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Applause filled the rotunda after Crystalyne Curley was elected Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, one of the most powerful positions in the Navajo government. Some would argue it’s more powerful than the Office of the President and Vice President.

In the 100-year history of the Navajo government there has never been a woman elected to Speaker, despite the nation being a matrilineal society. Curley is another first in a momentous year for Navajo women along with Richelle Montoya, the first Navajo woman to be vice president.

Curley was elected and sworn in as Speaker on Monday evening. Three other candidates for speaker included Eugenia Charles-Newton, Carl Slater, and former Speaker Otto Tso. Curley won by a slim margin with just two more votes than Tso who served a few months in this role prior to this vote.

“I extend my appreciation to my colleagues of the 25th Navajo Nation Council for having the confidence in me to lead the Legislative Branch and to serve as the Speaker of the Council,” Curley said in a press release. “We have many challenging issues to address and I look forward to working collectively with my colleagues and the other branches of government to make progress for our people and communities across the Nation. Through dedication, hard work, and prayer, the 25th Navajo Nation Council will remain committed to positive changes and accountability as we move forward together.” READ MORE — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT

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The Hia-Ced O’odham people were known for their nomadic lifestyle in the parched Sonoran Desert, and the “Sand People” often were on the move in search of water sources, surviving in the harshest of terrains.

But lack of water wasn’t the biggest threat to the Hia-Ced. In the mid-1800s, yellow fever swept through their ancestral lands, which lie on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border, and wiped out much of the population.

According to descendants, only four Hia-Ced families survived – those who had fled to neighboring O’odham land to escape the epidemic. Because their land was no longer inhabited, early American settlers believed the Hia-Ced had died out.

Today, the number of Hia-Ced is about 1,000. An exact count is difficult to determine because census forms don’t recognize a Hia-Ced tribe. READ MORE — Cronkite News

Around the world: Pesticide poisoning threatens Indigenous people in Brazil, special training in Canada provides doula training for Indigenous communities, and Native land management preserves forests in the Amazon

BRAZIL: Indigenous communities face exposure to pesticides

Indigenous people living in the Mato Grosso agricultural region in Brazil are facing some of the highest concentrations of pesticides in the country, according to a new study reported by Mongabay.com on Jan. 16.

The report, issued by the non-governmental organization Operação Amazônia Nativa in collaboration with the Federal University of Mato Grosso’s Institute of Public Health, found pesticide residues in 88 percent of the plants collected in the area, including medicinal herbs and fruits. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT

Shaking a traditional rattle, Brazil’s incoming head of Indigenous affairs recently walked through every corner of the agency’s headquarters — even its coffee room — as she invoked help from ancestors during a ritual cleansing.

The ritual carried extra meaning for Joenia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman to command the agency charged with protecting the Amazon rainforest and its people. Once she is sworn in next month under newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Wapichana promises to clean house at an agency that critics say has allowed the Amazon’s resources to be exploited at the expense of the environment.

As Wapichana performed the ritual, Indigenous people and government officials enthusiastically chanted “Yoohoo! Funai is ours!’’ — a reference to the agency she will lead.

Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Lula’s narrow victory over former President Jair Bolsonaro. Now Lula is seeking to fulfill campaign pledges he made to them on a wide range of issues, from expanding Indigenous territories to halting a surge in illegal deforestation. READ MORE — Associated Press

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This month, ProPublica launched The Repatriation Project, an investigative series that found some of the nation’s most revered institutions have failed to return or resisted handing back Indigenous remains and burial items. This includes institutions like the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard University long after passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990. Award-winning reporter Mary Hudetz, Crow, shares more about ProPublica’s discovery and her reporting process within the project.

Jan. 29 will mark the 160th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre for the Northwestern Band of Shoshone, where hundreds of Shoshone were killed. Today, the tribe is working towards revitalization of their land and culture through various restoration projects and the building of a cultural center and amphitheater. Vice Chairman and Natural Resources Officer Bradley Parry joins us.

The seating of the 118th Congress got off to a rocky start with the final appointment of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. But everybody’s back to work. Regular Holly Cook Macarro joins us to discuss what’s in store for Indian Country, and highlights from the Sundance Film Festival.

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Kona Purdy never wanted to live anywhere but Hawai’i. As a Native Hawaiian, he wanted his children to grow up like he did: rooted in their culture, and nourished by the mountains and ocean.

But raising a family in Hawai’i meant squeezing nine people into a four-bedroom house — rented with extended family — in Waipahu, a Honolulu suburb. It felt cramped, but the Purdys accepted that this was the price to survive in their homeland.

“We stuffed ourselves into one room,” Purdy said of his four-member family’s living arrangements.

Their share of the monthly rent was $2,300. When rent increased, the Purdys realized that they could no longer afford to live in Hawai’i. READ MORE — Associated Press

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