Credit: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and others gathered at a ceremony on July 14, 2021, at the U.S. Army's Carlisle Barracks, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as the remains of nine Native children were to begin their journey home to their families in South Dakota. (Photo courtesy of Deb Haaland's Twitter page)

Osiyo, relatives.

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‘We want our children home no matter how long it takes’

On Wednesday, the little ones buried at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania started their journey home to Rosebud Sioux tribal lands.

The remains of nine children who died more than a century ago while attending the government-run school will complete their journey this weekend. A ceremony was held on Wednesday that included words by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

“We want our children home no matter how long it takes,” Haaland said.

The nine sets of remains inside small wooden coffins were carried past a phalanx of tribal citizens and well-wishers before being loaded into a vehicle trailer.

Haaland said the government aims to locate the schools and burial sites and identify the names and tribal affiliations of children from the boarding schools around the country… READ MORE.

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Tribes to meet with Transportation secretary

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in Phoenix this week and is scheduled to meet with tribal leaders on Thursday.

Buttigieg will take part in a roundtable discussion with Inter Tribal Council of Arizona leaders and the Navajo Nation to discuss the importance of infrastructure investments in tribal communities.

Afterwards, Buttigieg will visit the Riggs Overpass project on the Gila River Indian Community. He’ll meet with Gila River and nearby Ak Chin Indian Community leaders.

The Arizona visit is part of Buttigieg’s three-day infrastructure tour.

DOE awards $12 million to tribes

This week, The U.S. Department of Energy announced $12 million in funding to 13 Indigenous communities across the nation for projects that will reduce energy costs and increase energy security and resiliency.

“The Department of Energy is committed to working with American Indian and Alaska Native communities to strengthen energy infrastructure on Tribal lands,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a news release. “These selections, the first from the Office of Indian Energy this year, underscore the Biden Administration’s commitment to ensuring that communities disproportionately affected by climate change directly benefit from clean energy investments.”

Click here to read about the 13 American Indian and Alaska Native communities selected.

University of Arizona acknowledges Indigenous lands

The University of Arizona in Tucson issued a statement this month acknowledging it lies in O’odham and Yaqui traditional lands.

“We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples,” it read. “Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.”

The university said it hopes to use the statement to guide education, partnerships, and community service, according to Arizona Public Media.

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Guatemalan consulate sees 456 lone kids in Arizona in July

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemala’s consulate in Tucson, Arizona, said Wednesday it has identified 456 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors, most between the ages of 7 and 17, who had been found by U.S. Border Patrol officers so far in July.

U.S. officials often ask home-country consulates to identify minors.

The Guatemalan Foreign Relations Ministry said Wednesday that the children were found in several Arizona border communities, including Sasabe, Naco and Nogales.

Each of those communities has a Mexican town of the same name on the other side of the border. Monday and Tuesday were particularly busy, with 80 kids identified.

The minors had entered the United States without proper documents. They were mainly from the heavily Indigenous and rural provinces of Huehuetenango, San Marcos and Quiche.

Unaccompanied minors who make it into the U.S. are sometimes placed with relatives there. But the Guatemalan government says that so far this year, 2,873 unaccompanied minors have been deported from Mexico and the United States.

Creating a pipeline for young journalists

Indian Country Today adds another full-time reporter-producer to its roster, Kalle Benallie.

Benallie, Navajo, started out as an intern for the organization in spring of 2020, which was also her last semester at Arizona State University… READ more.

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Minnesota park recognized as historic, sacred cemetery

For over a century, St. Paul regarded Indian Mounds Park as a recreational area. Now, it’s being recognized for its history as a cemetery for at least seven tribes.

ICT reporter Kalle Benallie explains more.

#ICYMI

Indigenous comedy in the spotlight

Credit: Johnny Roberts, known as Jonny R or the Ojibwe Outlaw, is among the Indigenous comedians featured in a new book, “We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy,” by Kliph Kesteroff.

The most famous punchline in comedian Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine is now the title of a new comedy book.

“My people are from Wisconsin,” Hill would say. “We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.”

Hill, in fact, is a central focus of the new book, “We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy,” by Kliph Nesteroff, a non-Native writer with decades of experience as a stand-up comedian, comedy historian and author… READ more.

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