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WHITE HOUSE — A young Indigenous girl walked through Lafayette Park in front of the White House with an American Indian Movement flag. Her tiny frame held the six-foot bamboo stake steady as the flag blew in the wind. A stark reminder of how many generations the movement to free Leonard Peltier from prison has gone on.
On Tuesday, NDN Collective, a national Indigenous-led organization, and Amnesty International, held the Free Leonard Peltier 79th Birthday Action in Washington, D.C., to demand clemency for the Native American rights activist who has been incarcerated for nearly five decades. Hundreds attended the peaceful rally where prayer songs echoed and at times people danced, but still thirty-five demonstrators were arrested, according to NDN Collective. At one point the U.S. Park Police brought out a sonic weapon and U.S. Secret Service created a barrier of agents on the sidewalk.
“Our goal with this event is to raise awareness and bring attention to the plight of Leonard Peltier and his incarceration. Because we’re at a point in time where the Biden administration has made it a priority for Native American civil rights, and yet the longest living political prisoner in American history, who is Indigenous, is still in there,” said NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota. “And so we’re calling upon (President Joe) Biden and the Biden administration to release Leonard. This is a priority for Indian Country.”
Leonard maintains he did not commit the 1975 murder of two FBI agents on Oglala Lakota land. READ MORE — Jourdan Bennett-Begaye and Pauly Denetclaw, ICT
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Leaders from nine South Dakota tribes met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Monday, Sept. 11, to discuss transportation issues affecting tribes, including roadway safety, emergency response and public transportation.
“A lot of tribal citizens don’t have access to a vehicle and that’s why Tribal Transit and safer road design are so important,” Buttigieg said. “And then the broader issue of missing and murdered women is something that I also believe has links to transportation policy, because if we create better, safer ways for women to get to where they need to be, hopefully, fewer of them are likely to be victimized in that way.”
As of 2019, approximately 16,920 miles of the BIA-operated system roads are unimproved and earth surface roads, and 4,790 roads are gravel. The BIA controls about a quarter of reservation roads in the Nation. The construction costs were estimated to be $390 million.
Additionally, tribal communities have some of the highest pedestrian deaths in the country, according to DOT officials. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
Around the world: Advocacy group says tourism encourages injustices against Uyghurs, Māori people face hurdles finding secure housing after release from prison, a food sovereignty summit calls for sustainable farming in the Congo, and First Nations police investigate sex-trafficking allegations in Manitoba
CHINA: Uyghurs targeted for offensive ‘genocide tours’
The U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project is urging Western travel agencies to stop promoting tours to China’s Xinjiang region, saying it inadvertently endorses Beijing’s oppression of the Uyghur Muslim population, Radio Free Asia reported on Sept. 5.
The advocacy group released a report, “Genocide Tours,” on Aug. 30 that identifies seven Western travel companies that offer itineraries that include stops in Urumqi, Turpan, and Kashgar. The tours also encompass visits to Uyghur homes, which families often cannot decline due to the pervasive state control in the region, according to the report.
“Travel companies have no business in running tours to sites of ongoing atrocities,” said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Washington, D.C., according to Radio Free Asia. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband has died in an airplane crash, her office said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are devastated to share that Mary’s husband, Eugene Peltola Jr. — ′Buzzy’ to all of us who knew and loved him — passed away earlier this morning following a plane accident in Alaska,” her chief of staff, Anton McParland, said in the statement. Of Yup’ik and Tlingit descent, Eugene Peltola, Jr. was an enrolled citizen of the Orutsaramiut Native Council of Bethel.
No other details about the crash were immediately available. A message left with the National Transportation Safety Board in Anchorage was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Small planes are part of life in Alaska, where 80 percent of communities lack road access. Alaska has the nation’s highest rate of fatal air crashes. A lack of technology, treacherous weather and rugged terrain contribute to the problem. READ MORE — Associated Press
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Hundreds gathered in front of the White House to protest Leonard Peltier’s imprisonment beginning in 1976. ICT’s Pauly Denetclaw was at the rally and has the latest.
Wayne National Forest is currently named after a military war general who once led an attack against tribes. That could soon change. ICT’s Demi Dupavillon has more.
Congress is back in the Beltway and hard at work to pass a spending bill by the Sept. 30 deadline. But with a highly polarized environment, how likely is it that a shutdown can be avoided? ICT regular contributor John Tahsuda has details.
WATCH:
Three time Native American Music Awards winning rapper Frank Waln sees hip-hop as a melting pot.
Waln, a Sicangu Lakota music artist based in Chicago, described his style of music as multi-genre but with hip-hop dominating his song stockpile.
He shared his own hip-hop awakening journey, saying that this style of music is an opportunity to share life experiences and culture.
“One of the beautiful things [about hip-hop] is it creates opportunities for cultural exchange,” Waln said. READ MORE— JoVonne Wagner, ICT
- Forest named after general gets a second look: Forest Manager Lee Stewart said tribes had been asking for a name change for decades
- In the hopes of more buffalo: Southern Ute Tribe’s bison herd at maximum capacity due to environmental restrictions
- Border wall disturbed Native burial grounds: Congressional watchdog describes border wall harm, says agencies should work together to ease damage
- Danelo Cavalcante has been arrested
- What to know about the Morocco earthquake
- Cash bail disproportionately impacts communities of color
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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