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MUSKOGEE, Okla. — The Ataloa museum at Bacone College was burglarized, and the campus’s sweat lodge was picked to the bone.

Bacone’s campus has seen multiple acts of vandalism and break-ins since the Indigenous-serving college closed before spring semester.

The sweat lodge on campus grounds appears dilapidated with missing tarps and items. It once housed spiritual sweats for students looking for a meditative place for prayer. It now needs to be “torn down and rebuilt respectfully,” said Brandy Silvester, Bacone’s USDA liaison.

Leslie Hannah, on the Bacone board of trustees and director of education for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, was working to move items from the campus to the John Hair Cultural Center and Museum in Tahlequah. READ MORE — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World

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Officials in Lake County say the clock is ticking for the state to assume felony law enforcement duties on the Flathead Indian Reservation, but so far they’ve heard nothing from Gov. Greg Gianforte.

In November, the Lake County Commission sent a letter to Gianforte informing him that the local sheriff’s office and criminal justice system would no longer handle felony law enforcement on the reservation under what is called Public Law 280. The agreement between the state and tribe is one-of-a-kind in Montana. Under the law, the governor has six months to make a proclamation releasing Lake County of its duties. But more than two months after notifying the governor that it wanted out, the county has had no conversations with the state about what law enforcement there would look like in the future.

“We have heard nothing,” Commissioner Gale Decker told Montana Free Press this week. “The clock is ticking and [the deadline of] May 20th is going to be here really soon.”

At the root of Decker’s frustration is the fact that many logistical issues need to be sorted out if Lake County is indeed going to give up its previous law enforcement duties on the reservation. READ MORE — Montana Free Press

Around the world: Murder and mining threaten the Indigenous people of the Colombian Amazon, Canada’s Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of Indigenous child welfare law, and Indigenous designers from First Nations set to headline Melbourne Fashion Festival

NICARAGUA: Dangers in the Colombian Amazon

In June 2023, near the Colombian-Brazilian border, Custodio Yucuna Tanimuca, a Yucuna leader and health promoter from Curare Los Ingleses Reserve, aided stranded soldiers across Córdoba stream. Skilled in river navigation, he demonstrated expertise ingrained in Amazon Indigenous communities like his own, Mongabay reported February 5.

What Tanimuca unknowingly assisted was the army’s 26th forest brigade, pursuing an 800-kilogram shipment of pressed marijuana. The cargo, bound for Brazil, reflects the region’s growing marijuana trade, often surpassing cocaine in value.

Tragically, Tanimuca’s aid cost him his life. Two days later, the illegal armed group protecting the marijuana shipment, one of many controlling the Caquetá River’s illicit trade routes, brutally murdered him. Local sources, seeking anonymity, reveal the group’s suppression of any attempt to report or move Tanimuca’s body, highlighting the silence enforced by criminal dominance in this part of the Colombian Amazon. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT

The Cherokee Nation plans to build 15 new cell towers to provide service to 16 of its rural communities in eastern Oklahoma.

The tribe is creating a network for areas where cell service and broadband are lacking or nonexistent.

The tribe plans to invest $80 million into the project over the next three years. The money came from American Rescue Plan Act funds, said Julie Hubbard, a tribe spokesperson.

Cell service and broadband are crucial for Cherokee families seeking employment, educational opportunities, health care and a better quality of life, said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.

“These 15 new towers and the growth of the first Cherokee Nation-owned broadband network are major milestones in our efforts to connect these 16 rural Cherokee communities with permanent solutions,” Hoskin said. READ MORE — Oklahoma Voice

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This week’s IndigiPolitics, we learn about President Joe Biden’s evolving stance on access to abortion care juxtaposed to former President Donald Trump who celebrates how his administration overturned Roe v. Wade. ICT Political Correspondent Pauly Denetclaw talks with regular contributor Holly Cook Macarro from The Angle.

Melanie Benjamin has been the chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe for over two decades. In her final State of the Band address, she outlines what her administration has done for the Minnesota tribe.

Senior Producer Shirley Sneve takes us to her hometown where sports are king and high school athletes become legends. The town is home to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, two high schools with successful athletic programs and now an athletic hall of fame.

Our team wishes you a Happy Valentine’s day. While the sentiment is there, it may not be the literal translation in many Native languages. Here’s Alutiiq from April Counceller, Navajo from James Junes and Dakota from Angela Two Stars. But first, a song from our visitor, Keith Secola.

WATCH

The Arizona Legislature’s top two Republicans have challenged Democratic President Joe Biden’s creation of a new national monument last summer just outside Grand Canyon National Park, alleging he exceeded his legal authority in making that designation under a century-old law that lets presidents protect sites considered historically or culturally important. In a lawsuit filed Monday against Biden, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma alleged Biden’s decision to designate the new monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act wasn’t limited to preserving objects of historic or scientific value and isn’t confined to the “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

The monument designation will help preserve 1,562 square miles (4,046 square kilometers) just to the north and south of Grand Canyon National Park. The monument, called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, turned a decadeslong vision for tribes and environmentalists into a reality. Republican lawmakers and the uranium mining industry that operates in the area had opposed the designation, touting the economic benefits for the region while arguing that the mining efforts are a matter of national security.

“Biden’s maneuver is incredibly disingenuous, as it has nothing to do with protecting actual artifacts,” Petersen said in a statement. “Instead, it aims to halt all mining, ranching, and other local uses of federal lands that are critical to our energy independence from adversary foreign nations, our food supply and the strength of our economy.” READ MORE — Associated Press

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