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RAPID CITY, S.D. — Josie Green returned home to South Dakota 10 years ago with a mission — to engage students in her community through teaching.
Teaching wasn’t something the Oglala Lakota woman had anticipated pursuing. She was interning in Washington, D.C., when she stumbled upon a Teach for America Native Alliance booth.
“I think it was my own educational experience that led me to consider teaching,” she said. “But I thought, ‘What is this organization that’s trying to get Native people in front of Native kids?’ I was intrigued.”
Green applied, and by chance was sent to her home state in 2014 to teach second and third grades on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Spring Creek Community. Two years later she joined the Teach for America staff. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT and Rapid City Journal
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khwat yaka haws, meaning Auntie’s Place in the Chinook language, provides culturally-centered services like first foods cooking classes, beading and drumming lessons, and more. The shelter is also intentionally staffed with people who understand the lived experiences of those who need housing to help create a safe and supportive home for Native families experiencing homelessness.
khwat yaka haws is the Native American Youth and Family Center’s latest housing endeavor — a family housing shelter in Milwaukie that will provide support to Native families experiencing homelessness through direct placement to long term housing as well as substance use counseling and peer support and mental health support.
During the opening celebration of khwat yaka haws on June 25, the kitchen got its first big use with catering from local Indigenous pop-up restaurant, Javelina.
“As a young girl, growing up, I always learned so much at my auntie’s house, at any one of my auntie’s houses in our community,” said Valeria Atenacio, citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, an adjunct professor at PSU who gave Auntie’s Place its Chinook name. “I was welcomed with open arms, was brought in and usually fed, sometimes clothed, taken care of. This is really standing as that pillar in this community.” READ MORE — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News and ICT
Two newly named members of the Minnesota Racing Commission that oversee the state’s horse tracks have deep ties to Native American tribes that have large casino operations. It’s the latest volley in a long-running dispute over the extent of legal gambling in Minnesota.
On Friday, Gov. Tim Walz appointed Melanie Benjamin of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Johnny Johnson of the Prairie Island Indian Community to the nine-member commission. It comes just months after the panel received blowback from tribal interests and state lawmakers for authorizing a new form of betting on horse races that is similar to video poker.
The appointments blindsided the track operators — Benjamin and Johnson applied just a day before they were named — and raised questions about whether a potential competitor would be regulating a rival industry and able to access confidential information on their operations.
Walz defended the selections on Monday by calling his picks “two Minnesota citizens that have extensive experience in regulation, especially around gambling and they’re citizens and have every right to be on there.” READ MORE — MPR News
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- GLOBAL INDIGENOUS: Maasai people face new evictions: Coverage around the world on Indigenous issues for the week ending June 23, 2024
- ICT and its staff win numerous 2024 Indigenous Media Awards: Last week, Indigenous Journalists Association announced the winners of its annual Indigenous Media Awards
- Brandon Montour and Florida Panthers win Stanley Cup: Another Indigenous player will take the cup home to First Nations lands
- Cherokee Nation proclaims Pride Month, will advance LGBTQ+ support: Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ identities are an ancient part of Cherokee culture and history. ‘We have had members of the LGBTQ+ community among our citizens since time immemorial, since creation’
- ‘A sigh of relief’: Family shelteropens in Milwaukie, addressing gap in services for Native American families
- Over 100 years after Louis Sockalexis, Indigenous players still breaking barriers on the baseball diamond
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