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Earlier this month, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced Bryan Mercier, enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, as the next director. Mercier has served as the director of the BIA Northwest Regional Office, located in Portland, Oregon, since 2018.

“I’ve had the privilege of serving in four federal agencies, Energy, Treasury, Agriculture and Interior, each with unique missions. None have a mission as important and fulfilling as BIA’s,” said Mercier in a press release. “I’m truly honored to be selected as the bureau’s next director and look forward to building on Darryl LaCounte’s sound leadership to support Tribal sovereignty, strengthen Indian self-determination, and continue to improve our services by making the bureau an employer of choice for Native people.”

For the last 20 years Mercier has worked as a public servant for several agencies including the USDA Forest Service, the Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund, and as the executive manager of Fish and Wildlife for the Bonneville Power Administration’s Environment, Fish, and Wildlife Program, the largest environmental mitigation program in the United States.

Mercier will be acting BIA director once Darryl LaCounte, the current director, retires from federal service later this year.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the bureau for almost four decades,” said LaCounte in a press release. “In my tenure, we have placed thousands of acres into the federal trust, streamlined administrative processes, and updated federal policy to make it easier and less burdensome for Tribal governments to practice self-governance. I’m proud of the diverse work our employees achieve every day to make Indian Country safer, more prosperous, and equitable for all. With Mercier’s guidance, the BIA will continue striving to provide innovative and critical services to the 574 federally recognized Tribes BIA serves.”

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The latest: Indigenous musical takes Manhattan, crop yields family history, Northwest art meets pop culture

THEATER: Distant Thunder rolls in

The first mainstream Indigenous musical in New York City, Distant Thunder: A New American Musical, is finally playing off Broadway after more than a decade of development and performances at various venues. Previews begin at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres on Sept. 25, with an official opening on Oct. 3 and performances continuing through Oct. 27.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Family farm sows inspiration

The experimental California hi-desert gallery in Yucca Valley Compound YV hosts an unusual photography show, The Onion Fields, an exhibition of curated images shot over a span of 15 years by twin sisters Amber Maalouf and Ashlie Chavez.

Digging into the history of onion farming within their Indigenous Mexican family, migrants from Chihuahua and Nuevo León to California, the sisters connect with the generations by dressing in their mother’s and grandmother’s clothes and visiting places where their family labored. Looking to unearth layers of family history and gain a deeper understanding of their grandparents’ hard labor sacrifice, they first began processing film in their parents’ garage with equipment gifted by their mother, a professional portrait photographer. READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, ICT

PHOENIX – By 7 a.m. on a Monday in early September, hundreds of people – some of whom had come out as early as 3 a.m. and traveled from states thousands of miles off – had gathered in the small town of Window Rock to watch the first day of the Miss Navajo Nation pageant. The building where the event took place was filled to capacity almost as soon as attendees were allowed in, and hundreds more set up lawn chairs behind a roped off area to watch the pageant.

All eyes were cast on the six young women competing. Cheers erupted as they came out, waved to the crowds and took their spots by large wooden butchering stands, tied-up sheep close by. Behind them were kindling fires they had to start without the use of lighter fluid.

“Miss Navajo Nation – she’s the bridge between the generations of the old and the young,” said Amy Naazbah Reeves-Begaye, 26, who was selected as queen in 2023 and reigned until the end of this year’s pageant. READ MORE. — Cronkite News

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This spring in Michigan, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi, or Gun Lake Tribe, received $4 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Climate Resilience program, an initiative that aims to help tribes prepare for climate change. The money will be used to buy a fleet of electric vehicles, help the nation manage a gray water system, and install a solar array that will cut the tribe’s electricity bills by around 80 percent and make the nation more self-sufficient. Underneath the two-acre solar array will be gardens of native flowers like butterfly weed, purple prairie clover, and primrose to help with the tribe’s prairie restoration efforts.

“We need to be innovative and find ways to leave less of a carbon footprint,” said Gun Lake tribal council member Virginia Vanderband. “If we can generate enough energy for our infrastructure, great.” The tribe has other investments — real estate, a construction company, a grocery store — and while the green energy project is doing well, becoming part of the energy market is “not a focus,” Vanderband said. READ MORE. — Grist

TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains material regarding sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegations involving a minor. The national StrongHearts Native Helpline is available 24/7 at 1-844-762-8483.

LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal of a sprawling sex abuse indictment against Nathan Chasing Horse, while leaving open the possibility of charges being refiled in a case that sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada.

Proceedings in the 18-count criminal case have been at a standstill for more than a year while the former “Dances with Wolves” actor challenged it. The full seven-member court’s decision, issued Thursday, reverses earlier rulings upholding the charges by a three-member panel of the high court and a state judge. READ MORE. — The Associated Press

This week, the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s annual conference welcomed hundreds of local and national industry stakeholders to discuss the future of the country’s third-largest oil-producing state. Several presenters emphasized a desire to access underdeveloped reserves, local workforce development, and what many industry officials see as an increased onslaught of federal regulations. READ MORE. — Buffalo’s Fire

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