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Come game day Fridays, Kansas City turns red. Law firm office workers, elementary school students, elected leaders in city hall – everyone on both sides of the city whose borders reach into Kansas and Missouri – don NFL gear as a show of support for the hometown team.

Everyone, that is, except Gaylene Crouser.

At least that’s how it feels for the director of the Kansas City Indian Center.

“It permeates everything,” she said. “You can’t turn on the TV or the radio without hearing that stereotypical song they play to get people to do the chop.” READ MORE — Kevin Abourezk, ICT

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The Navajo community of Fort Defiance sits between two mountain ridges, and that’s important to know, Rep. Myron Tsosie explained to his fellow state legislators last month.

“It is dark. It’s like walking around with your eyes closed,” the Chinle Democrat, one of three Navajo state legislators, said, giving his colleagues important context while asking them to provide funding for street lights to keep people safe when they walk home from school or work.

Tsosie’s House Bill 2539 would direct $3.5 million from the state budget to install solar street lights in Fort Defiance. The goal, he told members of the House Housing and Infrastructure Committee on Jan. 24, is to provide adequate lighting for students, teachers, and other community members in northern Arizona along three highly trafficked routes in the community.

The solar street lights would be installed along Bureau of Indian Affair Routes N110, N7 and N12 within the community. READ MORE— AZ Mirror

On Feb. 2, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a voluntary settlement reached with nonprofit environmental justice group Honor the Earth.

The organization works to “create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities,” according to its website.

In March 2023, a jury ordered the organization to pay $750,000 in a sexual harassment lawsuit, which led to the resignation of then executive director Winona LaDuke. An investigation by the Charities Division of the Attorney General’s Office found additional evidence of governance issues within the organization.

A press release from the Minnesota Attorney General’s office said Honor the Earth is working and cooperating to correct previous governance issues.

The attorney general said Minnesota nonprofits “needs to maintain trust and transparency with the donating public.”

“Honor the Earth’s did not meet the expectations that Minnesotans have for all charitable organizations. I appreciate Honor the Earth’s voluntary commitment to strengthening its compliance and rebuilding trust in the community,” Ellison said in the press release

The full press release can be found here.

Around the world: Indigenous communities in Malaysia concerned about new hydropower projects, James Smith Cree Nation chiefs seek public safety funding, Eight Māori artists chosen for prestigious exhibition and tributes pour in for an Aboriginal land rights and healthcare advocate in Australia.

MALAYSIA: Hydropower projects raise alarms

Sarawak officials are planning three new hydropower dams for electricity exports, but Indigenous residents are urging a slower, more informative development process, ensuring those affected are adequately informed, Mongabay reported on February 2.

Sarawak’s chief minister, Abang Johari Openg, recently confirmed plans to construct three new hydropower dams in the Gaat River, Belaga River and Tutoh River districts. Abang Johari cited various reasons for promoting these projects, including increased power supply and the notion that residents now rely on roads rather than rivers for transportation, implying minimal negative impacts. He also mentioned that residents requested the dams and cascading dams would help control crocodile populations. READ MORE— Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT

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We’re calling our Wednesday political segment IndigiPolitics. ICT political correspondent, Pauly Denetclaw, brings us up to speed on the Catawba Nation, the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina, feeling left out of the political conversation in the state and what issues are important to the nation.

Oregon’s governor has appointed the first ever tribal affairs director. Shana McConville Radford, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, told ICT producer Stewart Huntington she’s not starting from scratch.

A new series called “My Life With the Walter Boys” hit screens on Netflix in December and has since climbed the charts. Actor Isaac Arellanes, Hopi and Mexican, plays Isaac Garcia on the hit show.

WATCH

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man accused of murdering two Alaska Native women recorded images of both of his victims, and the break in the case came when a third woman stole the man’s phone and provided police with photos and videos of one of the killings, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements in the case Tuesday.

Brian Steven Smith faces 14 counts, including first- and second-degree murder, assault and tampering with evidence, in the deaths of Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk.

Authorities said he strangled Henry, 30, in an Anchorage hotel room in September 2019, and that when they questioned him about it he volunteered that he had also killed Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019.

“After this trial, you will all carry the burden of knowing — the burden of knowing the human tragedy attached to the sexual assault, murder and discarding of two beautiful human lives,” said District Attorney Brittany Dunlop. “It’s these two lives that we’re here for.” READ MORE — Associated Press

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