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He’s been Nobody, Uncle Brownie, and a mean harmonica player.

Veteran actor Gary Farmer is busier than ever with roles in two hit series, a new five-song CD and winning awards.

The actor, producer, director and musician received the August Schellenberg Award of Excellence in October from the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto for his four-decades of work.

And on Saturday, Dec. 17, he and his band, the Troublemakers, will be unveiling his new CD, ”Fool for Love,” at a release party in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery.

The new CD will cap a year that has included work in the series “Resident Alien,” and in “Reservation Dogs,” which was recently named one of the top television series of the year by The New York Times. He can also be seen on Prime Video in the stellar Western limited series, “The English,” which was shot in Spain. READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT

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All charges against NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen were dismissed by South Dakota prosecutors on Tuesday.

Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, and 21 other treaty defenders were charged with misdemeanors from a July 3, 2020 protest when former President Donald Trump visited the Black Hills as part of Trump’s speaking event at Mount Rushmore for an Independence Day celebration.

The treaty defenders gathered on a highway leading to the monument, using cars and vans to block the road for nearly three hours. In response, law enforcement officers and members of the South Dakota Air and Army National Guard were called in, leading to a skirmish between protestors and law enforcement.

The Lakota have long attempted to have the Black Hill region returned to tribal authority, as specified under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. READ MORE. — Kalle Benallie, ICT

Scientists are known for speaking with dry precision rather than for dramatic effect. Still, “immediate,” “extreme,” “unprecedented,” and “consequential” are some of the words scientists are using to describe climate change in the Arctic.

The sense of urgency stems from the fact that northern regions are warming at twice the rate as other parts of the planet, if not even more quickly.

The changes in the Arctic show what’s coming to the rest of the planet. And Alaska can serve as a model for improving interactions among traditional knowledge bearers, scientists, and policy makers.

Those are some of the conclusions of the 2022 Report Card on the Arctic issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Arctic Program Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in Chicago. READ MORE. — Joaqlin Estus, ICT

Ask Sage Brings Plenty what basketball means to Marty Indian School, and the boys varsity coach will give you a blunt answer.

“If we did not have a basketball program, I don’t know if we’d have enough kids to have class,” said Brings Plenty, who also serves as the school resource officer. “I keep track of attendance rates and things like that, and everything shot up these last few weeks.”

Brings Plenty’s players “live and die in the gym” alongside the teammates who double as relatives or lifelong childhood friends. The game is an escape from stressors and poverty and trauma that touch so many of the players’ lives.

Basketball is an escape for reservations and schools with a wealth of Native talent across South Dakota, which have produced legendary players like SuAnne Big Crow and perennial powerhouse competitors like White River.

Brings Plenty and his Marty Braves were among the thousands of coaches, students, parents and visitors to walk through the doors of The Monument events center in Rapid City this week for the 45th iteration of a basketball tournament unlike any other in the state of South Dakota, and perhaps the country: the Lakota Nation Invitational, or LNI. READ MORE. — South Dakota Searchlight

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Coming up, hear how some tribes could be affected by changes to federal air pollution regulations. And a march on to success in health care. Plus, a look at the documentary, ‘A Long Line of Ladies.’

Watch:

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is scheduled to appear at Navajo Technical University’s graduation ceremonies Friday.

Richardson, who served as governor from 2003-2011, is a special guest speaker at the graduation with 72 students receiving their degrees.

Navajo Nation President-elect Buu Nygren will deliver the keynote address at the graduation and join Richardson in gifting 120 pairs of athletic shoes to children in need at three schools in Lake Valley, Torreon and Crownpoint.

The shoe donations are part of the COVID-19 Navajo Families Relief Fund which has distributed food, water, diapers, dog food and emergency supplies to help tribal members since 2020.

The fund also has donated medical supplies to eight Navajo Nation hospitals and partnered with a foundation to deliver nearly 1,200 pairs of quality shoes to needy youth in 13 tribal communities in New Mexico. — Associated Press

For more than two decades, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has held public office. From vice-president of Shonto Chapter to a Navajo county supervisor and finally as president of what he called the largest Indigenous nation in the country.

Although he was voted out of his latter position in November, Nez continues to move forward, finishing the final weeks of his presidential term with focus.

“I’m still the president and I’m going to finish out some of the priorities that we have, that we didn’t get to, until January 10,” Nez told ICT. “Then, I think we’ll look at other opportunities that come our way.”

Nez didn’t win his reelection to serve a second term as president, by a small margin, he noted. His opponent Buu Van Nygren won by 3,551 votes. READ MORE. — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT

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