Greetings, relatives.
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. Remember to scroll to the bottom to see what’s popping out to us on social media and what we’re reading.
Also, if you like our daily digest, sign up for The Weekly, our newsletter emailed to you on Thursdays. If you like what we do and want us to keep going, support and donate here.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Itality Plant Based Foods wants to move away from modern colonial foods – fast food, highly processed foods, artificial flavored, artificially colored, the meat and dairy industry – and the impacts they have.
The restaurant opened on Indigenous Peoples Day in October 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the intention of providing healthy food options for the Native community due to the lack of healthy fresh food options and lack of plant-based food options in her pueblo or in other pueblos.
“It was seeing the effects of diet in Native community. Being surrounded by obesity, being surrounded by diabetes, being surrounded by people who have high cholesterol is what pushed me to create my business,” owner and founder Tina Archuleta, Jemez Pueblo, said.
All of that has detrimental effects on Native communities. For me, stepping away from those types of foods, that type of industry, is a way of decolonizing and taking it back to earth foods, food that come back from the earth and are Indigenous as well.” READ MORE — Kalle Benallie, ICT
SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY
TULSA, Okla. — A Native American former student is suing an Oklahoma school district for the removal of an eagle feather from her graduation cap prior to her high school graduation ceremony.
The lawsuit filed Monday in Tulsa County District Court against Broken Arrow Public Schools and two employees by Lena’ Black, Otoe-Missouria and Osage, alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and violations to her state and federal constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of religion.
“My eagle plume has been part of my cultural and spiritual practices since I was three years old. I wore this plume on graduation day in recognition of my academic achievement and to carry the prayers of my Otoe-Missouria community with me,” Black said in a statement posted by the Native American Rights Fund. “The law protects my right to wear this eagle plume at my graduation, and school officials had no authority to forcibly remove it from my cap.”
District spokesperson Tara Thompson said Wednesday that the suburban Tulsa school had not been served with the lawsuit and declined comment on the action, but said all students are allowed to add items to their graduation regalia. READ MORE — Associated Press
Around the world: HIV rates spike among Indigenous people in Manitoba, an Aboriginal woman in Australia unveils a plan for gender justice, and a Māori nursing program celebrates three decades in New Zealand
CANADA: HIV cases blamed on ‘racism’ in Manitoba
Advocates are blaming “systemic anti-Indigenous racism” for a surge in HIV infections among Indigenous people in Manitoba, Canada, APTN News reported on May 11.
The Manitoba HIV Program Report reveals that the province’s rate of new HIV cases is three times higher than the national average, with nearly 75 percent of those referred to the program self-identifying as Indigenous, APTN reported.
HIV is a virus transmitted through bodily fluids, excluding saliva, that targets the immune system. Left untreated, HIV can progress to AIDS-related illnesses, which have caused about 40 million deaths since its discovery in the early 1980s. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
LOS ANGELES — The California condor is facing the deadliest strain of avian influenza in U.S. history, and the outbreak could jeopardize the iconic vulture with its 10-foot (3.05-meter) wingspan decades after conservationists saved the species from extinction.
But nine newly hatched chicks, covered in downy white feathers, give condor-keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo hope that the endangered population of North America’s largest soaring land birds will once again thrive after 40 years of aggressive efforts.
With fewer than 350 condors in the wild — in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico — the historic outbreak means ongoing breeding-in-captivity and re-wilding programs like the LA Zoo’s remain essential.
Over the past year and a half, millions of birds across the U.S. have died from avian flu, including more than 430 bald eagles and some 58 million turkeys and commercial chickens that were euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease. Bird flu is further suspected in the deaths of dozens of seals off the coast of Maine last summer. READ MORE — Associated Press
Sign up here to get ICT’s newsletter
The Netflix show “Spirit Rangers” released its second season on May 8. The animated series was created by Karissa Valencia, Santa Ynez Chumash. She joins the ICT newscast to share the new adventures awaiting the characters.
The United States is getting closer to defaulting on its debt unless action happens fast. ICT regular contributor Holly Cook Macarro shares what’s at the table for Native communities. She is a partner with Spirit Rock Consulting and a board member of IndiJ Public Media, ICT’s parent company.
Montana’s legislature is at work and some of its new laws will be impacting Native communities in the state. Jovonne Wagner is a legislative fellow for ICT and Montana Free Press.
For the better part of the last 20 years, Western Washington University environmental science professor Marco Hatch has had his hands in the muddy shores of the Pacific Northwest and Canada, digging for clams.
Specifically, Hatch has dedicated his life’s work to clam gardens and the cultural importance to the Indigenous people of the region. For centuries, they would place heavy rocks at the low tide line to build a short wall. The high tide would deposit sediment, creating the ideal habitat for clams to grow and thrive, and for other small marine species, like crabs and young fish, to find safe harbor. They managed and harvested the gardens, before colonization.
Hatch, a citizen of the Samish Indian Nation, said the remnants of sea gardens can be found up and down the coast, from Washington to Alaska.
“Still now in many spaces, Indigenous people are thought of as passive in the environment, that our roles in shaping terrestrial and marine systems were nonexistent, that we were simply enjoying the Eden-esque bounties,” he said. “The more we listen to communities and the more we understand, we see all of these examples that environments were cared for.” READ MORE — Cascadia Daily News
What’s trending on social media:
- NBC owns rights to Tommy Orange’s award-winning novel: The author participated in Q&A at the Belle Mehus Auditorium in Bismarck, North Dakota where he addressed urban Native identity, young adult readers, a new book in the works, and plans to bring his novel ‘There There’ to TV
- Land acknowledgement mural unveiled at university: ‘What’s the point of acknowledging such an important part of our university’s history and New Mexico’s history if it’s not going to be proudly on display’
- Bill expanding gambling threatens Kickapoo tribe: The prospect of competing with Las Vegas Sands, Caesars and other titans of the casino industry has long loomed over the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
- Marvel To Drop All Episodes Of ‘Hawkeye’ Spinoff ‘Echo’ At Once On Disney+ In Streaming Strategy Shift
- Debt Ceiling: Deal possible
- Biden administration announces nearly $11B for renewable energy
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.
Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.
