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Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you. 

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When the whistleblower broke the news that hundreds of Indigenous children were dying from the “criminal disregard” of the Canadian government, the story was denied by the government, the churches and Canada’s most famous poet.

It was over 100 years ago, when Dr. Peter Bryce, the leading medical expert on Indigenous peoples reported that children were dying by the dozens and ultimately hundreds at residential schools and other government and church-run institutions for Indigenous children.

Bryce had served as the Chief Medical Officer for Canada’s Department of Interior and the Department of Indian Affairs and when his own reporting was ignored he quit the government and blew the whistle on the government when he self-published his findings in “A National Disgrace” in 1922. READ MORE. — Miles Morrisseau, ICT

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The U.S. Justice Department has announced more than $86 million in grants for American Indian and Alaska Native communities to ​​support survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex trafficking.

Nearly $14 million of those dollars were awarded to Alaska tribes and tribal organizations.

The news comes after Alaska lawmakers increased state funding to the state’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault to make up for a decrease in one if its federal funding sources and as advocates have stressed the need for even more financial support.

The grants come through the federal Violence Against Women Act, a law that funds the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, which had its 30th anniversary this month. The law established the federal Office of Violence Against Women within the Justice Department; its Tribal Affairs Division will administer the grants.

Fourteen different tribes or tribal organizations in Alaska have been awarded grants so far and several of them received more than $1 million. The Organized Village of Kake was awarded $1.5 million to support Tribal jurisdiction over crimes committed in the community, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. READ MORE. — Alaska Beacon

The Muscogee Nation has renewed a lawsuit first filed in 2012 against the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama for building a casino resort on the site of sacred historic burial grounds.

The Oklahoma tribe is challenging a federal judge’s decision in 2021 to dismiss the lawsuit based on “sovereign immunity” of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. To build its casino near Wetumpka, Ala., the tribe exhumed 7,000 cultural items and 57 sets of human remains near the Hickory Ground burial site. The ceremonial ground was the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s capital before the tribe’s forced move to Oklahoma in the 1830s.

Muscogee Nation attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle told ICT and the Tulsa World the Poarch Band of Creek Indians have shown a “callous disregard” for the Hickory Ground burial site. READ MORE. — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World

The panic button hanging around Marcos’ neck evokes the death threat that pulled him out of the Mexican mountain forests of the Sierra de Manantlán and dragged him to the outskirts of Guadalajara. After years of intimidation, he fled his hometown after the body of his 17-year-old son was found lying on the side of a road.

The boy was killed, the lawyers on the case say, because, like his father, he opposed the activities of the Peña Colorada mine, which since 1975 has been squeezing the Sierra in search of iron. Over the decades, the iron mine, Mexico’s largest, has depleted the region’s water reserves, deforested its hills, polluted its air, and created divisions in the community. READ MORE. — Maria Paula Rubiano A., Grist

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The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal of a sprawling sex abuse indictment against Nathan Chasing Horse, while leaving open the possibility of charges being refiled in a case that sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada.

The ruling directs the judge overseeing the case in Clark County District Court to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, meaning charges against Chasing Horse can be refiled. But the order for dismissal won’t take effect immediately, as prosecutors also have the option to ask the high court to reconsider within 25 days. READ MORE. — Associated Press

A petroleum pipeline previously shut down by the federal government for its route through Pipestone National Monument, an area sacred to over 23 tribes, will now be relocated and re-opened adjacent to the site.

In April 2023, Magellan, an Oklahoma-based energy pipeline company, filed a route permit application for an existing petroleum pipeline it previously built under the monument and was forced to shut down in 2022. Initially, Magellan sought to relocate approximately 0.74 miles of an existing eight-inch petroleum pipeline onto private property adjacent to the site.

On Sept. 11, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission granted Magellan’s permit, though it did pick a route farther from the monument than the one Magellan initially proposed. READ MORE. — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal

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