Making a mark in Hollywood, a spiritual icon booted from the endangered species list, and a major victory for indigenous people, and the environment, in Brazil. All this and more gripped Indian country during the Week That Was, August 6, 2017.

FAB FILMS:Neither Wolf Nor Dog is an indigenous indie hit, based on Kent Nerburn’s award-winning autobiographical novel of the same name. ICMN caught up with director and writer Steven Lewis Simpson after it beat out Hollywood stats during opening weekend. Meanwhile, Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River is “gripping, realistic and beautifully crafted,” according to A&E Editor Vincent Schilling, who gave major kudos to its all-star cast including Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene, Martin Sensmeier and Tantoo Cardinal.

HARD WORK PAYS OFF: Bellingham City Councilmember Roxanne Murphy, Nooksack, credited hard work when she garnered more than 65 percent of the vote to win a primary, reported Mark Trahant. She was one of a number of Native Americans who ran for offices ranging from city councils to the Seattle Port Commission. In South Dakota, hard work on another electoral angle paid off: The state’s Help America Vote Act Grant Board approved funding for Indian-reservation satellite-voting centers on the Cheyenne River and northeastern Pine Ridge reservations for the 2018 elections.

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UNPROTECTED: The Yellowstone grizzly bear is officially off the endangered species list, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe is preparing to sue, calling the federal government’s move absurd.

STANDING GROUND: Munduruku activists who shut down construction of the massive São Manoel hydroelectric dam site in Brazil for four days have received assurances from officials that their demands for prior consultation, land rights and return of sacred funerary urns will be met.

WILLFUL DISREGARD: Enbridge’s Line 3 proposal, in contrast, ignores Ojibwe history and rights, wrote three members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Native American Caucus in a guest editorial. “The current environmental-impact statement briefly acknowledges the disproportionate harm to Native people but fails to answer many of the questions specific to Native communities. Enbridge acts as it pleases without regard for Native people, and we as the Native American Caucus in the Minnesota House oppose its current proposed pipeline route,” they wrote.

‘ASSIMILATION IS SURRENDER’: The Amah Mutsun, struggling for federal recognition in California, continue the paths of their ancestors, led by Chairman Valentin Lopez, who presided over a ceremony to honor 2,000 of his kinspeople who had been buried in a mass grave.

INVESTMENTS GALORE: More than $1 billion worth of expansions are under way in tribal casinos throughout California, the Sunshine State, with recent spending on casino construction in Southern California alone estimated to exceed $1 billion this year for Pechanga Resort & Casino ($285 million), Sycuan Casino ($226 million), Pala Casino ($170 million), Harrah’s Resort Southern California ($160 million), Viejas Casino & Resort and Barona Resort & Casino.

STRUGGLING INQUIRY: A national inquiry into the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in Canada is failing to examine the systemic violence and root causes of violence against indigenous people in Canada, according to commissioner Marilyn Poitras, who has resigned. She disagreed with the vision and terms of reference of the inquiry, which she said has failed to meet with the indigenous community and grassroots organizations. She also said the hearing process has not been conducted in a respectful, trauma-informed way for families of the missing and murdered. Several other staffers have left, as well.

FAREWELL: Anna C. Gibbs, whose Indian name was Waasabiikwe (Moonlight Shining on the Water Woman), walked on at age 72 after a battle with liver cancer. One of the Red Lake Reservation’s most impactful spiritual leaders, Gibbs was instrumental in the growing Ojibwe language revitalization efforts in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She also ran the medicine dance in her home community of Ponemah, officiated at countless wakes and funerals all over Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Ontario, gave many hundreds of people their Indian names, served as a spiritual advisor to three ceremonial drums in Cass Lake, and helped steward many in the Native community around the region on quests for spiritual health and cultural knowledge.