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Climate change projects are ‘like tribal gaming on steroids’

TAHOLAH, QUINAULT NATION — Fawn Sharp has served as president of the Quinault Nation and the National Congress of American Indians. She is currently vice president of Quinault. Now she is looking forward to the next chapter, one focused on global solutions to climate change.

“What that means for me at this point is I’m not going to be seeking reelection here at the Quinault Nation,” she told the ICT Newscast. “I’ve run six terms prior to becoming an elected official. I served over a decade as the reservation attorney in the Attorney General’s office here at Quinault. And now I get to take all of that knowledge, all of that experience and wisdom, and apply it in a way where I know we have to go. I know we have to be a global player politically, economically, and socially. And so that’s where I’m at right now.”

Sharp said she sees this as a moment of opportunity involving the response to climate change. “When you look at things like tribal gaming and the ability that tribes have been able to advance being leading employers in their county, in their states, an economic force, the scale of the growth that’s in front of us is like tribal gaming on steroids,” she said.

“There are a number of tribes that are actively working to capture carbon. They’re actively working on efforts to do the things that we know are necessary. There’s trillions of metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere. We have to capture and store some of that,” Sharp said. “And it’s an opportunity for us to have influence domestically here inside the United States, but also globally.” READ MORE. — Mark Trahant and Stewart Huntington, ICT

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Bringing back the thunder

BLACK ELK PEAK, S.D. – One chilly morning, over 30 Indigenous people gathered to hike Black Elk Peak – the tallest point in the Midwest, and a seven-mile loop. As she walked, 74-year-old Verlyn Long Wolf prayed. The Oglala Lakota woman said she prayed for the air, the water and all living things.

“On the way up, all I could think of was my ancestors,” Long Wolf said. “My relatives endured so many hardships for me to be alive today. Surviving those taught me how to survive, how to be resilient and keep ourselves going.”

It was March 21, Sylvan Lake had begun to thaw, the sun peeked through the thick evergreen trees, and people of all ages gathered together. It was the time when traditionally the Oceti Sakowin would participate in Wakinyan Aku Iyekiya Pi, or acknowledging the return of the thunder beings.

After lining up in a circle from youngest to oldest, an elder prayed for safe travels and the return of the thunder beings before beginning the trek up Black Elk Peak.

“Our ancestors believed in these ways, in these ceremonies,” Long Wolf said. “(This is) to keep life going. We acknowledge that everything has a life, and we’re just a little, itty bit part of it. It’s about creating a balance.”

Typically, the ceremony takes place during the spring equinox, when the thunder beings are set to wake up plants, hibernating animals and even people. Many different Native nations have springtime ceremonies.

For the Oceti Sakowin historically, relatives would travel together to the Black Hills for the ceremony and gather at the highest point; however, some bands honor the thunder beings in different ways.

A big component of the ceremony was identity. It involved being Lakota and being proud to be Lakota, Long Wolf said.

“We get to claim our identity, who we are and what we need to do to stay focused,” Long Wolf said. “We were Lakota for thousands and thousands of years and then suddenly we got introduced to something that took our way of life. Now we get to say this is me, this is a part of me and I want to live this way.” READ MORE. — Amelia Schafer, ICT

Tribes, feds spar over health care costs

WASHINGTON – The San Carlos Apache said Monday that the federal government owes it $3 million for health care services, one of two tribes arguing before the Supreme Court for more support from the Indian Health Service.

But attorneys for the government argued that allowing tribes to claim additional overhead costs for the health care they provide their members would strap the system, and end up siphoning away money for care of Native Americans in other tribes.

Caroline Flynn, an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, told the justices that the tribes’ argument “would work a sea change” in the law that sets out how tribes are compensated for costs they incur in providing care to their members.

Flynn said that if the court were to side with the tribes, it would “upend how the statute has been administered for 35 years.” What the tribes are asking for is “potentially tripling the federal government’s contract support cost obligation and eventually transforming what the statute designates as mere support costs into the primary component of contract funding,” Flynn said.

That was disputed by Adam Unikowsky, who argued on behalf of the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming, which he said is seeking reimbursement of $1.5 million from 2016 and 2017. He said the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act (ISDA) “entitles the tribes to recover the disputed contract support costs in this case” from the Indian Health Service.

“In the ISDA contract, IHS transferred to the tribe the responsibility both to collect and to spend the program income on health care,” Unikowsky said. “So when the tribe carries out health care services using program income, it does so as a means of fulfilling its contractual obligation to further the general purposes of the contract. So, it’s acting pursuant to the contract.” READ MORE. — Cronkite News

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Gov. Kevin Stitt asked the state agency that regulates wagering at the three Oklahoma racetracks to take action that could arguably stop the renewal of all tribal gaming compacts years down the road.

Stitt asked the nine-member Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission to pass a resolution saying it would not allow tracks to offer gaming machines or share in the participating tribal fund revenue starting Jan. 1, 2035, unless authorized by the governor.

The panel on Thursday took no action on the item. It has referred it to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.

Stitt has appointed all nine members.

Stitt lost a high profile feud with tribes over the renewal of gaming compacts.

Stitt said in 2019 that the gaming compacts needed to be renegotiated and sought higher fees.

He said the compacts did not automatically renew.

Tribes disagreed and sued Stitt in federal court.

A federal judge in July 2020 ruled that because the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission on Oct. 17, 2019, approved the final horse track gaming licenses, the compacts automatically renewed.

“In 2019, the commission followed the law exactly as it is written, to the letter,” Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission Chair Keith Sanders said Thursday.

He said the commission issued gaming licenses to three tracks — Remington Park, Will Rogers Downs and Fair Meadows Tulsa — and in doing so renewed all tribal gaming compacts.

“We knew exactly what we were doing and did the right thing,” he said. “The governor wants to change that.”

Abegail Cave, a Stitt spokesperson, said the resolution is non-binding and has no impact until 2034. READ MORE. — Oklahoma Voice

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