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The largest Indigenous nation in the country has reelected Chuck Hoskin Jr. as Principal Chief. The Cherokee Nation certified the election results on Tuesday.

“The victory for me and for Deputy Chief Bryan Warner was by a significant margin and geographically it was spread. What that tells us is we’ve got approval from the Cherokee people to keep moving in this direction,” Chuck Hoskin Jr. told ICT. “We also learned some things from the campaign. We certainly come out of the campaign mindful that there were concerns that we learned about and we have to do even better in the second term. So, I’m excited about it.”

Hoskin and Warner won with more than 60 percent of the votes. There were three other challengers, Cara Cowan Watts, an engineer and former Cherokee Tribal Council member, Wes NoFire who is a Cherokee Tribal Council member who made an unsuccessful run for Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district last year, and David Cornsilk, a retired genealogist who worked to get Cherokee Freedmen re-enrolled.

During the race, criticisms of Hoskin’s administration ranged from wasting the American Rescue Plan money, the new health care facility being too big and too expensive, to the nation renting a casino in Tunica, Mississippi.

“Elections can be divisive and we know that’s part of democracy. In fact, it’s part of the beauty of Cherokee democracy that we voice our opinions, but the election is over,” Hoskin said. “I think what people in leadership positions need to do, win or lose, is try to come together. I think the Cherokee people want to see unity.” READ MORE — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT 

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A biweekly column from ICT with the latest news from the arts and entertainment world. READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs unanimously passed an amended bill that would establish an investigation into the United States’ assimilative policies of Indian boarding schools. The full Senate will now decide on the legislation.

The bill, S.1723, would create a Truth and Healing Commission that would identify the locations of Native children’s burial sites, locate church and government records, and document the ongoing impacts to Native communities.

“Native peoples, especially boarding school survivors, deserve justice and the chance to heal. This legislation is the first step,” said Theresa Sheldon, Tulalip, policy and advocacy director for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in a press release. “SCIA’s bipartisan support for this legislation demonstrates the broad recognition of the need to address the historical injustices committed against Indian Country.”

About seven amendments were filed mostly by Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines. One that was adopted by Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Brian Schatz, a Hawai’i Democrat, and Vice Chairman Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, was the use of subpoenas for information the coalition may need such as records, papers, correspondence, memoranda, documents, books, videos, oral histories, recordings, or any other paper or electronic material.

It would need unanimous consent from the Truth and Healing Commission and could potentially open the access of records from the Catholic Church. READ MORE — Kalle Benallie, ICT

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In May, elders from Nuwu, or the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, gathered with land defenders and water protectors to expand their protest camp and block construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada. Together, the group built a second ceremonial tipi directly in the path of a water pipeline the mining company is building as an initial phase of its planned open pit mine.

Lithium Americas plans to extract the largest known lithium deposit in the United States, while also, critics say, destroying the home of animals like the sage grouse and golden eagle, plant medicines like ibi and toza root and the final resting place of over 30 men, women and children who were killed by the 1st Nevada Cavalry on Sept. 12, 1865.

On a golden morning last month, the sun was just peeking over the snowcapped mountains as Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone tribal elders Josephine Sam Dick, 76, and her sister, Elvida Sam Crutcher, 73, led the creation of Newe Momokonee Nokotun, a Paiute name that translates to Indigenous Women’s Camp.

Some call the resistance camp by its other name: Ox Sam Camp, after the sisters’ great-grandfather, who was one of only three survivors of the 1865 Thacker Pass Massacre.

That history was front and center in the minds of many there on Wednesday. READ MORE — Jarrette Werk, Underscore News and Report for America

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