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For the first time in eight generations, a Dakota baby was born in a traditional earth lodge in Dakota homelands.
Under the moon of the black chokecherries, Dallis Rencountre, a citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, gave birth to her second child, a 10-pound baby boy. Her son was born in a traditional earth lodge in Granite Falls, Minn. built by her grandmother’s company, Makoce Ikikcupi.
“I remember sitting in the tub and thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ I was actually very upset at my grandparents, but my grandpa looked at me and told me that the next generation is coming,” Rencountre said. “I was realizing that I was going to bring a leader to my people and that this birth was history in the making — it could be a turning point for other Dakota women to come to an earth lodge and give birth to their babies just like I did.”
It was her grandmother’s idea for her to have a traditional birth. When Rencountre was 32 weeks pregnant, her doctor at her local hospital, Coteau Des Prairies, told her she needed a cesarean section. Uncomfortable with the advice, Rencountre sought other options. She’d heard other Dakota women in her community voice similar concerns; they’d been recommended a cesarean section early in their pregnancies. READ MORE. — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal
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Kiawentiio Tarbell, Mohawk, was cast in the highly anticipated Netflix series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” when she was 14. She’s now nearly 18 and its premiere date on February 22 is becoming an exciting reality for her.
“It’s here. It’s about to drop. Everyone can see it finally and it’s just crazy. It doesn’t feel like real life,” Tarbell told ICT.
The live-action adaptation based on the 2005 Nickelodeon animated series follows the young Avatar named Aang, the last living airbender in a war torn world by the Fire Nation. Tarbell plays Katara, a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe and is the last waterbender of her community. Katara and her brother Sokka, portrayed by Ian Ousley, are left together to help Aang bring balance and peace to their world. Ousley identifies as Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky, a tribal nation that isn’t federally or state recognized. READ MORE. — Kalle Benallie, ICT
A pillar of many Indigenous communities across the Pacific Northwest, Yakama elder Ted Strong passed away on Jan. 30, 2024. He was 76 years old.
That same day, hundreds of Native community members gathered in Portland for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Winter Convention. When word arrived that Strong had passed on, they took a moment of silence followed by an honor song from representatives of the Yakama Nation.
A leader, husband, father, grandfather and more, Strong was well-known and loved throughout his community.
Strong wore many hats, serving in a myriad of leadership roles. Perhaps most notably, he served as executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission from 1990 to 1999, according to a memorial that ran on the CRITFC website. Following his tenure at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Strong served as chief judge of the Yakama Tribal Court and director of the Yakama Tribal Housing Authority. Most recently, he served as vice president of corporate responsibility at the Yakama Chief Hops Association. READ MORE. — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + ICT
Evelyn Jefferson walks deep into a forest dotted with the tents of unhoused Lummi Nation tribal citizens and calls out names. When someone appears, she and a nurse hand out the opioid overdose reversal medication Naloxone.
Jefferson, a tribal citizen herself, knows how critical these kits are: Just five months ago, her own son died of an overdose from a synthetic opioid that’s about 100 times more potent than fentanyl. The 37-year-old’s death was the fourth related to opioids in four days on the reservation.
“It took us eight days to bury him because we had to wait in line, because there were so many funerals in front of his,” said Jefferson, crisis outreach supervisor for Lummi Nation. “Fentanyl has really taken a generation from this tribe.”
A bill before the Washington Legislature would bring more state funding to tribes like Lummi that are trying to keep opioids from taking the next generation too. The state Senate unanimously approved a bill this week that is expected to provide nearly $8 million total each year for the 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington, funds drawn in part from a roughly half-billion-dollar settlement between the state and major opioid distributors. READ MORE. — Associated Press
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On the Tuesday edition of the ICT Newscast, Election Day will be here before you know it. We dive into an Arizona nonprofit looking to make the voting process easier for Native voters. Plus, we learn about how the national science foundation is mainstreaming Indigenous knowledge and we have the reaction of an Osage man up for an Academy Award.
Watch:
During the fall 2023 semester there were fewer than 700 Native Americans enrolled at Universities of Wisconsin schools, about 0.4 percent of the total student population, according to system data. Yet despite that minuscule proportion, Tribes in Wisconsin continue to have a large impact on the UW System.
In the 2023 fiscal year, through a land trust managed by the state’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL), the Universities of Wisconsin received more than $1 million earned by lands that had been taken from the state’s tribes during the 19th century.
The UW System is one of 52 land-grant universities that was supported by the Morrill Act. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, the act used land taken from indigenous tribes to fund the creation of public universities. READ MORE. — Wisconsin Examiner
- On Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, Alaska Native leaders stress unity, advocacy: ‘Can you imagine what we can achieve as a unified front?’
- Tribal violence in Papua New Guinea leaves more than two dozen dead: The ‘gunbattle between warring tribes’ also left an unknown number of bystanders killed.
- ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ shut out completely at British BAFTAs: ‘Oppenheimer’ won seven prizes at the British Academy Film Awards but ‘Flower Moon’ got none.
- Emotional ceremony welcomes birch bark scrolls back to Ojibwe people: Several tribes pull together to purchase historic scrolls from auction house.
- Can Montana mend its racial gap in foster care?: Native children are dramatically overrepresented in the child welfare system. Experts say that trend is devastating for families and tribal nations, but difficult to solve.
- A Native American tribe is building a $1B solar farm in Colorado.
- Fort Peck Indian Reservation receives 116 Yellowstone bison.
- Andean farmers use age-old technique amid climate change.
- The Alaska Federation of Natives Announces Upcoming Transition
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