Greetings, relatives.
A lot of news out there. Thanks for stopping by ICT’s digital platform.
Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
The official nomination of former president Donald Trump as his party’s candidate for this year’s election will happen during the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The four-day convention starts on July 15 and will end on July 18, the last event is likely to be Trump’s acceptance speech. The convention happens every four years and Republican delegates from all over the country come to officially vote on who their party will nominate for the presidential election, said John Tahsuda, ICT’s regular political contributor.
Unlike the Democratic Party, which has been in turmoil over their party’s nomination since President Joe Biden’s debate performance on June 27, the GOP’s presidential nomination process is likely to go as planned.
“Republicans have their nominee set,” Tahsuda, Kiowa, told ICT. “There’s no dissent against him being the nominee.” READ MORE. — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT
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Bill Kennedye, an artist of Kiowa heritage, hadn’t painted in months when he tore up several of his own paintings worth thousands of dollars in anger that was enhanced by drugs and alcohol.
He had just spent a few weeks in jail in Norman, and his brother Boots picked him up and dropped him off at his apartment. Boots made sure to stay in contact with him, but after a few days, Bill stopped texting him back. Boots went to bang on his door — no answer.
Later, the police wouldn’t let Boots into the apartment, telling him the scene was too gruesome. Bill Kennedye, who painted under the name Dan Deer, was 49 when he hung himself in the closet with speaker wires.
The story is one example of the many health problems disproportionately facing Oklahoma’s Native population, which suffers from a life expectancy rate 17 years lower than the state’s non-Native population. READ MORE. — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
Melissa Robinson was with family members in Montreal when they heard the news that her cousin’s killer had been convicted of first-degree murder.
Jeremy Skibicki, a serial killer who confessed to targeting vulnerable Indigenous women in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was convicted Thursday, July 11, of killing four women, including Robinson’s cousin, Morgan Harris.
“We got the convictions we wanted,” Robinson said. “We’re elated to hear that that monster will never step foot out of a prison.”
Skibicki, 37, had admitted killing the women, but his attorneys argued he was not criminally responsible because of mental illness. READ MORE. — Miles Morrisseau, ICT
The all-Ojibwe version of “Star Wars”A New Hope” (Anangong Miigaading) is set to blast off Aug. 8 with a premiere in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, APTN and the University of Manitoba are part of an alliance with Disney/Lucasfilm that created the dubbed Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) version of the iconic 1977 film.
The film will launch onto the big screen with the world premiere at Winnipeg’s venerable Centennial Hall, and starting on Aug. 10, will debut in limited release in the city and other select markets.
Walt Disney Studios Canada is collaborating with exhibitors to offer free screenings.
The project brought together a wide range of talent and multigenerational Anishinaabe speakers to serve as advisors and performers. The dubbing was done over a 10-day period in early May in Winnipeg, with the final mix completed at director George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound in California. READ MORE.— Miles Morrisseau, ICT
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July 5 marked the second First Friday Traditional Games Day of the year for the Cherokee Nation, where Cherokee citizens and other community members were taught to play stickball and traditional games at the Cherokee National History Museum in Tahlequah.
The first game day was held in June, and one more will be held in August.
JP Johnson, a Cherokee language teacher and stickball player, said he wants stickball to be a “gateway drug” into Cherokee culture. If a young person falls in love with the game, Johnson said they might fall in love with the ceremonies and traditions that surround it.
“I want them to be hooked on their identity. I don’t want there to be missing links to who we were. I hate saying, ‘We used to do this or that.’ Why is it ‘used to?’ We shouldn’t have to say that anymore. The government is not breathing down our necks with dances and ceremonies. We have religious freedom to do what our ancestors did,” Johnson said in an ICT and Tulsa World interview. READ MORE. — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
In interior Alaska and northwest Canada, temperatures are in the pleasant 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit range but climate change is affecting nearly every aspect of life, said Gwich’in Council International board member Evon Taa’ąįį Peter, who is Neetsaii Gwich’in and Koyukon Athabascan.
For one thing, he told ICT, more than 60 percent of the forest lands of the Alaskan Gwich’in nation have burned in wildfires in the past 10 years. As of July 10, 582,000 acres had burned this year in 328 wildfires in Alaska.
“I couldn’t open the windows of my house for seven days straight, I think, because it would just let smoke billow into my home, which was already too unhealthy for us to be outside. So most of us just had to remain indoors…so there’s definitely very real dramatic and in-our-face impacts from climate change across the state, even in (an urban area like) Fairbanks.”
The fires are contributing to the melting of the permafrost, ground that’s been frozen for anywhere from two years to thousands of years. Because permafrost holds a lot of methane and carbon, “we’re also really worried about those further implications due to those forest fires connected to the permafrost that’s melting,” Peter said. The methane and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. READ MORE. — Joaqlin Estus, ICT
- Behind spearfishing is a long and violent history of denied treaty rights: It’s just one example of a fraught and violent history that for centuries disrupted Indigenous people’s lives in the Upper Midwest and barred them from traditional food gathering practices like spearfishing, hunting and harvesting wild rice.
- Tribes in Nebraska fight to save their languages: ‘Without our language, we die.’
- Artist creates safe space for empowerment, exploration of stories: The Bush Fellowship is just the latest award in a list of recent ones for Moira Villiard.
- How Queen Liliʻuokalani is influencing the debate over deep-sea mining: As the United Nations weighs ocean floor mining, Hawai’i just banned the practice.
- Jules Edwards advocated for her autistic kids — then learned she’s autistic, too: She became committed to making the world a better place for generations to come.
- Native American Feature Film Writers Lab Fellows Selected For 2024 Cohort.
- Native American civilization of 50,000 people mysteriously vanished.
- Red Lake Nation College mounts cultural exchange with Indigenous Brazilians.
We want your tips, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know. dalton@ictnews.org.
