The “Predator” was no match for a female Comanche warrior.
Each year, ICT posts a list of most-read articles from that calendar year. This year, the winner goes to an article titled “Comanche Nation vs. ‘Predator,’” a feature story published in June by ICT freelance journalist Sandra Hale Schulman.
The movie features Amber Midthunder, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe, as the lead character Naru. The movie was set in the early 1700s and featured a mostly Indigenous cast battling the space alien in the fifth installment of the Predator franchise.
The movie was released on Hulu in August and set streaming records. Jhane Myers, Comanche/Blackfeet, was the movie’s creative producer. READ MORE.
(Previous: ICT’s top 10 news stories of 2021)
In July, sports legend Jim Thorpe was back on top after the International Olympic Committee finally righted a longtime wrong.
The committee corrected the record books to reflect Thorpe’s Olympic victories for the decathlon and pentathlon events in Stockholm’s 1912 Olympic Games.
In July 2020, Bright Path Strong started a petition aiming to correct the record books. Two years later, on July 14, 2022, it finally happened. READ MORE.
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In May, The U.S. Department of Interior released its investigative report on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
The more than 100-page report included historical records of boarding school locations and their names, and the first official list of burial sites.
The May 11 announcement was a top ICT article. READ MORE.
The report led to another top article in relation later in 2022.
A collaboration between ICT and Reveal examined Indigenous boarding schools in the United States. A two-part podcast and the popular article were the result of the October publication.
ICT’s Mary Annette Pember spent time with the Oglala Lakota Tribe in South Dakota to help tell this important story. READ MORE.
More top reads:
Western series ‘The English’ thrills with Pawnee authenticity
A stunning new Western series, “The English,” is elevated with authentic Pawnee culture and history.
The six-part series, produced by the BBC and Amazon Prime, is set in the 1890s American West, not long after the removal of the Pawnee from Nebraska.
The story’s writer and director, Hugo Blick, is not Native, so he sought out IllumiNative’s president and chief executive Crystal Echo Hawk, who is Pawnee, to ensure historical accuracy. READ MORE.
Wounded Knee land comes home at last
It was the last resolution of the day but it was a stunner.
The Oglala Sioux tribal council voted in an historic decision Sept. 7 to purchase 40 acres of Wounded Knee land from Jeanette Czywczynski for $500,000 – a move that now puts almost all of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark site under ownership of the Oglala Sioux.
Sold for far less than the $3.9 million price demanded by her now-deceased husband, James Czywczynski, the land now includes a covenant to preserve it as a sacred site and memorial without commercial development.
The vote passed with 15 members voting yes, three voting no and one member not voting. Those opposing the resolution expressed concern over allowing the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe 49 percent ownership of the land. READ MORE.
‘Sad day in Canadian country music world’
The Canadian country music scene was shocked by the sudden death of Cree singer/songwriter Shane Yellowbird, whose childhood dreams of being a rodeo cowboy turned to performing when he began singing to help his stutter. He was 42.
An outpouring of praise for Yellowbird came from country music performers, fans and others across Canada. Yellowbird died April 25.
“It’s a sad day in the Canadian country music world as we’ve learned that Cree country singer Shane Yellowbird has passed away at the age of 42,” Pure Country 93 radio station in London, Ontario, posted to Instagram.
Blues singer Crystal Shawanda, one of Canada’s top Indigenous artists who came on the music scene soon after Yellowbird’s debut in 2007, posted a photo of herself and Yellowbird on Instagram. READ MORE.
Enbridge takes the gloves off in Line 5 battle
Enbridge is getting personal with the Bad River Ojibwe tribe over the company’s Line 5 pipeline route through tribal lands in Wisconsin.
In recent lawsuits, Enbridge has targeted individual tribal members and staff, seeking the court’s permission to question them under oath about their “thought process” in opposing renewal of the company’s easement through the reservation.
For Bad River citizens and leaders, however, the issue has always been personal.
Bad River or Mashkiziibii (Medicine River) has an abiding, irremovable quality for Ojibwe people. Central to their world view and spirituality, and an example of their sustainable connection with traditional foods and ways, Bad River is more than geography. The river and land represent Ojibwe blood memory, according to Aurora Conley, a citizen of the Bad River tribe and a member of the Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance. READ MORE.
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