Halito, relatives. Happy International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples! It’s truly a great day to be Indigenous.

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Here’s what you need to know today:

Former Bay Mills chairman to lead Indian Affairs

That’s right. On Saturday, the U.S. Senate confirmed, by a voice vote, Bryan Todd Newland to be next assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department. A role that is the department’s highest-ranking Senate-confirmed official in Indian Affairs, according to the Interior. The position was previously held by Tara Sweeney, Inupiaq.

Credit: FILE – Bryan Newland, left, speaks with a Navajo Nation Council Delegate in Window Rock, Ariz. in April. (Photo by Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press)

Newland was the chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan. Actually, he worked as a policy adviser for Indian Affairs in the department during the Obama administration.

Hawai’i U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs said Newland is qualified to “succeed in this role.”

“Mr. Newland has invaluable experience as a Tribal Leader, personal and in-depth knowledge of the issues facing Tribes, expertise in complex areas of Federal Indian law, an understanding of Interior’s unique role in fulfilling and enforcing the federal trust responsibility to Native peoples, and a diplomatic and respectful approach to honoring Tribal sovereignty,” Schatz said.

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In other Interior news…

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, visited tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest to talk about the missing and murdered crisis, broadband, COVID-19 and forced assimilation.

Haaland also hasn’t decided on the road issue in Alaska. READ THE LATEST.

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Historic bid ends for Seattle’s Indigenous candidates

Colleen Echohawk, Pawnee, has acknowledged her failed but historic bid for mayor of Seattle but wrote on social media that she is confident that her campaign “elevated and amplified the voices of the homeless in our community.”

Echohawk’s concession came Aug. 5, as late results from the Aug. 3 primary showed her updated vote counts failing to close in on the two top finishers, who will advance to the Nov. 2 general election.

Casey Sixkiller, Cherokee Nation, finished the race in 6th place with 3.5 percent of the vote.

Several other Indigenous candidates will be on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election, however, in Olympia, Omak, Port Angeles and other cities across the region. READ MORE.

Credit: Mount Rainer looms in the background of the Seattle skyline at sunset. (Photo by Howard Ignatius via Creative Commons)

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#ICYMI: Photos from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Filming for “Killers of the Flower Moon” continues in Oklahoma. The Osage News is there to document the making of a film that unveils a dark period in U.S. history, when greed and evil surrounded the Osage people.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on David Grann’s highly praised bestseller of the same name. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, the film depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. CHECK OUT THE PHOTO ESSAY.

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