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Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you.
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Every four years, the Democratic National Convention roars to life with impassioned speeches, confetti, and a cheering crowd. The fervor in the room has been described as akin to a stadium concert with adoring fans.
Tribal leaders, Native Vote organizations, and over 100 Indigenous party delegates from across the country will be in attendance at this year’s convention in Chicago. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Nation, will be gaveling the convention in on Monday night when President Joe Biden will do his speech, and gavel out the convention shortly after the acceptance speech on Thursday night, according to ICT regular contributor Holly Cook Macarro, Red Lake Nation.
It still hasn’t been announced who will do the land acknowledgement, or if there will be any other Indigenous speakers during the main programming of the four-day convention that starts on Monday, Aug. 19. The DNC comes roughly a month after the Republican National Convention took place in Wisconsin and where former President Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination.
“I would explain to the voter that it’s very much a big networking convention — conference style — a gathering of political folks,” Jaynie Parrish, executive for Arizona Native Vote, told ICT. “It could be anyone — from regular voters, to donors, to business people, elected officials — just a wide gamut of folks that belong to a particular party, whether that be the Democratic or Republican Party.” READ MORE. — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT
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An at once gripping, heartbreaking and beautiful documentary made its way to the big screens this August. “Sugarcane” is a personal film that follows an investigation into unmarked graves found on the grounds of an Indigenous residential school run by a Catholic church in Canada.
When the film’s co-director, Emily Kassie, first heard about the unmarked graves uncovered at Indigenous residential schools across Canada, she knew immediately that she wanted to do a documentary. She enlisted the help of fellow filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat, a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, investigations uncovered unmarked graves across a number of Indigenous residential schools in Canada — these investigations also pointed to the abuse and mistreatment Indigenous young people faced at the hands of the Catholic church after being stolen from their homes. READ MORE. — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News + ICT
Henry Roan was a character in Martin Scorcese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but he was a real-life Osage Nation citizen too. How does his life story compare to his portrayal in the film adaptation of David Grann’s historical book?
In the film, Roan was Molly Burkhart’s (Lily Gladstone) first husband, who struggled with alcoholism and “melancholy,” as the film described it. During the Osage reign of terror, he was murdered by John Ramsey, a man hired by Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) to stage Roan’s suicide.
In real life, Roan married Molly Burkhart, Molly Kyle at the time, when he was 15 years old, while he was on a short break from his time at the Carlisle Indian Boarding school in Pennsylvania. His great-granddaughter Margo Gray said Carlisle was like the “torture chamber” of boarding schools. She attributes his alcoholism and depression to the trauma he faced as a child and young adult. READ MORE. — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
A South Dakota superintendent has been fired after an Office of Civil Rights report revealed racist comments aimed at Native American students.
Nicole Swigart, superintendent of Rapid City Area Schools, was terminated by a school board vote of 6 to 1 on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
The situation stems from racist remarks attributed to Swigart during a U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation.
Swigart’s alleged comments were made public in a Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Resolution Letter published on May 29.
In the letter, when asked about low attendance rates and high tardy reports among Native students, Swigart is quoted as saying that Native families operate on “Indian time,” making students often two hours tardy. READ MORE. — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
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Across much of the country, experts fear rising COVID-19 infections this summer could foreshadow a more significant surge of the virus yet to come as temperatures cool off.
“We’re kind of in the midst of a rapid run of covid cases throughout Indian Country,” said Dean Seneca, who identifies as Seneca. He is founder and CEO of Seneca Scientific Solutions+, a public health and urban and regional planning company.
“We’ve had a slow incline in COVID-19 cases since the very beginning of May, end of April,” he said. According to Seneca, infections seemed to stabilize and even decline before skyrocketing, starting in the middle of June.
However, severe cases remain low.
This year’s summer surge began about two months earlier than it did last year. In 2023, the nation saw an uptick in serious infections in early July that continued through September, according to hospitalization data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. READ MORE.— Kadin Mills, ICT
An Indigenous child adopted into a White family, Veronica Krupnick grew up safe and cared for. But there was always that longing. Something was missing. There was the emptiness of being extricated from her past and people.
Krupnick, a 28-year-old resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, did not just sit on those feelings of loss. As an adult, she has worked to ensure that the pain she experienced growing up outside her community isn’t repeated. Earlier this year, Krupnick became the youngest candidate to run for New Mexico’s state Senate, and she has spoken publicly of her past and efforts to overhaul the child welfare system.
“I don’t share my story to blame people, I share it so we can all learn and then we just do better,” Krupnick said. “We do better by the next family, the next youth, the next child, so they don’t have to go through this unnecessary pain.” READ MORE.— The Imprint
- There aren’t as many huckleberries as there used to be: But tribes and academics are undertaking programs to preserve traditional stands of the nutrient-rich summer staple.
- Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation asks federal court to resolve jurisdiction dispute: The lawsuit against Kansas Sheriff Tim Morse signals an escalation in longstanding tensions over law enforcement jurisdiction on the nation’s land.
- How horses help Maui wildfire survivors process their grief: One year after the Maui fires, thousands of residents struggle with grieving the losses of loved ones and generational homes.
- Wounded Knee Massacre victims’ descendants urge feds to go beyond review: ‘I strongly believe those medals were wrongfully awarded.’
- United Tribes Technical College introduces first net-zero greenhouse: The greenhouse was funded in part by the Native American Agriculture Fund, an organization with deep local history.
- Exposing myths about ballot collection on Native American reservations.
- Three CT tribes rejected by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs 20 years ago could get recognized.
- ‘The forgotten tribe’: Mendota Dakota tribe seeks permanent home, federal acknowledgment .
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.
