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Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota, has been denied parole.
The U.S. Parole Commission said in a statement Tuesday announcing the decision that he won’t be eligible for another parole hearing until June 2026.
His attorney, Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge, argued that Peltier was wrongly convicted and said that the health of the 79-year-old was failing. Peltier’s attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment, but after his client was last denied parole, in June, Sharp, said that he argued that the commission was obligated legally to “look forward,” focusing on issues such as whether he is likely to commit another crime if he is release.
The FBI and its current and former agents dispute the claims of innocence. The agency did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the decision. READ MORE — Associated Press
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TULSA, Okla. — Days before the Fourth of July, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, made a case for tribal sovereignty over trust lands before a natural resources subcommittee in Congress.
Cole, Chickasaw Nation, explained Wednesday that a 2009 Supreme Court decision uprooted “seventy years of precedent and turned the entire notion of tribal sovereignty on its head.”
The Carcieri v. Salazar (2009) decision ruled that the Indian Reorganization Act stripped the secretary of interior of its power to take land into trust, arguing that the IRA only applied to federally recognized tribes. The act is legislation that forcibly removed tribes from their lands and relocated them to unfamiliar territories.
Since the Carcieri decision, only federally recognized tribes have held land in trust. In Oklahoma, some tribes without federal recognition would include the Euchee Tribe of Indians in Sapulpa, as well as several unrecognized bands of Cherokees across the state, such as the Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Bands. READ MORE — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Nicole Swigart, Rapid City Area Schools superintendent, has been placed on leave following offensive comments she made during a U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation, school officials announced Monday.
The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education placed Swigart on a 30-day leave and required her to complete cultural competency training to work toward rebuilding positive trusting relationships with the Indigenous community.
“We are confident in Superintendent Swigart’s ability to lead this District and ensure that all students enjoy a positive, safe, and nondiscriminatory environment while at school,” a Monday statement from the board said.
In a May 29 Office of Civil Rights Resolution Letter, when asked about low attendance rates and high tardy reports among Native students, Swigart said Native families operate on “Indian time,” making students often two hours tardy. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
Down the curved walkway just past the Chief Joseph Hatchery, the sounds of soft laughter and friendly hellos mixed with the roar of the Columbia River as it cascaded in streams through the Chief Joseph Dam. Near the hatchery raceways, spiritual leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation led a ceremony to give thanks for the sacrifice of the first salmon of the season.
“This work that we do lifts our spirits,” said Jim Andrews, Colville, told the crowd gathered to participate in the First Salmon Ceremony. “We thank Creator for this day today. We thank mother earth for the water we drink and the air we breathe. Most of all, we come here today to honor the spirit of the salmon that comes back every year and was the first one to give itself up to the people.”
After a song honoring the first salmon, Darnell Sam, Colville, fileted it in preparation for eating during the ceremony. Attendees entered the Chief Joseph Hatchery, where Randy Lewis, also a Colville citizen, shared part of the Colville creation story.
Lewis explained that when man was first placed here he was starving. So coyote, who was Creator’s messenger, asked the animal people if they would come forward and offer themselves to man so that they could survive. READ MORE — Luna Reyna, Underscore Native News + ICT
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Over more than an hour and a half of back-and-forth, climate change got just a couple minutes of airtime during a CNN-hosted debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump on Thursday.
It was the first time the men had faced each other on the debate stage since October 2020. Both candidates were reportedly eager for the confrontation, with Biden’s team seeking to warn voters about the increased radicalism that Trump is promising to bring to a second term, and Trump keen on digging into his rival’s alleged cognitive decline.
Most of the discourse focused on hot-button issues like immigration and the economy. Biden spoke with a raspy voice and at times tripped over his words, while Trump took many wild discursions and uttered several falsehoods that moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper did little to rein in.
A little over halfway in, however, Bash asked whether the candidates would do anything as president to address the climate crisis. Neither candidate directly answered the question, but Biden pointed to policies his administration has implemented to encourage the development of clean energy technologies. Trump gave an incoherent nonanswer. READ MORE — Grist
The Biden administration on Friday took the final step needed to reject a proposed and controversial 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills that would enable commercial mining in a remote Arctic area in Northwest Alaska.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a document that formalized its decision, announced in April, to deny a right-of-way permit needed to build the Ambler Access Project.
The proposed road would run from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler mining district. The road is considered necessary to make commercial mining in the metals-rich but isolated region economically feasible. The project sponsor is the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state-owned economic development entity; the mining companies that would be the main beneficiaries are Vancouver-based Trilogy Metals Inc. and Australia-based South32, which have formed a partnership called Ambler Metals. READ MORE — Alaska Beacon
- Study: Climate change intensifies hazard risk for Native Americans: A new study is by University of Oklahoma researchers
- Civil rights investigation finds Rapid City Area Schools ‘discriminated’ against Native students: School district signs agreement to close the gap with Native students with more staff and advisory committee
- Cherokee Nation breaks ground on new Wilma Mankiller park: ‘You know, I think she would be so thrilled about the park. I’m not sure that she would be thrilled with having her name on it, just because she was humble and only wanted to work hard for the people’
- Alaska North Slope group sues Biden administration over oil-development limits
- In wake of Supreme Court ruling, Biden administration tells doctors to provide emergency abortions
- Street medicine teams search for homeless people to deliver lifesaving IV hydration in extreme heat
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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