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Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is set to visit Window Rock, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation on Saturday, Oct. 26, as part of ongoing effort by the Harris-Walz campaign to reach out to Native voters.
The visit follows a series of events by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Walz in the battleground state of Arizona, where polls show a close race between Harris and former Pres. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
Walz is set to speak at an early voting event as a wave of new radio and television campaign ads are airing on tribal radio and TV stations in the area.
“Arizona Democrats have deep relationships on the ground in the Navajo Nation building up organizing and outreach infrastructure, and earning support from Native American voters for over 15 years,” according to a statement released by the Harris for President campaign. READ MORE — ICT
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RAPID CITY, S.D. – A record number of Native American voters are expected to vote this fall, some for the very first time, and many with the help of local Indigenous organizations and nonprofits.
Groups like the Oceti Sakowin Ho Waste and Uniting Resilience have spent the past several months registering people across South Dakota to vote. On Monday, they prepared to turn in their work at the Pennington County Administration Building.
A total of 615,987 South Dakotans were registered to vote as of Oct. 1, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State, 6,037 more than Oct. 1 last year. About half of those new registrations, roughly 3,700, occurred within the last month.
Native people weren’t granted the right to vote until 100 years ago, with the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act; however, discrimination at the ballot box didn’t end there. READ MORE — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy announced Oct. 9 it has finalized its updated policy and order on tribal consultation and engagement.
The updated guidance requires department officials to participate in new training regarding their role in upholding trust responsibilities. It also requires all program offices and field sites to designate a tribal liaison and develop an implementation plan to carry out tribal consultation, according to Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Officials say more than $500 millifdfon has been doled out to Native American and Alaska Native communities across the country, empowering them to develop a wide range of energy solutions. “Indigenous communities are leading a clean energy transition,” Sec. Granholm told reporters. — Kadin Mills, ICT
The Bureau of Indian Affairs decided to leave 30 million tons of toxic chemicals on the Quapaw reservation after a 1920s mining-boom, and the tribe is still cleaning it up.
The Quapaw Nation has spent 11 years remediating the ghost town Picher, Oklahoma, which covers 80 percent of their reservation, in an effort to give their land an agricultural future.
“It will never be residential. It will never be commercial, but it can still be usable” said Cherokee Environmental Scientist Summer King, who joined the clean-up project in 2016.
Since 2013, the tribe has removed around 8 million tons of chat, lead and zinc, from the ground. Chat is a term for fragments of siliceous rock. READ MORE — Felix Clary , ICT + Tulsa World
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RAPID CITY, S.D. – A former tribal police officer was found guilty Oct. 17 of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact of a child.
Oscar Hudspeth, 54, of Oglala, was found guilty after a three-day jury trial in federal district court in Rapid City. Hudspeth was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2023.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a juvenile girl disclosed that Hudspeth had sexually abused her while her mother was married to him.
The minor disclosed during a forensic interview she was allegedly touched in a sexual manner on more than one occasion while Hudspeth was her stepfather. The abuse took place at their residence in Oglala while the child’s mother was away at work. READ MORE — Rapid City Journal
For more than 10,000 years, Native Americans have been living along California’s central coast, an area of breathtaking beauty with stunning turquoise waters rich in biodiversity. Now, in the first partnership of its kind, the area will soon be part of a new national marine sanctuary that Native people will co-steward with a federal agency.
It will give the Chumash people, once the largest cultural group in California, a say in the way the marine sanctuary is preserved. The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, designated by the Biden administration last week, is the first tribally nominated sanctuary in the United States.
It covers 116 miles of California coastline. The more than 4,500 square miles of coastal and offshore waters that will be included contain diverse marine life increasingly threatened by climate change and pollution from human activities.
The designation, which was announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will take effect after Congress has 45 days to consider it. READ MORE — Associated Press
What’s trending on social media:
- Native candidates hope to broaden reach in Washington state: November election could boost Native representation in the state Legislature
- Photos: Black Hills Powwow ignites Rapid City: The 2024 Black Hills Powwow brought a record number of over 1,500 dancers to compete for huge cash prizes.
- Wisconsin, Michigan Native voters could decide election: With key races decided by razor thin majorities, Native peoples in swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan are anything but on the margins. They instead hold the power to dictate outcomes of some of the most important campaigns in the country.
- Wisconsin Native Vote Hosts Basketball Tournaments and Mural Unveilings to Boost Indigenous Voter Turnout
- Trump targets hardcore partisans, Harris goes after moderates: Inside the campaign’s final sprint
- A Supreme Court reshaped by Trump has a low profile in this presidential campaign
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.
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