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.
Okay, here’s what you need to know today:
In a remote frozen corner of the north, a Labrador Inuit creature exhilarates and terrifies the locals.
The Nalujuit, fearsome-looking monsters that walk the ice every year on Jan. 6, emerge from the sea, with tattered fur, walking upright, and with a scary, skeletal face. Nalujuk means “heathen” or “non-believer.”
The creature crunches the snow underfoot as it enters the houses of the Inuit community of Nain, to see if the children have been naughty or nice.
If the children sing to it and the creature is pleased, they get gifts. But if they have misbehaved, they are chased and hit with sticks.
It’s a dark tale told for the first time in film by Inuk filmmaker/photographer Jennie Williams.
“Nalujuk Night,” shot in stylish black-and-white, is a short documentary about a winter night like no other that still is celebrated today in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, ICT
SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY.
Attorney General Mark Vargo has created a council to advise him on missing and murdered Indigenous people.
The council consists of advocates, prosecutors and law enforcement representatives for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal and state agencies as well as state lawmakers.
The council will advise the attorney general’s office on what protocols to create for the state’s new Missing and Murdered Indigenous People office. The office currently employs one person, coordinator Allison Morrisette, Oglala Sioux Tribe. She started in the position at the end of November and is based in Rapid City.
The council is scheduled to meet for the first time on Feb. 14. On June 30, they’ll deliver a list of goals and objectives for the MMIP coordinator and then meet at least annually after that to receive a report from the coordinator, according to a press release.
Most council members’ names haven’t been released. — Associated Press
Members of Montana’s American Indian Caucus condemned a draft joint resolution that “urges Congress to investigate alternatives to the American Indian reservation system.”
The draft was requested by Sen. Keith Regier, a Kalispell Republican. Regier did not respond to a request for comment from the .
Specifically, the resolution asks the Legislature to find that the “Indian reservation system has clearly failed to positively enhance the lives and well-being of most of the Indians or the other citizens of the State of Montana.”
It would also have the Legislature tell Congress the reservation system “has produced the negative effects of drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, welfare dependence, poverty and substandard educational achievements, resulting in lack of opportunity for their future well-being and happiness.” READ MORE — Missoulian
WASHINGTON — When lawyers argue before the Supreme Court, a small white light goes on to tell them when their time is almost expired and then a red light signals when they should stop. But arguments this term are extending well beyond the red light’s cue.
Arguments that usually lasted an hour in the morning have stretched well beyond two, and on many days it’s long past lunchtime before the court breaks.
The lengthy arguments have to do with a change the justices have made to their argument style, a switch tied to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to the justices asking more questions. Justices have said in the past that lawyers’ written briefs, not oral arguments, most influence their decisions, so it’s unclear if the extra time is really helping them decide cases. Whether that trend will continue is also an open question. READ MORE — Associated Press
Sign up here to get ICT’s newsletter
FOLLOW ICT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK.
- Indigenous House members disagree on speaker nominee: The newly elected Choctaw Congress member is one of the 20 Republican House members who voted against Kevin McCarthy
- GLOBAL INDIGENOUS: Threats, honors and recognition: Coverage around the world on Indigenous issues for the week ending Jan. 1, 2023
- Looking back (and ahead) at sovereignty, Wounded Knee: 1973 was a year of transition. Richard Nixon’s White House had officially ended the policy of termination and was proclaiming self-determination. But termination would not go quietly
- Restoring Native lands: Watch: ICT’s Senior Producer Vincent Moniz has the story
- Sundance sets inaugural Indigenous house with IllumiNative
- North Dakota tribe buys land where Las Vegas mass shooting occurred
- Red Lake Nationconsiders a future without tribal blood requirement
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.