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EDMUND, OKLAHOMA – History is often divided into sections. We think about “American history” or “Native American history” or even “journalism history.” But those divisions all share the same history. So how do we weave more of our stories into a single fabric?
Last month that happened when the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame honored Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She was born in El Reno, some 40 miles from the University of Central Oklahoma where the hall is located.
The hall honors more than 500 Oklahoma journalists, including Will Rogers, Cherokee Nation, and Alexander Posey, Muscogee.
Harjo’s Lifetime honor is a recognition that there remains a lot of ground to cover, recognizing the breadth of the Native American journalists who have shaped their craft and the region. READ MORE— Mark Trahant, ICT
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A Chippewa costume designer who worked on “Killers of the Flower Moon” claims that Apple Studios LLC is seeking retaliation for her complaints about racial discrimination on set by failing to accredit her for the costume work she did.
Kristi Marie Hoffman, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, worked for a year researching and designing costumes for the movie, including the striped jacket that Leonardo DiCaprio wore in the award-winning film. Hoffman said she received no credit for the jacket and other costumes she designed, claiming all of the credit went to her co-worker Jacqueline West.
The lawsuit defendants also include West and the employer of West and Hoffman, the Costume Designer Guild. Deadline.com published the court documents online. Hoffman has done work for films such as “The Revenant” and “Captain America: Civil War,” according to Deadline.
West was nominated for the best costume design at the Oscars for her work shown in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film centered on the history of the Osage nation and was directed by Martin Scorsese and starred Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro. READ MORE — Felix Clary, ICT + Tulsa World
Former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has been busy since she left office in 2023. She’s completed teaching fellowships at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Now, she’ll lead a regional organization seeking to reopen public access to the second largest waterfall by volume in the United States — a major cultural spot for area Native nations — for the first time in nearly two centuries.
Dammed and smothered along its banks by industrialization, Willamette Falls is virtually inaccessible. Few have heard of the stunning natural wonder located just outside Portland, Ore. The Willamette Falls Trust is working to change that — with Oregon’s former governor leading the way.
On June 4, the Trust announced Brown as president. She stepped into her new position on May 28.
“We had a pretty strong slate of candidates and Kate rose to the top, just because of her knowledge of Indian Country, and Oregon Indian country especially,” said Robert Kentta, former chair of the board for the Willamette Falls Trust, treasurer for the tribal council of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Trust’s Siletz delegate. READ MORE — Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + ICT and Karina Brown, Underscore News
Around the World: China intensifies measures against Tibetans during holy month, Indigenous people, NGO create rainforest wildlife corridor in Australia, First Nation in Canada receives $590,000 for 1906 land dispute settlement and the New Zealand district council urges the government to reconsider Māori wards.
CHINA: Intensifies measures against Tibetans during holy month
According to four sources, Chinese authorities have instructed Tibetan students, government workers, and retirees to refrain from participating in religious activities in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, during the Buddhist holy month of Saga Dawa. Radio Free Asia reported on May 28.
The Saga Dawa festival takes place during the fourth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, running from May 9 to June 6 this year. For Tibetan Buddhists, it marks the period of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana — the state entered after death by someone who has attained nirvana during their lifetime. READ MORE — Deusdedit Ruhangariyo, Special to ICT
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On Wednesday’s ICT Newscast, on IndigiPolitics, the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and equitable voting rights. Filmmaker Rebekka Schlichting tackles food sovereignty in “Seed Warriors”
WATCH
PORTLAND, Ore. —That Dana Michael Bullcoming, a former police officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, raped a woman in her own home while on duty is not in dispute. But the federal government says it bears no responsibility for what its attorney called the “reprehensible actions” of its officer because he assaulted the woman “solely for his own benefit.”
On Monday at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse, a government attorney told judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that it shouldn’t be held liable in the woman’s civil lawsuit because the officer didn’t rape the woman on behalf of the U.S. government.
The case has implications for the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, according to advocates who filed an amicus brief in the case.
A previous ruling in the case from a federal judge in Montana “threatens to silence other Native victims, leaving them with the knowledge that calling BIA law enforcement to stop the commission of one crime could likely lead to them becoming a victim of another crime, for which there will be no resolution, justice, or recompense,” according to the amicus brief filed by the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center and the Coalition of Large Tribes. READ MORE— Underscore News
- Tribe will not attend governor’s public safety summit: The Oglala Sioux Tribe expressed frustrations over South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s upcoming Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit and asked that she focus on crime within her jurisdiction
- Beading a pathway of artistry and advocacy: Red Lake Nation Anishinaabe artist and designer Lucie Skjefte champions the story of her culture through redesigning a pair of once-appropriated Minnetonka moccasins
- HUD 184 regulation changes won’t affect borrowers: ‘If I were a Native American home buyer, ‘the first question I’d ask is what does your HUD 184 program look like?’’
- Earth marks 12 straight months of record heat, a bewildering climate change milestone
- A year of elections in democracies around the world is revealing deep dissatisfaction among voters
- What to know about the invasion that changed the course of World War II
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.
