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Each day we do our best to gather the latest news for you.
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Chef Sherry Pocknett — whose Sly Fox Den Too restaurant features traditional foods with the seasons— has become the first Indigenous woman to win a prestigious James Beard Award as best chef in the Northeast.
A semifinalist among 20 other chefs and one of four finalists, Pocknett, Mashpee Wampanoag, was honored at the James Beard Foundation’s annual awards ceremony in Chicago on June 5.
The Sly Fox Den Too, which opened in 2021 in Charlestown, Rhode Island, is named after her late father, former Mashpee Wampanoag Chief Sly Fox Vernon Pocknett.
Pocknett accepted the award in traditional regalia after finishing up a round of chemotherapy. READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
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Within concrete walls that once housed a beer store that fueled alcoholism and death among residents of the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, renowned Native American artist Evans Flammond Sr. deftly draws lines on a huge buffalo hide.
Sitting at a table in the building in this small village on the South Dakota border, Flammond uses a tool called a chisel brush to lay out straight borders on the hide. The animal skin would eventually contain a sweeping encampment scene with American Indians on horseback running along the bottom.
On that day in May, Flammond was serving as artist-in-residence at the Whiteclay Makerspace, a building where Native and non-Native artists and potential artists gather to create art, share their knowledge and skills and sell pieces of artwork.
The makerspace is one element of a plan to use art instead of alcohol to drive the economic recovery of Whiteclay, which is just yards from the Pine Ridge border town and reservation where alcohol is illegal. READ MORE. — South Dakota News Watch
Azee Romero climbed barefoot on the wrinkled trunk of the massive Emory oak tree at the center of the Oak Flat Campground.
The 5-year-old in his black dinosaur t-shirt with hair tied under a backwards baseball cap scaled higher and higher until he found the perfect seat. There, cradled by the sturdy trunk, the boy flashed a gap-toothed smile and rested comfortably as if he’d just climbed onto the lap of a grandparent.
In fact, that centuries-old oak tree and the ground below it – the sacred, ancestral flats that stretch for miles east of Phoenix – are like kin to Azee’s family.
“My little guy, his umbilical cord is buried here,” said Azee’s mother, Lian Bighorse. She said the connection to Oak Flat is physical as well as spiritual. READ MORE. — Associated Press/Religion News Service
Growing up in a mining family that goes back generations, Mayor Mila Besich knew the Oak Flat Campground as the place where she attended union picnics as a girl and in earlier years her parents stood in a clearing to hear the World Series on the radio.
Now, Besich is overseeing Superior’s fight to build a new copper project at Oak Flat amid worries about the town’s economic future.
Today, the national forest land in the heart of Arizona’s “Copper Corridor” is scattered with 20 rustic campsites among ancient oaks and a hand-painted sign that reads: “Protect Oak Flat, Holy Land.” Buried deep underground is the world’s third-largest deposit of copper ore, big enough to yield 40 billion pounds of the metal over 60 years.
Competing interests have ignited a tug of war between the town of about 3,000 people who want a huge copper mine built there for its economic benefits, and Native groups that consider the land sacred and are fighting to protect it from disturbance. READ MORE. — Associated Press
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On the Monday edition of the ICT Newscast, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to ICT exclusively during a trip to the Gila River Indian Community. We also learn about the history of the Native American press through various presidential administrations.
Watch:
When Warm Springs/Yakima Elder Linda Meanus serves as a head woman dancer at powwows, she participates in as many dances as her energy allows.
Linda is 72, so her stamina isn’t what it used to be. You wouldn’t know it, though, from her high steps and pounds of regalia. Linda holds her back straight and her chin high as she dances, because, she says, every step is a prayer.
“I dance and pray for the people,” she says, “Especially for the children, for healing.” As she speaks, Linda’s eyes sparkle, as if she’s on the verge of giggling. Her long, dark hair is entwined with streaks of silver and grey, falling in braids on either side of her face. Her braids are wrapped in otter skins, tied at the ends with thin leather straps and pink shells. READ MORE. — Underscore News
- ICT receives multiple National Native Media Awards: Native American Journalists Association announced all 2023 winners in early July.
- Gary Farmer hits the road after release of new ‘Lucky 7’ album: Veteran actor and musician aims to take the new ‘All Star Tour’ to as many First Nations communities as possible.
- Head of Alaska Native corporation leaves position: Gail Schubert will ‘no longer serve in her current role.’
- An Indigenous scholar’s research took him to Mexico and a violent death: ‘We were committed to dedicating our lives to environmental conservation and environmental research. We felt that Indigenous hands have taken care of these lands for time immemorial.’
- Judge dismisses suit over sales tax, tribe agrees: The suit also alleged the sales tax was a form of discrimination against the tribe.
- A set of hearings about missing and murdered indigenous people is about to wrap up.
- Tribe demands Ben & Jerry’s return its land.
- Tribal Leader Roundtable: Spotlight on Growth and Development.
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.
