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A memorial planned to honor children who died at an Indian boarding school has received a $2 million grant that pushes the project beyond its initial fundraising targets.

The Remembering the Children memorial — envisioned as a place of prayer, gathering, and remembrance on a hillside near the site of the former Rapid City Indian Boarding School — received the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

It is the largest single donation to date for the project, which has received numerous contributions from the Rapid City community and a $100,000 donation from the Monument Lab, a nonprofit working to cultivate critical conversations around past, present and future public art. READ MORE. — Stewart Huntington, Special to Indian Country Today

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One Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community firefighter was killed and a second critically injured when their ambulance collided with a tractor-trailer rig, officials said.

Firefighter Brendon Bessee was killed and Firefighter Tyler Packer was critically injured in the wreck Friday on State Route 87 on the tribe’s reservation on the east side of metro Phoenix, President Martin Harvier said in a statement Saturday.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the truck’s driver had minor injuries and that the wreck occurred after the ambulance turned onto the highway while responding to a 911 call, azfamily.com reported.

Cause of the crash was under investigation, the DPS said.

Video posted by azfamily.com showed the ambulance’s cab sitting upright but sheared from the rest of the vehicle.

Harvier said Bessee and Packer were recent transfers to the tribal fire department. READ MORE. — Associated Press

Funeral services were held Friday for a former Arizona state representative from the Navajo Nation.

Daniel Peaches died Tuesday, the Navajo Nation Council said in a statement. Peaches’ son told The Associated Press that his father died from cancer. He was 82.

Peaches was elected to the state House in 1974 as a Republican and served five terms before he lost a bid for reelection in 1984, according to legislative records.

Peaches’ legislative service somewhat overlapped with employment in the tribal government under former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald. Peaches also served for decades on Northland Pioneer College’s governing board and was appointed by former President Richard Nixon as a member of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education.

Peaches held various other roles in tribal government and within his community of Kayenta.

His funeral services were held in nearby Black Mesa. He was remembered as a loving father, grandfather and husband, and as someone who was revered in his community as a medicine man and a public servant. — Associated Press

As New York inches toward launching a retail marijuana market, sales of buds and edibles are already flourishing on some tribal land around the state.

Shops dot the main road through the U.S. side of Mohawk territory straddling the Canadian border. In the Finger Lakes, the Cayuga Nation is selling marijuana at two stores. Native people have opened more stores in western New York on Seneca territory.

Many of these shops are small and far from big cities, and there’s an internal dispute over the legality of about a dozen operations on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. But the sales show how Native people have been able to tap early into what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar statewide market. It’s an expression of tribal sovereignty and a way to bring much-needed economic activity to their territory. READ MORE. — Associated Press

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On Monday’s ICT Newscast, we are learning about a $2 million grant honoring Native children. Plus, a runner is explaining his fitness journey and an Indigenous artist is sharing her art through storytelling.

Watch:

Picuris Pueblo stands above a western slope in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Northern New Mexico.

It’s hidden, the only access being tribal roads off US Highway 75, which connects the towns of Vadito, Peñasco and Dixon to the roads leading to Taos or Española.

This offers residents a clear view of anyone entering the community. Picuris Gov. Craig Quanchello said the perch is often how residents know when federal police are coming.

“Picuris has been discriminated against,” he said. “My people, my community, we’ve been targets. But the intention is to grow cannabis here.” READ MORE.— Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico

This special project is part of a collaborative series, “At the Crossroads,” from the Institute for Nonprofit News, Indian Country Today, KOSU and eight other news partners, examining the state of the economy in Indian Country. This reporting was made possible with support from the Walton Family Foundation.

To read the series, click here.

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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. managingeditor@indiancountrytoday.com.