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Big Medicine was born in 1933 on the range of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. The rare white bison had become revered in his lifetime on the land called home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
He lived for about 36 years, then he died in 1959. Because he lived on a national wildlife refuge, as managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the tribes lost control of Big Medicine. Big Medicine was taxidermied, and for more than six decades, has been under management and ownership of the state, on display at the Montana Historical Society.
The tribe has made concerted efforts to regain control of Big Medicine. Along a similar front, the tribe has also worked to regain control of management of the land that make up the Flathead reservation, including the wildlife refuge that the white bison knew as home.
“His [Big Medicine] return to the Flathead Reservation would further our peoples’ healing process and provide a unique opportunity for the Montana Historical Society to right a wrong in our shared history,” tribal leaders stated in a 2022 letter to the state, officially requesting that Big Medicine be returned home. READ MORE. — JoVonne Wagner, ICT and MTFP
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Zach Whitecloud, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, scored the winning goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Vegas Golden Knights came back in the third period to defeat the scrappy Florida Panthers who have had great success on the road this playoff season.
Whitecloud scored at 6:59 of the third period with a wrist shot from the blueline that beat Sergei Bobrovsky and gave the Knights a lead they would not relinquish. The final score was 5-2 with Mark Stone scoring an insurance goal late and Reilly Smith salting the game away with an empty-netter.
Whitecloud had one goal on two shots as well as four blocked shots in 18:05 of ice-time. His plus 12 is second only to Vegas scoring leader Jonathon Marchessault. READ MORE. — Miles Morrisseau, ICT
Growing up in her ancestral homelands on Lake Coeur d’Alene, Maria Givens saw and tasted the important foods in her community.
She learned first through her father, a lawyer fighting for the ownership of the Coeur d’Alene lake as a means of food production for the reservation. And then fishing for salmon and picking berries with her mother in the Idaho mountains.
Now, years later, she will be competing on PBS against eight other talented home cooks in Season 2 of “The Great American Recipe,” a competition that celebrates the multiculturalism that makes American food vibrant and unique.
Hosted by Alejandra Ramos, each episode challenges the cooks to showcase two of their signature dishes as they compete to win the national search for “The Great American Recipe.” The season premieres on Monday, June 19, and runs each Monday through Aug. 7. READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
Every spring in the predawn darkness, before the sun’s first rays illuminate the surface of Flathead Lake, Jason Mahlen loads his boat with an arsenal of fishing gear, carefully selecting rods, reels and a collection of tackle designed to entice lake trout from the deep. The spring air is cool, carrying a sense of anticipation as Mahlen prepares for another day of catching lakers in the Mack Days spring competition.
Meanwhile, Keenan Blackbird, a dedicated fisheries biologist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation, captains a crew to retrieve gillnets full of lake trout and lake whitefish. Blackbird maneuvers the boat and its hydraulic lift that hoists the nets from the depths. He and his team work swiftly and efficiently, removing the entrapped fish from the nets, placing them on ice, and shuttling them back to a processing operation at Yellow Bay, where they are fileted, packaged and distributed to stores and restaurants around Montana. READ MORE. — Montana Free Press
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On the Monday edition of the ICT Newscast, Energy department leader talks about investing in tribal nations. Plus, mother and activist Danielle SeeWalker explains ‘The Red Road.’ And a regular contributor to the newscast goes to Washington.
Watch:
Native artist Marlena Myles — who uses advanced virtual reality technology to tell traditional stories — has been awarded a $50,000 Arts+Tech Fellowship from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Myles, Spirit Lake Dakota, is one of five innovative artists who are working at the nexus of art and technology.
“The intersection of art and technology enables new possibilities for storytelling and collaboration,” Koven Smith, senior director/arts at the Knight Foundation, said in a statement. “Across disciplines, this year’s fellows invite us to examine lesser-told histories, forge new ways of relating to one another, and envision alternative futures.” READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
- Descendants of two government-sanctioned atrocities bond in Colorado: Relatives of Japanese Americans incarcerated in Amache find common threads with descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre — which occurred just 46 miles away — during annual pilgrimage.
- The Mounties: 150 years of conflict with Indigenous Peoples: The symbol of the Canadian frontier is tarnished as it celebrates latest milestone.
- Does the Mississippi River have rights? Supporters from throughout the river basin are seeking to grant the Mississippi legal standing allowing companies to be sued for damaging ecosystems.
- Lawsuit accuses Wisconsin town of trespassing on tribal land: The federal government lawsuit opens another front in a long-running legal dispute between the town of Lac Du Flambeau and the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
- Brazil’s Congress weakens new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples: It’s a rejection of the priorities of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- Moananuiakea Voyage set for a June launch from Alaska.
- Indigenous Food Lab Market Opens This Week in Midtown Global Market.
- A recently closed Boy Scout camp in Waukesha County has been sold to the Potawatomi tribe.
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.
