Greetings, relatives.

A lot of news out there. Thanks for stopping by ICT’s digital platform.

Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you. Remember to scroll to the bottom to see what’s popping out to us on social media and what we’re reading.

Also, if you like our daily digest, sign up for The Weekly, our newsletter emailed to you on Thursdays. If you like what we do and want us to keep going, support and donate here.

Okay, here’s what you need to know today:

LAKE TRAVERSE RESERVATION, S.D. — On the day of the reburial, a fire glowed in the darkness that shrouded the seven teepees on the repatriation grounds.

Stones were heated for the two inipi and songs drifted into the night air. The sky began to lighten, changing in color from charcoal to ash.

Fog soon moved into the area, setting a somber mood as a group of women carried the remains of six ancestors from a teepee to be placed on scaffolding, repeating the ritual that had taken place for three days.

The emotions were evident. It was the final day to say goodbye. The Dakota people had waited a long time for this day. But no one had waited longer or endured more than Amos LaFromboise. READ MORE — Charles Fox, Special to ICT

SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY

Dozens of people incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center for Women filed through locked doors, down narrow, fluorescent-lit halls. They entered a gymnasium, where sunlight spilled in through open doors. The smell of burning sage drew them outside onto makeshift powwow grounds, where a tipi sat in one corner of a tightly fenced field.

They chose from a pile of ribbon skirts and handmade shawls to wear over their uniforms and joined powwow dancers invited from the outside community, who donned regalia spanning a variety of cultures. The normally gray, khaki and white atmosphere was full of color as the Sisterhood Powwow began.

On a Saturday in September, nearly 100 people gathered together for the powwow. That number included about 60 imprisoned people, their visiting loved ones, and staff from both the prison and Unkitawa, an all-Indigenous nonprofit dedicated to cultural connection. “Unkitawa” is a Lakota word that means “ours, yours and mine.”

As families arrived, mothers hugged their incarcerated daughters, while incarcerated mothers kissed their visiting children. READ MORE — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + ICT

Registration for the Aboriginal Resident Bison License begins this week in for a planned bison hunt northern Alberta but the Dene Tha’ First Nation says that the harvest is premature based on a previous agreement.

The Hay-Zama bison population, which is in a protected area about 700 km north of Edmonton has grown to more than 525 bison which officials say meets levels required to support a bison hunt.

“The wild herd population is to exceed 1,000 before permitted hunts could occur. Currently the herd is less than that,” says Matthew Munson, a technician for Dene Tha’ First Nation. Munson is also a member of Dene Tha’ First Nation.

Munson shared a 1985 agreement between the Dene Tha’ First Nation and the government of Alberta. The original plan said that it would take 14 years for the herd to reach a population of 1,000. The current herd is slightly more than half of the numbers projected 38 years ago. READ MORE — APTN National News

Around the world: Stó:lō Nation confirms student deaths at three residential schools and a former hospital, protesters march in Panama over a mining agreement, insurance network supports First Nations employment, and China warns UN members to stay away from a human rights panel

CANADA: More residential school deaths confirmed

The Stó:lō Nation has confirmed the deaths of at least 158 children at three residential school sites and a former hospital in British Columbia as part of an investigation into missing children and unmarked graves, CBC News reported on Sept. 21.

The investigation used archival research and interviews to conclude that at least 37 children died in connection with Coqualeetza Industrial Institute/Residential School in Chilliwack, 20 at St. Mary’s Residential School in Mission, five at All Hallow School in Yale, and 96 children between the ages five and 20 at the Coqualeetza Indian Hospital.

The use of ground-penetrating radar also indicated multiple anomalies signifying unmarked graves at St. Mary’s, CBC News reported. READ MORE— Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT

Sign up here to get ICT’s newsletter

Proposed legislation in Congress would reverse the Interior Department’s decision to withdraw future oil and gas development around Chaco Canyon National Historical Park. ICT’s Mark Trahant talks to Teran Villa about the issue from the perspective of the All Pueblo Council of Governors where he serves as Executive Director.

The U.S. Army’s process for repatriating the human remains of ancestral relatives is changing. Mark Trahant talks to Dianna Hunt. She is a senior editor for ICT and has been directing much of the coverage.

Congress has been unable to pass appropriations into law. That means, unless there is a last minute reprieve, the federal government will go into shutdown mode starting this weekend. ICT regular contributor John Tahsuda has more. He is a principal with Navigators Global.

WATCH

In a rural area of Michigan’s Thumb region, a small state park preserves a collection of sandstone carvings that date back many hundreds of years. One of the carvings, a figure with a bow and arrow, symbolizes ancestors shooting their knowledge ahead seven generations.

Some might say that arrow landed in 2019.

That year, descendants of those stone carvers, members of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, signed an agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to co-manage Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park. The tribe’s knowledge is once again steering stewardship of the landscape where the carvings were discovered.

The partnership has helped state managers better understand the petroglyphs’ meanings (they formerly referred to the archer figure as “the hunter”). The tribe and state have produced interpretive signs with phrases in the Anishinabemowin language, and they’ve used laser measuring techniques to create digital models of the carvings. They’re now collaborating to build a ceremonial teaching lodge. READ MORE — Stateline

FOLLOW ICT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK

We want your tips, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know. dalton@ictnews.org.

ICT is a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support ICT for as little as $10. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter