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In the peak summer heat, 15 Lakota artists gathered at Racing Magpie in Rapid City to sell their creations during the first summertime Night Market from three to eight on Saturday, July 22.
This year’s Night Market included a free screen-printing demonstration, live music, food trucks and a screening of “Mináǧi kiŋ dowáŋ: a Zitkála-Šá opera,” accompanied by a documentary about the making of the opera film.
Organized by Duwana and Lori Two Bulls, both Oglala Lakota, and hosted at Racing Magpie, this was the first time there had been a summer Night Market. Usually, the market is hosted in the spring and winter.
“We decided to try our hand in the night market this year because they’re so popular around the country,” Duwana Two Bulls said. READ MORE— Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
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In October 2021, Norway’s Supreme Court ruled that a wind farm built on the country’s central-west coast violated the protected cultural rights of the Indigenous Sámi by infringing on their reindeer grazing lands. On June 3, 2023, exactly 600 days after the ruling, the $1.3 billion Fosen wind farm was still operating. To mark the anniversary of the court’s decision, members of the Norwegian Sámi Association’s Youth Committee, known as NSR-N, demonstrated outside the Norwegian Parliament. On June 26, Motvind Norge, an organization that opposes wind power on conservation grounds, blocked the entrance to the wind farm in Fosen, shutting down the facility for a week.
Police successfully cleared the protestors, fining many of them. Meanwhile, there is no sign the government or the company behind the wind farm will take action to comply with the court’s decision, or respond to the demands of Sámi leaders to remove the wind farm entirely. As the court ruling’s second anniversary approaches, organizers with NSR-N say they will intensify their protests if the government fails to take action.
The civil disobedience began in February of this year, when 13 Sámi youth from NSR-N began occupying the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in Norway’s capital, Oslo, to mark 500 days since the Supreme Court ruling. Within a week, they were joined by nearly 200 human rights campaigners, including members of Young Friends of the Earth, the largest environmentalist youth organization in Norway, and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. By the end of the protests, 10 ministries were shut down, and 2,000 supporters joined NSR-N organizers as they ended the peaceful occupation at Norway’s royal palace. In response to the February protests, Terje Aasland, the minister of petroleum and energy, offered Sámi reindeer herders an apology. READ MORE— Grist
Around the world: Millions of dollars are being awarded to boost preservation of Aboriginal languages in New South Wales, tensions are high between local communities and large agriculture firms over palm oil trees, and a Māori tournament will showcase cricket
AUSTRALIA: Grants will help revitalize Aboriginal languages
Fifty-eight community organizations in New South Wales have been awarded a share in $3.9 million in grants aimed at revitalizing Aboriginal languages, National Indigenous Times reported on July 20.
Under the Aboriginal Languages Trust Community Investment Program, the funding initiative is expected to play a pivotal role in supporting local efforts to rekindle, cultivate and promote awareness of the diverse array of Aboriginal languages throughout New South Wales.
Jason Behrendt, chair of the Aboriginal Languages Trust, said the grants demonstrate a significant increase in both value and scope, according to National Indigenous Times. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
The Michigan Department of the Attorney General announced on Friday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit would review arguments on whether Attorney General Dana Nessel’s case to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 should be heard in federal or state court.
Nessel initially sued Enbridge in state court in 2019, litigating the case for more than a year. The state court ordered Enbridge to shut down its Line 5 pipelines for several weeks in the summer of 2020 in order to ensure their safety.
Line 5 runs for 645 miles from Northwest Wisconsin into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac, through the Lower Peninsula into Sarnia, Canada. It transports about 23 million gallons of crude oil and liquid natural gas daily.
According to the Department of the Attorney General, Nessel and Enbridge both filed motions asking the state court to decide the case. However, Enbridge filed a motion to have the case moved to federal court, with Federal Judge Janet Neff ultimately ruling the case would be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. READ MORE. — Michigan Advance
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A newly released fund is now available to help tribes get their sacred items back. To tell us more is Rick West, a founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
A Navajo Nation citizen won a scholarship for Saturday Night Live and is taking classes at the Groundlings in Los Angeles, Alex Slim is here to tell us more about this opportunity.
Congress is heading into recess soon, but before they do they have heard several bills that could impact Indian Country. To tell us more about this is ICT regular contributor Holly Cook Macarro. She is a board member of IndiJ Public Media, ICT’s parent company.
WATCH:
A federal judge dismissed a year-old lawsuit by the state of Alaska against the federal government over liability for contaminated land given to Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
No Alaska Native corporations or Native groups joined the lawsuit, and in an order published July 18, Judge Hezekiah Russel Holland found multiple problems with the state’s arguments, ultimately ruling that they should be dismissed with prejudice.
The state had argued that three prior acts of Congress required the Department of the Interior to deal with contaminated sites, formerly owned by the federal government, that were given to Native corporations.
Attorneys representing the Department of the Interior disagreed, saying those laws only required the federal government to identify contaminated sites and come up with plans for cleaning them up. They did that.
In a written statement, state Attorney General Treg Taylor said the state is considering an appeal. — Alaska Beacon
- Pipestone carvers preserve revered Native spiritual tradition: Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain in area, where Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota protects the quarries with the unique variety of stone
- ‘Achieve your dreams at home’: Blackfeet Community College in Montana celebrates first Bachelor of Science in Nursing grad
- Alfred Jacques, Onandaga stick maker, kept the door open: The renowned lacrosse stick maker, who passed in June, welcomed the world into his workshop throughout his life, sharing his craft and his teachings
- Research elevates Arctic Indigenous voices to understand climate change
- Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing ‘multi-decade’ program that captures UFOs
- The Navajo Suffered From Nuclear Testing. ‘Oppenheimer’ Doesn’t Tell Our Story
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