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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:
A massive winter storm blew toward the center of the U.S. on Monday, threatening millions of people with heavy snow, freezing rain and flooding.
The National Weather Service warned that there would be “numerous, widespread, and impactful weather hazards in the heart of the country this week.” Across the Rockies and into the northern Plains and parts of the Midwest, people were warned to prepare for blizzard-like conditions. Those farther south in Texas and Louisiana could get heavy rains with flash flooding, hail and tornadoes by Tuesday. The storm will continue southeast into Florida later in the week, forecasters said.
Thousands of students from Native communities across Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas were traveling to Rapid City, South Dakota, for this week’s Lakota Nation Invitational, a high school athletic event. Brian Brewer, one of the organizers, said he had urged schools and participants to travel early.
“We told them with this storm coming — if you leave tomorrow, there’s a good chance you might not make it,” he said Monday. READ MORE.— Associated Press
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California voters served up dramatic lessons about gaming in November.
There were two gaming initiatives on the state’s ballot. The first, Prop 27, was a rush by the “commercial” gaming industry to legalize sports betting in the largest state in the country. The ballot initiative was crafted based on the idea that voters would approve a new law just in time to bet big on football. Only that plan also included rolling over the interests of tribal enterprises, casinos and hotels.
So tribal enterprises offered their own initiative, Prop 26. It was mostly considered a ploy to derail the original initiative by overloading voters. When confused, voters tend to vote against initiatives.
Then truckloads of cash were spent arguing the pros and cons of each approach (along with advertising about poverty, social welfare, and “how is that related?” pitches). All told some $420 million was spent for or against Prop 27 and another $127 million on Prop 26. READ MORE. — Mark Trahant, ICT
When representatives from Manitobah, a Native-owned shoe company, reached out to Elias Jade NotAfraid for a possible collaboration, the Crow artist was elated.
The company asked NotAfraid to design five pairs of shoes, ranging from a tall boot to a slipper. NotAfraid envisioned the outside and sole of the shoes in keeping with the theme of the collection, called “Reflections.”
He got to work and created 15 drafts. But, according to NotAfraid, the designs were too complicated. He scrapped them all.
NotAfraid, a beader based in eastern Montana, reverted to what he knows best. READ MORE. — Nora Mabie, Missoulian
A Louisiana tribe under threat from flooding, storms and rising seas will receive a federal grant aimed at helping Native American communities adapt to climate change or move to safer ground.
The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana was awarded $5 million as part of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs’ greatly expanded efforts to assist tribes severely affected by climate-related environmental threats.
The 945-acre Chitimacha reservation, which sits on a tight bend on Bayou Teche between New Iberia and Morgan City, faces threats of flooding from two fronts: the coast, about 10 miles to the south, and the Atchafalaya River, immediately to the north.
The grant could be used to plan ways for tribal citizens to safely stay put or the tribe could mount a community-scale relocation effort like the one the state led for Isle de Jean Charles, a mostly tribal community in Terrebonne Parish. READ MORE. — The Times-Picayune/The Advocate
A new frontier in South Dakota’s fight against homelessness involves using “street outreach teams” to identify and interact with vulnerable individuals in the community and get them the help they need, taking some of that responsibility away from law enforcement.
The effort is an acknowledgment among public officials in Rapid City and Sioux Falls that the origins of homelessness and drug addiction are complex and often melded with mental health issues, and that getting to the root of the problem could have more lasting impact than merely providing meals or temporary shelter.
The street outreach strategy – the top recommendation of a Sioux Falls Homeless Task Force formed in the summer of 2022 – also addresses the reality that Native Americans make up a disproportionate number of the South Dakota homeless population, creating cultural and language barriers in some cases that prevent meaningful intervention, especially when police are first on the scene. READ MORE. — South Dakota News Watch
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Jayme Davis is the new North Dakota state representative. And Darren Parry writes his own tribal history in his book, “The Bear River Massacre.” Plus APTN’s National Correspondent Angel Moore recaps her stories north of the medicine line.
Watch:
Though the weather outside was frightful, schoolchildren in the northern Alaska Inupiat community of Nuiqsut were so delighted for a visit by Santa that they braved wind chills of 25 degrees below zero just to see him land on a snow-covered airstrip.
Once again, it was time for Operation Santa Claus in Alaska. And here in Nuiqsut, a roadless village of about 460 residents on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, the temperatures may have been plunging but the children were warming quickly.
Never mind that Santa left Rudolph at home to catch a ride on an Alaska Air National Guard cargo plane to Nuiqsut, just 30 frosty miles south of the Arctic Ocean. Here, just a reindeer skip and a hop from the North Pole, the students were abuzz with good cheer.
“Some of them were out on the deck and they were jumping up and down, excited to see the plane coming in,” said Principal Lee Karasiewicz of the Trapper School, as he kept watch over pupils from the 160-student K-12 facility privileged to get a pre-Christmas visit from the jolly, fat one. READ MORE.— Associated Press
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- Jazzy music, ancient pottery, and hand-poke tattoos: A biweekly column from ICT with the latest news from the arts and entertainment.
- Alaska tribes seek protections from impacts of Canadian mines:The unified tribal campaign comes amid a British Columbia mining boom, with industry expenditures hitting a near-record level in 2021.
- Hockey’s history shows diverse pioneers:Historians are delving deeper into the role of some of the first nonwhite professional hockey players.
- Métis Nation officially adopts a constitution:Voters within the Métis Nation of Alberta supported to adopt the constitution with nearly 100 percent of the votes.
- Northern Plains tribes bring back their wild ‘relatives’: As extinctions of animals and plants accelerate around the globe, tribes with limited funding are trying to re-establish imperiled species and restore their habitat.
- Dan Snyder allegedly “obstructed” House probe into Washington Commanders, panel says.
- Chief Standing Bear film receives green light to begin production.
- She was the first Native American TV journalist in Arizona history.
- Montana Man Sentenced for Defacing a Prehistoric Native American Art Site.
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.
