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RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Caitlin Hein, Sicangu Lakota from Mission, S.D., was in elementary school, she began to dream of being a fashion designer, so her great-grandmother bought her a Singer sewing machine at a yard sale.

Hein, 25, started off small, making clothing for her Build-A-Bear toys and dolls, but with time she upgraded to clothing. Despite her passion, Hein said she never thought a fashion design career was feasible, and initially began thrift shopping and upcycling as a hobby.

“When I was younger I had a hard time envisioning myself being all these things, whether it was a fashion designer or XYZ because I didn’t see people who looked like me,” Hein said.

Years later, she’s now the owner of a small business, Garbage Tale Vintage, a vintage clothing store offering various unique and quirky pieces in Rapid City.

Indigenous people are extremely underrepresented in the fashion industry, less than 0.5 percent of fashion designers are American Indian, and even fewer are Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native, according to data from the US census.

Despite the stark lack of representation, Hein continued to pursue her dream. While she was attending the University of Northern Colorado, Hein delved more into her love of thrift shopping, spending her Saturdays browsing local estate sales and thrift shops. She began to collect unique clothing items and later in 2018 began to sell those items on Depop, a popular online used clothing website. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT and Rapid City Journal

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Three federally recognized tribes have devoted decades to restoring the condition of their ancestral lands in southeastern Washington state to what they were before those lands became the most radioactively contaminated site in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

But the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Nez Perce Tribe have been left out of negotiations on a major decision affecting the future cleanup of millions of gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks on the Hanford site near Richland.

In May, federal and state agencies reached an agreement that hasn’t been released publicly but will likely involve milestone and deadline changes in the cleanup, according to a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Ecology, a regulator for the site. As they privately draft their proposed changes, the tribes are bracing for a decision that could threaten their fundamental vision for the site.

“As original stewards of that area, we’ve always been taught to leave it better than you found it,” said Laurene Contreras, program administrator for the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration/Waste Management program, which is responsible for the tribe’s Hanford work. “And so that’s what we’re asking for.”

From World War II through the Cold War, Hanford produced more than two-thirds of the United States’ plutonium for nuclear weapons, including the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. Production ceased in 1989, and the site’s mission shifted to cleaning up the chemical and radioactive waste left behind. READ MORE — Associated Press

With the goal to inspire change and bring awareness to environmental issues, the Hokulea sets sail on its four year journey around the Pacific.

Crew members from the Polynesian Voyaging Society are embarking on a new and major journey throughout the Pacific Ocean. Their mission? To ignite a movement, and build an educational campaign, bringing urgent awareness to caring for mother earth. ICT’s Aliyah Chavez has the story of this extraordinary mission, with help from videographer Gabe Strong. ICT will bring you coverage of Hokulea’s journey over the next four years. You can also track the progress of this voyage in real time online at Hokulea.com WATCH MORE — Aliyah Chavez, ICT

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The U.S. The Department of Justice announced a new program designed to address the country’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples crisis with new, nationwide initiatives that will increase cooperative investigations.

According to the department’s press release, the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Regional Outreach Program, allows departments from various levels of government, including federal, state and tribal, to collaborate and share resources used to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous peoples cases across the country.

The regional outreach program dedicated five assistant U.S. Attorneys alongside five MMIP coordinators to help ensure issues within the crisis will be communicated directly with the U.S. Attorneys offices.

Vanessa Waldref, the United States attorney for the district of Eastern Washington said this program is designed to operate by offering tailored services to each specific region.

“Our efforts are gonna be to both work with our state partners to ensure that we are focusing our efforts on the individuals that are critically important to be found as well as if there’s a homicide, making sure that we’re doing all we can to investigate and prosecute cases that are appropriate to do so,” Waldref said. READ MORE — JoVonne Wagner, ICT

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