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Two Indigenous physicians are aiming to have the first Indigenous-focused School of Medicine and Health Sciences. They hope within five years they can start admitting students.
Allison Kelliher, Koyukon Athabascan, and Donald Warne, Oglala Lakota, found through their work at different academic institutions for years that there were many leaders in medical schools and schools of health sciences that did not have “the lived experience of Indigenous peoples.”
“What we observed, what we really need in Indian Country, in terms of high quality, is health care providers. First of all, we’re not creating health care providers we need but also our areas of focus are not on the correct things,” Warne said.
What they aspire to have is a school that teaches traditional knowledge and practices that will be inclusive of all Indigenous peoples. Especially for students to learn from Indigenous faculty and leadership. READ MORE— Kalle Benallie, ICT
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CHEMAWAWIN CREE NATION, Manitoba, Canada — Michael Chartrand had largely given up the cross. He thought his days of service were over. He still believed, but that deep commitment — day after day, hour after hour — as an Anglican minister in Cree communities in northern Manitoba was behind him.
He was still a man of prayer, but he found the work to be heavy, especially when consoling people who had lost loved ones.
“That was a heavy job,” Chartrand, Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, told ICT recently. “I thought I was retired.”
He was wrong. For nearly two weeks in late May and early June, Chartrand joined the search to find a Cree teen with medical issues who had gone missing from the remote community of Chemawawin Cree Nation in Manitoba, volunteering where needed and leading prayer circles in the evenings to ask for strength, direction and guidance. READ MORE— Miles Morrisseau, ICT
When Pope Resources began to sell off its forestlands and unveiled plans for new development in its community of Port Gamble on the Kitsap Peninsula west of Seattle, few would have envisioned the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe ending up owning a chunk of the company’s land holdings — including the site where their ancestors had been displaced in 1852 by a lumber mill.
But Port Gamble S’Klallam Chairman Jeromy Sullivan envisioned it. He knew what removing more than a century of wood waste from the bay and protecting forests and streams meant to the environment that sustained his people and others. And in the end, his tribe prevailed.
“He was a quiet and humble personality and leader — always diplomatic and respectful but very firm about the rights of his tribe and tribes in general,” said longtime Jamestown S’Klallam Chairman W. Ron Allen. “He always thought of everything he was doing in context of the next seven generations. He always thought the decisions he was making and advocating for were about the future.”
Sullivan, who led the western Washington tribe on an ambitious course of economic vitalization and environmental renewal, died Friday, June 30, while being treated for an undisclosed illness. He was 50. READ MORE — Richard Arlin Walker, Special to ICT
Around the world: A foster child’s death sparks demands for a Canadian official’s resignation, the Anindilyakwa people in Australia are embarking on economic transformation, forced labor issues draw scrutiny worldwide and New Zealand’s use of Māori principles in foreign policy with China gains recognition
CANADA: Foster child’s death brings calls for resignation
First Nations leaders are calling for the resignation of the minister of children in British Columbia and an overhaul of the foster system after the brutal torture, starvation and fatal beating of an 11-year-old Indigenous boy, CBC News reported on June 26.
A provincial court in Chilliwack, B.C., sentenced a man and woman to 10 years in prison in June after they pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and manslaughter in the death of the boy and the aggravated assault of his eight-year-old sister.
The couple, who are also Indigenous, had been serving as foster parents to the children, and the woman involved was related to the children’s biological mother, CBC News reported. The court has banned disclosure of the First Nation involved and the names of the couple to protect the identity of the children. READ MORE— Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
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With 180,000 American Indian residents, New York City is home to the largest urban Native population on Turtle Island. The American Indian Community House is an organization working to raise the visibility of Natives in New York. ICT’s Stewart Huntington has this interview with co-director Patricia Tarrant.
ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Management has a business program called Project Dream Catcher, geared towards Native women. Its recent cohort had a graduating class of 38 women who either have a business already or are looking to start one. Jessica Joaquin is one of the graduates.
Late last week a federal appeals court ruled that the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma lacks the jurisdiction to prosecute a Native American man, after he was cited by police for speeding. The city is located within the boundaries of a reservation. Shortly after the decision, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt posted a photo to social media showing two speed limits, including one called the tribal speed limit. Regular contributor John Tahsuda comments about the hostility between Stitt, who is a Cherokee citizen himself, and the tribal nations in the area.
WATCH:
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — More than a thousand people gathered in honor of military veterans from the Lummi Nation during the 77th annual Lummi Stommish Water Festival on Saturday, June 24.
The four-day festival takes place every June and features war canoe races, stick games, 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, a veterans parade, food and merchant vendors.
Planning begins in February and the exact date of the festival depends on the tides due to the canoe races said Henry Cagey, chairman of the Stommish Committee.
The canoe races are what have brought husband and wife Kalvin and A’aliya Warbus to the festival for over 30 years. They live in the Stó:lō Nation based in Canada and race with the Star Nation Canoe Club. READ MORE— Cascadia Daily News
- Thunder Valley takes steps toward MMIP search and rescue: In an effort to combat the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation held a search and rescue training on Pine Ridge as part of its new search and rescue initiative
- Court says Oklahoma city can’t give a Choctaw man a ticket: The decision was immediately derided by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican and citizen of the Cherokee Nation
- Deb Haaland reflects on tenure:’I might feel one way about an issue personally. It doesn’t mean that that’s the decision that’s going to be made. There is a process, so I am dedicated to that. I really do want to find a balance’
- DeSantis scores big legal win upholding $2.5B gambling deal with tribe
- Meta looks to target Twitter with a rival app called Threads
- ‘This fight is not over’ after Supreme Court kills student debt relief plan
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.
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