Greetings, relatives.

A lot of news out there. Thanks for stopping by ICT’s digital platform.

Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you. 

Okay, here’s what you need to know today:

The Las Vegas Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup in June against the Florida Panthers. Defenseman Zach Whitecloud, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation of Canada, had his hometown in Manitoba rooting for him the entire journey and on Wednesday he brought the trophy to them.

“This is a monumental moment for our community,” Wakpa Mckay said to ICT in June. “This is the first time that this is going to happen to Sioux Valley Dakota Nation to have the Stanley Cup in our community. It’d be awesome to see it at the powwow, you know, if they brought it in the grand entry.”

Whitecloud and Lord Stanley arrived at the powwow grounds on horse and carriage, according to the NHL. He let fans touch and pose for pictures with the cup.

He is the first Sioux Valley Dakota Nation of Canada citizen to be in the National Hockey League.

SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY.

ICT Editor Jourdan Bennett-Begaye was on Native America Calling this week. She is also the vice president and board member of the Indigenous Journalists Association.

Facebook’s parent company Meta is blocking all news content in Canada after the government demanded the media giant share profits with news companies. That’s a particular problem for people and agencies trying to get news about devastating wildfires in the country. A similar showdown is brewing in California as that state also ponders a revenue-sharing arrangement. The tussle over content affects both Native consumers and Native news operations. LISTEN — ICT

A coalition advocating for Native people traumatized by an oppressive system of boarding schools for Native youths plans to digitize 20,000 archival pages related to schools in that system that were operated by the Quakers.

The Quakers and other faith groups — including Episcopalians, Methodists and Catholics — have in recent years either begun or increased efforts to research and atone for their prior roles in the boarding school system that Native children were forced to attend, and that cut them off from their families, tribes and traditions.

For decades, documents related to Quaker-operated Indian boarding schools have been largely unstudied, as they exist in remote and dispersed collections with limited access, said leaders of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Now, the coalition, also known as NABS, will make them available to scholars and nonspecialists by housing digital records on a public database.

The records will provide a better understanding of the conditions that children experienced at these schools, and help the compilation of statistics, including how many children went missing and died, said Stephen Curley, director of digital archives for NABS. READ MORE — Associated Press

Membership for adults to the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will open in 2024, after being closed for decades.

The Sault Tribe reports a membership of around 40,000 members around the world, with the tribe headquarters located in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

Membership for adults has been closed since 1998, except for a brief opening in 2005, according to the tribe’s website. But after approving a resolution at the tribe’s Aug. 1 board of directors meeting, the tribe will open enrollment on Feb. 1, 2024, and keep it open until the board passes another resolution to close it.

The Sault Tribe does not have a blood quantum requirement as a direct lineal descendant tribe, so those interested in applying would have to submit copies of documents tracking their lineage to the descendant listed on one of the base rolls of the tribe. READ MORE. — Michigan Advance

Sign up here to get ICT’s newsletter

The Farm Bill is one of the oldest federal funding bills. Nearly a century ago, the first iteration of it was written and passed by Congress in 1933, just a decade after Native Americans became recognized citizens on their own lands.

Since then, 18 farm bills have been passed but only one has included and applied to federally-recognized tribes, the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, known colloquially as the Farm Bill.

“So the biggest one, and one of the easiest ones for Congress to make was just adding, ‘and tribes,’” said Carly Griffith Hotvedt, director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative. “Anytime it said a ‘state may’ or an ‘organization may’ or a ‘business may,’ we want to make sure it said, ‘and tribes.’ Because historically, tribes have not been able to access some programs just because they weren’t delineated or designated as eligible.”

It is one of the most important omnibus bills that funds everything from rural development to federal food programs and broadband access. The Farm Bill is more than just what the slang title entails. The 807-page legislation allocates $428 billion into 12 areas: commodities, conservation, trade, nutrition, credit, rural development, research, forestry, energy, horticulture, crop insurance, and miscellaneous. It’s renewed every five years.

The deadline for Indigenous nations to comment has passed. READ MORE — Pauly Denetclaw, ICT

FOLLOW ICT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK.

  • Justice Department awards $70 Millionin grants for support services for American Indian and Alaska Native victims of crime.
  • For many Native Americans, fry bread is tasty, nostalgic—and complicated
  • Tribes want to rename Ohio’s Wayne National Forest. Sen. JD Vance does not

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.