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SIOUX VALLEY DAKOTA NATION — It was a celebration inside the Veterans Hall on the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Manitoba as the community gathered to cheer on local hero Zach Whitecloud and his Las Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas scored twice Tuesday in the first period and never took the foot of the gas, winning 9-3 over the Florida Panthers to become the 2023 Stanley Cup champions.
Around 1,500 miles away in Nevada, Whitecloud hoisted the Stanley Cup as his team won the series 4 games to 1.
“This is a monumental moment for our community,” Wakpa Mckay said to ICT. “This is the first time that this is going to happen to Sioux Valley Dakota Nation to have the Stanley Cup in our community. It’d be awesome to see it at the powwow, you know, if they brought it in the grand entry.”
Around 300 people filled the hall to watch the game on two big TV screens and a glitzy party atmosphere with all tables covered in black or gold, balloons, cake and cupcakes, placards reading “Go Vegas Go” and jerseys and T-shirts with the team logo and the Whitecloud name on the back. The kids were in the bouncy castle and the fireworks were set to blow. READ MORE — Miles Morrisseau, ICT
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In May, elders from Nuwu, or the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, gathered with land defenders and water protectors to expand their protest camp and block construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada. Together, the group built a second ceremonial tipi directly in the path of a water pipeline the mining company is building as an initial phase of its planned open pit mine.
Lithium Americas plans to extract the largest known lithium deposit in the United States, while also, critics say, destroying the home of animals like the sage grouse and golden eagle, plant medicines like ibi and toza root and the final resting place of over 30 men, women and children who were killed by the 1st Nevada Cavalry on Sept. 12, 1865.
On a golden morning last month, the sun was just peeking over the snowcapped mountains as Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone tribal elders Josephine Sam Dick, 76, and her sister, Elvida Sam Crutcher, 73, led the creation of Newe Momokonee Nokotun, a Paiute name that translates to Indigenous Women’s Camp.
Some call the resistance camp by its other name: Ox Sam Camp, after the sisters’ great-grandfather, who was one of only three survivors of the 1865 Thacker Pass Massacre. READ MORE — Underscore News and Report for America
Indigenous filmmakers are increasing both by the number and in the depth and quality of their overall work, said the director of the Sundance Film Festival’s Indigenous Program.
Rounding out his first year as director of the program and as short film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, Adam Piron, Kiowa and Mohawk from Phoenix, also announced on Wednesday a major donation from one of its own program alums.
“It’s been a phenomenal year!,” he said. “Balancing and expanding the support that our program offers to artists has been a very rewarding experience and I’ve been consistently impressed with the work that the Indigenous Program’s artists have done. The key has always been to meet artists where they are at and to listen to what they’re needs are and to provide what we can to help them get to whatever that next level is for them and their work.”
Piron was the Indigenous Program’s interim director, associate director, and program manager. He is a co-founder of COUSIN, a film collective dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of the moving image. He was previously the film curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He received his BA in Film Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
Around the world: Indigenous communities ask a Brazilian court to end police violence, a First Nation school in Canada teaches Mi’kmaw knowledge, the Torres Strait Islands festival returns after a hiatus and a Māori author’s book wins a major Australasian prize.
BRAZIL: Seeking help from court to end police violence
Indigenous communities in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state have asked the Supreme Federal Court to implement measures to address police brutality and misconduct by the state military police, Mongabay.com reported on June 9.
The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the largest coalition of Indigenous groups in the country, urged the court to address the growing police violence they encounter while defending their ancestral lands from agricultural, mining, and development encroachments, Mongabay reported.
The coalition says the military police have been conducting violent evictions, the majority of which stem from conflicts over Indigenous lands that have not been officially demarcated, Mongabay reported. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
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Indigenous tourism is expected to top $65 billion this year — that’s up from $40 billion last year. The 11 tribes in Wisconsin are making plans and will meet later this month to share best practices. Suzette Brewer is the executive director of the Native American Tourism of Wisconsin.
The ledger art style is commonly described as Warrior Art and is often considered a male artform. However, for over two decades, Caddo Nation of Oklahoma citizen and Winnebago descendent Dolores Purdy has been involved in it. Using the medium of antique paper and colored pencils, she has created a contemporary version of ledger art from a female perspective.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is making progress on a boarding school investigation bill, but tensions were high during what was a planned celebration at Chaco Canyon over the weekend. ICT’s regular contributor, Holly Cook Macarro has more information. She is a partner with Spirit Rock Consulting and a board member of IndiJ Public Media, the parent company that owns ICT and the ICT Newscast.
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ANCHORAGE — Joseph Engasongwok Senungetuk, Iñupiaq, died peacefully on May 31 at his home in Anchorage, Alaska with his wife Martha and family and friends by his side. He was 83.
As an artist, he created etchings, paintings, illustrations, masks, sculptures and writing. He will also be remembered as an educator, mentor, and activist.
Senungetuk said the inspiration for his art work came from museum illustrations and objects. “Most of my ideas come from pre-contact days. In my art work I try to show people that we are an ancient people and we go back thousands of years,” he said in the documentary film, “Joe Senungetuk, Art and Life” by Mike Conti.
He used those traditional designs in a contemporary fashion, said Victoria Hykes-Steere, Iñupiaq, assistant professor of Alaska Native governance, Alaska Pacific University. She said a recurring theme was the impact of colonization. READ MORE — Joaqlin Estus, ICT
- James Cameron talks lithium dispute ‘ambush’: The director said he would devote attention and money from his Avatar Alliance Foundation to support Indigenous communities opposing lithium operations
- Hundreds of Native people living on Phoenix streets: Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch says Navajo law enforcement teams that fanned out over metro Phoenix in recent weeks made contact with several hundred Native Americans amid a state crackdown on Medicaid fraud that recruited them to unlicensed sober living homes
- Landless San Juan Southern Paiute could get its homeland: The tribe has been waiting two decades for Congress to ratify its treaty that would designate land
- ASU Thunderbird’s Project DreamCatcher empowers Native American entrepreneurs to thrive
- New social media challenge sees mermen surface from First Nations across Manitoba
- Transgender and nonbinary people are often sidelined at Pride. This year is different
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