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Felix Clary

Felix Clary is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ICT and Tulsa World. He is a Chickasaw citizen based in Tulsa. Follow him on Twitter/X @felix_clary or reach him by email at felix@ictnews.org.

Articles From This Author

Nationwide, Native students miss school far more frequently than their peers, but not at Watonga High School shown on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)
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Oklahoma schools get it right on reducing Native absenteeism

By Felix Clary
Hundreds of Cherokee citizens, fluent speakers, and elders gathered at the Chota Center at the Cherokee Casino in Tahlequah, Okla., on Nov. 5 to celebrate the tribe's language revitalization successes. (Felix Clary / ICT and Tulsa World)
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Celebrating the Cherokee language

By Felix Clary
A banner directs voters to an early voting center at tribal headquarters at Zia Pueblo, New Mexico, on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. An act of Congress a century ago granted U.S. citizenship to Native Americans, marking the start of a long journey to secure voting rights. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
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Fear, uncertainty, determination following election

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. (right) speaks with Brian Huseman of Amazon at the Cherokee Film Studios as the Cherokee Nation announced a partnership with Amazon for the Cherokee Nation Film Institute Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons, Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation partners with Amazon on film institute

By Felix Clary
The western chat pile is the largest chat pile remaining, according to Summer King with the Quapaw Nation Enviromental Office, and stands 200 feet tall Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 in Picher, Ok. (Photo by Mike Simons, Tulsa World)
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Quapaw Nation restoring their reservation that scientist says feds destroyed

By Felix Clary
Hoktvkesuletawv, women veterans of the Muscogee Nation, lead the parade for Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Photo by Mike Simons/Tulsa World)
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Tulsa celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day with parade

By Felix Clary
Native actor Tatanka Means. (Courtesy photo by United Indian Nations of Oklahoma)
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Rez Dogs actors encourage Natives to vote

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. (left) Gilcrease Museum Executive Director Brian Whisenhunt stand next to the former Cherokee Advocate printing press, which is being returned to the Cherokee Nation. (Photo courtesy of Cherokee Nation)
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Historic printing press returning to Cherokee Nation

By Felix Clary
Left to right: Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr., Oneida Nation; Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes; Norman Hildebrand, second chief, Wyandotte Nation; Margo Gray, executive director, UINO; Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill; Peoria Chief Craig Harper; Joe Deere, Cherokee Nation council member; DJ and motivational speaker Chance Rush; Larry Wright Jr., NCAI executive director. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Tribal leaders on why Natives in Oklahoma must vote in November

By Felix Clary
A weathered rose sits on the grave of James Cornman at the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery in Pennsylvania on Sept. 5, 2024. James was one of three Oglala Sioux students who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late 1800s and is among 11 Native youths disinterred from the Carlisle cemetery starting Sept. 6, 2024. They are being repatriated back to their homelands. Along with James, the remains of Oglala students Samuel Flying Horse and Fannie Charging Shield have been returned to Pine Ridge for reburial. (Photo by Charles Fox, special to ICT)
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Girl’s remains from Carlisle returned to Wichita Nation

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Brian Warner shake hands while signing tribal legislation on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Tahlequah, Okla., that will set aside $40 million a year for tribal housing. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation expands housing programs for tribal citizens

By Felix Clary
The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress and the nation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Tribal leaders implore Congress to reauthorize farm bill that is set to expire

By Felix Clary
This aerial photo shows the Wind Creek Casino in Wetumpka, Ala., with sacred Muscogee (Creek) burial grounds in the center surrounded by trees. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama owns the casino. (Photo courtesy of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians)
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Tribe renews lawsuit over casino built on burial grounds

By Felix Clary
Claremore Indian Hospital (Photo courtesy of Cherokee Nation)
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Cherokee Nation to consider taking control of hospital

By Felix Clary
Pictured: Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning advocate and writer focused on advancing Native rights and ending violence against Native women. Nagle is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a two spirit/ queer woman.
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The long fight for Oklahoma tribal sovereignty

By Felix Clary
Allissa Ray (left), marketing specialist for Cherokee Nation Businesses, and Brettlyn Bevenue, program manager for the Cherokee Film Institute, staff a booth for the Cherokee Film Institute during the tribe's 72nd annual Cherokee National Holiday that began Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Cherokee Nation)
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Film institute launched to fight lack of Native filmmakers

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. speaks Aug. 31, 2024, during his annual State of the Nation address in Tahlequah, Okla. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation to continue issuing tribal car tags

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., left, visits a mobile unit used in the tribe's harm reduction program to help people with substance abuse issues, (Photo courtesy of Cherokee Nation
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Cherokees take new approach to helping addicts

By Felix Clary
A commodities box from one of the Cherokee Nation's food distribution store and warehouses centers is shown in this undated photo. (Photo courtesy of Cherokee Nation)
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USDA warehouse changes lead to commodity delays

By Felix Clary and Amelia Schafer
Pictured: Mugshot of Walter "Bunky" Echo-Hawk Jr.
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Final charge dropped against artist Bunky Echo-Hawk

By Felix Clary
(From left to right) Henry Roan, Raymond Buffalo Meat, and Thomas Perrier, former students of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Penn., are shown in this 1900 photo. (Courtesy of Cumberland County Historical Society)
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A boy named E-Stah-mo-sah

By Felix Clary
A man and a woman in a Dodge Ram pickup drive by a July 20 pro-Palestine rally hosted by Lakota youth in Rapid City, South Dakota. Rally attendees say the couple threatened them, including waving a firearm at them, and have reported their actions to local police. (Photo courtesy of the Oglala Lakota chapter of the International Indigenous Youth Council)
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Attacks reported at Lakota youth-led rally for Palestine

By Felix Clary
Chilocco Indian School was a federal off-reservation boarding school established to house, civilize, Christianize, educate, and transform American Indian youth. Thousands of Native children and young adults passed under the school's entryway arch. In January 1884, Chilocco opened its doors in 1884 to 150 children from the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Wichita, Comanche, and Pawnee tribes. It closed in 1980. (Photo courtesy Oklahoma History Center)
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Boarding schools investigation a step closer as bills progress

By Felix Clary
On the hit FX show, "Reservation Dogs," Canadian actress Sarah Podemski, Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi, left, plays Rita Smallhill, the mother to Bear Smallhill, played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, right. (Photo courtesy of FX)
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‘Rez Dogs’ earns four Emmy nominations

By Felix Clary
Cecilia Barnett and her husband walk into their new home in Muskogee, Okla., located within a new Cherokee Nation-built housing subdivision. The couple only has to pay $600 a month to lease the property, which they can own after paying off the mortgage. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation celebrates new housing for tribal citizens

By Felix Clary
bill
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Death of Dan Deer: The tragedy of Indigenous trauma

By Felix Clary
Plaintiff Rhonda Grayson speaks Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at a press conference about her case seeking Muscogee Nation citizenship as a freedman descendent. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Muscogee Nation appoints special judge, freedmen say its racial discrimination

By Felix Clary
Paul Gaines avoids being tackled by (from left) Walela Walter, 10, Aiyana Walter, 11, and Tsila Walter, 13, as he holds up the ball with a Cherokee-style stick on Friday, July 5, 2024, in Tahlequah, Okla. (Victor Lopez, Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation revives stickball, ‘the little war’

By Felix Clary
"I voted on Native land" sticker created by Urban Native Era. (Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, ICT)
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100 years of citizenship – tribal advocates press citizens to vote

By Felix Clary
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., speaks to reporters after Republicans met to try and decide who to nominate to be the new House speaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Tom Cole reminds subcommittee of tribal sovereignty over trust lands

By Felix Clary
An old sign for the school sits in a storage shed at Bacone College, on Jan. 8 2024, in Muskogee, Okla. Founded in 1880 as a Baptist missionary college focused on assimilation, Bacone College transformed into an Indigenous-led institution that provided an intertribal community, as well as a degree. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)
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Bacone College goes bankrupt in attempt to save campus

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed a proclamation marking June as Pride Month for the nation. (Courtesy photo)
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Cherokee Nation proclaims Pride Month, will advance LGBTQ+ support

By Felix Clary
Rendering of the Cherokee Nation’s future Wilma P. Mankiller Cherokee Capitol Park in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. (Courtesy photo)
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Cherokee Nation breaks ground on new Wilma Mankiller park

By Felix Clary
Cruz Galaviz, left, and Cassidy Galaviz, right, are welcomed home by their mother, Tammie Galaviz, on Friday as Remember the Removal Bike Ride participants arrive back in Tahlequah after their 950-mile journey commemorating the Cherokee Nation Trail of Tears. (Photo by Victor Lopez, Tulsa World)
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Cherokee Nation Remember the Removal bike-riders return

By Felix Clary
Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Executive Director Joe Echelle speaks about the state's PlatePay cashless toll system Tuesday during a panel discussion at the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma's quarterly meeting, held at the Buffalo Run Casino and Hotel in Miami. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Oklahoma Turnpike Authority director makes case for PlatePay to tribal leaders

By Felix Clary
Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, from left, Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby and Oklahoma City University School of Law Dean David Holt are pictured at the Sovereignty Symposium at OCU on Tuesday.
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New sovereignty institute offers opportunity to study tribal law, government

By Felix Clary
Twelve cyclists from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma met up with Remember the Removal Bike Ride participants from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians for the 950-mile event in memory of their ancestors who were forced to migrate across the country in the late 1830s. (Photo courtesy of the Cherokee Nation)
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Cherokee cyclists ride the Trail of Tears

By Felix Clary
Actors Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio from a film scene in "Killers of the Flower Moon." (Courtesy Apple Studios)
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‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ costume designer files suit against Apple Studios

By Felix Clary
LARGE - COVER photo - new ict logo
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Muscogee police shoot and kill domestic violence suspect

By Felix Clary
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., speaks during a news conference in Tahlequah, Okla., on Aug. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Cherokee Nation to consider constitutional convention

By Felix Clary
John Henry Mashunkashey, left, and Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, principal chief of the Osage Nation, speak during an interview on the front porch of Mashunkashey's home, which was damaged by a tornado Monday, May 6, 2024, in Barnsdall, Okla. (Mike Simons, Tulsa World)
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Osage veteran survives EF4 'train'

By Felix Clary
Kent Smith, anatomy professor at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, gifts a feather to Lana Duke (Chickasaw), a graduate of the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Tahlequah, Okla. (Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World)
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Tribal leaders honor Native medical school graduates

By Felix Clary
The country's first tribally affiliated medical school – Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cherokee Nation – will celebrate its inaugural class of 46 students at its May 16 spring commencement. (Photo courtesy of Oklahoma State University)
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New medical school trains modern Indigenous healers

By Felix Clary
Education
Tulalip women sing an honor song after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that created a first-in-the-nation statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people on March 31, 2022. The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering a similar nationwide alert system for missing and endangered Indigenous people. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Oklahoma tribes urge FCC to create MMIP alerts

By Felix Clary
Layla Sisneros digs through the remains of her home in Sulphur, Oklahoma, after a tornado tore through the town and demolished her home on Saturday, April 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Roshelle Sisneros)
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Tornado took everything, but them

By Felix Clary
The front doors of the Bacone College Athletic Center had to be boarded up after being vandalized following the college's closure in late 2023. (Felix Clary, ICT and Tulsa World)
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'Bacone College is not closing,' despite leadership change

By Felix Clary
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt gestures during a news conference concerning the state's compact with the Oklahoma Tribes for gambling during a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019, in Oklahoma City. Stitt and the tribes are locked in an impasse over whether the 15-year agreements that give the tribes the exclusive rights to operate casinos in Oklahoma expire on Jan. 1. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Oklahoma governor says tribes owe state $5 million

By Felix Clary
Kaysa Whitley, coordinator for the Westwin Resistance Coalition, speaks outside the Lawton (Oklahoma) City Hall. The coalition is fighting to stop a cobalt and nickel refinery that is being built in Lawton on the ancestral homelands of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache people. (Photo courtesy of the Westwin Resistance Coalition)
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Native activists fighting nickel and cobalt refinery

By Felix Clary
Pictured: Mugshot of Walter "Bunky" Echo-Hawk Jr.
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Bunky Echo-Hawk trial set for October

By Felix Clary
Osage Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear (center) and Cherokee Chief Chuck Hoskins Jr. spoke Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of the Tribal Nations event. (Photo courtesy of the Tulsa Regional Chamber)
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Tribes celebrate economic efforts at State of Tribal Nations event

By Felix Clary