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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet on Tuesday in a debate on ABC News with less than two months before Election Day. ICT readers can participate in an interactive game.
While watching the presidential candidates speak at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, viewers can track what is said during the debate by using an ICT bingo card that lists words and topics that are relevant to the Indigenous community. Words such as MMIP, Indigenous Peoples’ Day or sovereignty are on the card. Will we hear enough words for a classic bingo? With the free space, we only need four words.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time for approximately 90 minutes with two commercial breaks, according to ABC. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate.
Debate rules have been set in place to ensure a smooth process. Harris and Trump have previously been in disagreement of when, where and how it should take place. READ MORE — ICT
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RAPID CITY, S.D. – Two civil rights lawsuits against the Grand Gateway Hotel are delayed after hotel owners filed for bankruptcy less than two days before one trial was set to begin.
A trial for the Indigenous nonprofit NDN Collective’s lawsuit against the Retsel Corporation, which owns the Grand Gateway Hotel and Cheers Lounge, was set to begin in Rapid City at 9 a.m. on Sept. 9. Instead, organizers were met Sunday with a notice that the corporation had filed for bankruptcy.
According to documents filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Chad Uhre, director of the Retsel Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 7.
“The bankruptcy law and bankruptcy filing is purely a stall tactic here,” said Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota and the founder and CEO of NDN Collective during a Sept. 9 press conference. “They aren’t going bankrupt yet.” READ MORE— Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
A federal court is reconsidering a lawsuit by Native American Church members seeking protection of birds they consider sacred and important to a ceremony near a creation site in San Antonio, Texas.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year ruled that plaintiffs Gary Perez and Matilde Torres and other church members have the right to access the site at the City of San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park. The city had fenced and closed the area. But the appellate court declined to rule on protection for cormorants (aquatic birds) being harassed by city contractors to keep them from nesting in trees the city wants to remove for riverfront improvements.
Perez and Torres asked the court to reconsider, citing religious freedom protections in the Texas State Constitution. The appellate court agreed on Aug. 28 to reconsider its earlier decision and asked the Texas Supreme Court for an interpretation of the constitutional provisions.
“I’m concerned about our peyote people here,” said Perez, principal chief of the Pakahua/Coahuiltecan peoples of Mexico and Texas. “If the Texas Administrative Code is there to help us, then I want this court’s ruling to help us too. I want our people all over the U.S. to understand their rights are protected within the state of Texas.” READ MORE — Richard Arlin Walker, Special to ICT
The Lower Sioux Indian Community has opened a new facility to turn hemp into a home insulation material known as “hempcrete.” The tribe hopes to build an industry with the help of a wider group of farmers and address a housing shortage for its citizens.
Hempcrete is made from the woody core of hemp — called hurd — lime and water. It’s material that former tribal council member Earl Pendleton has researched for several years to provide “safer and healthier” homes to members of the tribal community.
He says hempcrete does not use carbon-based products that contribute to the problem of greenhouse gases. The material also avoids toxic substances that may be found in manufactured building materials.
“From seed to sovereignty,” Pendleton said. He says the tribe has grown hemp since 2021 for the purpose of building homes but lacked the ability to process it into building materials. READ MORE— MPR News
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The role of Indigenous farming practices in North Dakota’s new multimillion-dollar agricultural partnership took center stage at the United Tribes Technical College 27th Annual Tribal Leadership Summit.
Hundreds of students, community organizers and tribal leaders from throughout the Great Plains attended the summit last week. Sessions throughout Wednesday and Thursday addressed renewable energy, food sovereignty, healthcare, media, tribal and local politics and education.
Organizers dedicated a spate of sessions solely to food sovereignty and agriculture, as part of the inaugural Inter-Tribal Agriculture Innovation and Food Sovereignty Summit.
The regional partnership FARMS (Food systems Adapted for Resiliency and Maximized Security), sponsored the registration costs for individuals and organizations participating in the Food Sovereignty Summit. FARMS plans to eventually scale the initiative to an annual, independent regional gathering. READ MORE — Buffalo’s Fire
Two Ojibwe nations are planning new locations for cannabis dispensaries, including one planned outside reservation borders.
CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki Zach Wilson confirmed to MPR News the tribally owned company has leased a building in Moorhead. Wilson said White Earth Nation is inching closer to finalizing an agreement with the state of Minnesota governing tribal cannabis businesses outside the reservation.
“We’re still working diligently with the state on compacts, but there’s not been anything definitive as of yet,” said Wilson.
The state of Minnesota has been negotiating the terms of cannabis compacts with tribal nations across the state for the past year. READ MORE — MPR News
- Cherokee Nation to continue issuing tribal car tags: Cherokee chief said during his annual State of the Nation address that the tribe won’t let Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt stop it from issuing car tags
- Obscure government agency at center of Carlisle repatriation dispute: The Office of Army Cemeteries refuses to return some children’s remains if tribes won’t agree to certain military conditions *Correction
- ‘It’s like the Wild West out here’: At a public safety conference, Oglala Lakota tribal elders recount rampant violence, drug trafficking and ask that citizen warriors, or tokalas, be allowed to reinforce depleted police force
- Earth breaks yet another record for hottest summer
- Burger King Customer Orders in Navajo, Shocked by Drive-Thru Worker’s Reply
- Americans’ inflation-adjusted incomes rebounded to pre-pandemic levels last year
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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