Skip to main content
Donate

Northwest Bureau

ICT's Northwest Bureau coverage

Debbie Hassler, Cowlitz, who serves as the Deputy Director of Cowlitz Indian Tribe's Health and Human Services Department poses for her portrait outside the clinic on Nov. 08, 2024. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

Building a model for gender-affirming care at Cowlitz Indian Tribe

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
After the live reading workshop of Little Ones, actors applaud Danielle Jagelski and Rhiana Yazzie (right). (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

Native opera debuts script reading in Portland

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Brianna Bragg, left, and Shilo George explore themes such as Indigequeer identity, Two-Spiritness, disability, boundaries, survivance. Photo illustration by Jarrette Werk and Shilo George
News

Learning and Laughing with ‘Your Two-Spirit Aunties’

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
In his first visit to a Native nation during his presidency, President Biden spoke at the Gila River Indian Community where hundreds of Native people gathered to hear an apology for the horrors of Native American boarding schools on Oct. 25, 2024. Screenshot from livestream.
News

Biden’s boarding school apology draws mixed reactions in Pacific Northwest

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Proposed Oregon Ballot Measure 117, if passed, would give voters the option to rank candidates in order of preference in statewide elections and help build a framework where voters are encouraged to vote their values instead of strategic voting or the concern of “splitting the vote.” (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Underscore Native News/ICT)
News

Native Organizations Endorse Oregon Ballot Measure 117

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Holly Miowak Guise, Iñupiaq, is assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico and author of “Alaska Native Resilience: Voices From World War II.” Photo by Haiden Renae (Navajo/Diné) directed by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi)
News

New book details resistance and resilience of Alaska Natives

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
Community members mingle and admire art filling the gallery space at the Center for Native Arts and Cultures during the “Citizen Fellow: Art as Archive and Memory” exhibition opening on September 19, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Underscore Native News/ICT)
News

Exhibition explores art to preserve moments in time

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Heather Gurko, Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Education Manager at Confluence presents Ed Edmo with an Eighth Generation blanket during his honoring at Confluence's annual Legacy Maker Gathering on Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

Confluence annual gathering honors traditional storyteller and welcomes new leader

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
While performing the reading of "Cosmo, From the Stars," Shilo George, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho descent, asks thoughtful questions to the audience about their experiences and feelings in relation to the book on Sept. 14, 2024 at Barbie's Village. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

New children’s book tells story of young Two-Spirit person

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Micheal Rabang, 82, and Michelle Roberts, 59, disenrolled citizens of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, stand in front of Rabang’s home for the last 19 years on Tuesday, August 20. Rabang’s home is one of seven households facing eviction were supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Native American housing dollars as well as federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program assistance. This program was meant to create a pathway to homeownership for Native people across the state. After a 15-year tenancy, they could become homeowners under the Eventual Tenant Ownership program. (Photo by Luna Reyna Underscore Native News / ICT)
News

Failed federal housing commitments leads to evictions for Native families

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
After the Portland All Nations Canoe Family received permission to land at Cathedral Park under St. John's Bridge in Northeast Portland on Sunday Sept. 8, 2024, elders and other attendees on the beach helped pull their canoe ashore. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News)
News

Ceremony to heal the Willamette River

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek at the State Library of Oregon in Salem on Aug. 14, 2024 (Photo by Deborah Bloom / Underscore Native News)
News

Oregon governor outlines commitments to Native nations

By Nika Bartoo-Smith and Karina Brown
Northwest Bureau
Miranda Mishan, Portland Tribal Relations Community Liaison, curated an installation with 6 red ribbon skirts which hang empty inside the atrium of the Portland City Hall. The skirts serve as a visual reminder of the high rates of violence Indigenous people face. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News/Report For America)
News

Secrecy and data issues impede progress for MMIP

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
The march in Dec. 2023 to raise awareness of the disappearance of Wilma Acosta began outside of Dixie Tavern, where Acosta was last seen. Supporters sang, prayed, drummed before following the Willamette River waterfront through downtown Portland to PPB’s central precinct and City Hall. (Photo by Amanda Freeman / Underscore News)
News

A Yaqui woman’s disappearance exposed policing flaws in MMIP cases

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie held a screening of their documentary film SUGARCANE during the annual Indigenous Journalist Association Conference in Oklahoma City on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

‘Sugarcane’ details filmmaker’s personal ties to an Indigenous residential school

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Albert Ortivez-Hicks, 18, Quinault, holds his oar that broke as they paddled to their last landing on July 31, 2024. Their canoe family name is Lee-Choe-Ese.
News

Youth and tradition unite at this year’s Canoe Journey

By Aislin Tweedy
Northwest Bureau
Aaliyah James,11, Pacheedaht, raises her paddle while sitting in the canoe Sea Foam Dancer, waiting for the Pacheedaht First Nation canoe family to be granted permission to come ashore on July 31, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Underscore Native News/ICT)
News

Youth Leadership the Focus of 2024 Canoe Journey

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Three citizens of Yakama Nation traverse the slippery rocks at the base of Willamette Falls, searching for crevices in the water that may be home to Pacific lamprey on July 12, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Underscore Native News / ICT)
News

Youth education central theme at Lamprey Celebration

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
A man-made waterfall acts as overflow for the Kwoneesum Dam, which was constructed nearly six decades ago to create a recreational lake for girls attending a summer camp at Wildly Creek which is a tributary of the Washougal River. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

The Pacific Northwest is littered with ‘deadbeat dams’

By Nika Bartoo-Smith and Seattle Times
Northwest Bureau
A model wears a dress designed by Red Berry Woman for the pre-gala fashion show at the UNITY Conference on July 2. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Underscore Native News / ICT)
News

Native designs showcased at 2024 UNITY Gala

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Zade Futch, 12-year-old citizen of the Coquille Indian Tribe, stands in his cedar woven hat with three other young Coquille citizens. The young boys play on the beach following the Coquille Indian Tribe's 35th Annual First Salmon Ceremony on June 28, 2024. (Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)
News

Coquille Indian Tribe celebrates 35 years since restoration

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Nick Thomas and Tony Edwards, members of The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, fish for salmon from a platform at the base of Chief Joseph Hatchery outside of Bridgeport, Wash., on May 23, 2024. That morning, the tribe held its First Salmon Ceremony, which opened the fishing season. (Photo by: Alex Milan Tracy/Underscore News)
News

How Native nations forced federal investment in salmon reintroduction

By Luna Reyna
Northwest Bureau
Oscar Arana, interim CEO of Native American Youth and Family Center, welcomes dozens of community members, elected officials and staff to the opening celebration of NAYA's latest housing endeavor on June 25, 2024. The family housing shelter in Milwaukie that will provide support to Native families experiencing homelessness. The shelter is called khwat yaka haws, which translates to "Auntie's Place" in Chinook. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore Native News / Report for America)
News

Native American Youth and Family Center opens family shelter

By Nika Bartoo-Smith
Northwest Bureau
Leilonnie Wilson, 19, representing the ​​Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin Paiute Nations was crowned as the new Miss Indian Northwest 2024-2025 on June 14, 2024. Wilson's traditional name is qaqii?aqs ‘nisq’aak, which translates to Whirlwind Girl. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore News / Report for America)
News

Miss Indian Northwest pageant returns after nearly three decades pause

By Jarrette Werk
Northwest Bureau