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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.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
Rezball took over Phoenix last week when players from across the Valley, state, Southwest, United States and beyond took to the basketball courts.
The near week-long event crowned two champions on Saturday in the Rezbombers, a girl’s team representing Arizona, and Cheyenne & Arapaho, a boy’s team from Oklahoma.
Nearly 200 teams competed in the two tournaments. The final bracket games were held at Footprint Center — ICT
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Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to be the Democratic nominee in this year’s presidential election after a shocking move by President Joe Biden to drop out of the race. Harris already has enough committed delegates to become the nominee, but it has to be confirmed at the Democratic National Convention in August.
“As I understand the Democrat rules, those that were dedicated to Biden are now open to vote their conscience; they may or may not vote for Kamala Harris to be the nominee. Right now it looks like it’s the most likely outcome. But there are some issues with Kamala,” Michael Stopp, ICT regular political contributor, said.
If Harris wins the election, she would be the first woman to serve as president of the United States. She has been endorsed by Biden, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. READ MORE. — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT
The United Houma Nation of Louisiana – battered by hurricanes and rising sea levels that are threatening their homelands – will receive more than $56 million in federal funding for special projects aimed at building coastal resilience to climate change.
The funding, announced Friday, July 26, by the U.S. Department of Commerce, will help the tribe fund its Hazard Mitigation and Tribal Resilience Plan as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge.
The award to the Houma Nation is among $59.8 million awarded to three projects in Louisiana to help make the state’s coastline more resilient to climate change. Additional funding in Louisiana includes nearly $2 million to the ByWater Institute at Tulane University and $1.2 million to the New Orleans Community Support Foundation. READ MORE. — Dianna Hunt, ICT
The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes, officials announced Thursday.
The departments of Commerce and the Interior said there will be an initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization made available to 27 tribes in the region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
The hatcheries “produce the salmon that tribes need to live,” said Jennifer Quan, the regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “We are talking about food for the tribes and supporting their culture and their spirituality.”
Some of the facilities are on the brink of failure, Quan said, with a backlog of deferred maintenance that has a cost estimated at more than $1 billion. READ MORE.— Associated Press
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Members of two U.S. House panels examined allegations of sexual assault, bullying and retaliation at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education-operated Haskell Indian Nations University during a hearing this week.
Haskell, a Lawrence, Kansas, school that is the only four-year college operated by the bureau, has come under scrutiny over its response to a range of allegations from students, which were documented in a scathing report from the Bureau of Indian Education, an agency within the U.S. Interior Department.
The report says the school did not act on sexual abuse claims, lacks institutional control to prevent theft and other abuses and is unresponsive to student complaints, the Kansas Reflector summarized in an April opinion piece.
Students and other interested parties asked the bureau to release the report, which the department finalized in January 2023, but the government withheld it for well over a year. READ MORE. — Kansas Reflector
Leaders from European and North American nations convened last week in the nation’s capital for the 2024 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit to discuss international security and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The war has opened up many questions for national and Indigenous leaders on how to respond to rising tensions in the Arctic.
The summit marks the 75th anniversary of the military alliance, which formed in response to the perceived threat of communism following the end of World War II.
Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice is currently melting at an alarming rate. This has spurred an increase in military and commercial activities, sparking concerns of greater instability. Indigenous peoples and nations are assessing collaborative efforts with each other and national governments to secure the region as they face climate change and a changing political climate. “Out of a total of 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic, approximately 500,000 are Indigenous Peoples,” states the Arctic Council. READ MORE. — Kadin Mills, ICT
- Inquiry finds 200,000 were abused in care in New Zealand: The scale of abuse was ‘unimaginable,’ many of them Māori.
- Group alleges insufficient Native representation at teacher training: The purpose of the conference was educating teachers about how to implement a new set of social studies standards to be taught to South Dakota students.
- FBI warrant claims couple started Salt Fire: 16 ‘suspicious’ fire starts in area detected since early May, according to recently unsealed warrant.
- Safeguarding the heartbeat: Native Americans in Upper Midwest protect their drumming tradition.
- Court ruling allows Native Hawaiians to practice midwifery: Judge’s ruling temporarily allows for unlicensed Native Hawaiian midwifery.
- Facebook Intervention for Preventing Opioid Relapse among American Indian Women.
- US national parks have a troubling history. A new project aims to do better.
- ‘Wood vaulting’: A simple climate solution you’ve probably never heard of.
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.


