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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.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
For the second time in U.S. history, a citizen of the Chinook Indian Nation will serve as a United States ambassador.
Roger Nyhus was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a voice vote late Wednesday, Nov. 15, as U.S. ambassador to Barbados and six other Eastern Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Nyhus was nominated by President Biden on Sept. 20, 2022, and is believed to be the third Indigenous person to serve as a U.S. ambassador. John Christopher Stevens, also Chinook, served as ambassador to Libya and was killed in the attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. Keith Michael Harper, Cherokee, served from 2014-2017 as ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. READ MORE. — Richard Arlin Walker, Special to ICT
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In a packed stadium, community members showed up to the Blazers versus Thunder game not only in support of Portland’s NBA team, but also to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.
Fans poured into the Moda Center for the Portland Trail Blazers versus Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game on Sunday night. Blazers Dancers led a parade through the hallways and into the stadium with pop music blaring through a portable speaker. The dancers were followed by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Yakama Nation tribal members dressed in their regalia. In the rear, two Umatilla elders sat in a bike peddled carriage, handing out “Rip City” flags.
The sounds of jingle dress cones and bells blended together with the ruffling of pompoms and pop music as powwow dancers and Blazers Dancers made their rounds through each floor of the Moda Center. READ MORE. — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + ICT
What does a healthy economy look like? That depends who you ask. An economist might point to charts and data about where jobs are or how money is being spent. A politician would have a different answer, pointing to a program that’s designed to improve lives … or cut taxes for others.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences took a different approach. The Commission on Reimagining the Economy asked, what if the economy was measured, and considered, based on how people are doing?
“An economy should be judged not only on its efficiency and productivity but on its ability to improve people’s well-being,” said the commission’s report, Advancing a People-First Economy. “A lack of economic security and opportunity fosters distrust of the political and economic system, a distrust that threatens the nation’s social fabric, its institutions, and the ability of those institutions to provide security and opportunity for Americans.” READ MORE. — Mark Trahant, ICT
Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and their children. Alaska’s major cities are struggling to manage homelessness, especially in the winter, when the stakes for survival are even higher. And experts have identified domestic violence as one of the faucets that floods cities with homelessness.
“Probably every woman in here has experienced domestic violence,” said Mariya Lovishuk, the director of Juneau’s emergency shelter, The Glory Hall. “Most women who come to us have experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives. Maybe not yesterday, but definitely it was very serious, and it has impacted them.”
Lovishuk said that not only does the statewide dearth of affordable housing keep people unhoused longer, but it can keep them in abusive relationships longer, too. “Even if they want to leave… going to shelter is not a very appealing option. So they just stay,” she said.
Lovishuk said that because shelters can be chaotic places, she sees some people stay in abusive situations rather than navigate them alone. READ MORE.— Alaska Beacon
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On the Wednesday edition of the ICT Newscast, a focus on resources. From water and salmon runs to pine forests and beyond
Watch:
Around the world: Cambodian people are evicted from an area around a UNESCO site, Indigenous farmers in the Philippines need help preserving an important ecological area, small Indigenous businesses get business mentors in Australia, First Nations adults with disabilities face unequal service in Manitoba, and advocates for Vietnam’s ethnic minorities will speak out about discrimination to the United Nations
Coverage around the world on Indigenous issues. READ MORE. — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
- Wisconsin governor tells committee to release tribal grant money: The Joint Finance Committee voted along party lines to approve grants for nine of the state’s 11 tribes, excluding the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
- Lakota tribe issues State of Emergency due to high rates of violence: While awaiting the results of a lawsuit against the United States, the Oglala Sioux Tribe continues to face high rates of violence.
- Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal on health care funding: The San Carlos Apache and the Northern Arapaho Tribe are suing Indian Health Service over the agency’s obligations under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
- National Guard performs medical mission while shuttling Santa to Alaska Native village: The Alaska National Guard for decades has delivered gifts, supplies and sometimes Christmas itself to tiny rural communities dotting the nation’s largest and largely roadless state.
- LEST WE FORGET: Angel De Cora: Ho-Chunk artist and illustrator drew national attention before dying in the Spanish Flu pandemic.
- A century after the Osage murders, ‘guardians’ still harm American Indians.
- The Indigenous Effect: Native People in Film.
- For families in Northwest Alaska, questions remain about unsolved deaths and ‘suicides.’
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.
