The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has built a thriving olive oil business on tribal lands in northern California, cultivating olive groves and operating a mill on its 25,000 acres. The mill has a tasting room for visitors to sample the oils and other products, including nuts and vinegars. Credit: Photo courtesy of Séka Hills

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:

YOCHA DEHE WINTUN RESERVATION, CA. — With a climate that rivals the Mediterranean, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation reservation in northern California is near the famed lush countryside wineries in the Napa Valley.

But tribal leaders have turned to a different kind of agriculture for their latest ventures.

The tribe has cultivated a thriving enterprise, Séka Hills Olive Mill & Tasting Room, by growing olives and making award-winning extra virgin olive oil in an impressive 14,000-square-foot mill facility.

It’s a growing business for the tribe, which already operates the busy Cache Creek Casino Resort and Yocha Dehe Golf Club down the road from the mill, with scenic views of the hills and groves. READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT

SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY

A spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham apologized to Indigenous families with missing and murdered loved ones last Friday during a protest at the Roundhouse over the abrupt ending of a task force created to find solutions to disproportionate rates of violence Indigenous people face.

Lujan Grisham’s administration disbanded the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force after its last meeting in May without publicly announcing its decision. Some task force members and affected families think there is so much work to do that the group is necessary and were disappointed to hear of its end.

Protesters talked with Lujan Grisham’s spokeswoman, Maddy Hayden, in the lobby of the governor’s office on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse, telling her they feel left behind and want to be included in the administration’s planning, according to a video viewed by New Mexico In Depth.

Rose Yazzie, whose daughter Ranelle Rose Bennett disappeared from the Navajo Nation in 2021, told Hayden about speaking with Lujan Grisham early last year at an event where the governor signed two bills the task force requested. READ MORE— New Mexico In Depth

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An eight-foot-tall bronze statue of a late Native American leader known for preserving cultural dances now stands surrounded by trees in a historic park outside of California’s state Capitol building, replacing a statue of a Spanish missionary that protesters toppled it in 2020.

California lawmakers, tribal leaders and hundreds of others on Tuesday celebrated the unveiling of a statue depicting Miwok leader William J. Franklin, Sr., in recognition of the Native American tribes whose ancestral lands are now the grounds of the state Capitol.

“Finally, the California Indian people will have a monument here on the Capitol grounds for all those visiting to know that we are still here,” said Assemblymember James C. Ramos, Serrano/Cahuilla, the first Native American in the state Legislature. “We’re here because of the resiliency of our elders and ancestors.”

It is one of several moves that California lawmakers have made in recent years to acknowledge the history of Native Americans in the state. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a formal apology for the state’s legacy of violence against Native Americans, saying it amounted to genocide. Newsom has also signed laws to promote the teaching of more Native American history in schools and to remove a derogatory slur from sites across the state. READ MORE — Associated Press/Report for America

Three of the four Indigenous men who served 18 years in prison for a murder conviction in Alaska that was ultimately vacated will receive a total of nearly $5 million in a settlement confirmed by the city of Fairbanks on Monday.

The convictions of the so-called Fairbanks Four in the 1997 death of Fairbanks teenager John Hartman were vacated in 2015 after a key state witness recanted testimony and following a weeks-long hearing reexamining the case that raised the possibility others had killed Hartman.

The men — George Frese, Eugene Vent, Marvin Roberts and Kevin Pease — argued that an agreement that led to their release in which they agreed not to sue was not legally binding because they were coerced. The men also maintained there was a history of discrimination against Alaska Natives by local police. Pease is Native American; Frese, Vent and Roberts are Athabascan Alaska Natives.

The legal fight over whether the men could sue the city despite the agreement has gone on for years. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor. READ MORE — Associated Press

Sign up here to get ICT’s newsletter

There are still school mascots called the “R word” in the state of Pennsylvania. That’s the name that was dropped nearly two years ago by a certain Washington, D.C. football team. ICT’s Stewart Huntington reports.

As an anthropologist, Sven Haakanson says he is concerned with connecting the past to the present for Indigenous people. He is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington and the Curator of North American Anthropology at the Burke Museum. In 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow for being a leader in the effort to rekindle Alutiiq language, customs and culture. ICT’s Shirley Sneve has this conversation.

A Samson Cree fashion designer brings his culture to not one, but two brands. Justin Jacob Louis is the founder and creative director of SECTION 35 and his namesake label, Justin Jacob Louis.

ICT’s Paris Wise spoke with him about the meaning behind his work and his debut at New York Fashion Week.

WATCH

OKLAHOMA CITY — Although Gov. Kevin Stitt wasn’t in attendance at a Tuesday legislative hearing, his presence loomed large as key tribal leaders spoke about the importance of compacts between the state and Oklahoma’s tribes.

Four tribal leaders told lawmakers collaboration, cooperation and mutual respect are key to the state and tribes working together to renegotiate compacts and craft new agreements.

Left unsaid was that many of the state’s tribes have bristled at Stitt’s attempts to renegotiate state-tribal compacts on gaming revenue, hunting and fishing licenses, tobacco tax revenue and motor vehicle registrations.

Stitt, Cherokee Nation, has feuded with many tribal leaders as he has challenged the limits of tribal sovereignty and pushed to renegotiate compacts in an attempt to increase state revenue. READ MORE — Oklahoma Voice

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.

Like this story? Support our work with a $5 or $10 contribution today. Contribute to the nonprofit ICT. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.