it is working with the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, to create a new version of the widely popular tune about a family of sharks.

The project was launched after museum director Manuelito Wheeler reached out to SmartStudy in September about translating ``Baby Shark'' into Navajo. The museum previously had lobbied for Navajo versions of the movies ``Star Wars'' and ``Finding Nemo'' that were eventually made.

``I was surprised by their enthusiasm and excitement about getting this started,'' Wheeler said Tuesday. ``We have been looking for something aimed at preschoolers.''

SmartStudy has translated the ``Baby Shark'' tune of the viral video in 19 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Arabic, and Bahasa-Malay.

The company hopes its latest project will spark interest in the Navajo language among the tribe's young generation, SmartStudy marketing manager Kevin Yoon said in an email.

``We're happy to play a role in raising awareness of and preserving a language that's in danger of vanishing through what we do best _ creating fun, stimulating content to provide entertaining learning experiences to children worldwide,'' Yoon said.

The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. The Navajo word for shark is loo hashkehe, which translates to ``angry fish.''

The company is seeking voice actors to portray the roles of Baby Shark, Mommy Shark, Daddy Shark, Grandma Shark, and Grandpa Shark.

The original `` Baby Shark Dance '' video has garnered more than 4 billion views on YouTube.

``Baby Shark'' has been around for a few years, but took the world by storm last year when the song and video went viral with the nursery-school set, with little kids imitating the handclapping dance that went along with the video.

Books, plush toys, and other merchandise inspired by the song became hot-ticket items for the holidays and the ``Baby Shark'' tour was soon hatched.

A second North American leg of the ``Baby Shark'' concert tour is launching in March.

During the World Series, Washington Nationals fans adopted ``Baby Shark'' as the team's rally song.

Nickelodeon has a ``Baby Shark'' cartoon series in the works.

___

Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press' race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/russcontreras

Coal Plant on Tribal Land to Close After Powering US West

By FELICIA FONSECA

Associated Press

ALONG THE BLACK MESA AND LAKE POWELL RAILROAD, Ariz. (AP) _ Ron Little nestles into a familiar seat aboard a train locomotive and slides the window open, leaning out to get a better view of dozens of rail cars that stretch for a mile behind and the landscape he knows so well.

The heavy steel wheels roll along a dizzying pattern of concrete railroad ties that snake through sandstone formations, boulder-laden arroyos and grasslands. Little points to a rock formation named for the reddish dirt that Navajos use to dye wool for rugs and another with a cutout like the handle of a milk jug.

``It's beautiful scenery you just go live with every day,'' he said.

Every day until recently, when the last of the trains he's operated for more than half his life pulled up to a power plant with thousands of tons of coal.

Before the year ends, the Navajo Generating Station near the Arizona-Utah border will close and others in the region are on track to shut down or reduce their output in the next few years. Its owners are turning to cheaper power produced by natural gas as they and other coal-fired plants in the U.S. face growing pressure over contributing to climate change.

Those shifts are upending people's livelihoods, including hundreds of mostly Native American workers who mined the coal on tribal land, loaded it from a roadside silo and helped produce the electricity that has powered the American Southwest since the 1970s.

Two tribes each will lose millions of dollars in income, while workers like Little are forced into early retirement. Some employees will stay on to restore the land, while others aren't sure what's next.

Ted Candelaria, a fourth-generation railroader who voted for President Donald Trump in hopes he would be coal's saving grace, said the change is bittersweet.

``I got all emotional, started tearing up. It's kind of sad because I love what I do,'' Candelaria said from the driver's seat of his pickup truck, looking toward a line of locomotives. ``Where else does a guy get to come to work and ride on an electric train?''

The Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad was one of only three 50-kilovolt electric lines in the world. The rail yard boasted some rarities, including a 1976 locomotive with a faded blue body and a rusty red front end that led the final journey from the coal silos to the power plant in late August, effectively shutting down the mine that fed it.

The power plant was built in the late 1960s on land leased from the Navajo Nation, one of two coal-mining Native American tribes that has the largest land base, spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The plant was a compromise to keep more hydroelectric dams from being built through the Grand Canyon and to power a series of canals that deliver water to Arizona's major cities, allowing them to grow. At the time, the U.S. was facing a natural gas shortage and utilities turned to coal to feed the electric grid.

Now, utilities increasingly are shifting to renewable energy, setting standards to wean themselves off coal, an industry Trump has tried to prop up. The country gets about 25% of its electricity from coal-fired plants, down from 40% five years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

U.S. utilities announced the retirement of nearly 550 coal-fired power generators since 2010, the agency said. More are planned.

Two other coal-fired plants operate on or near the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico and have a majority Navajo workforce. The San Juan Generating Station is slated to close in 2022, and the nearby Four Corners Power Plant by 2038.

One unit at the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona shut down in September. Decommissioning the other two is expected to take two years, with the smokestacks coming down in 2020.

The coal reserves are vast beneath the land belonging to the Navajo Nation and the neighboring Hopi Tribe. The plant has burned 24,000 tons of coal a day for nearly 50 years, and the Navajo Nation estimates it still has a 100-year supply.

Without extending the rail line beyond the 78 miles (126 kilometers) between the power plant and the silos at the Kayenta Mine, the coal has nowhere to go.

``It's disappointing to us,'' said Randy Lehn, the mine's acting general manager. ``We tried harder than anyone else to try to keep this thing going.''

Peabody Energy, which owned the mine, launched a bid to save the Navajo Generating Station last year with rallies, ads and a ``Yes to NGS'' campaign. Residents of the Navajo community of LeChee, closest to the plant, wrote to Trump asking for help.

It didn't work. The Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe now are hard-pressed to come up with a way to make up for the losses, including money for student scholarships and road maintenance.

The Hopi Tribe is losing $14 million a year in coal revenue, or 82% of its general budget that pays for human resources, information technology and financial staff, court programs and legal counsel. More than $3 million goes to Hopi villages.

Tribal members who gathered coal from the mine to heat their homes or used it for ceremonial fires will have to look elsewhere, a similar concern for thousands of Navajos.

``(It's) the main concern right now because we're in that part of the season of the year now,'' Hopi Vice Chairman Clark Tenakhongva said. ``Religious are finally realizing: `What are we going to do for heating? How are we going to survive from here on out?'''

The Hopi Tribe plans to cut government services where it can, possibly switching workers to a four-day workweek.

``Everybody is concerned as far as what the future looks like,'' Tenakhongva said.

Economic development is difficult for the Hopi Tribe, which is landlocked by the much-larger Navajo Nation and doesn't get as much tourist traffic. Hopi officials plan to lobby Congress for funding and to fulfill what it says are land obligations to the tribe.

U.S. Rep. Tom O'Halleran, an Arizona Democrat who represents both tribes, recently introduced legislation that would temporarily help replace lost coal revenue and create training and educational programs for displaced workers.

At the height, mining operations in the region employed 700 mostly Native American workers. The power plant had more than 500 employees, 90% of whom were Navajo.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez said the tribe will lose between $40 million and $50 million annually from coal revenue and lease payments _ money being replaced temporarily with interest from a trust fund it developed in 1985 to replenish lost revenue from coal, timber, gas and oil.

The interest is enough to cover the losses each year, but the tribe would have to consider approving that method in budget talks going forward.

Mine and power plant workers are being encouraged to start their own businesses and bid on tribal projects, Nez said. His administration also has encouraged members to spend their money on the reservation.

Tourism, solar plants, a call center and manufacturing facilities could help make up lost revenue, tribal officials said, but no single venture will replace the money coal brought in.

``There is potential for a lot more as far as diversification when we look at renewable energy as well as our enterprises of the Navajo Nation that pay back funds to the Navajo Nation,'' tribal economic development director J.T. Willie said.

The tribe will have access to the transmission lines that carried power from the plant to customers in the U.S. West and will keep a warehouse, offices and the train tracks, which Willie said could be used for tourism or sold.

Gerald Clitso, sitting in the control booth of a coal silo above the railway recently, is not convinced he would have as lucrative of a job opportunity elsewhere in the Navajo Nation.

``Our leadership, they just don't have the vision, the foresight to see into the future to see what can sustain our economic conditions here on the Navajo reservation,'' he said. ``With the plant going down and the coal mine going down, we'll end up going back to the days of using Coleman lanterns.''

He peered through a window above the train that slowly rolled into the towering concrete silo along U.S. 160, his fingers jostling the controls that fill each car with 1,000 tons of coal delivered from the mine 18 miles (29 kilometers) away.

Behind him, Navajo workers talked about lost money for scholarships that helped with school and about the relationships formed over decades of working together, reminiscing about exchanging grilled mutton for fried chicken with other people at the silo.

The same conversations are happening along the railroad and at the power plant in Page, where a trio of concrete stacks rise 755 feet (236 meters) above the desert, lights flashing to warn planes.

The plant isn't far from popular tourist attractions like Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell and Horseshoe Bend, where the bluish-green water of the Colorado River takes a 270-degree turn.

Lyle Dimbatt, a former Page mayor who grew up there with other power plant employees, said the region still will benefit from tourism, but the economy will take a hit from losing the power plant and mine.

Dimbatt, who is not Native American, still has one kid in school and isn't ready to leave his job as the nighttime train supervisor.

``If I'm honest with you, I'm not happy about it, but can't do nothing about it,'' Dimbatt said, shrugging. ``I'm just glad I'm not walking out of the door with nothing, because some of them are.''

Over half the workers at the mine qualified for retirement, said Lehn, the general manager. A few will stay for cleanup work. The others are out of jobs.

Phoenix-based Salt River Project, majority owner and operator of the power plant, has offered transfers to employees who want them, but that means leaving the reservation.

Schoolchildren would rather not move to a bigger city where they have no family, friends and few open spaces, Pauline Begay said from her office at the LeChee Chapter, a local government of the Navajo Nation, within view of the power plant.

For Little, he will miss the paycheck that helped put his kids through college. He rose from utility man to train operator, passing up the chance to be a supervisor because he liked the serenity aboard the train.

The locomotives and train cars are destined for the scrap pile.

___

Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report.

Tulane Project to Aid United Houma Nation

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ A $2.1 million research project at Tulane University is aimed at helping members of an American Indian tribe in Louisiana cope with climate change and economic inequality.

In a news release, Tulane says the project aims to benefit the United Houma Nation . Challenges facing the south Louisiana tribe include coastal land loss that threatens fishing, trapping and even some homes.

Part of the project will involve examining how tribal citizens move within and outside the state to manage these and other challenges.

Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was awarded the project by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Gulf Research Program.

Oglala Sioux Ban E-cigarettes on Pine Ridge Reservation

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council has banned the sale, possession and use of e-cigarettes on the Pine Ridge Reservation amid a nationwide outbreak of vaping-related illnesses.

The tribal council approved the ban last week, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported. The maximum penalty for violating the ordinance is a fine of $250 or 30 days in jail.

``The health of our people, including our youth, is of the utmost importance and our tribe has always strived to take a leading role in addressing the health issues of our people,'' the ordinance states.

There have been six confirmed cases of vaping-related illness in South Dakota, according to the South Dakota Department of Health, and over 800 across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 12 confirmed deaths in other states.

The CDC says most of the patients reported using products containing THC, the chemical that produces marijuana's high, or both THC-containing products and nicotine-containing products. Some patients reported using only nicotine-containing products. The CDC recommends refraining from using vaping products, particularly those containing THC, while the investigation is ongoing, and against buying these products off the street.

Tribal President Julian Bear Runner heralded the vaping ban as a ``bold action'' and used the occasion to call for further action to regulate all forms of tobacco and nicotine on the reservation.

``In the near future it would empower us to adopt additional legislation related to the cultivation and sale of all forms of tobacco and nicotine, as those industries have profited from our misery since we can remember,'' Bear Runner said in a statement. ``It is to our benefit to authorize only tobacco the Oglala Sioux Tribe has sanctioned.''

The Pine Ridge Reservation has a population of roughly 20,000 in southwestern South Dakota.

Information from: Argus Leader, http://www.argusleader.com

Montana Native Storyteller Awarded National Arts Fellowship

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ A Montana Native American storyteller is expected to be honored as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Billings Gazette reports traditional Crow storyteller Grant Bulltail is one of 10 people chosen by the NEA to receive a 2019 fellowship.

Bulltail is expected to be honored in Washington, D.C., with the presentation of the fellowship, which includes a $25,000 award.

Bulltail says the award money will be put toward hiring an editor to work with him on a novel presenting a story of the Crow people.

He has previously shared his stories at state and national parks and places of significance to the Crow people.

Bulltail has also taught at Utah State University, which is building a collection of his work.

Information from: The Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

ACLU Creates New Position Focusing On Indigenous Issues

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ The American Civil Liberties Union is creating a new position in South Dakota to focus on indigenous issues, spurred in part by the state toughening laws ahead of possible Keystone XL pipeline protests.

ACLU director of campaigns Sabrina King said the position will be modeled on the organization's indigenous justice program in Montana. King will supervise the new South Dakota position.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported the ACLU has long wanted to build on its work on indigenous issues in the state. The idea took on new urgency after South Dakota this year passed laws aimed at potential Keystone XL protests.

With memories fresh of disruptive protests against the Dakota Access pipeline that cost neighboring North Dakota nearly $40 million and led to hundreds of arrests beginning in late 2016, South Dakota pushed the laws through late in this year's legislative session just days after they were proposed by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

The laws require pipeline companies to help pay extraordinary expenses such as the cost of policing during protests and aim to pursue money from demonstrators who engage in so-called ``riot boosting,'' which is defined in part as encouraging violence during a riot.

The measures sparked opposition from Native Americans tribes who said they weren't consulted.

The ACLU is challenging the laws in federal court, arguing they are unconstitutional.

King said the person in the new position will build relationships with indigenous people throughout the state and ask the question, ``What are the issues that are affecting your community that the ACLU needs to be working on?'' King said.

It has become clear that the basis of organizing is building relationships rather than hiring more attorneys or policy directors, she said.

They already know there are topics that need focus, including missing and murdered indigenous women and the Keystone XL pipeline. But the ACLU knows there are other areas that it's missing, and the new position will allow the ACLU to work on those issues in partnership with indigenous people in South Dakota, she said.

``Across the ACLU, we're focusing a lot more on indigenous communities and really wanting to build relationships and be in conversation with folks,'' especially in places like Montana and South Dakota where the indigenous justice organizers can work in a more focused way, she said.

Information from: Argus Leader, http://www.argusleader.com

Conservation Groups Sue To Block Road In Alaska Refuge

By DAN JOLING
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Nine conservation groups are suing the U.S. Interior Department over a proposed Alaska land swap that could lead to a road through a national wildlife refuge.

The groups seek to block a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula.

The refuge contains internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl.

Residents of the village of King Cove for decades have sought a land connection through the refuge to Cold Bay, which has an all-weather airport and better access to emergency flights.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 concluded a road would damage the Izembek watershed.

A federal judge in March rejected a previous land swap. In July, the King Cove Native Corp. proposed the new land swap, which is the basis for the lawsuit.

Agreement Calls For Shield's Return To Tribe In New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ A settlement agreement filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico calls for a Paris auction house to return a ceremonial shield to a Native American tribe that considers it sacred.

Under the agreement, the EVE auction house is to release the artifact to the U.S. Embassy in Paris for transport to Albuquerque by a federal agent.

The auction house previously listed the shield among many Native American items for sale.

Those signing the agreement included Acoma Pueblo Gov. Brian Vallo and Jerold Collings, a resident of rural western New Mexico who has said he inherited the shield from his mother.

The tribe has pressed for repatriations of ceremonial items from galleries, auction houses and private collections, and Vallo called the shield's return homecoming ``critical and highly sensitive.''

Sports, Horse Betting Bill for Cherokee Gets Final Approval

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ North Carolina's only federally recognized American Indian tribe could soon offer sports and horse wagering to patrons at its two casinos.

The General Assembly gave final approval to a measure that would give the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians the authority to offer the additional types of betting. The House voted 90-27 for the measure that had already cleared the Senate three months ago.

The bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper's desk. Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said the governor will review the bill before making a decision on whether to sign it into law.

The sports-book option took shape after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that made most sports gambling illegal last year. State law already lets the Eastern Band offer live poker, slot machines and video-style games.

Eastern Band Principal Chief Richard Sneed said in an interview MonDAY night that the new options would provide more amenities at the tribe's Harrah casinos in Murphy and Cherokee, but downplayed them as big money-makers.

Sneed said the tribe projects an additional $14 million annually by offering sports and off-track horse betting, of which $1 million annually would go to state coffers. State government already receives regular funds from Eastern Band gambling operations.

``People are excited about it, (especially) for a lot of folks that haven't done sports betting besides office pools,'' Sneed said. ``We're just excited to be able to offer it'' if it becomes law, he added.

Rep. Kevin Corbin of Macon County, who was shepherding the bill, told colleagues on the House floor the measure wouldn't expand geographically where tribal gambling could occur. Although conservative Christians warned lawmakers in committee about the societal dangers of more gambling, nobody spoke out against the measure.

Eastern Band members benefit from casino-related jobs and payments of about $12,000 annually for its share of gambling income. The Eastern Band is also one of the state's top political contributors.

A separate measure now before the Senate to create a new state gambling commission would direct the proposed panel to study the feasibility of authorizing sports betting and steeplechases in the state. Sneed said he's excited about the study proposal, given that the tribe has been involved in casino gambling for more than 20 years.

New Escape Room Teaches Connecticut's Native History

By JUSTIN PAPP
The Connecticut-Post

WASHINGTON, Conn. (AP) _ Griffin Kalin has a very particular set of skills.

They were passed on in childhood from his parents, who own a business recreating the material culture of prehistoric Native American life.

And they made him an especially suitable candidate for the unusual task he was handed in February 2018: Create a Wigwam escape room at the Institute for American Indian Studies, in Washington, that puts players into the pre-European-contact world of the Native Americans who once inhabited the region.

``Probably the biggest challenge, in terms of designing it, was trying to find ways around the fact that there was no written language, there was no metal for the most part. A lot of the norms for building escape rooms were outside of the realm of what we could do because of the context we chose to put it in,'' Kalin says, on a recent Wednesday, standing in the 20-by-20-foot room located within the museum's Research Center, beside the wigwam he built and his creative partner, Lauren Bennett.

Kalin, the museum's creative director, and Bennett, the Wigwam Escape coordinator, are high school friends who linked up last year to oversee the room, which is an attempt by the museum to attract a more diverse group of visitors.

According to Executive Director Chris Combs, in its early years, the small museum, tucked in a remote section of the Litchfield Hills, would draw upward of 20,000 visitors annually. But that the opening of Mohegan Sun and Foxwood casinos, including the latter's Mashantucket Pequot Museum, on the other side of the state in the 1990s precipitated a drop off. Now, Combs says, the museum is mostly visited by school groups and people over 65. So he sought to attract new demographics.

``We opened the escape room basically because of demographics I saw,'' Combs says. ``Millennials like escape rooms, parents like escape rooms.''

Combs enlisted Kalin, who, in addition to primitive skills, has an interest in gaming and exploration-style learning, and Bennett. They in turn brought a fellow Nonnewaug High School graduate and artist, Jesse Stevens, and opened the room in December.

``Jesse was around and could paint the walls, and Lauren was thinking of coming back around. Lauren's really good at facilitating dialogue, guiding people through things and talking about experiences. Jesse had been working on sets of movies for a while, so he and I had some really interesting ideas about how to construct some of the wall stuff,'' Kalin says. ``We had the people we needed, which was super cool.''

The game mirrors other escape rooms in that players have 60-minutes to complete a series of tasks and exit the room. It's meant to induce an empathetic response to history through immersion, Bennett says.

In addition to the wigwam, native flora and fauna native and objects common to an Algonquin village of the time dot the room. Stalks of corn were fashioned out of masking tape painted green and plastic gourds were 3-D printed in the University of Connecticut Maker Studio. Stevens' mural depicts mountain laurels, mushrooms, lush forests and a native village. In one corner, a stuffed deer peers over some brush. Played on the loudspeakers are the calls of hawks, loons and, as the end of the challenge is approaching, owls. The clap of thunder signals that Bennett and Kalin, who track the progress of participants from a monitor outside of the room, want to offer players a hint.

Before entering, all visitors must forfeit their technological devices. They'll find no clocks or timers on the inside _ instead, time is told based on a light display that simulates the passing of a full day. The tasks force players to think critically about how people living in that place, at that time, would've interacted with their environment and secure the resources they needed to survive.

``You're going to find yourself in the year 1518 in a Native American village in the Eastern woodlands. You've recently received word from a neighboring village of Metachiwon that they're being affected by an illness and they're asking for help,'' Bennett explained. ``So the main part of the game is gathering supplies for that journey. You need water, two different kinds of cooked foods and medicine.''

The hour ends with popcorn, a traditional Native American snack, and a debriefing in the Research Center lobby, which is meant to reinforce the cultural and historical lessons learned over the course of the hour.

``It's rewarding when we talk to people, because our mission of educating people is coming through,'' Combs says.

Online: https://bit.ly/2XltxuE

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Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

Colorado Bison Herd Growing Much Faster Than Expected

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) _ A bison herd in northern Colorado is growing much faster than expected.

The herd at a natural area north of Fort Collins began three years ago as 10 genetically pure descendants of bison in Yellowstone National Park.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports the herd now numbers 76 animals, including a dozen calves born just this year. The natural area doesn't have enough room for more than 100 bison.

Herd managers expect to reach that number soon.

Colorado State University, the city of Fort Collins and Larimer County hope to raise enough genetically pure, disease-free bison to give or trade to American Indian tribes and conservation organizations.

Herd managers recently sent two bison bulls to a zoo in Oakland, California.

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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com

Famous Tree Fights For Survival After More Than 300 Years

Tree outside the Indian Steps Museum 

Anchorage Gathering Planned to Remember Missing Native Women

PROVO, Utah (AP) _ A Utah school district is working to revamp its lessons around Native Americans to tackle stereotypes.

The Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, reports the Provo City School District has been setting up meetings with schools about curriculum development and questioning sources teachers have been using.

Meredith Lam, the Native American specialist and Title VI coordinator for the Provo City School District, says around 90 percent of the lessons plans about Native Americans teachers have shown her this year have needed to be reworked. She says it's part of the process to give students a complete picture.

Lam says she'd like to see an American Indian history class offered as an elective to the older grades to give students the opportunity to learn the other half of U.S. history.

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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldextra.com

White Supremacy Signs Placed on Montana College Campuses

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ Signs bearing the name of a white supremacist group have been left on two college campuses and elsewhere in Montana's largest city.

The Billings Gazette reported Monday some signs had a drawing of Uncle Sam with the words ``Thank you, veterans!'' and the group's name, Identity Evropa, in smaller type. The group's triangular logo appears on Uncle Sam's lapel.

The signs appeared at Montana State University Billings and Rocky Mountain College, as well as at some city intersections.

One was placed beside a display honoring veterans set up by the Native American Achievement Center at Montana State Billings. Reno Charette, director of the center, said she hadn't heard of the group but alerted campus police when she learned what it advocated.

It wasn't clear who placed the signs. Both colleges condemned them.

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Information from: The Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

Facebook Adds Alaska's Inupiaq as Language Option

By RACHEL D'ORO
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Britt'Nee Brower grew up in a largely Inupiat Eskimo town in Alaska's far north, but English was the only language spoken at home.

Today, she knows a smattering of Inupiaq from childhood language classes at school in the community of Utqiagvik. Brower even published an Inupiaq coloring book last year featuring the names of common animals of the region. But she hopes to someday speak fluently by practicing her ancestral language in a daily, modern setting.

The 29-year-old Anchorage woman has started to do just that with a new Inupiaq language option that recently went live on Facebook for those who employ the social media giant's community translation tool. Launched a decade ago, the tool has allowed users to translate bookmarks, action buttons and other functions in more than 100 languages around the globe.

For now, Facebook is being translated into Inupiaq only on its website, not its app.

``I was excited,'' Brower says of her first time trying the feature, still a work in progress as Inupiaq words are slowly added. ``I was thinking, `I'm going to have to bring out my Inupiaq dictionary so I can learn.' So I did.''

Facebook users can submit requests to translate the site's vast interface workings _ the buttons that allow users to like, comment and navigate the site _ into any language through crowdsourcing. With the interface tool, it's the Facebook users who do the translating of words and short phrases. Words are confirmed through crowd up-and-down voting.

Besides the Inupiaq option, Cherokee and Canada's Inuktut are other indigenous languages in the process of being translated, according to Facebook spokeswoman Arielle Argyres.

``It's important to have these indigenous languages on the internet. Oftentimes they're nowhere to be found,'' she said. ``So much is carried through language _ tradition, culture _ and so in the digital world, being able to translate from that environment is really important.''

The Inupiaq language is spoken in northern Alaska and the Seward Peninsula. According to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, about 13,500 Inupiat live in the state, with about 3,000 speaking the language.

Myles Creed, who grew up in the Inupiat community of Kotzebue, was the driving force in getting Inupiaq added. After researching ways to possibly link an external translation app with Facebook, he reached out to Grant Magdanz, a hometown friend who works as a software engineer in San Francisco. Neither one of them knew about the translation tool when Magdanz contacted Facebook in late 2016 about setting up an Inupiatun option.

Facebook opened a translation portal for the language in March 2017. It was then up to users to provide the translations through crowdsourcing.

Creed, 29, a linguistics graduate student at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, is not Inupiat, and neither is Magdanz, 24. But they grew up around the language and its people, and wanted to promote its use for today's world.

``I've been given so much by the community I grew up in, and I want to be able to give back in some way,'' said Creed, who is learning Inupiaq.

Both see the Facebook option as a small step against predictions that Alaska's Native languages are heading toward extinction under their present rate of decline.

``It has to be part of everyone's daily life. It can't be this separate thing,'' Magdanz said. ``People need the ability to speak it in any medium that they use, like they would English or Spanish.''

Initially, Creed relied on volunteer translators, but that didn't go fast enough. In January, he won a $2,000 mini grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum to hire two fluent Inupiat translators. While a language is in the process of being translated, only those who use the translation tool are able to see it.

Creed changed his translation settings last year. But it was only weeks ago that his home button finally said ``Aimaagvik,'' Inupiaq for home.

``I was really ecstatic,'' he said.

So far, only a fraction of the vast interface is in Inupiaq. Part of the holdup is the complexity of finding exact translations, according to the Inupiaq translators who were hired with the grant money.

Take the comment button, which is still in English. There's no one-word-fits-all in Inupiaq for ``comment,'' according to translator Pausauraq Jana Harcharek, who heads Inupiaq education for Alaska's North Slope Borough. Is the word being presented in the form of a question, or a statement or an exclamatory sentence?

``Sometimes it's so difficult to go from concepts that don't exist in the language to arriving at a translation that communicates what that particular English word might mean,'' Harcharek said.

Translator Muriel Hopson said finding the right translation ultimately could require two or three Inupiaq words.

The 58-year-old Anchorage woman grew up in the village of Wainwright, where she was raised by her grandparents. Inupiaq was spoken in the home, but it was strictly prohibited at the village school run by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, Hopson said.

She wonders if she's among the last generation of Inupiaq speakers. But she welcomes the new Facebook option as a promising way for young people to see the value Inupiaq brings as a living language.

``Who doesn't have a Facebook account when you're a millennial?'' she said. ``It can only help.''

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Follow Rachel D'Oro at https://twitter.com/rdoro

Tribes Write Letters Opposing Keystone Oil Pipeline

EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. (AP) _ American Indian tribes have written letters to South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission, expressing their opposition to the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Yankton Sioux Tribe and a grassroots group called Dakota Rural Action wrote letters seeking more information about developer TransCanada's compliance with permit conditions.

The tribes say ground-disturbing activity near the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and the Rosebud Sioux Reservation prompted the letter. It says that if TransCanada's actions are found to be unlawful, the commission should order that construction be stopped.

The tribe says the pipeline would run through Great Sioux Nation homelands.

A TransCanada spokeswoman has said previously that its site near the reservation is a pipe yard, one of four being prepared in South Dakota before planned construction next year.

Haskell Foundation Welcomes New Executive Director

Lawrence, Kan. - The Haskell Foundation is pleased to announce that Aaron Hove has joined the organization as Executive Director.

Hove provides key leadership skills and will oversee support services for the foundation's efforts to financially promote Haskell Indian Nations University, an institution of higher learning for members of federally recognized Native American tribes in the U.S.

Aaron earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Kansas, and also earned a Juris Doctorate from University of Kansas School of Law. For 25 years he acted as an attorney for Payless Shoesource; lastly as the Vice President of International Legal, with significant involvement in International operations. During his career at Payless, Aaron developed the business organization skills and integrity that the Executive Director position requires.

As an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Haskell Foundation provides means for other organizations, tribal communities, foundations, agencies and individuals to contribute monetary support to Haskell Indian Nations University.

Oklahoma City Mayor Proclaims Oct. 8 Indigenous People's Day

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt has proclaimed Oct. 8 as Indigenous People's Day, adding the city to dozens around the nation that acknowledge Native Americans on the day known nationally as Columbus Day.

At least three Oklahoma cities, Tulsa, Norman and Tahlequah already recognize the day, but efforts to do the same in Oklahoma City have failed.

Holt, who is a member of the Osage Nation, wrote that arguments over whether to declare an Indigenous People's Day in the city was unfortunate due to the city's indigenous population and that other cities have already done so.

The Oklahoma City Council repeatedly turned down requests for the day in recent years. City spokeswoman Kristy Yager says Holt's proclamation eliminates the need for the issue to go before the council again.

New Culture Center to Honor Shoshone Killed in 1863 Massacre

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is on a mission to make sure hundreds of tribal members who were killed by U.S. troops in the 1863 Bear River Massacre are never forgotten with a new cultural center in southeastern Idaho.

Darren Parry said he developed a deep respect for the site from frequent visits with his grandmother.

``She would say that if you're here at just the right time in the evening sometimes you can hear the cries of the little ones for their mothers,'' he said. ``She instilled in me a love for my people.''

Parry and other tribal council members are working with GSBS Architects in Utah to develop the Boa Ogoi (Big River) Cultural Interpretive Center, the Deseret News reported earlier this month.

He hopes the center will teach others about Shoshone history, so they can appreciate it the way he does.

The tribe purchased about 1 square mile (3 square kilometers) of the massacre site for $1.75 million last January, two days before Perry and the Shoshone Nation commemorated the 155th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre. Between 250 and 500 Shoshone men, women and children were killed by Col. Patrick Connor and his federal troops on Jan. 29, 1863.

The site is designed to be minimalistic by being built into the earth.

Michael Gross, a tribal councilman and Parry's cousin, said incorporating the landscape into the design was key. He thinks it will help to foster education and understand his people's story.

``Everything they did was based off the land. That's how they survived. The land was of great importance for a lot of reasons,'' Gross said. ``The design encapsulates everything we're about.''

The Shoshone Nation is also working with the Utah State University College of Natural Resources to clean up the site and return it to the state it was in in 1863, with more willows and vegetation.

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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com

US House Backs Bill Giving Montana Tribe Federal Recognition

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday that would give federal recognition to Montana's Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians following a decades-long effort.

Federal recognition would validate the Little Shell's identity and make its roughly 6,000 members eligible for government benefits ranging from education to health care. The tribe was recognized by the state of Montana in 2000.

Little Shell Chairman Gerald Gray said he was optimistic a companion measure would now advance through the Senate and be signed into law.

``I feel very optimistic. It's the first time we've ever had a House bill come out of the chamber,'' Gray said.

The bill was approved by a voice vote. A companion bill was endorsed by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in May 2017 but has yet to receive a vote from the full Senate.

Montana U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, the first-term Republican lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said it became clear to him after his election that the Little Shell had suffered an injustice in being denied recognition.

``This is a big milestone,'' Gianforte said. ``This recognition is really due them through a treaty arrangement that dates back a long period of time.''

Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester issued a statement calling on the chamber's Republican majority to take up the measure with ``no strings attached.''

Both the House and Senate versions would require the U.S. Department of the Interior to acquire 200 acres (80 hectares) for the Little Shell's members that could be used for a tribal government center, housing or other purposes.

The Little Shell evolved from a group of French and Indian hunters and trappers affiliated with the historical Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians.

The tribe has been without a recognized homeland since the late 1800s, when Chief Little Shell and his followers in North Dakota broke off treaty negotiations with the U.S. government. Tribe members later settled in Montana and southern Canada.

Tribal leaders first petitioned for recognition through the Interior Department in 1978. Gray and other members trace their other attempts back to the 1860s, when the Pembina Band of Chippewa signed a treaty with the U.S. government.

The Interior Department gave preliminary approval to recognizing the Little Shell in 2000 but rescinded the move in 2009. The agency denied recognition for the Little Shell again in 2013.

There are more than 500 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap

Sculpture Planned for Native American Cemetery to be Moved

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) _ A new sculpture planned for the entrance of a Native American burial site in western Michigan is being relocated after a tribe raised concerns it would disturb sacred ground.

Construction was already underway to place the 16-foot (4.9-meter) granite sculpture titled ``All My Relations'' in the Old Indian Cemetery in Muskegon. The sculpture was crafted by Anishinaabe artist Jason Quigno.

Members of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians recently expressed disapproval of the decision and advocated for a different location.

Cemetery caretaker Joseph Genia says the cemetery is a sacred place to the Ottawa people. He says placing a statue in the cemetery would ruin its integrity.

City Manager Frank Peterson says groups reached a consensus to find a new location for the sculpture. The new site is expected to be announced soon.

River Raisin National Battlefield Redevelopment Begins

MONROE, Mich. (AP) _ The River Raisin National Battlefield Park in southeastern Michigan is undergoing an estimated $100 million redevelopment to turn the historical site into a tourist destination.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and private partners will fund the redevelopment project in Monroe at the location of the Battle of Frenchtown, an important battle in the War of 1812, The Detroit Free Press reported .

The project launched Monday will begin with the purchase of 20 houses that will be demolished to make room for a recreation of historic Frenchtown and a $20 million education center.

Officials estimate the changes will attract more than 1 million visitors annually, including 100,000 school children. The area had 239,000 visitors last year, said Park Superintendent Scott Bentley. Monroe has a population of about 20,000 and lies 35 miles south of Detroit.

``Fourteen million people live within three hours' drive of the park,'' said Mark Cochran, Monroe development coordinator. ``We've been working on gearing our economy more toward tourism. We've got Lake Erie, the River Raisin, the battlefield and a heritage trail.''

Bentley said the Battle of Frenchtown was an important moment in U.S. history that went on to shape U.S. policy toward Native Americans and led to westward expansion.

``It was the greatest defeat for the U.S. in the entire War of 1812,'' he said.

Native American tribes fought alongside British and Canadian soldiers to capture Fort Detroit before taking over Frenchtown. The Canadian and Native American troops later withdrew from the town. The Native American tribes brought about 500 U.S. prisoners with them during the retreat and killed between 20 to 100 soldiers who couldn't walk.

Bentley said that event led to the forced removal of native populations.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Advocates: Ruling Holds Promise for Native American Students

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ It's being billed as a landmark ruling that could reshape New Mexico's education system and how it gets funded.

And some advocates say Native American students are among those who could benefit the most as the state has been tasked by a district judge to follow through with promises made years ago under New Mexico's Indian Education Act.

Adopted in 2003, the act calls for an equitable and culturally relevant learning environment in schools that serve Native American students.

Regis Pecos with the Leadership Institute at the Santa Fe Indian School says the recent court ruling provides a monumental opportunity for tribes to define their vision of education in New Mexico and elsewhere.

State officials plan to appeal, arguing that spending on education has increased. They also say Native American students are now seeing record academic gains.

Solicitor General: Supreme Court Should Hear Crow Case

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) _ A top official within the U.S. Department of Justice says the U.S. Supreme Court should review a case in which a Crow tribal member and game warden from Montana is asserting his treaty right to hunt elk in the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming.

Clayvin Herrera was found guilty of killing an elk in the forest in January 2014. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $8,080.

The Wyoming Supreme Court declined to hear his case, saying the issue was decided by a federal appeals court in 1995. That ruling was based on an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said tribal treaty rights ``are irreconcilable with state sovereignty.'' The 1896 Supreme Court ruling has since been overturned.

The Billings Gazette reports U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco said Idaho and Montana recognize tribal hunting rights and the Supreme Court should resolve the disagreements.

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Information from: The Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

Postage stamp to honor Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore