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.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
Congress and the White House are at odds over how to manage the country’s massive debt – and an artificial spending limit that could leave the government without the authority to pay its bills.
There isn’t a lot of time. And if the country’s leaders do not figure out a plan soon, the ramifications would be unbelievable.
So, let’s go into a World of the Unbelievable. Here you’ll find mind numbing numbers. And policy decisions – and consequences – that could soon inflict a lot of pain, such as job losses, increased poverty, and fewer health care options.
It’s no secret that programs serving Indigenous people have been historically underfunded. For instance, we like to think of healthcare as a prepaid plan, a work product from the treaties that promised to send a doctor and a nurse to tribal communities. But the story has always been more complicated. READ MORE. — Mark Trahant, ICT
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Navajo Nation President Buu Van Nygren was not coy about his intention to lift the COVID-19 mask mandates on the Navajo Nation once elected. This was one of his campaign promises that he made for his first 100 days. He’s kept that promise.
On Friday, Nygren signed an order that lifted the last of the COVID-19 restrictions that mandated masks be worn in schools, healthcare facilities and assisted-living homes.
“It’s an exciting time because it just shows that as president, I believe in our people at the local level, as well as really trying to empower them,” Nygren told ICT.
This decision was not made hastily. Since taking office the Nygren administration has been getting feedback from these facilities and institutions on what they wanted when it came to the Navajo Nation health mandates. According to Nygren, they wanted to have autonomy over their own policy and procedures. READ MORE.— Pauly Denetclaw, ICT
Carla Respects Nothing left the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota right after high school, wondering what other life was beyond the rolling prairie.
She had relatives in Denver, so she came to Colorado’s largest city in 1989 and enrolled in community college. She didn’t realize then how much it would matter, but this is what Respects Nothing left behind: her ancestors’ Lakota language, the traditions of the Oglala Sioux, her sense of belonging.
She has tried for 30 years to get it back, to somehow gather up a Native American community that’s been scattered into pieces across the city. In her hardest times, when alcohol addiction led to losing her job and her housing and she ended up in a homeless shelter, Respects Nothing “just gave up.” READ MORE. — The Colorado Sun
Emily Joe Bill has been dead for 54 years, but Sauk-Suiattle tribal leaders are still arguing over whether she, and at least 31 of her descendants, belong in the tribe today.
Five times in the past 35 years, her status as an enrolled Sauk-Suiattle citizen has changed — affecting health care, housing, job opportunities, tribal payments and education access for everyone enrolled through her lineage. Disenrollment also denies her descendants their sense of identity.
In the latest battle beginning in 2021, the tribal council once again voted to disenroll Emily Joe Bill.
Since then, Khrista Bill has been fighting back. READ MORE. — Everett Herald
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On the Monday edition of the ICT Newscast, we learn about a new Showtime documentary series. Plus, a dentist shares the importance of oral health.
Watch:
When Solomon “Sully” Montoya got dressed for school one morning in October 2022, he knew there was going to be trouble.
Standing 5 feet, 10 inches tall (or 6-feet-3 in heels), Montoya carries himself with confidence. He wears a thick beard, and his dark hair falls just below his shoulders. His large brown eyes are accentuated by long lashes.
Montoya, who was 17 at the time, attended St. Labre Indian School, a Catholic school just outside the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Located in southeastern Montana, St. Labre is among the biggest employers in the remote area. Its sprawling campus resembles a small city in the otherwise rural landscape.
The school, which serves primarily Crow and Northern Cheyenne children, has a dress code requiring students to wear polo shirts and trousers, slacks, skirts or other properly fitting pants. But on certain days or weeks, students can evade the dress code by dressing in encouraged themes. READ MORE. — Missoulian
- Ned Blackhawk wants to unmake the US origin story: Professor Blackhawk’s new volume attempts to put Native peoples’ stories at the center of the history of the United States.
- Coffee, anyone? Treats, threats and preservation: Coverage around the world on Indigenous issues for the week.
- A new approach to conservation: ‘Indigenize’ not ‘decolonize’: Serina Fast Horse is helping Portland change the way it thinks about environmental preservation.
- Transition to clean energy is hurting Indigenous communities: Clean energy was supposed to be equitable but that’s not how it’s working out.
- Wearing red, Indigenous families honor missing relatives: Advocates describe it as a silent crisis, rooted in colonization, forced removal and government policies that led to the stamping out of culture and identity as entire communities were marginalized.
- Mesa police turn school bus kerfuffle into forceful arrests of 3 students.
- Golga Oscar brings Alaskan Yup’ik culture to Fashion Week Minnesota.
- Big Sky High School gets new Salish language signage.
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.
