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December 8, 2024

Politics
News
Newscasts
Classifieds
Careers
Outside
Obituaries
Opinion

Politics
News
Newscasts
Classifieds
Careers
Outside
Obituaries
Opinion

Mary Annette Pember

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Articles From This Author

Members of the Native American Rights Fund staff in Boulder, Colorado, monitor voting information and respond to voting questions via the organization’s Election Protection Hotline on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Amy-Marie Echohawk/courtesy of Native American Rights Fund)

Troubles at the ballot box: Tribal IDs often aren’t accepted

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 5, 2024

Hundreds of people gathered to hear President Joe Biden issue an official apology to Native people for the nation's destructive operation of Indian boarding schools. Biden delivered the apology on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at the Gila Crossing Community School on the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Laveen, Arizona. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Historic apology: Adding our light 'to the sum of light’

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 4, 2024

A Trulieve employee listens during a discussion of the medical marijuana company's product and packaging safety standards, at an event in support of Amendment 3, a ballot initiative which would legalize the recreational use of pot in Florida for adults 21 years old and older, at a Trulieve medical cannabis dispensary in Hallendale Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Native Vote 2024: Marijuana measures could impact tribal businesses

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 3, 2024

Arizona abortion-rights supporters gather for a news conference on July 3, 2024, in Phoenix prior to delivering over 800,000 petition signatures to the State Capitol to get abortion rights on the November general election ballot. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Abortion on the ballot in 10 states

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 1, 2024

A water walker carries the eagle staff during ceremony recognizing the importance of water in September 2024 north of Wakefield, Michigan. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Water doesn’t stop and neither do the water walkers

By Mary Annette Pember

Oct 28, 2024

President Joe Biden delivers an historic apology to Native people for the government's ugly history with Indian boarding schools, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at the Gila Crossing Community School in Laveen, Arizona. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Historic Apology: Boarding school history ‘a sin on our soul’

By Mary Annette Pember, Shondiin Mayo and Mark Trahant

Oct 26, 2024

President Joe Biden, shown here at a news conference on July 11, 2024, in Washington, announced on social media on Sunday, July 21, 2024, that he is dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

President Biden to issue boarding school apology – at last

By Mary Annette Pember

Oct 24, 2024

A surge of interest in Native writing is drawing attention to a new wave of Native authors in 2024. (Photo illustration by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Is the publishing world embracing a Native Renaissance 2.0?

By Mary Annette Pember

Sep 19, 2024

Headstones at the cemetery on the grounds of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania mark the graves of children who died at the school. The Winnebago Tribe has sued the Army, demanding the return of the remains of two Winnebago boys who died there in the 19th Century. (Photo by the Associated Press)

Obscure government agency at center of Carlisle repatriation dispute

By Mary Annette Pember

Aug 29, 2024

James Nells, Navajo, a U.S. combat veteran, carries an eagle staff as part of the color guard presentation beginning the Road to Healing hearing at Riverside Indian boarding school in Anadarko, Oklahoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. Survivors of boarding schools told U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, of the abuses they sustained at the schools. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Apologize! Report calls for US government to own up to abusive boarding school history

By Mary Annette Pember and Stewart Huntington

Jul 30, 2024

Shoes sit on the eternal flame on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on Monday May 31, 2021, after the remains of 215 children were found at the site of a former Indian residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Canada has now declared Sept. 30 a Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a national holiday, to remember those who suffered at the schools. The United States holds a Remembrance Day as well on Sept. 30. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada, US differ on boarding schools

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 30, 2024

President Joe Biden, shown here at a news conference on July 11, 2024, in Washington, announced on social media on Sunday, July 21, 2024, that he is dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 race

By The Associated Press and Mary Annette Pember

Jul 21, 2024

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio waves during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, after being nominated as former President Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

J.D. Vance’s ‘fake holiday’ and ‘two-spirit’ comments raise concerns

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 18, 2024

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2020, file photo the Supreme Court is seen in Washington. With abortion and guns already on the agenda, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court is considering adding a third blockbuster issue _ whether to ban consideration of race in college admissions. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court’s Chevron ruling could bring changes for tribes

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 9, 2024

Josephine Mandamin, Anishinabe, known as the Grandmother Water Walker, carries an eagle staff during a celebration on the Bad River Reservation in Wisconsin commemorating a water walk around Lake Superior in 2000. Mandamin, who died in 2019 at age 77, is being honored by the Canadian postal service with a stamp in 2024. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember)

'The gift of sobriety’

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 4, 2024

The Canadian postal service released three stamps in June 2024 honoring three Indigenous women - singer-songwriter Elisapie, artist Christi Belcourt and water protector Josephine Mandamin -for National Indigenous Peoples Day, which is held on June 21, 2024. (Photo illustration courtesy of Canada Post)

Canada honors three Indigenous women with postage stamps

By Mary Annette Pember

Jun 28, 2024

The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

‘Dark legacy’: Boarding school commission gains ground in US Senate

By Mary Annette Pember

Jun 21, 2024

Boarding schools - Bryan Newland, U.S. assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, and U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, middle, listen to Jim LaBelle, right, speak during the Interior's "Road to Healing" event, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Anchorage, Alaska. The tours being held around the country provide survivors of federal Indian boarding schools to speak of their experiences, with several Alaska Natives detailing sexual and physical assault and the loss of their language and culture. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

US boarding school truth inches forward

By Mary Annette Pember

Jun 19, 2024

Several people gathered in Ashland, Wisconsin, on June 4, 2024, to oppose the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' draft environmental impact statement regarding Enbridge's Line 5 reroute project. (Photo courtesy of Devon Cupery)

Army Corps of Engineers gets earful at hearing

By Mary Annette Pember

Jun 17, 2024

The Final Solution-Chemawa Indian Training School, 1905. (Photo courtesy of Pacific University)

Is your ancestor listed in the new boarding school database?

By Mary Annette Pember

May 24, 2024

Then-tribal councilman Wendsler Nosie Sr., at the microphone, speaks with Apache activists in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2015, in a rally to save Oak Flat, land near Superior, Arizona, that is sacred to Western Apache tribes that has been targeted for a copper mine. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

Oak Flat fight goes international

By Mary Annette Pember

May 1, 2024

Albert Mekko, 17, (seated, center) from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, died and was buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1881, two years after arriving at the school. More than 140 years later, Mekko's remains are set to be returned to his family and tribe in Fall 2024. In this photo, believed to have been taken in 1879, Mekko is shown with three other students who arrived with him on Oct. 27, 1879. (Historical photo via the Cumberland County Historical Society)

Eleven more students will go home from Carlisle

By Mary Annette Pember and Stewart Huntington

Apr 24, 2024

Stolen artwork? Here’s how to protect your work

By Mary Annette Pember

Apr 16, 2024

The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin, shown here in March 2021, is known as Mashkiiziibii or Medicine River. Ojibwe believe all the medicines needed to remain healthy grow along the river banks. The band has sued Enbridge demanding the company remove its Line 5 pipeline. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember)

Justice Department steps into Enbridge Line 5 dispute

By Mary Annette Pember

Apr 11, 2024

"Salish Spirit," by Lummi artist Dan Friday, is among the artwork featured in a traveling exhibit, "Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass." The exhibit, which features more than 30 Native glass artists, is at the Cincinnati Art Museum through April 7, 2024, before moving on to Michigan, Virginia, New York, California and Washington state. Friday's work is part of his glass series, "We are still here." (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

‘Clearly Indigenous’: Glass artists featured in new exhibit

By Mary Annette Pember

Apr 4, 2024

Nearly 200 people rallied in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 21, 2024, in support of Michigan's appeal to keep its lawsuit calling for shutdown of Line 5 in state rather than federal court. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Water protectors rally in Ohio over Enbridge pipeline

By Mary Annette Pember

Mar 23, 2024

Vernelda Grant, a tribal archaeologist for the San Carlos Apache Tribe shown here in this 2006 file photo, holds a pottery shard, Friday, Sept. 14, 2006, at an 800-year-old site on the San Carlos Reservation that has been looted of historic artifacts. The rocks to the right were once part of the wall of a pueblo home. (Photo by Jack Kurtz/Arizona Republica via AP)

New NAGPRA rules: ‘A state of Gozhoo’

By Mary Annette Pember

Mar 19, 2024

The Field Museum in Chicago shuttered this exhibit in response to strict new rules under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA. The new rules went into effect Jan. 12, 2024, prompting a number of museums across the country to close exhibits until they could properly consult with tribes about the items that had been displayed. (Photo courtesy of the Field Museum)

New NAGPRA rules: A sea change in federal regulations

By Mary Annette Pember

Mar 18, 2024

The Kakagon Sloughs, shown here in 2022, are part of the Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs wetlands, which flow into Lake Superior and are maintained by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The tribe's fight over the Enbridge pipeline on their lands is featured in a 2024 film, "Bad River: A Story of Defiance," by Mary Mazzio. (Photo by Richard Schultz, courtesy of 50 Eggs Films)

‘Bad River’ film tells story of Ojibwe defiance

By Mary Annette Pember

Mar 8, 2024

The repatriation team that helped recover historic Ojibwe scrolls gathers at the Bay Mills Cultural Center on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, after a ceremony welcoming the scrolls back to their homeland. Behind them is a mural depicting symbols from ancient birch bark scrolls describing the Ojibwe migration story. Pictured are, left to right, Jerry Jondreau, Kate Aamoo, Josephine Jondreau, Howard Kimewon, Wanda Perron, Micah Assignee, Kayla Perron-Assinewe and Robber Assiinewe. (Photo courtesy of Whitney Gravelle)

Emotional ceremony welcomes birch bark scrolls back to Ojibwe people

By Mary Annette Pember

Feb 16, 2024

A tombstone of an unknown student that attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School sits on the grounds of the present-day U.S. Army War College. The proposed Truth and Healing Commission would be charged with investigating unmarked grave sites and other abuses of the Indian boarding school system. (File photo by Addison Kliewer/Gaylord News)

‘Sending them home to die’

By Mary Annette Pember

Jan 29, 2024

This birch bark Ojibwe scroll, shown here on a LiveAuctioneers website, was purchased by a coalition of tribes at auction on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, to prevent it and several others from going back into private collections. The scrolls, from about 1900, are believed to have come from Michigan and were in a private collection. (Screen grab by Mary Annette Pember, ICT)

‘We did it’: Birch bark scrolls recovered from auction

By Mary Annette Pember

Jan 27, 2024

A group portrait shows the first male students to arrive at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from Pine Ridge and Rosebud on Oct. 6, 1879. Several of the boys in the photo later died and were buried at the school for more than 140 years before finally being sent to their relatives in South Dakota in July 2021. School founder Richard Henry Pratt is standing at left, and interpreter Charles Tackett is standing at right. (Photo courtesy of the Cumberland County Historical Society)

Tribes strike historic deal with Army over repatriations

By Mary Annette Pember and Stewart Huntington

Sep 15, 2023

Murals on the rear side of the abandoned Concho Indian Boarding School in El Reno, Oklahoma, were painted by Steven Grounds of the Navajo and Euchee tribes. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Harvard announces return of Native hair samples

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 28, 2022

Dozens of voters went to the polls an hour before the polls closed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Kalle Benallie/ICT)

Native vote turns out in force

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 9, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case that will decide if the ICWA is constitutional. Outside, ICWA supporters were on site in numbers. (Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, ICT)

Supreme Court takes up the Indian Child Welfare Act

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 7, 2022

The Final Solution-The Holy Rosary Cemetery, shown here in May 2022, sits next to Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where a Truth and Healing effort is underway to uncover the school's boarding school past. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Excavation at Red Cloud school finds no human remains

By Mary Annette Pember

Nov 6, 2022

FILE - In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 file photo, priests pray during a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The umbrella organization of Catholic religious orders in the U.S. is suggesting its members consider voluntarily identifying priests accused of sexual abuse, opening up what could be a major new chapter in the Catholic Church's long-running abuse and cover-up saga, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

‘Desolate Country’: Abusive priests clustered at mission schools

By Mary Annette Pember

Oct 20, 2022

Excavation began Monday, Oct. 17, 2022, at Red Cloud Indian School in the basement of Drexel Hall, shown here in May 2022 as ground-penetrating radar searched the area where a worker saw what appeared to be three small graves in the 1990s. The radar was inconclusive, so officials agreed to dig up the area. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Excavation begins at Red Cloud school for possible remains

By Mary Annette Pember

Oct 18, 2022

Stairs lead down to the basement of Drexel Hall on the campus of Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, where officials are set to begin excavation Monday, Oct. 17, 2022, to search for unmarked graves. Red Cloud is among the first schools to address the issue of its boarding school past with a Truth and Healing initiative to find out the truths about what happened. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Buried Secrets: Red Cloud takes the lead in uncovering boarding school past

By Mary Annette Pember

Oct 15, 2022

The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin, shown here in March 2021, is known as Mashkiiziibii or Medicine River. Ojibwe believe all the medicines needed to remain healthy grow along the river banks. The band has sued Enbridge demanding the company remove its Line 5 pipeline. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember)

Judge orders ‘trespassing’ Enbridge to pay Bad River

By Mary Annette Pember

Sep 9, 2022

The Wounded Knee Memorial and cemetery, shown here in a 2018 file photo, marks the site where more than 250 Lakota men, women and children were massacred by U.S. soldiers in 1890 in South Dakota. The memorial land was already owned by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, but the tribal council voted Sept. 7, 2022, to join with the Cheyenne River Sioux to buy the remaining 40-acre parcel of the historic landmark from a non-Native owner. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/Indian Country Today)

Wounded Knee land comes home at last

By Mary Annette Pember

Sep 9, 2022

Marsha Small, Northern Cheyenne, conducts ground-penetrating radar at the Red Cloud Indian School in May 2022 in the basement of Drexel Hall, a former dormitory and home for nuns where a maintenance worker said he saw three small graves. Officials decided to dig up the concrete and excavate the area after radar findings were inconclusive about whether unmarked graves may be underneath.(Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Red Cloud Indian School will dig for graves

By Mary Annette Pember

Aug 23, 2022

Rachel Mowatt, special project manager for the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes, peaks through a hole in the wall of the abandoned replacement Concho Indian School in El Reno, Oklahoma. The murals were painted on the rear side of the school by artist Steven Grounds of the Navajo and Yuchee tribes in 2014. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember)

‘Sometimes we hear the voices of children playing there’

By Mary Annette Pember

Aug 18, 2022

The entrance to the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota sends a welcoming message to visitors. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Pine Ridge council votes to exclude missionary from tribal lands

By Mary Annette Pember

Aug 5, 2022

Indigenous leaders from Canada walk in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after their meeting with Pope Francis on Friday, April 1, 2022. Shown from left are Gerald Antoine, First Nations Northwest Territories regional chief; Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami nation, and Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council. The Pope's visit to Canada July 25-29, 2022, renewed calls for the Vatican to return Indigenous and colonial-era artifacts that are in its museum collections. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Indigenous peoples want sacred items returned from Catholic museums

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 29, 2022

Tim Giago, editor of Native Sun News Today in his Rapid City office May 2022. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember, ICT)

‘Don’t be afraid to stand up,’ the legacy of Tim Giago

By Jourdan Bennett-Begaye and Mary Annette Pember

Jul 24, 2022

Eugene Alexis plays the drum at the conclusion of the rededication ceremony for Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2020, the church was damaged in a large fire and has now been renovated ahead of Pope Francis' visit to the Canadian province. The Pontiff will visit the church during a six-day swing through Canada that starts July 24, 2022, at Maskwacis, Alberta, where he is expected to apologize before more than 15,000 people for the Catholic Church's role in operating Indigenous residential schools. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Papal Visit: Pressure mounts for residential school apology

By Miles Morrisseau and Mary Annette Pember

Jul 24, 2022

James Nells, Navajo, a U.S. combat veteran, carries an eagle staff as part of the color guard presentation beginning the Road to Healing hearing at Riverside Indian boarding school in Anadarko, Oklahoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. Survivors of boarding schools told U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, of the abuses they sustained at the schools. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Road to Healing: Deb Haaland pledges boarding school truths will be uncovered

By Mary Annette Pember

Jul 9, 2022

Davidica Little Spotted Horse of the Oglala Lakota Nation is a heavy metal musician living on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Photo by Mary Annette Pember

This Lakota grandma rocks

By Mary Annette Pember

Jun 28, 2022

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