Credit: Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, plates dessert at an exhibition in Fargo, North Dakota. Sherman wants to offer insects on the menu of a new restaurant he is planning to open in Minneapolis. (Photo courtesy of the Sioux Chef)

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Sean Sherman — an award-winning chef, restaurateur and advocate for Indigenous foodways — has been named to the 2023 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Sherman, Oglala Lakota, is leading the movement to revitalize Indigenous food systems through his nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems; his restaurant, Owamni, in Minneapolis; and his best-selling cookbook, “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen.”

Sherman is listed among a group of “innovators,” by Time, which announced the list on Thursday, April 13. He’s one of two Indigenous people on the Time list. Sam Rivera, Taino, is cited in the “pioneer” category for his work providing support in New York City for people who use drugs.

Sherman told ICT via Zoom that the recognition from Time magazine was “an immense honor.” READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT

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LAS VEGAS — The sexual abuse trial of a “Dances With Wolves” actor charged in Nevada with abusing Indigenous women and girls for more than a decade is on hold indefinitely, a state judge announced Wednesday.

Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, was originally set to stand trial May 1. He is charged with 18 felonies, including sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, lewdness and child abuse.

Shortly after a grand jury in Las Vegas indicted him in February, Chasing Horse invoked his right to a trial within 60 days. But on Wednesday, his public defender, Kristy Holston, asked to put a pause on proceedings while they ask the Nevada Supreme Court to toss his indictment.

Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny said she would set a new trial date if the high court upholds her recent decision denying Chasing Horse’s request to dismiss the case. Chasing Horse and his attorneys argued that two women identified as his victims wanted to have sex with him. READ MORE — Associated Press

ANCHORAGE — Two Alaska Native corporations own and want to develop the site of what would be the world’s largest pure gold open-pit mine. They say the mine would bring jobs, a stronger economy and much-needed infrastructure to an impoverished region.

But some of their shareholders oppose the project. They say the mine threatens the core of the Yup’ik and Cupik way of life: subsistence, the gathering and sharing of food from nature. Three tribes have sued in federal court to halt the project.

The regional corporation for western Alaska, Calista and 10 village corporations that have combined into The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC), have joined forces with Donlin Gold LLC to build the proposed mine.

The corporations are two of the more than 200 that were created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. It set up for-profit companies to receive 44 million acres and nearly a billion dollars for them to go into business and make a profit to disburse to their Native shareholders in the form of dividends. Corporate representatives say the site of the proposed Donlin Gold Project was specifically selected for its mineral potential. READ MORE — Joaqlin Estus, ICT

BOULDER CITY, Nev. — The Biden administration released an environmental analysis Tuesday that outlined two ways that seven Western states and tribes reliant on the overtapped Colorado River could cut their use, but declined to publicly take a side on the best option.

One option would be more beneficial to California and some tribes along the river that have high-priority rights to the river’s water. The second option is likely to be more favorable to Nevada and Arizona, who share the river’s Lower Basin with California and say it’s time for an approach that more fairly spreads the pain of cuts. That approach would force cuts on a proportional basis, when water levels at key reservoirs along the river dip below a certain point.

The Interior Department defended its authority to make sure basic needs such as drinking water and hydropower generated from the river are met — even if it means setting aside the priority system.

“At the end of the day, the Interior secretary has the authority and the responsibility to operate the system,” Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau told The Associated Press. He said those duties give the federal government the ability to make some decisions that defy the priority system. READ MORE — Associated Press

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Indigenous leaders want more answers about the death of a First Nations woman. The body of Linda Mary Beardy was discovered at a landfill just outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, on April 3. Although the cause of death is still undetermined and toxicology tests have not been completed, officials concluded there was no evidence of foul play. Chief Chris Traverse of the Lake Saint Martin First Nation challenged the investigation’s conclusion.

In New Mexico, a federal grand jury has indicted a man in connection with the 2021 disappearance of a Native woman. Federal prosecutors allege that in 2021, Preston Henry Tolth assaulted 62-year-old Ella Mae Begay, and drove her vehicle across state lines. At last week’s hearing, Begay’s family pleaded with the defendant to reveal the location of her body.

A group of Alaska Native men are being honored 67 years after a heroic rescue. In 1955, 16 Alaska Native scouts recovered U.S. crewmen after they crash landed on Saint Lawrence Island in a remote part of the state. To honor their achievements, sole survivor Bruce Boolowon and the family members of the other 15 scouts, were recently presented with Alaska Heroism Medals.

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On a 1919 trip to the United States, King Albert I of Belgium visited three of the country’s national parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the newly established Grand Canyon. The parks represented a model developed by the U.S. of creating protected national parks, where visitors and scientists could come to admire spectacular, unchanging natural beauty and wildlife. Impressed by the parks, King Albert created his own just a few years later: Albert National Park in the Belgian Congo, established in 1925.

Widely seen as the first national park in Africa, Albert National Park (now called Virunga National Park), was designed to be a place for scientific exploration and discovery, particularly around mountain gorillas. It also set the tone for decades of colonial protected parks in Africa. Although Belgian authorities claimed that the park was home to only a small group of Indigenous people — “300 or so, whom we like to preserve” — they violently expelled thousands of other Indigenous people from the area. The few hundred selected to remain in the park were seen as a valuable addition to the park’s wildlife rather than as actual people.

And so modern conservation in Africa began by separating nature from the people who lived in it. Since then, as the model has spread across the globe, inhabited protected areas have routinely led to the eviction of Indigenous peoples. Today, these conservation projects are led not by colonial governments but by nonprofit executives, large corporations, academics, and world leaders. READ MORE — Grist

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