Antonia Gonzales

A new NOVA documentary is highlighting Indigenous science and knowledge developed over thousands of years. “Knowledge Keepers” explores how Native communities have used observation, experimentation, and relationships with the natural world to sustain their people. The film features communities across North America and the knowledge they are working to carry forward. For filmmaker Daniel Golding, a citizen of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the project begins by reconsidering what we call science. “I think, a lot of times we think of what science is, is from a Western perspective, but I think, if you really understand, deconstruct it and understand how Indigenous people have held this knowledge of this land, and how to live on it, work with it, and develop it, you know, they’ve developed their own sort of form of science that is a little bit different from Western science.” One of the people featured in the film is Roberto Nutlouis, executive director of Nihikeya, a Diné organization working to restore traditional ecological and cultural practices on the Navajo Nation. Nutlouis says Indigenous knowledge can offer solutions to challenges communities face today. “I think for me, both for our own community, as well as the larger audience, is to demonstrate that Indigenous knowledge is not primitive, is not backward, that it holds so much potential solutions for the issues of our times.” For Nutlouis, preserving that knowledge also means refusing to treat culture as something that exists only in history. “We have to put it into the present tense, and in order to put it into the present tense, there has to be action behind it. There has to be some relevancy, applied nature to it.” The documentary also explores Indigenous knowledge through Arctic navigation, traditional home construction, and coastal aquaculture. Golding says making the film changed the way he looks at his own relationship with the environment. And he hopes viewers reconsider what Indigenous knowledge can teach them about the places where they live. “Well, I think what I’ve been preaching now after I completed this is just, you know, go outside and take a look at your environment. See how you can work with it. See what kind of change you can make to better your place.” “Knowledge Keepers” was produced by Hokan Media in association with Vision Maker Media for NOVA. It premieres September 23 on PBS stations and streaming. A new federal audit finds staffing shortages and case backlogs have hindered the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ efforts to investigate missing and murdered Indigenous people. The U.S. Interior Department’s Inspector General found BIA’s Missing and Murdered Unit had 83 open cases and nearly 400 referrals awaiting review as of November 2024. The Associated Press reports nearly half of the unit’s positions were still vacant last year. Sarah Deer, a University of Kansas law professor, says the problems compound the grief families already face. “A system designed as a response to that history cannot ask families to keep waiting.” BIA says it has taken steps to improve case processing and victim services following the audit. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, September 21, 2026 — Ownership transfer of Native medical center promises a new era of healthcare sovereignty in Alaska

The City of Seattle is holding its inaugural Indigenous Civic Engagement Day for urban Natives Friday. As Brian Bull of Underscore Native News reports, the goal is to help the city's Native population connect with officials, services, and funding opportunities. Since 2023, Seattle has held a bi-annual Tribal Summit for members of recognized tribes within the state of Washington, but feedback from several attendees said they would appreciate an event for those Natives who are not necessarily from that group, including Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, and tribes from other parts of the United States. So Kolbi Monasmith (Cherokee), who is with the Indigenous Advisory Council, says all day Friday, Seattle's city hall will be open for those interested in learning more. “Starting on a base level of: How does the City of Seattle work? How do you advocate for policy within that system? How do you advocate within the city budget system? How does that budget system even work? To build up the knowledge and also build those connections.” Tia Yazzie (Diné), who is also with the Indigenous Advisory Council, said Native voices often go unheard within local politics, so organizers wanted a day and space for people to participate, advocate, and learn about the processes within the Seattle system. “But also to have a fun day. We know learning about these things can be very hard and complex, but we want things to be fun for our families and for also the youth to be involved. So that was one of our big goals, was to have the native community, but also youth involved into this whole community event.” To that end, there will be bingo cards, and demonstrations on beading and making lanyards, as well as headshots taken during the event. It is also the five-year anniversary for the nine-member Indigenous Advisory Council. Yazzie says this has encouraged engagement. “Seattle’s unique in that we have a very special urban native environment and community here that wants to engage in these processes more often than not, and then also to create these programs such as the civic engagement day for or make a space for us, and I think that’s one of the reasons why the IAC was created.” Surveys will be sent to attendees of Friday's civic engagement day to see how effective the City of Seattle was at educating and connecting with its urban Natives. (Courtesy College of Menominee Nation) Tribal Colleges and Universities are a valuable resource for both Native and non-Native residents, but a new report finds the institutions are facing a growing funding squeeze, as Judith Ruiz-Branch reports. A new analysis finds TCUs in Wisconsin are producing measurable economic returns while struggling with longstanding funding disparities. Now, one is focusing its efforts on philanthropy to secure a successful future for students. Findings from the Brookings Institution and the American Indian College Fund show federal support for Tribal campuses has fallen more than 7% over the past decade, despite treaty and trust obligations. College of Menominee Nation President Chris Caldwell says despite their economic value and community impact, Tribal institutions have long needed to advocate for equitable funding and resources that mainstream institutions more readily access. “In grant programs, often times we wear a lot of hats here that mainstream institutions don’t have to wear just because of lack of staffing or resources. So being competitive in that context is always a challenge.” The report says every $1.00 invested in TCUs returns $1.60 in tax revenue and public sector savings. A separate economic impact study found CMN generated $16 million for surrounding counties in one year. Caldwell says the college is now increasing its focus on securing philanthropy contributions and demonstrating the impact on students' lives. A graduate of CMN, he says his experience as a student helped put him on the path to becoming its president. “If we were to look around before the college started to today, you would see a big change in how many Tribal members are in high leadership areas, and not just on our reservation, but in surrounding communities.” The report recommends Congress make greater use of mandatory funding when supporting Native communities, suggesting that strategy would help Tribal colleges plan ahead. American Indian College Fund President Cheryl Crazy Bull says investments in Tribal communities are once again becoming an afterthought – and warns proposed cuts could threaten schools just as they’re finding new ways to reach students. “We’re becoming very adept at online education, so the Tribal colleges are able to bring that culturally rich education that Native people want, where they see themselves and they go to school with each other, even online.” Advocates note the federal government also does not provide enough detailed information about how much money is actually reaching Tribal communities. Crazy Bull says they are pushing for improved data access so Native-serving institutions can determine where the biggest unmet needs remain. And on this day in 1790, a presidential proclamation concerning treaty violations against Native nations appeared in a U.S. newspaper. President George Washington responded to violations of treaties between the United States and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations. The proclamation came during the early years of U.S. treaty-making with sovereign Native nations. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, September 18, 2026 — Native Playlist: Kole Galbraith and Laura Ortman

Photo: Flooding in Chinle on the Navajo Nation prompted evacuations this week. (Courtesy Shawna Ann Claw / Facebook) Three people are dead after they were washed away in a flood on the Navajo Nation just after midnight on Wednesday. As KNAU's Chris Clements reports, several communities are dealing with damage from the recent rainfall. Navajo police responded to reports that two adults and a juvenile were swept away by floodwaters near the Newcomb, New Mexico area shortly after midnight. Search and rescue crews found the three dead after searching the area into the early morning hours. Investigators say they drowned. Several Navajo communities are dealing with flooding, including Chinle and Many Farms. Officials have not released details about any damage or injuries. They urge residents along Highway 191 between mileposts 451 to 454 and other low terrain flood zones to evacuate. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed an emergency declaration in response to the flooding. He said tribal members should use extreme caution around flooded roads and washes, adding that conditions can change quickly. NANA Regional Corporation headquarters in Anchroage, Alaska, where a AFN listening session on subsistence management took place. (Photo: Wonderlane / Flickr) The Alaska Federation of Natives is holding a series of listening sessions focused on the priorities, concerns, and values Alaska Native people want reflected in subsistence management. A session was held Wednesday at the NANA Regional Corporation office building in Anchorage, following earlier meetings in Bethel, Fairbanks, and Nome. Additional sessions are scheduled September 21 in Juneau, September 28 in Ketchikan, and October 1 in Copper Center. AFN says the sessions are intended to hear directly from communities about the challenges facing subsistence users and the principles and values that should guide future changes. People can also submit feedback to AFN online. (Courtesy American Indian College Fund) A new Brookings report says federal cuts and meager philanthropic support are widening long-standing funding gaps across Nebraska and Indian Country, threatening education, health care, infrastructure, and economic development, as Mark Richardson reports. The analysis calls for stable federal funding and sustained investment in Native-led institutions, including Tribal Colleges and Universities. Comments came from Little Priest Tribal College president Manoj Patil from Winnebago, Nebraska, American Indian College Fund president and CEO Cheryl Crazy Bull, and Rob Maxim, the report’s author and a fellow at The Brookings Institution. The pressure is especially sharp in higher education. The Brookings Institution and the American Indian College Fund released the analysis. Patil says pandemic-era investments brought temporary gains to Native colleges, but recent federal actions have reversed much of that momentum. “This constant threat of funding cuts impedes our growth because we are not sure whether to be aggressive in offering new programs or to be careful. That’s the biggest issue we face.” Patil adds there are only 34 TCUs in the U-S and Little Priest is one of only two such institutions in Nebraska. He says every $1.00 invested in TCUs returns $1.60 in tax revenue, benefiting both Native and non-Native communities. American Indian College Fund President Cheryl Crazy Bull says the report provides significant evidence of chronic underfunding by the federal government, despite trust and treaty obligations to Native Americans. “You can’t really have this self-determination in the Native community without being a culturally grounded, well-educated person.” Maxim osays high-profile figures like Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott will occasionally step up with notable contributions to Indian Country, but he says it is rare. “It is really hard for Tribal leaders themselves, for Native-serving institutions to make decisions based on the lack of data that’s out there.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, September 17, 2026 — After decades of work, tribes overcome language revitalization barriers

Photo: A “Vote Here” sign outside an election polling place at Woodbury City Hall in Woodbury, Minnesota, during the 2020 general election. (Tony Webster / Wikimedia) Indigenous people continue to face barriers throughout the election process. That is according to a new report that says those challenges can begin well before a voter reaches the ballot box. For the Mountain West News Bureau, Daniel Spaulding has more. The report from the Native American Rights Fund says voting disparities have deep historical roots. NARF analyzed federal data from 2020 through 2024 and found issues ranging from voter registration rejections to difficulties with mail-in ballots. In counties where Native Americans make up at least a quarter of the population, rejected voter registration applications increased by an average of 200%. Allison Neswood (Navajo) is a senior staff attorney at NARF. “Voting is not just one act. It's a series of steps and the report illustrates that Native people are more likely to get hung up every step along the way.” Neswood says addressing those issues will require greater investment in voting infrastructure across Indian Country. The study focused on counties with high Native populations, including Arizona's Apache and Navajo counties – and New Mexico's Cibola, McKinley, and San Juan counties. Young drummers from the Kingikmiut Dance Group wait to perform at the 25th Annual Kingikmiut Dance Festival. (Photo: Margaret Sutherland / KNOM) Dance groups from across the Bering Strait region gathered in Wales, Alaska last weekend for the Kingikmiut Dance Festival. The event marked a quarter century of teaching and sharing songs and dances that leaders say had been absent from some communities for decades. KNOM's Margaret Sutherland traveled to the remote village for this story. On the first night of the Kingikmiut Dance Festival, fog settles over the runway in Wales. Three of the five scheduled visiting groups are grounded: Gambell, Savoonga, and Brevig Mission. But inside the Kingikmiut School gym, the festival began anyway with groups from Wales and Unalakleet. The Kingikmiut Dance Group from Wales takes its place in the center of the gym. Frank Komonaseak, center, dances during the 25th Annual Kingikmiut Dance Festival. (Photo: Margaret Sutherland / KNOM) Drummers sit in a line, holding skin drums in front of them as they sing together while dancers move out front, following the songs. Sixteen-year-old Cain Seetook is one of the younger Kingikmiut drummers. “It heals my hurt and makes me happy. And I don't know. That's just it.” Seetook says he has been drumming since he was about one year old and practices with the Kingikmiut group once or twice a week. His cousin, 15-year-old Frank Komonaseak, is also part of the group, rotating between the drum line and the dance floor. “It feels good to be dancing again. It's an honor to be in this dance group again, to be singing and dancing. I grew up doing it, and I'm proud of who I am, and I'm proud of my cousins because they're all good dancers too.” Komonaseak moved back to Wales about a year ago after living in Anchorage for several years. He says he stopped dancing while he was away. When he returned, he went to practice and began relearning the songs. “It is really sad to not have dancing, because I don't think I can go a week without Eskimo dancing, because that's how much I love it.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — Native advocates assess barriers to upcoming elections

Photo: Tina Hickman of Choctaw, Mississippi flips through the course catalog for Bay Mills Community College, the tribal college she attended to earn her bachelor's degree. (Elise Catrion Gregg / Gulf States Newsroom) Tribal colleges and universities are higher education institutions chartered by Native American tribes. There are over 30 of them around the country – but none in the Gulf South. Elise Gregg of the Gulf States Newsroom spoke to Indigenous students around the region who do not have a TCU of their own. At the Pearl River Head Start in Choctaw, Mississippi, Tina Hickman is getting ready for things to pick up with the start of the school year. Two years ago, she started her bachelor's in early childhood education. “I only took one class at first, but after that I started taking three classes. My kids, they were about to graduate high school, they’re back to back, so I was like, I need to do this for them.” Unlike her other undergraduate studies, though, this degree was not at one of Mississippi's local community colleges. Hickman attended Bay Mills Community College, a tribal college in Michigan. She says it was not just a chance to finish her bachelor's. Her favorite class, Native American Contributions to Society, gave her a new perspective on her Indigenous heritage. “Taking that class, it just made me feel proud to be Native.” But Hickman had to do the program online. The closest brick and mortar TCU is in Oklahoma and it does not offer four-year programs. Indigenous students in the Gulf South often have to travel even further, to Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas or other Midwest or Western states. Rachel Billiot is part of United Houma Nation, a Louisiana state-recognized tribe. She now wants to go to grad school, ideally at a TCU, to study the environment from an Indigenous perspective on the rights of nature, history of the land, and traditional ecological knowledge. But there are only a few graduate-level, higher education options and none of them are in the South. “And I want to work in my landscape, I have to focus in the southeast. the only place you’re going to get working knowledge is by working within the landscape itself. And usually, the things that are offering work with indigenous populations from an indigenous perspective are either in the southwest or in the Midwest.” Melinda Ben, who directs the tribal scholarship office for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, says when she speaks to younger students, many are in the same boat as Hickman and Billiot – and simply do not know TCUs are an option when they are leaving high school. But, she says, non-Native institutions can also help. Ben would love for Mississippi State University, where a lot of their tribal members attend, to develop similar curriculum to the University of Oklahoma – another non-TCU with a large Indigenous population. “OU actually has that track. We’ve had a couple of students to graduate with a Native American Studies degree. They even offer Native American Law.” The options are there, but they are just not close to home. Indigenous researchers in Arizona are educating Navajo Tribal members about potential dangers in their water. In many rural communities, Native people rely on wells for drinking water, and the quality of that water can vary. Mark Moran reports. Many Native American communities in the Southwest rely on well water, but its quality and safety can vary. Parts of the Navajo and Hopi reservations were heavily mined for uranium used in nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Northern Arizona University chemist and Navajo Nation citizen Jani Ingram grew up on the reservation. She says it became clear that many abandoned mine sites had not been cleaned up. “There's over 500 abandoned mine sites out on Navajo that are an issue because there really was very little to no cleanup that happened.” Ingram says her goal is to determine pollution levels and educate Tribal members about the importance of safe drinking water. She presented her latest findings to the American Chemical Society late last month. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, September 15, 2026 — An Indigenous-led opera retells a historic Tlingit act of resistance

Photo: Bill Hill, an independent candidate for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat, stops to pose for a photo at a fundraiser on August 19, 2026. (Rhonda McBride / KNBA) Two Alaska Natives are among the leading candidates for Congress. Former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik) leads the U.S. Senate race, while Bill Hill (Athabascan) is emerging as a contender for the state’s at-least U.S. House seat, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports. Despite the commanding 12-point leader in the primary by U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, Bill Hill, who ran as an independent, is looking to Democrats for support. And many of them packed a fundraiser just after the primary to put on Bill Hill buttons. He is also heartened by Peltola's strong showing in the primary with almost 50% of the vote. “We energize the same pool of voters.” Hill, like Peltola, is from rural Alaska. He grew up in Bristol Bay, became a school superintendent, and, during the summer, worked as a commercial fisherman. Hill says he and Mary Peltola share more than just their Native heritage. “We both are heavily invested with fish as a core part of our identity. We're heavily invested in family as a core part of our identity.” Democratic political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt says Hill might have fared better running as a Democrat and there is no guarantee Peltola's popularity will translate into votes for Hill. “I don't really put a lot into the coat tails argument, which is, ‘I know Mary, I like Mary, and now I'm going to vote for every Native.’ I don't think we work that way.” Lottsfeldt also says Alaska Native voters connect to the Begich name. “I mean the Begiches are sort of the Kennedys of Alaska.” Begich is named after his grandfather, who also served in the U.S. House. His uncle Mark Begich served one term in the Senate and another uncle, Tom Begich, ran for governor in the primary. But Hill started out this race as a political unknown. “We started this in January with no name recognition. The fact that we earned 40,000-plus votes from Alaskan voters, really shows that our message is carrying well and we feel very confident that we can carry this across the finish line.” Hill has since picked up an endorsement from the Alaska Democratic Party, signs this race could be a lot closer than the primary results suggested. TSMC Fab 21 data center under construction in Phoenix, Ariz., November 2023. (Photo: Hunter Trick / Wikimedia) Municipalities across Arizona are raising concern over the rapid rise of data centers, especially when it comes to water consumption in the drought-stricken Southwest. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a tribe bordering the Colorado River has enacted a moratorium on its reservation. The Hualapai Tribal Council in northern Arizona recently passed a resolution opposing “the irresponsible development of hyperscale data centers.” Such facilities powering AI, they say, pose “a direct and severe threat to the tribe's sacred water, lands, environment and way of life.” “Moving forward, we will always protect our air, we will always protect our land, and we will always protect our water.” That is Hualapai Chairman Duane Clarke. “Hualapai Tribe will stand strong with any community, and we will oppose these data centers.” Some neighbors in nearby Bullhead City, Ariz., which also sits along the Colorado River, are now concerned about rezoning proposals that could lead to data center development. Deed in Trust from Three of the Five Nations of Indians to the King, 1726. (Courtesy Tribal Treaties Database / Oklahoma State University) On this day in 1726, representatives of the Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca Nations entered into an agreement with British officials in Albany, N.Y. The agreement amended an earlier 1701 treaty involving Native lands and became one of the earliest Native treaties preserved in the National Archives. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, September 14, 2026 — Shifting preservation policies pose risks to Native history

Photo: A steel beam recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center visited the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in June. (Courtesy missindianarizona / Instagram) A piece of the World Trade Center made a historic stop on Tribal land in Arizona. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation's “Steel Across America” tour visited the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale, Arizona this summer. A nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center's South Tower was displayed at the USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River. Organizers say it was the tour's first and only stop on sovereign Tribal land as the beam traveled more than 10,000 miles across the country ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The foundation says the stop recognized the longstanding tradition of military service among Native people. The memorial gardens are home to a piece of the USS Arizona, which was destroyed during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. For the first time, steel connected to the 9/11 attacks was displayed there alongside steel from the USS Arizona. Jani Ingram’s students investigate a water source on the Navajo Nation. (Courtesy Jani Ingram) A professor at Northern Arizona University has added new data to a map of safe drinking water on the Navajo Nation. KNAU's Chris Clements reports the map is intended to help tribal communities still struggling with the effects of past uranium mining. Professor Jani Ingram, Navajo Nation, had been driving across the reservation for a while with her student. Their goal? Find and test a remote well that one family was using. “It’s something that needed to be tested because it it really wasn’t great. It had pretty high uranium.” It can be hard for Navajo families to know if the wells near their homes have been contaminated by high uranium levels, which have been linked to health issues like kidney disease and lung cancer. Blue and red dots show water points installed using federal funds from the Indian Health Service CARES Act following the COVID-19 pandemic. (Courtesy Navajo Safe Water) Ingram mapped safe wells using water quality data she and her students collected from years in the field. The map can be found online at the website Navajo Safe Water. And her work is not over: there are tons of tribal wells that have not been tested, something she says she is willing to do at no cost. Indigenous students enrolled within the Chandler Unified School District are featured in a land acknowledgement video from 2025. (Courtesy CUSD) Last year, Indigenous students filmed a brief land acknowledgment for the Chandler Unified School District in Arizona. Following a fierce public debate Wednesday, the governing board voted to play this video at the beginning of all its meetings and future graduation ceremonies. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. “We recognize the past, present, and future inhabitants on this land.” “We will cherish, respect and protect this land for generations to come.” This message is only a minute and 43 seconds long, but it means a lot to Indigenous Parent Committee co-president Monique John. “We went into creating this video with positive intentions for our students and communities – all students Native and non-Native.” Chandler governing board member Kurt Rohrs disagrees. “It has no real purpose in addressing our primary mission of improving academic performance for our students. This statement is an empty performance gesture of wokeness, which really doesn't accomplish anything.” Basha High senior Syndel Preston, who is president of the school's Indigenous student club, suggests otherwise. “I want my Indigenous peers to know that they are seen, that the lands CUSD stands on is theirs as well. I don't believe it is divisive to want that for my community and those like me.” The measure passed in a 3-2 vote. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, September 11, 2026 — How 9/11 reverberates a quarter century later

Protests are ongoing outside of a church located on the Wind River Reservation. That is after a pastor made comments during her sermon, deriding the Northern Arapaho's Sun Dance, or Hoseihoowuʼ, ceremony. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards attended. About a dozen protestors hold up signs outside the Foundations for Nations church near Arapaho, Wyoming. Cars honk in support as they pass. One sign summarizes the general sentiment: it says, “leave”. “ She called our sacred pipe an idol.” MiRae Yellowbird says Pastor Sarah Lucas' July 5 comments were hurtful, especially because the federal government made the Sundance illegal until 1978. “ We weren’t allowed to practice our powwows, our Sun Dances, any type of ceremony. They would throw us in jail.” In an interview with the Riverton Ranger, Pastor Lucas admitted she struck the wrong tone when describing the pipe. “And words matter, right? Delivery matters. And that is where I feel repentant about it. I’m so sorry that that came off mocking.” But Lucas says she owns the church's property on the Wind River Reservation and has no plans to leave. The family of late Ellen Paneok, her cousin Jillion Jones, left, sister Tina “Raven” Godsey, and aunt Lottie Jones, flew from across the state and country to celebrate the nonprofit's launch (Photo: Alena Naiden) Efforts to connect rural Alaska Native villages by air got a lift this summer, when the new organization Paneok took off in Anchorage last month. In part two of her series, the Alaska Desk's Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA, spoke with the nonprofit's founder and chair, Jamie Klaes. Klaes is a pilot and instructor, originally from Bettles in Interior Alaska. She said she started teaching aviation classes because it is hard for rural Alaskans to get jobs in the industry, even though they rely on it. Since then, instructors have worked with Alaska organizations and school districts to help connect students to aviation classes, and in some cases travel to Anchorage to attend them. Klaes said the classes had up to 200 students enrolled at one time. “If we get one kid that gets their pilot’s license, you know, from Chevak, all of a sudden, we have a lot of Chevackers applying. You can see the impact of not only the student that got their license and their confidence, but their whole community and the confidence of their peers.” But Klaes said enrollment dropped to just 50 students two years ago, after some partnering organizations lost federal funding and had to cut their support for the classes. So she decided to form Paneok. “I didn’t ever want to see this program stop. So I needed to do something that was going to help it grow.” Klaes named Paneok in honor of Ellen Paneok, the first Alaska Native woman to become a licensed pilot. Paneok died in 2008, but her family flew from across the state and country to celebrate the nonprofit's launch. Lottie Jones from Utqiagvik is Paneok's aunt. “I'm pretty proud. I’m glad that she’s recognized because it took a lot for her to pursue her dream.” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, attended the launch of Paneok on Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo: Alena Naiden) U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also attended the event. She said Paneok was not only a pilot, but also an ivory carver, a writer, and a mentor. “This is Ellen. A woman who believed so much in what she had to offer and then was willing to pay that forward to help so many others, and particularly young Native kids from the villages, those who needed to be encouraged.” Murkowski commended the program leaders for their work to meet the needs of Alaska’s growing aviation sector. “It’s not just the young pilots. It is the ground handlers. It is the mechanics that keep everybody in the air safe. It’s the whole ecosystem of aviation that is so desperately needed in this place where we fly more than anybody else.” But Joelle Kamkoff from Kotlik, 17, said she wants to be a pilot. “I dream of working in medevac because I get to help people, and that makes me feel good. And also, like, being in the plane and in the air clears my mind.” For a start, Kamkoff took a ground handling class through the program last spring to learn how to fuel and load an airplane. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, September 10, 2026 — Shortage of wildland firefighters strains preparedness and safety

Photo: Former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola at her primary night victory party. (Courtesy C-SPAN) The 2026 Midterms shifted into top gear this week with showdowns set across the country. Nine Native candidates running for Congress made it to the general election, including three women trying to make history in the U.S. Senate. In Alaska, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik), D-Alaska, is charging against President Donald Trump on health care and affordability, in a race that has the President's attention squared right back at Peltola. “We have tens of thousands of Alaskans who can no longer afford health insurance, and we are being crushed by corporate greed. Dan Sullivan, every single vote was for corporate greed. From health care comments or groceries, to transportation, to heat, we are getting crushed.” The Alaska race includes incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and a challenger named Dan J. Sullivan, a distinction President Trump is highlighting as the race goes forward. “Well, it’s close for one reason, that they have a phony Dan Sullivan. This guy’s a phony. And he was put up by the Democrats, and they don’t admit it, but it’s been so proven. So I will go to Alaska to make sure that a great senator gets reelected. I will be going to Alaska. I’m going to be going the last 30 days before the election. I’ll be making a lot of stops.” The remaining Native candidates for Congress include incumbents like representatives Sharice Davids from Kansas – and Tom Cole and Josh Breechan from Oklahoma. Seeking new seats in the House are Jonathan Nez in Arizona, Bill Hill in Alaska and Sean McCann in Michigan. N'kiyla “Jasmine” Thomas is running as a Democratic socialist for Oklahoma's senate seat. A crowd gathers at Paneok hangar at Merrill Field in Anchorage for the nonprofit launch on Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo: Alena Naiden) A new aviation nonprofit in Alaska hopes to train the next generation of pilots connecting Alaska Native villages with supplies and the rest of the world. In part one of her two-part series, the Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA reports on the organization’s launch this summer. Anchorage’s Merrill Field was buzzing with planes taking off and landing, as about a hundred people gathered to celebrate the launch of a new aviation nonprofit. Jordan Lewis from Chefornak was one of several young students in the crowd. At 22, he has already earned a private pilot's license and has over 250 hours of flight time. And he dreams even bigger. “I want to fly for the big airlines one day, but my small goal is to fly for, like, the rural villages first.” Lewis said he became interested in aviation because his grandfather was a village airline agent, and he would follow him to meet the planes. “There’s like hundreds and hundreds of villages that aren’t on the road system. I believe if it wasn’t for aviation, most of those villages wouldn’t continue to exist.” Lewis took aviation classes through a career training organization called Alaska EXCEL. Those classes have been offered for about eight years through different local organizations, but instructors say the new nonprofit, the Paneok Project, will help them get funding more reliably and make classes more sustainable. Through Paneok, students from rural Alaska can enroll in piloting, maintenance, and ground-handling courses, as well as get mentorship and career opportunities. The program might offer a dispatcher course soon, too. Jamie Klaes is the founder and chair of Paneok. “It is very important for us to put rural kids in these positions because they do understand the terrain and the weather. And they have an invested interest in the community and the people they’re flying.” Tomorrow, in part two, we’ll learn more about the new nonprofit and its namesake, Ellen Paneok, the first Alaska Native woman to become a licensed pilot. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, September 9, 2026 — Texas ‘ghost tribe' rakes in millions of dollars with little to no official tribal documentation

Photo: Alaska Native Medical Center in May 2026. (Courtesy Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) The Indian Health Service officially handed ownership of the state’s biggest tribal hospital, the Alaska Native Medical Center, to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, as Alaska Public Media’s Rachel Cassandra reports. The transfer happened on August 24, according to the consortium. ANTHC CEO Natasha Singh, a Stevens Village tribal citizen from Fairbanks, says the transfer is the result of decades of advocacy. “This marks a historic achievement. It advances tribal self-determination in healthcare, and it’s achieved through the direct advocacy by Alaska tribal leaders.” Singh says, beyond practical implications, the symbolism of ownership is powerful. She says it is rare that tribes truly have self-governance over something so critical to their lives. “You don’t see it in management of our traditional territories or our fish resources. You don’t see it in education and public safety, but you see it in healthcare. Having this ability to control our future is allowing us to address the historical impacts of colonialism.” Singh says the hospital endured decades of underinvestment from the federal government and the transfer will allow the hospital to pursue funding only available to tribally owned facilities. Wilson Justin is a shareholder of the Ahtna Regional Corporation and has advocated for the rights of Indigenous people in the health care system since the 1990s. He says the ownership transfer is momentous. “It’s been a long wait, and I really appreciate the fact that it’s finally occurring. We’ve been waiting for it for half a generation, basically.” He says he hopes that the transfer allows the hospital to strengthen healthcare for Indigenous Alaskans across the state, especially for smaller tribes. The Little Colorado River, a tributary of the Colorado River, flows during the springtime through the Navajo Nation near Cameron, Arizona. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio) The Navajo Nation Council has taken a major step toward protecting one of its most precious water resources. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on the recent measure that formally recognizes the Confluence – where the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers meet – as a sacred site under tribal law. Doing so formally documents what Navajos already know – the spiritual and natural significance of where these two life-giving rivers converge. This information may be used to potentially deter future commercial development by industries like hydropower or dams. Erik Stansfield testified on behalf of the tribe's Historic Preservation Office. “When that comes forward, we can show what impairment of those resources look like.” He likens the Confluence to its council chambers, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “Like the murals in this room, changing that would be an impairment to the sort of historical and cultural importance of this place. It’s very much the same with the plants and animals, water quality and offerings that have been made at that place. We detail that out, and that helps us kind of defend this area.” Ratified Indian Treaty 70. And on this day in 1815, leaders from eight Native Nations signed the Treaty of Spring Wells with the United States near Detroit. The agreement formally restored peace following the War of 1812 and returned certain rights and possessions Native Nations held before the war. The treaty involved the Wyandot, Delaware, Seneca, Shawnee, Miami, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, September 8, 2026 — Life after a wrongful murder conviction for Santiago Ventura Morales

A Native girls softball team made history this summer, winning a Babe Ruth Softball World Series championship during its first year competing in the tournament. Na7ive Na7ions brought together Native athletes from different tribal communities to compete in Florence, Alabama, but founder and former Major League Baseball pitcher D.J. Carrasco says their success was not only about what happened on the field. They were also battling the summer heat. Temperatures hovered in the 90s, with high humidity making conditions even tougher, but inside the Na7ive Na7ions dugout, there was something you might not normally associate with championship softball: Watermelon. Grapes. Oranges. Pickles. And a team favorite: frozen pickle juice, or “pickle pops”. Autumn Lopez is a holistic nutritional therapy practitioner and co-founder of Na7ive Na7ions. “We feed them from the moment they start swinging the bat, warming up through the entire game. And at first it was hard for them, and they didn’t really understand, but they adapted really fast to eating during the game.” Lopez says the approach was intentional. Carrasco pitched professionally, including ten seasons in Major League Baseball, while Lopez has a background in massage therapy and nutrition. Lopez says the goal is to develop the whole athlete, not just what happens between the lines. And in Alabama, she believes it made a difference. “We were probably one of the only teams, if not the only team, who didn’t suffer heat exhaustion, nausea, throwing up. Every time you looked around, there was a coach throwing up… We didn’t have one girl go down, so that was huge.” Lopez says she repeatedly reminded the girls that winning required more than playing good softball. They also had to stay healthy enough to keep playing. Carrasco says the tournament tested them against some formidable competition, including Puerto Rico. He says the experience also gave the girls a chance to represent Native people and their individual cultures on an international stage. “They’re literally ambassadors. They’re truly ambassadors of their tribe and their cultures.” Lopez says other teams began noticing what looked like a buffet inside the Na7ive Na7ions dugout. And eventually, what started as the team’s own nutrition strategy spread beyond it. Before another game against Puerto Rico, Lopez had extra bananas. “I thought, do I share my secret weapon?… So I grabbed those bananas and I took them over to Puerto Rico… and I said, hey, I have some bananas for you, for your team.” She also handed out electrolytes to umpires and other teams. For Lopez, that reflected something bigger than winning. (Courtesy Native Nations Sport / Facebook) Na7ive Na7ions wants young athletes to leave the program understanding how to care for themselves long after the final out. And the girls left Alabama with something else: a championship. Lopez says watching the final out was emotional after four years of building the organization, but her thoughts quickly turned toward what the victory could mean for the Native girls coming behind them. “When I saw the girls go out there, that last pitch was thrown, that last hit was hit, that last catch was caught, and they realized they won, I just thought they have just changed the trajectory for so many generations of young girls underneath them.” It was the first year Na7ive Na7ions fielded a girls softball team at the Babe Ruth World Series. Carrasco and Lopez says interest in the program has surged since the victory, with Native families asking how their children can participate. For the girls who made history in Alabama, he says the magnitude of what they accomplished might not sink in for years, but eventually, he hopes they’ll be able to look back and say: “They started it.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, September 7, 2026 — A conversation about law, advocacy, and redemption with attorney Courtney Jordan

Photo: An arch topped with a cross marks the entrance to the Wounded Knee Memorial and cemetery on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on June 30, 2024. (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) Two South Dakota candidates for U.S. Senate have different views about the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers at the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. South Dakota Searchlight's Meghan O'Brien has more. About 20 U.S. Army soldiers who were at the massacre received medals. They were part of a force who killed 200 or more Lakota people, including men, women and children. The massacre happened near Wounded Knee Creek in southwest South Dakota. The U.S. Department of Defense decided to retain the medals after a recent review. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, is on a Senate committee that is seeking more information about that review. He says descendants of massacre survivors want to know more about how the review was conducted. He wants to help them get that information. Rounds has not supported past legislation to rescind the medals. “What we’ve said is, let’s do the investigation, and then allow the military to actually make the determination, rather than having Congress get in the middle of it.” Rounds is running to keep his seat in the Senate. His only challenger is Brian Bengs, an independent. Bengs served 26 years in the U.S. military and taught at the NATO School in Germany and the U.S. Air Force Academy, including courses in the law of war. “And I will say categorically: those medals are not earned. They are not deserved. They should not stand. Their continuing standing is a dishonor to the individuals who currently hold the Medal of Honor.” Bengs will face Rounds on the November 3 ballot. Ameerah Bad'r is the current artist-in-residence at Sitka National Historical Park. (Photo: Lauren Salemo / KCAW) Sealaska Heritage Institute's artist residency program hosts Indigenous artists at public spaces in Southeast Alaska throughout summer. The residency, which expanded to Sitka, Alaska this year, provides the artists room to create and connect with their heritage where visitors can stop by to watch their work come together, as Lauren Salemo from KCAW reports. Ameerah Bad'r (Tlingít Palestinian) is the current artist-in-residence at Sitka National Historical Park. Her work combines drawing, watercolor, and formline design, a traditional art style used by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest that incorporates curved lines and shapes. Sitka's flora will be her main subject. “I’m working on a foxglove painting right now. I definitely want to draw the fireweed, paint the fireweed. It’s a little intimidating, though. It has a lot going on.” A lot of her work has focused on flowers from the places she has traveled over the last few years. Bad'r says she finds it meditative to study plants' delicate details. “The work is kind of rooted in grieving and memory and the cycle of life. If you can truly be present with a flower and really look at it, you’re really getting to see something beautiful, but in the end, that flower is totally gonna die. But then after that, another flower is gonna come back.” Bad'r is currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She says she has been wanting to come to Southeast Alaska for a long time because of her family's roots. “It’s a gift to be able to come here and meet people and learn more about the culture, and see where I fit in here. And I’ve learned a little bit about my family lineage already.” She says her time in Sitka has been peaceful, and that this won't be her last trip here. Today is Bad'r's last day at Sitka National Historical Park. Map of the Potawatomi Trail of Death. (Photo: Chris Light / Wikimedia) And on this day in 1838, 859 Potawatomi people were forced from their homelands in northern Indiana at gunpoint. The removal began a 660-mile journey to present day Kansas that became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death. During the two-month journey, 42 Potawatomi died, half of them children. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, September 4, 2026 — Two historic preservation fights in Kansas exemplify the power of persistence

A row of coal next to skid steer inside the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. coal yard in New Mexico. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio) The Trump administration has just approved a plan that could let the Navajo Nation dig up more than 500 million tons of coal by extending the life of a New Mexico mine over the next century – until the year 2136. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. The U.S. Interior Department says denying this permit would be at odds with President Donald Trump's “Unleashing American Energy” agenda. It could also destabilize the Navajo Nation economy. The tribally owned Navajo Transitional Energy Co. fuels the aging Four Corners Power Plant. That lease is set to expire in 2041, but the U.S. government notes the next coal buyer is unknown. The United States argues those financial factors outweigh a slew of environmental and other harms posed by the expansion – including the relocation of nearby families. Jason Smith and Kremena Doust with some of their horses on the Warm Springs reservation in central Oregon, July 30, 2026. (Courtesy James Smith Ranch) While the Bench Fire in Oregon has been largely contained, its effects are still being felt. A ranching couple on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon needs help caring for their cattle and wild horses after the fire destroyed their grazing land. Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports. Jason Smith and Kremena Doust say they were preparing to do a live auction and photo shoot with their horses on July 25, but they canceled once they realized the Bench Fire was burning fast through their area. Smith: “It run like 14 miles in one day, y'know. It made it from our westerly range where we run our cattle and horses, clear to our front door.” Doust: “It was intense, it was orange. It was like pretty high in the sky.” Smith: “There were a bunch of fires, just south of the reservation there. And they looked like they were comin' our way big time, y;know.” The flames almost came up to their doorstep, but a highway created a natural break that spared their home. They say at least 80% of their grazing district was consumed by fire, leaving between 400 to 500 wild horses and their cattle without food. So now Smith and Doust are trying to raise funds to help buy emergency feed for their animals and offer the horses for adoption by good homes. Doust: “So if we can take care of that through community support and grants, that would be a game changer.” Smith: “The biggest thing is feed right now, though.” Doust: “Right now, immediately feed. Absolutely.” Mares, yearlings, and studs are all available on the ranch’s website for adoption. Doust said she is also trying to set up a nonprofit. Photo: Spirit Lake Nation. (Courtesy Spirit Lake Nation-Mni Wakan Oyate / Facebook) Two North Dakota Tribes are renewing their legal fight over a state legislative map they say weakens the voting power of Native people. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Spirit Lake Tribe, and individual Native voters moved Friday to file an amended complaint challenging North Dakota’s 2021 legislative districts. The Tribes originally won their case in 2023, when a federal judge ruled the map violated the Voting Rights Act by denying Native voters an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, but in May, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated an appeals court ruling in the case and sent it back for further consideration following another voting rights decision. The Tribes now argue the map also violates the U.S. Constitution because it was drawn with discriminatory intent and improperly divided Native voters. Spirit Lake Chairwoman Lonna Jackson-Street says the Tribes have fought the map for five years and are prepared to prove their case again. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, September 3, 2026 — Osage school closure delivers blow to tribe’s language revitalization

Photo: Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery in Carlisle, Pa. (Courtesy Office of Army Cemeteries) The remains of 12 Native children who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania are beginning their journeys home. The Office of Army Cemeteries is beginning its latest round of disinterments at the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery. The children died more than a century ago while attending the federal boarding school, which operated from 1879 to 1918. Carlisle became a model for the federal Indian boarding school system, where Native children were separated from their families and communities and forced to abandon their languages and cultures. Families and Tribal leaders are gathering at Carlisle as the remains are prepared to return to their homelands. According to ICT, this marks the ninth round of disinterments at the cemetery. The 12 students include four Alaska Native children and students from several Tribal Nations across the country. The repatriation process is scheduled to continue through October 12th, as descendants and communities bring the children home more than a century after their deaths. Red dresses and a sign reading “No More MMIW” adorn a tree in Heron Park in Springfield, Ore. during a special poetry reading on May 1, 2024. (Photo: Brian Bull) Violence prevention, victim advocacy and MMIP services across Indian Country are dealing with disruptions and cuts at the federal level, as Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports. A recent report from the Urban Indian Health Institute says more than 200 programs and organizations have lost funds or cut back services since President Donald Trump began his second term. Whether through the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” or initiatives against programs the White House deems “DEI” — diversity, equity and inclusion — or “woke”, many Native services are seeing support eroding. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were “substantially impacted” by funding cuts since January 2025, with 60% of unmet need requests for safe housing support. UIHI director Abigail Echo-Hawk said this will exacerbate issues for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis. “They're staying in their cars, they're becoming homeless, they're in shelters with their children, then having to move from one shelter to another. And in the worst case scenarios – that I know is happening – they're going back to the people that are abusing them because they don't want their children to become homeless, or they're in such desperate circumstances, they have no other choice.” State Representative Tawna Sanchez (Shoshone-Bannock and Ute descent), D-Oregon, has worked on MMIP and other Native issues. She is worried about how the Trump administration's continued implementation of HR 1 will affect marginalized communities and vulnerable populations. “The larger issue, right now, obviously, is: how do we value human life? Any life. And we have only begun to feel the effects of HR 1. The real effects are coming. And they're going to be hard.” Some Native advocates including Echo-Hawk say educating lawmakers can help. She said some anti-DEI initiatives have been reversed as tribes are political entities, not DEI. Another advocate, Desiree Coyote, is the family violence services program manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She says there is an obligation from the federal government to honor all treaties signed with tribes. “This is part of what they agreed to do with us as tribal nations to help us ensure and protect our community in regards to public safety. I look forward to when the tribal nations – in regards to their sovereignty, as a way of ensuring intimate partner violence, sexual assault, dating violence, missing and murdered – are addressed quickly and in a meaningful way that benefits the people we serve.” The report, titled “Sacred Responsibility: Protecting Our People“, includes recommendations for tribal and federal agencies. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, September 2, 2026 — Persistent heat puts strain on people, the environment, and the economy

Photo: Bernadette Hartley and other volunteers assemble opioid-reversal kits at an August 29, 2025, event in Anchorage, Alaska. (Yereth Rosen / Alaska Beacon) A new health report has mixed news for Alaskans. The findings come from the Healthy Alaskans program, a partnership between the Alaska Department of Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. As Yereth Rosen reports from the Alaska Beacon, key takeaways from the research show that chronic health problems like obesity and high blood pressure persist and childhood vaccinations continue to lag. Over the last decade, infant mortality rates have shown no improvement with markedly higher rates among Alaska Natives. The state's life expectancy remains unchanged, but the report points to some encouraging trends, particularly for younger Alaskans. The statewide assessment found a significant increase in prenatal care. High school graduation rates are up, and the longstanding graduation gap among Alaska Native students has narrowed. The reports says this is important, because education is linked to better health. It also found that Alaska teens are less likely today to be exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke, a trend the report links to tobacco-free zones and other policies. Drug overdose rates appear to be leveling off. The research found that more food grown in Alaska has become easier to find, while better access to trails supports exercise and traditional subsistence practices. There are some troubling developments on the horizon. Climate change has affected fish runs and the availability of wild foods, important to the diet of rural Alaskans. Environmental changes have also increased the risk of new diseases, while wildfire smoke poses health hazards in some parts of the state. The Voices Not Forgotten page on the FBI website shows current cases. The FBI is increasing rewards for information in cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people and relatives in North Dakota and nationwide, as Judith Ruiz-Branch reports. Brandon Baity is executive director of the Indigenous Association in Fargo, North Dakota and a White Earth descendant, “We’re left very vulnerable due to a lot of systemic and intergenerational reasons. So the bottom line is addressing some of that vulnerability in our community overall would help us go further up the river, so we’re not always pulling people out of the river, literally and figuratively.” Forty percent of North Dakota's missing population is Indigenous. As part of the Voices Not Forgotten initiative, FBI officials have set a minimum $25,000 reward for help with cracking dozens of nationwide cases. Baity believes the level of attention a case receives can come down to whether a victim is viewed as “worthy”. He raises questions about which lives are deemed deserving of public concern and institutional resources. Factors like addiction or housing instability can lead to victim-blaming, Baity adds, even though every missing person has family, friends and loved ones who want them found. “They’re still people and they’re still deserving of care and support in our community and from our organizations and our institutions that are here to keep us safe. And so I just think we really need to focus more on, why are there so many murdered and missing Indigenous people in our country?” FBI data shows nearly 10,000 American Indian and Alaska Native individuals were reported missing nationwide in 2025. Baity says informal networks in the Fargo-Moorhead area mobilize and organize searches for local families who are impacted, but those efforts can be limited by a lack of resources and formal support. He adds that increased rewards and investigative resources are important, but preventing these cases in the first place requires sustained investment in the safety and stability of Indigenous communities. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, September 1, 2026 — Growing understanding of head injuries changes sports at all levels

Photo: Kenai Silver Salmon Derby participants weigh fish during the 2023 derby in Kenai, Alaska. (Courtesy Kenai Silver Salmon Derby) Kenai, Alaska's annual Silver Salmon Derby will not return this year in response to poor silver salmon runs in the Kenai River. The Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, which hosts the competition each year, announced the decision Thursday, as Ashlyn O’Hara reports. This year's derby was scheduled to happen the second week of September. The annual event is billed as the world's most responsible fishing tournament. That is because it awards prizes based on a fish weight that is closest to a random number instead of awarding the biggest fish caught, which organizers say can incentivize harmful catch-and-release strategies. In the chamber's announcement, executive director Samantha Springer said the decision to cancel the derby was difficult, but aligns with the competition's commitment to responsible fishing. The announcement came the same day the Alaska Department of Fish and Game extended limits on the Kenai River silver salmon sport fishery. Traditionally, the fishery bag limit increases from two large fish to three large fish on September 1. The department is keeping the limit to two fish through the end of November. Like the derby, the department says its decision is due to a below-average silver run. The state says that indicates weak returns to Cook Inlet. Patrick Fowler is a fisheries management coordinator for the state. He says the department does not count the Kenai River's coho run the same way it counts other salmon species, like king and sockeye. Instead, Fowler says they use several data points to determine when a run may be lower than usual. Fowler says the combination of data points suggest this year's silver salmon run is stronger than in 2024, but weaker than last year. In the press release, the chamber says it will consider hosting the 2027 derby earlier in the year. Thursday's announcement comes on the heels of a lackluster sockeye season in the Kenai River, and as the river's king fishery remains closed outright due to poor runs. On August 10, the last day the state counted fish for Kenai River late-run sockeye, a little over a million fish had been counted. That is lower than the cumulative counts for each of the last four years, and about a quarter of how many were counted during last year's record season. Courtesy NCAI The National Congress of American Indians is bringing Tribal leaders together to identify priorities for an upcoming federal consultation on violence against women. NCAI's Violence Against Women Task Force will host two pre-consultation meetings for Tribal leaders and organizations. The meetings will help participants develop talking points and strategies ahead of the U.S. Department of Justice's annual government-to-government consultation with Tribal Nations. That consultation is led by the Office on Violence Against Women and provides Tribal leaders an opportunity to raise concerns and priorities directly with federal officials. NCAI will hold one of its preparatory meetings virtually and another in person at the Tulalip Resort in Washington state. The organization says both will focus on issues Tribal leaders want addressed during the federal consultation. Franklin Masonic Hall where President Andrew Jackson met with Chickasaw delegation in 1830, left, and map of Chickasaw land in Mississippi at the time of the treaty negotiations. (Photo: Skye Marthaler / Wikimedia) And on this day in 1830, Chickasaw leaders signed the Treaty of Franklin with the United States in Tennessee. The agreement called for the Chickasaw Nation to give up its remaining homelands east of the Mississippi River in exchange for suitable territory west of Arkansas, but the agreement allowed Chickasaw representatives to inspect the proposed western lands before relocation. They ultimately determined the land was unsuitable. The treaty was never ratified and became void, but negotiations over Chickasaw lands continued as the United States pursued its policy of removing Native nations from the Southeast. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, August 31, 2026 — Menu: Increasing hurdles and uncertainty put strains on Native beef producers and farmers

Top federal prosecutors from the Four Corner states are descending upon the Phoenix metro this week as part of an annual conference meant to tackle crime and justice in Indian Country. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. A hotel room full of victim advocates, attorneys, and tribal law enforcement personnel congregate in Glendale. Arizona's top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine, reminds them why they are all meeting. “It may sound like priorities are elsewhere in this administration, but all of the U.S. attorneys up here and every member of leadership in the Department of Justice will tell you: Indian Country is always a priority.” From Phoenix and Albuquerque to Denver and Salt Lake City, Courchaine stresses they are all on the same team. “If you work with a rural tribe, whether it's in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico or Arizona, it might feel like you are at the ends of the earth.” Three cubs belonging to Osso in the Anan Wildlife Observatory at Tongass National Forest. (Courtesy U.S. Forest Service / Facebook) A major logging project planned for Alaska's Tongass National Forest is raising concerns about potential impacts to subsistence resources. The U.S. Forest Service acknowledges the project could affect deer harvests relied on by communities in Southeast Alaska, where the Tongass has long supported Alaska Native cultural and subsistence practices. Conservationists are now pushing back against plans to log thousands of acres of old-growth forest, as Mark Moran reports. Conservationists are pushing back on a massive old growth logging plan by the Forest Service that would carve new roads through thousands of acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The agency says it will revitalize the logging industry and improve habitat and ecosystems for native species. The Revilla Integrated Research Project aims to log 4,000 acres of old growth trees in the Tongass near Ketchikan, harvest 83 million board feet of timber, and build more than 40 miles of roadway. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council’s Nathan Newcomber says the development plan threatens the habitat of a number of animals. He says even the Forest Service has acknowledged the risk. “Deer, bears, wolves, birds like the Queen Charlie Goshawk. They also state that they acknowledge the significant likelihood of impact to subsistence, including on deer harvest.” There were at least 120 objections to the plan during a public comment period, but the Forest Service says it intends to begin the work and address legal challenges later. Southeast Alaska has been transitioning away from clear cutting old tree stands in favor of what’s known as young growth logging, which Newcomber and other environmental advocates support, even though the practice now comprises only about one percent of the region’s economy. “To go back to this bygone era from the 1970s where you just clear-cut landscapes, it makes absolutely no sense. Nobody supports it apart from extractive industry and politicians. But local communities in Southeast Alaska, they wanna protect what we have. It’s our cultural way of life. It’s the way that people live up here.” Southeast Alaska is also highly dependent on tourism to support local economies. Driven largely by cruise ship traffic, the region sees as many as two million visitors a year, according to Alaska’s Southeast Conference. Confederate Brig. Gen. William L.. Cabell, left, and Union Col. William F. Cloud led troops during the skirmish. And on this day in 1863, fighting broke out near Camp Pike in the Choctaw Nation, in what is now Oklahoma. The skirmish came during the Civil War, when Indian Territory became a battleground involving Union and Confederate forces. Camp Pike had been used by Confederate troops following the Battle of Honey Springs, one of the war's largest battles in Indian Territory. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, August 28, 2026 — Two states make progress in Native-focused education

Photo: Notah Begay III, who is Diné and from the pueblos of San Felipe and Isleta, is the 2026 recipient of the Payne Stewart Award. (Courtesy PGA) The PGA Tour has bestowed one of its highest honors, the Payne Stewart Award, to a four-time PGA Tour winner who is also a citizen of the Navajo Nation. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Notah Begay III excelled at swinging a club. His success on the fairway afforded him the chance to play college golf beside Tiger Woods at Stanford University – winning a national team championship in 1994. Begay is widely considered the first Indigenous golfer to compete on the PGA Tour. When accepting the award on Tuesday, Begay noted how Native Americans have the lowest graduation rates and life expectancies in the U.S. among all ethnicities. “So for me to be standing up here as a Stanford graduate with a degree in economics, four-time PGA Tour winner and a television broadcaster accepting this prestigious award is a miracle.” Entrance to White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) A uranium mining company missed a Monday deadline to turn over communications between its executives and the feds. KNAU's Chris Clements reports that is according to House Democrats, who have launched an investigation into Energy Fuels for potential insider trading. Two House Democrats allege the Trump administration may have tipped Energy Fuels off about the cut to Bears Ears National Monument before it happened, leading company executives to invest in their own firm. One of the Democrats is U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California. “The timing and the volume of these stock purchases are conspicuous and speak for themselves.” Huffman asked the company to send a year's worth of communications with the feds, as well as its lobbying contracts, by August 24, but Energy Fuels did not provide the materials by that deadline, according to a spokesperson for Huffman. In a statement, the company said it strongly rejects the idea that anything improper took place, but did not deny that it missed the deadline. Energy Fuels stands to benefit from less protections to the uranium-rich monument, the lawmakers argue, because the company owns the White Mesa Mill, the only conventional uranium processing mill in the United States. Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minnesota, has signed an executive order blocking new state mineral leases and halting permitting work for proposed nonferrous mining projects in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed near the Boundary Waters. The National Congress of American Indians praised the move, saying it protects treaty rights, Tribal resources, and culturally significant lands from potential mining-related pollution. NCAI also recognized the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa. The three 1854 Treaty Tribes have pushed for protections in the region and earlier this year joined the Red Lake Nation and an Anishinaabe First Nation in Canada in a cross-border effort to protect the watershed. NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright Jr. says the order provides immediate relief, but permanent protections are still needed. The organization is calling for federal legislation permanently withdrawing the Boundary Waters and Rainy River Headwaters from mineral leasing and development. Jeffery Amherst painting by Joshua Reynolds. And on this day in 1763, British commander Jeffery Amherst wrote a letter calling for the destruction of Native people resisting British expansion. The letter came during Pontiac's War, when a confederation of Native nations fought British forces around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. Amherst also supported efforts to spread smallpox among Native people, one of the most infamous examples of biological warfare discussed during the colonial era. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, August 27, 2026 — Native Bookshelf: ‘Treat Them as Buffalo’ by Blair Palmer Yoxall

The Iñupiaq village of Shungnak in Northwest Alaska likely has the questionable distinction of having the most expensive gasoline in the United States. The Alaska Beacon reports that the price climbed to $26.82 a gallon last week — more than six times the national average of $4.10 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Glenda Douglas, who manages the village store, posted a photo of the price she paid for gas on Facebook. People questioned whether it was real. “It's very much real.” As a Native corporation shareholder, Douglas received a hefty discount, but still paid more than $107 for five gallons of gas. Shungnak is a remote community on the Kobuk River east of Kotzebue. There are only three ways to reach the village: by snowmachine in the winter, boat in the summer, or by air. Flying is the only reliable year-round transportation. This summer, low water levels disrupted barge deliveries, which forced fuel to be flown in. Those transportation costs came on top of already high prices due to the conflict with Iran. Douglas said gas had to be flown in twice to Shungnak this summer, when barges could not get in. She says the spike comes as subsistence hunters prepare for their fall hunts – and need gas to harvest food for their families. Chief Paul Memorial School in Kipnuk, Alaska. (Courtesy Lower Kuskokwim School District) With classes underway in schools across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the Lower Kuskokwim School District has announced that it will not be re-opening schools in the two communities hit hardest by ex-typhoon Halong last October. KYUK's Evan Erickson has more. In a letter to families sent following the board’s regular meeting last week, the district said the Chief Paul Memorial School in Kipnuk and the Kwigillingok School will not reopen until critical infrastructure and facility repairs are completed. “We owe your children a school that is safe and fully ready before we ask them to walk back through the doors.” In Kipnuk, where around 90% of structures were damaged or destroyed, the school was one of the few buildings to come through ex-typhoon Halong relatively unscathed. It has since served as a base for locals and outside contractors working to rebuild the community. According to Native Village of Kipnuk President Daniel Paul, around 190 people were in the community as of Monday, a mix of people practicing subsistence and shoring up infrastructure. Nearly 1,000 people lived in Kipnuk prior to its near-total evacuation in the days following the storm. In the case of the Kwigillingok School, the letter to families also cites a “no go home” order put in place by the tribe's governing body that remains in effect. A representative from the Native Village of Kwigillingok did not respond to a request for comment about the status of the order for this story. Nearly all of the 400 residents of Kwigillingok were airlifted to Bethel after Halong damaged or destroyed an estimated 35% of structures. As of Tuesday, around 40 people remained in the community, according to the tribe. LKSD Superintendent Jason Hlasny said by email on Tuesday that the district had enrolled 60 students from Kipnuk and 55 students from Kwigillingok in schools in the district as of last week. The district says it is exploring online and distance learning opportunities for any K-8 students currently residing in the communities. For high school students, the district says enrollment is available through the district's existing online learning academy and individual online learning options. An Anchorage School District spokesperson said on Tuesday that about 145 students from Kipnuk and Kwigillingok are currently enrolled in Anchorage schools. Both communities' tribal members have voted to relocate since the storm. LKSD says it plans to share an update on the status of the Kipnuk and Kwigillingok schools by November 1. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native Ameica Calling episode Wednesday, August 26, 2026 — Arizona's dramatic SNAP ordeal may be a bellwether for other states

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested three people during a traffic stop within the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona earlier this month. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the Valley tribe's leader says the encounter stoked fear. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis claims the tribe made a deal allowing federal agents to conduct activities on their sovereign lands – so long as they first notify the Gila River Police Department. But tribal officers will not assist. “Now with this recent incursion, that agreement clearly broke down and needed to be urgently and directly and clearly addressed.” In a video message on social media, Lewis revealed he has contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “And to their credit, they understood immediately that this was a genuine problem, and arranged that same day to put our new chief of police in touch with the local regional ICE leadership.” None of the apprehended men are reportedly tribal members. Three cubs belonging to Osso in the Anan Wildlife Observatory at Tongass National Forest. (Courtesy U.S. Forest Service / Facebook) A proposed logging project in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is facing opposition over concerns it could affect wildlife and subsistence hunting in Southeast Alaska. The U.S. Forest Service plans to log thousands of acres of old-growth forest near Ketchikan, Alaska, as Mark Moran reports. Conservationists are pushing back on a massive old growth logging plan by USFS that would carve new roads through thousands of acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The agency says it will revitalize the logging industry and improve habitat and ecosystems for native species. The Revilla Integrated Research Project aims to log 4,000 acres of old growth trees in the Tongass near Ketchikan, harvest 83 million board feet of timber, and build more than 40 miles of roadway. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council’s Nathan Newcomber says the development plan threatens the habitat of a number of animals. He says even the Forest Service has acknowledged the risk. “Deer, bears, wolves, birds like the Queen Charlie Goshawk. They also state that they acknowledge the significant likelihood of impact to subsistence, including on deer harvest.” There were at least 120 objections to the plan during a public comment period, but the Forest Service says it intends to begin the work and address legal challenges later. Southeast Alaska has been transitioning away from clear cutting old tree stands in favor of what is known as young growth logging, which Newcomber and other environmental advocates support, even though the practice now comprises only about 1% of the region’s economy. “To go back to this bygone era from the 1970s where you just clear-cut landscapes, it makes absolutely no sense. Nobody supports it apart from extractive industry and politicians. But local communities in Southeast Alaska, they wanna protect what we have. It’s our cultural way of life. It’s the way that people live up here.” Southeast Alaska is also highly dependent on tourism to support local economies. Driven largely by cruise ship traffic, the region sees as many as two million visitors a year, according to Alaska’s Southeast Conference. Fort Howard along the Fox River in what would become known as Green Bay, Wisc. is where the treaty was signed on Aug. 25, 1828. And on this day in 1828, Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Ottawa leaders signed a treaty with the United States at Green Bay. The Native leaders had declined a U.S. request to cede additional land. Instead, the agreement established a temporary boundary amid conflicts over white settlers occupying Native lands for mining. The United States also agreed to provide $20,000 in goods as compensation for damages caused by the occupation. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, August 25, 2026 — How to make relationships work

FBI Director Kash Patel met with tribal law enforcement partners in Albuquerque, New Mexico last week. The visit comes on the heels of the agency launching a new tool to raise public awareness over missing and murdered Indigenous cases. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. It is called Voices Not Forgotten, a webpage featuring select, unsolved crimes across Indian Country where the FBI is seeking the public's help by offering $25,000 minimum rewards. That includes the high-profile homicides in Arizona of Maleeka “Mollie” Boone and Emily Pike. But as Deiandra Reid with the Albuquerque nonprofit Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women notes, this tool is not exhaustive. “You know, I looked at this website that they have, and I didn't see my sister on there.” Twenty-two years ago, Navajo teenager Tiffany Reid went missing while walking to high school in Shiprock, New Mexico. Decades prior, a 9-year-old Navajo girl disappeared from nearby Gallup, New Mexico. “Anthonette Cayedito is on there, and she's [been] missing for about 40 years, so I don't see what the difference is between her case and my sister's case. And a lot of times, our relatives fall through the cracks. The visibility is very important, but it's not the finish line.” The Pinyon Plain Mine, as seen from the air in November 2019, is owned and operated by Energy Fuels Inc., which has extensive Canadian roots: (Photo: Ryan Heinsius / KNAU) There has been a surge of mining companies looking to dig for minerals in the Southwest, including near tribal communities. KNAU's Chris Clements explains why so many of these companies are Canadian. It boils down to this: Canada has a unique tax system that allows mining companies that are exploring projects to pass their costs along to investors. John Steen, a professor at the University of British Columbia, says Canada is home to hundreds of those companies. “They’re hearing that the regulatory regime is, you know, maybe as not as tight as it was, and they’re seeing the U.S. as an attractive place for investment and exploration.” Steen says Canadian firms are responding to President Donald Trump's push to end reliance on China for critical minerals. Take Chakana Copper, which is using a subsidiary to explore mining copper on the Navajo Nation. Or Laramide Resources, which wants to mine uranium near the site of the largest release of radioactive mining material in U-S history. James Hopkins, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, says the reason for that is due in part to the rollback of mining regulations. And that's had consequences. “The growth in uranium mining in the United States is unprecedented. With the increased deregulation, you’re seeing these conflicts arising more and more with respect to tribal lands and tribal resources.” Hopkins says the flurry of mining projects, including some proposed by Canadian companies, is causing pushback from tribes who have long borne the environmental consequences of mining. Opponents of a proposed project to drill for uranium in the southern Black Hills listen to a meeting of the Board of Minerals and Environment at the Joe Foss Building in Pierre, South Dakota, Aug. 20, 2026. (Photo: Meghan O'Brien / South Dakota Searchlight) The South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment took actions affecting two proposed uranium projects in the Black Hills. South Dakota Searchlight's Meghan O'Brien has more. The Dewey-Burdock Project has been on hold for more than a decade. Project leaders want to mine for uranium near Edgemont in the southern Black Hills. Uranium is a metallic, radioactive element used as fuel in nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. Interest in uranium exploration and mining has risen recently. That is in response to nuclear energy's potential to supply electricity for data centers. The project needs federal, state, and local permitting. After being held up by legal challenges, it secured the remaining federal permits it needs and will start seeking state permits. The Board of Minerals and Environment approved a socioeconomic study, which will help the board understand the economic, environmental, and community impacts of the project. The board also continued discussions on a separate request to drill holes in search of uranium near Craven Canyon, in the same general area of the southern Black Hills. A new state law requires the board to have language interpretation services available at hearings for those who need it, such as Lakota speakers. Some of the project opponents are members of Lakota tribes. A lawsuit by a project opponent against the board alleges it violated due process because an interpreter was not available on the first day of a May permit hearing. The lawsuit is ongoing in federal court and the hearing is on hold. Opponents to the drilling project say it could endanger the canyon walls which are lined with ancient Native American petroglyphs. Others say Native American spiritual practices at the site could be disrupted and the drilling could endanger local water sources. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, August 24, 2026 — Native in the Spotlight: Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord

Photo: Voters at the Black Coal Senior Center say they are voting for tribal candidates and those that support tribal programs like public transportation. (Melodie Edwards / Wyoming Public Radio) Voters in Alaska were not the only ones heading to the polls this week. Primaries were also held Tuesday in Florida and Wyoming. In Wyoming, some voters on the Wind River Reservation told Wyoming Public Radio that transportation to polling places remains an issue. Voters also expressed a desire for more tribal candidates and greater representation of Native culture in schools. Statewide, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, won her party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. In Florida, state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, scored an upset in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, defeating former national security official Alexander Vindman. Nixon will face Republican Senator Ashley Moody in November. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, also won his party’s nomination for Florida governor. California voters also went to the polls Tuesday in a special congressional election. Dallas Cowboys rookie Shiyazh Pete. (Courtesy University of Kentucky Athletics) It is NFL preseason and the Arizona Cardinals will take on the Dallas Cowboys this Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, you might see a Navajo rookie take the field at State Farm Stadium. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is optimistic for this season. “I'm even more excited today than I was when we started camp, that our team is going to be one that, if we can have some things go right for us, avoid some injury. We could really be something.” Among those fighting to make the Cowboys' roster is undrafted free agent Shiyazh Pete, who is believed to be the first Navajo player to sign an NFL contract. “I was quite, quite a specimen. I mean, really, didn't really have no one to kind of relate to in terms of height. I've always been asked questions of, you know, how tall are you? How's the weather up there?” Originally from Montana, the 6-foot-8 300-pound offensive lineman went to Shiprock High School on the Navajo Nation. He then walked on at New Mexico State University before transferring to the University of Kentucky, eventually signing with the Cowboys this spring. “It's a great honor – to put on the star is again surreal. But again, I have to earn that star. I wouldn't say I'm an official Cowboy yet.” But Pete has that chance to prove he belongs on “America's Team”. Robert Nutlouis stands in a completed hogan in Navajo Nation. (Courtesy WGBH Educational Foundation) A new PBS documentary is highlighting Indigenous scientific knowledge developed and passed down over thousands of years. The NOVA special “Knowledge Keepers” explores how Native communities have used observation, experimentation, and relationships with the natural world to develop approaches to science. The film looks at practices ranging from ancient sea farming and celestial navigation in the Arctic to ways of adapting to the harsh climate of the desert Southwest. The documentary also examines efforts by Indigenous knowledge keepers to preserve those practices and how that knowledge could help address challenges today. “Knowledge Keepers” was produced in partnership with Vision Maker Media and directed by Fort Yuma Quechan filmmaker Daniel Golding. It premieres September 23 on PBS. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, August 21, 2026 — Native Hawaiians keeping cultural connections to surfing

Photo: St. Joe's Church, one of the main polling places in Nome. (Margaret Sutherland / KNOM) Several Alaska Native groups, including the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), say the constitutional rights of rural voters are in jeopardy. The organizations are sounding the alarm over staffing shortages at Alaska Division of Election offices and polling stations that serve rural Alaskans. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, these affect mostly Native communities In a statement Monday, AFN said it was deeply concerned by reports about election worker vacancies in rural precincts, as well as accounts from workers, who say they have waited for months to receive the per diem they were promised after they completed their required training. Kendra Kloster, AFN's director of government relations, pointed to the Division of Elections Region IV office in Nome, which did not open at the advertised time for the start of early voting. “When people are going in with their expectation to vote, they take time out of their day, they show up. And when the office isn't open when they say they are, I think that is a big deal.” Voting midday on August 18 at the Yupiit Picaryarait Cultural Center in Bethel. (Photo: Evan Erickson / KYUK) Kloster says the Nome incident is just the latest example of voter access problems that have persisted for years. AFN and other groups say some of these problems could have been avoided had Gov. Mike Dunleavy, R-Alaska, not vetoed Senate Bill 64. Dunleavy said he rejected the measure, because it needed more work and there was not enough time to put it in place before this year's election. Alaska state Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who is among the bill's backers, says that just is not true. He says the legislation not only passed with bipartisan support, but would have improved both voter access and election integrity statewide. Wielechowski says he is glad AFN and other groups are speaking out. “If you're making it impossible for people to vote, you're not opening polling places, then are you really granting them their constitutional right to vote? And I would say a court would probably say you're not.” AFN has sent a letter to the Division of Elections, calling on it to take immediate action on a long list of complaints. Stephen Kirch, a spokesman for the Elections Division, says the division has no comment on AFN's letter, although he did acknowledge that on election day, two rural precincts opened late. Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out addresses the media in Rapid City. (Photo: C.J. Keene / SDPB) South Dakota tribal leaders say promised services are falling short, especially in law enforcement. SDPB's C.J. Keene has more. South Dakota's tribal leaders met in Rapid City Wednesday to call for more support to reservation lands from federal and state partners, specifically consistent, mandatory funding of tribal police regardless of administration or status of the government. According to information from the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Association, funding is about one-quarter of tribal staffing needs and falls far short of the estimated $3.5 billion these entities need to properly maintain public safety standards seen off reservations. Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out says this is reflected in numbers from Pine Ridge. “The formula is 2.8 officers per 1,000 people. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has 54,000 membership, and 27 officers. What is wrong with that picture?” That sentiment was echoed by Chelaine Knudsen, chairwoman of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. She says little has changed since the last time this question was asked. “At the time in 2024 we only had three tribal police officers. Today, we have five tribal police officers, and we have two cadets, I believe, that are in training right now.” The Yankton Sioux Tribe has a population of 11,500 enrolled members. Vermillion, a college town with a similar population, reported 20 sworn officers in a phone call with SDPB. That total is about 1.7 officers per 1,000 people and it is before counting campus law enforcement found at the University of South Dakota. What this boils down to for tribes though, according to Star Comes Out, is serious need for more support. “Today I encourage tribal nations, not only from the Great Plains but nationwide – it's time to stand up. Stand up for your nation, voice for your people, come together and join us in the fight for our people.” The Tribal Chairman's Association estimates less than 13% of funding compared to the current identified need is met overall. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, August 20, 2026 – Safety vs. privacy with tribal law enforcement surveillance cameras

Photo: Cars destroyed in the Mukluk Fire on August 18, 2026. (Courtesy Pyotr Dobrotvorsky) Residents of the eastern Interior community of Tok, Alaska are being ordered to evacuate their homes after a wildfire broke out Monday morning. What officials are calling the Mukluk Fire was reported shortly before noon in the backyard of a residence on the Alaska Highway, near milepost 1316, as the Alaska Desk’s Shelby Herbert from KUAC reports. As of Monday evening, it had grown to over 1,500 acres and was spreading to the east and northeast. Sam Harrel, a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection said hot, dry, and windy weather has made the situation dangerous. He said in a brief phone interview that state troopers and firefighters are going door-to-door in the area north of the Alaska Highway asking people to leave. Level 3 ‘Go’ evacuations — urging residents to leave immediately — were underway from Sundog Trail to Midnight Sun Drive. Residents in that area were being asked to evacuate to the local Mushers Hall and the Tok School. Pets are being accepted in both locations. Officials have also cautioned people in the area to avoid downed power lines. Harrell also said a helicopter initial attack team from Fairbanks has been dispatched to the fire, as well as fire engines from as far away as Mat-Su and Kenai. He was not able to confirm, if — or how many — structures have burned. Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK) issued a disaster declaration Tuesday, activating the state's public and individual assistance program. Fur seals on St. Paul Island, Alaska. (Photo: Allen Shimada / NOAA NMFS/OST/AMD) Dogs have long been banned on the Pribilof Islands in Alaska, under a rule imposed by the federal government to protect the world’s largest concentration of northern fur seals, but that is set to change. The Alaska Beacon reports that under a new interim rule enacted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), dogs may be brought to the islands, but only for the specific purpose of hunting for rats. Dogs allowed on St. Paul Island or any other part of the archipelago must be trained and certified to detect and catch rats, and their stays are limited to 180 days. The Pribilofs have managed to stay rat-free, even as other Alaska islands and coastal areas have become infested with rodents. The new NOAA rule is intended to keep it that way. Rats are not native to any part of Alaska, but have been introduced by ships over time. They have infested several coastal regions and become one of the most destructive invasive species in the state. There have been instances of rat sighting on St. Paul over the years, but most were caught immediately in traps set up at the harbor. One rat escaped that gauntlet in 2018 and was found dead 10 months later. The new rule went into effect on August 6. Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. (Photo: Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management) Mining companies are setting their sights on two national monuments in Utah. KNAU's Chris Clements reports the monuments were slashed by President Donald Trump last month, opening them up to new mining claims. Seven mining claims were filed in Bears Ears National Monument a day after President Trump announced the cuts, with two filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument less than a month after that. Autumn Gillard is a member of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. “It’s just very unfortunate that our public lands and Native American ancestral homelands are being put up so quickly on the chopping block.” She worries if the claims one day become mines, they will hurt a unique landscape that is home to thousands of cultural sites, but Brian Somers of the Utah Mining Association says he is confident any mining would be responsible. “We can develop our minerals in a way that respects the environment.” And, he says, mining the monuments for minerals like uranium could help reduce dependence on foreign adversaries. It is unclear if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will approve the claims, since Trump's executive orders only allow them after September 11. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, August 19, 2026 — Native American groups have limited success fighting border wall construction

Photo: Bill Hill (Athabascan), Independent candidate for Alaska’s at-large congressional district. (Courtesy Bill Hill campaign) Tuesday is primary day in Wyoming, Florida, and Alaska, which uses ranked-choice voting (RCV). The top four vote getters in each race, regardless of party, move on to the general election in November. That makes voters turnout a key issue, especially in remote parts of the state, where Alaska Natives have seen numbers fade over the past 20 years. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, there are hopes Tuesday's election will show signs of a turnaround. One encouraging sign for Alaska Native voter turnout is the number of Native candidates running for office this year. “It's notable that we have a high-profile Native candidate in each big race.” Michelle Sparck is the Alaska director for Get Out the Native Vote. She says this marks the first time in years that there is an all-Native ticket for Alaska governor – with Meda DeWitt, a Tlingit and her running mate, Chris Steere, an Iñupiat. And there is national attention focused on former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup'ik/D-AK), the first Alaska Native member of Congress. Peltola’s bid for the U.S. Senate is one the state's most closely watched races – a battle that could determine control of the country’s most powerful legislative body. Polls show a tight race between Peltola and incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK). The primary election could offer the clearest picture yet of where this race really stands. There is also Bill Hill (Athabascan), a longtime school superintendent and Bristol Bay fisherman. He is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK), who in 2024 unseated Peltola. Hill is an Independent and a relative political unknown, but his grassroots campaign has gained traction and polls show he is closing the gap with his opponent. Sparck says Get Out the Native Vote remains strictly nonpartisan and does not back candidates, but she is hoping the wealth of Native candidates will energize Native voters. Sparck says the real work in getting out the Native vote might be compared to cultivating a garden that has long been neglected. The mission for Sparck and her volunteers has been to travel from village to village, to revive the voting culture of the 1980's, when voter turnout ran as high as 70-80%, the era of the super voter. “They are today's elders.” Spark says turnout has fallen below 20%, but she hopes sharing the story of those earlier generations will inspire a new wave of super voters. A marker along the Southern border near the Tohono O'odham Nation between the U.S. and Mexico in June 2026. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio) A federal judge is denying calls for a preliminary injunction by the Tohono O'odham Nation to halt border wall construction along a 60-foot stretch of land bordering the tribal reservation. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. Judge Richard Leon in D.C. ruled last week that an injunction is “unwarranted”, writing he expects the U.S. to follow through on consulting with the Tohono O'odham Nation. Historically, that has not been the case, according to Tohono O'odham Chairman Verlon Jose. He points to the destruction of the 1,000-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, as the latest example. “We were assured that the border wall construction would not impact it, but despite that warning and assurances, federal contractors just bladed right through it, causing permanent damage to this O'odham and American treasure. You can't rebuild it.” Still, the judge noted that the feds' interests in ensuring public safety and enforcing immigration laws “outweigh any surviving irreparable harms.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, August 18, 2026 — Are Native voters in line with the Democratic Party's shift to the left?

A Native girls softball team made history this summer, winning a Babe Ruth Softball World Series championship during its first year competing in the tournament. Na7ive Na7ions brought together Native athletes from different tribal communities to compete in Florence, Ala., but founder and former Major League Baseball pitcher D.J. Carrasco says their success was not only about what happened on the field. They were also battling the summer heat. Temperatures hovered in the 90s, with high humidity making conditions even tougher, but inside the Na7ive Na7ions dugout, there was something you might not normally associate with championship softball: Watermelon. Grapes. Oranges. Pickles. And a team favorite: frozen pickle juice, or “pickle pops”. Autumn Lopez is a holistic nutritional therapy practitioner and co-founder of Na7ive Na7ions. “We feed them from the moment they start swinging the bat, warming up through the entire game. And at first it was hard for them, and they didn’t really understand, but they adapted really fast to eating during the game.” Lopez says the approach was intentional. Carrasco pitched professionally, including ten seasons in Major League Baseball, while Lopez has a background in massage therapy and nutrition. Lopez says the goal is to develop the whole athlete, not just what happens between the lines. And in Alabama, she believes it made a difference. “We were probably one of the only teams, if not the only team, who didn’t suffer heat exhaustion, nausea, throwing up. Every time you looked around, there was a coach throwing up… We didn’t have one girl go down, so that was huge.” Lopez says she repeatedly reminded the girls that winning required more than playing good softball. They also had to stay healthy enough to keep playing. Carrasco says the tournament tested them against some formidable competition, including Puerto Rico. He says the experience also gave the girls a chance to represent Native people and their individual cultures on an international stage. “They’re literally ambassadors. They’re truly ambassadors of their tribe and their cultures.” Lopez says other teams began noticing what looked like a buffet inside the Na7ive Na7ions dugout. And eventually, what started as the team’s own nutrition strategy spread beyond it. Before another game against Puerto Rico, Lopez had extra bananas. “I thought, do I share my secret weapon?… So I grabbed those bananas and I took them over to Puerto Rico… and I said, hey, I have some bananas for you, for your team.” She also handed out electrolytes to umpires and other teams. For Lopez, that reflected something bigger than winning. (Courtesy Native Nations Sport / Facebook) Na7ive Na7ions wants young athletes to leave the program understanding how to care for themselves long after the final out. And the girls left Alabama with something else: a championship. Lopez says watching the final out was emotional after four years of building the organization, but her thoughts quickly turned toward what the victory could mean for the Native girls coming behind them. “When I saw the girls go out there, that last pitch was thrown, that last hit was hit, that last catch was caught, and they realized they won, I just thought they have just changed the trajectory for so many generations of young girls underneath them.” It was the first year Na7ive Na7ions fielded a girls softball team at the Babe Ruth World Series. Carrasco and Lopez says interest in the program has surged since the victory, with Native families asking how their children can participate. For the girls who made history in Alabama, he says the magnitude of what they accomplished might not sink in for years, but eventually, he hopes they’ll be able to look back and say: “They started it.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, August 17, 2026 — Remembering Hurricane Katrina more than 20 years later

Photo: Firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement officials escorted the body of Leslie Washington from Ely, Minn to Duluth, Minn. and then the Twin Cities on Tuesday. (Courtesy Scorched Earth Services) A wildland firefighter from the Northwest Arctic community of Noorvik, Alaska died Tuesday. Federal officials say 41-year-old Leslie R. Washington worked for a Huslia-based company called Scorched Earth Services. It was contracted to help fight a 30,000 acre fire on the Minnesota-Canada border in the Superior National Forest. Washington and his team were in northern Minnesota when he died after an undisclosed medical emergency. In a statement, U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy said the agency is “heartbroken at the loss of a wildland firefighter who died while protecting others.” Washington's wife told KOTZ news she remembers her husband as humble, kind, and devoted to his family. She said the loss is being felt throughout Noorvik and across Alaska. She said she was not ready to talk further. The Department of the Interior says it is working with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to support Washington's family, coworkers, and the broader firefighting community as they grieve. Scorched Earth Services says Washington's remains will be sent from Minnesota home to Noorvik. Washington was one of dozens of firefighters from rural Alaska communities including Huslia, Selawik, and Fort Yukon, deployed this season through Scorched Earth Services. Officials say more information will be released in the coming days. Washington was assigned to the Bear Trap Fire. Officials said Thursday it is 44% contained. Lisa Smolenska, left, hands a bouquet to a customer on August 9, 2026 in Eugene, Oreg. as part of a fundraiser to help the Warm Springs Animal Relief Fund. (Photo: Brian Bull) While crews mop up wildfires on Oregon's Warm Springs reservation, a relief drive is underway to help affected horses and livestock. Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports. The goal of the Warm Springs Animal Relief Fund was to raise $15,000 for hay, feed, and care for animals who have lost forage and grazing land. At last check, they had nearly twice that amount. The fundraising efforts are extending beyond central Oregon. Last Sunday, Lisa Smolenska sold bouquets donated by Charles Little Flower Farm outside Lox, Stocks, & Bagels in Eugene, Oreg. She raised nearly $700. “This has got to be ongoing because the animals are going to need forage over the wintertime as well and beyond. I don’t think we really know how long it’ll take to regenerate.” Warm Springs rancher Shana Johnson says she is happy that there is a fund. Her horses and cows lost 99% of their grazing district to the Beachcomb Fire. “When the fire started they all started coming home in groups, and there is absolutely nothing to eat.” Smolenska says she will do another flower fundraiser this Sunday. Tribal member Franc Fernandez, left, addresses attendees of community dinner as Sasha Ivan Sobolef of the Alaska Native Brotherhood holds burning sage on August 4, 2026. (Photo: Baiz Hoen / KFSK) The Petersburg Indian Association recently announced that they will be repatriating the remains of a 6-month-old Tlingit girl. She is one of three ancestors the tribe plans to inter in Petersburg, Alaska. KFSK's Baiz Hoen has the story. Stephanie Aikins is the administrative assistant for Petersburg's tribal government, the Petersburg Indian Association. She spearheaded the repatriation project, and at a community dinner this month, she said she has been working on this since last May. “ This is uncharted territory. There’s a lot of clan objects that have been taken and returned, not many who are ancestors.” The tribe applied for a grant to help cover the cost of the repatriation efforts through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a federal law that requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal money to return important remains and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Petersburg's tribe received about $24,000 for this project. The infant will be one of three ancestors the tribe plans to inter in Petersburg. The other two have been in the tribe's possession for over 10 years. One is a male estimated to be about 300 years old. He was found when the City of Petersburg was building the City Reservoir in the 1950s, and was given to the local high school. After it was found that he was of Native descent, the ancestor was given to the local tribe in 2013. The other, a jawbone, was found around the 1980s about 10 miles south of town on the beach. Aikins says the USFS had possession until 2011, when the ancestor was transferred to the tribe. He is thought to be prehistoric, based on the report. Aikins says that the remains of the 6-month-old girl are currently being held at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. Aikins will be among a group of three traveling to Seattle on September 1 to receive the remains. They will return to Petersburg on September 4, and plan to host a ceremony at the airport that day for the infant girl's return. “She has been gone away from her land for almost 100 years, and she will be back on her land for the first time on September 4.” Aikins says that the tribe will host a larger ceremony later in the fall, where they will inter the remains of the girl along with the two other ancestors already in their possession. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode August 14, 2026 — Live at Santa Fe Indian Market 2026

Photo: A house floated by floodwaters during ex-Typhoon Halong rests on top of a snowmachine in Tuntutuliak on October 22, 2025. (Gabby Salgado / KYUK) The State of Alaska is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies to collect what are known as Right of Entry forms from households impacted by ex-Typhoon Halong, as KYUK's Evan Erickson reports. The form is required for getting certain types of assistance with winterization and debris removal. It allows authorized recovery agencies to enter properties to inspect, document, and complete recovery work. Completing the form does not guarantee that work will be performed. The form is for households both that may need or have already received assistance in the forms of emergency winterization of storm-damaged homes; temporary weatherproofing or securing openings; moisture control or minor temporary repairs; limited heat or fuel-related stabilization; and/or certain types of private property debris removal. Gallup Indian Medical Center. (Courtesy Gallup Indian Medical Center / Facebook) The Navajo Area Indian Health Services and the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) have signed a memorandum of agreement to support rural health initiatives through data sharing. KUNM's Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more. Dr. Laura Parajón, director of the Center for Health Protection at NMDOH, says the coordination between the state and the Navajo Nation is crucial. “It’s important that Navajo Nation has the same access to high-quality data that we do, that they get similar data that allows Navajo Nation themselves to conduct their own analysis, and that they can design their own culturally meaningful public health interventions for themselves.” The agreement is a first step in partnership between state and tribal public health departments to make sharing information easier and filling gaps in data. It will help better identify unmet needs, coordinate care, and monitor outcomes. NMDOH Tribal liaison Janet Johnson (Santa Clara Pueblo) says tribal leaders need to be able to access data instantly, such as a system used to track sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. “And that will help Navajo Area Indian Health Service support their public health surveillance, and give them again that real-time access to see where these outbreaks are occurring, what they need to do and again with our support to be able to better address any issues and concerns that are affecting their populations.” The current agreement does not include any state appropriations. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, left, Gov. Katie Hobbs, and Hopi Chairman Lamar Keevama sign a memorandum of understanding for coal-impacted communities at the Desert Botanical Garden on August 11, 2026. (Photo: Connor Greenwall) Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) announced an economic agreement Tuesday with northern Arizona tribal leaders. It is meant to bolster the Four Corners region – at a time when the coal industry is in decline. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. The Memorandum of Understanding is between the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and the state – all of which are vulnerable to coal mines and power plants shutting down. That includes the Four Corners plant, which could close by 2031. The Navajo-owned company that fuels the aging facility recently announced plans to extend the life of a massive coal mine by more than a century, but with coal giving way to cleaner, more efficient fuels, state, and tribal leaders are coming together to ink a five-year commitment to track closures and promote the wellbeing of coal miners. Map of the several villages in Kaskaskia, Ill. with part of the Mississippi River from 1851 by Thomas Hutchins. On this day in 1803, the Kaskaskia Tribe signed a treaty with the United States at Vincennes in the Indiana Territory. Under the agreement, the Kaskaskia ceded most of their lands in what is now Illinois to the U.S. The treaty provided the tribe with reserved lands, annual payments, and other assistance. The agreement was negotiated for the United States by territorial governor William Henry Harrison, who later became president. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode August 13, 2026 — Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival grows its presence and influence

A federal watchdog says some guidelines meant to improve the response to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) are falling short of federal requirements. That is according to an audit from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Office of Inspector General. The watchdog reviewed guidelines from 49 U.S. Attorneys' districts developed under Savanna's Act. The law was passed in 2020 to improve coordination between tribal, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies responding to MMIP cases. The Inspector General found guidelines from 10 of the 49 districts did not fully meet requirements under the law. Seven were missing at least one of six required sections, while eight were not adequately tailored to circumstances within their individual districts. The audit also found staffing shortages within the DOJ's MMIP Regional Outreach Program. As of February, four of the program's 10 positions were vacant. The Inspector General says vacancies and staff turnover have slowed the program's progress. The office made three recommendations, including addressing staffing shortages and bringing district guidelines into compliance. The Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys agreed with all three. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan addresses her supporters during her Primary Night party. (Courtesy Peggy Flanagan / Facebook) Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Nation/D-MN) has won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The Associated Press called the race for Flanagan Tuesday night. She defeated U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary. The win puts Flanagan one step closer to making history. If elected in November, she would become the first Native American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. Flanagan has served as Minnesota's lieutenant governor since 2019 and is the highest-ranking Native woman elected to executive office in the U.S. During her campaign, Flanagan focused on issues including health care and affordability. She also campaigned against corporate influence in politics. Peggy Flanagan’s note to her supporters. (Courtesy Peggy Flanagan / Facebook) She is running for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), who is not seeking reelection. Flanagan will face Republican Michele Tafoya in the November general election. The Associated Press called that primary for the former NFL sideline reporter in a crowded Republican race. The Clean Air Act requires uranium waste storage pits at the White Mesa mill near Blanding, Utah, to be covered in water to control radon gas. (Photos: Dom Smith / EcoFlight) Congressional Democrats have opened an investigation into a uranium mining company for alleged insider trading. KNAU's Chris Clements has more. Energy Fuels Resources CEO Ross Bhappu bought 74,000 shares of stock in his own company on July 7. Chairman of the board Burce Hansen bought 4,000 shares on July 8. Five days after that, President Donald Trump announced a 90% cut to Bears Ears National Monument. That timing is suspicious, says two Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee. U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Maxine Dexter (D-OR) allege the Trump administration may have tipped the company off about the reduction before it happened. The company owns the only conventional uranium mill in the U.S., and there is a lot of uranium underneath Bears Ears – which is now free from a moratorium on new mining claims. The congressmembers say the company stood to benefit from the Bears Ears reduction, but in an emailed statement to KNAU, Energy Fuels denied the allegations and said it was unaware of any evidence supporting the representatives' claims. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, August 12, 2026 — Native Playlist: Thomas Michael Swensen and Debora Iyall

Photo: Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska will host the 2028 Arctic Winter Games. (Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia) The Arctic Winter Games International Committee has chosen Fairbanks, Alaska to host the games in 2028. Organizers chose to buck an April decision that would have moved to a three-year cycle temporarily. The announcement means the next Arctic Winter Games, which had been set for 2029, will happen a year earlier than was planned. A statement from the committee's president says an “extraordinary” proposal from Fairbanks this spring made it possible to return to the traditional two-year cycle. “Working with the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, the State of Alaska, and numerous community partners, the Host Society demonstrated the community’s readiness to host the Games.” The international competition brings together about 2,000 youth participants from across the Circumpolar North, including Alaska, Canada, and Nordic countries. The multi-sport event and Indigenous cultural celebration started in 1970 and features sports like hockey, skiing, and curling as well as Dene games, such as the finger pull and snow snake. The competition took place in Whitehorse, Canada last winter. It was last hosted in Alaska in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in 2024. The games have come to Fairbanks three times – twice in the 1980s and again in 2014. The Northwest Territories had been slated to host the 2028 iteration of the event, but withdrew its bid in 2024. Its Municipal and Community Affairs Minister cited reasons like insufficient capacity and facilities, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported at the time. (Courtesy Tohono O'odham Nation) Over the weekend, a tribe in southern Arizona warned that border wall contractors may soon encroach upon their lands. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the tribe says it is ready to deal with trespassers. According to the Tohono O'odham Code, the tribe may impose up to a $5,000 fine for civil trespassing. Tribal police would escort any offender off the reservation sharing a 62-mile boundary with Mexico. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee) is looking to erect a border wall there. The Tohono O'odham Nation has sued, claiming its sovereignty would be violated should the Trump administration be allowed to proceed. While Customs and Border Protection is aware of the tribe's warning, the federal agency declined to comment due to ongoing litigation. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah. (Courtesy U.S. Bureau of Land Management) Native Tribes and conservation groups are preparing to sue the Trump administration after the president signed orders to sharply reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah. Mark Richardson has details. Republicans are celebrating the move, while Tribes and environmentalists say it strips protections from culturally significant public lands. Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) and Utah’s congressional delegation joined the president to celebrate the signing of the orders. Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, calls conservatives’ vision for the state’s wildlands “wrong-headed”. “(U.S. Sen.) Mike Lee (R-UT)’s vision of the American West is not one with sweeping federal public lands. His view of the American West is Utah and other western states should be the South Carolina of the West, with almost no public land.” President Trump reduced the area of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by about three million acres from their current boundaries – roughly 90% of the original protected area. Polling shows that 65% of Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante protected as national monuments. Utah Republicans have long pushed to reduce or eliminate the two national monuments to allow mining and other economic development on the land. President Donald Trump speaks at the Utah State Capitol in 2017 before issuing a proclamation reducing boundaries for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Trump first reduced the monuments in 2017 during his first term, but President Joe Biden restored the areas. Bloch says he believes Trump is misinformed about the value of the monuments. “I think he really didn’t know what he was talking about. The line that everybody is hooked into that, as he understood it, you couldn’t hunt, fish, or walk in the monuments, and that is so demonstrably false.” The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, formed by the Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, Navajo Nation and Ute Tribes, called it a major setback to an extraordinary collaboration on public lands between Tribal Nations and federal agencies. Bloch says it was a bitter pill for the tribes to swallow. “The tribes are angry. They are really disappointed. It’s just a lot of pain from yet another attempt by the nation to try and undo their footprint.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, August 11, 2026 — Tribes face record-setting wildfire destruction

Photo: Invasive Green Crab. (Linda Shaw / NOAA Fisheries) Invasive European green crabs have swelled in population across southern Southeast Alaska since they were first detected in the region four years ago. In response, Ketchikan, Alaska's local tribe recently petitioned the state to open a green crab sport fishery to help manage the invasive's spread. The request was denied, citing a lack of evidence that the invasive species has contributed to environmental changes. KRBD's Hunter Morrison reports. The Ketchikan Indian Community submitted the emergency petition to the state's Board of Fisheries in March, asking to reclassify European green crabs from a Class A to a Class B banned invasive species. This change would allow anybody to transport dead European green crabs for harvest or consumption. Currently, the invasive can only be possessed or transported for scientific or educational purposes by those with a special Aquatic Resource Permit. Emily Halsell is a fisheries and wildlife biologist with Ketchikan's tribal government. “This isn’t an issue that’s going anywhere, and it seems to be largely ignored throughout much of the state.” The tribe has removed about 1,500 green crabs from Ketchikan beaches so far this year. In its petition to the state, the tribe cites the species' damaging impacts to the local ecosystem and economy. The adaptive critter can burrow and destroy eelgrass beds, which are nurseries for native species like Dungeness crabs and juvenile salmon. “So when these crabs come up and they tear up this critical marine habitat, there’s cascading population effects.” The species was first detected in Alaska in 2022 on Annette Island, south of Ketchikan. They have since reached about 70 miles north. And the number of green crabs detected has increased. Halsell says they can reproduce two or three times a year, and can lay up to 180,000 eggs each time. Halsell believes a change in how the crab is classified in Alaska, and opening a sport fishery for them, could help better manage their spread. Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, who denied the petition, says the state is determining how to best manage the invasive. A letter from his office states a lack of evidence that the invasive has contributed to changes in eelgrass habitat or caused changes in fishery populations. “I'm not opposed to the concept. I just think it needs to be fleshed out a little bit more, and I think it needs to be, you know, what does a fishery look like? What are the gear types that would be allowed, and what would happen with incidental harvests?” Halsell believes green crab management efforts need to be addressed sooner than that. Summit area of Avi Kwa Ame in southern Nevada, which is adjacent to the proposed land sale. (Photo: Stan Shebs / Wikimedia) Public lands are especially important to Tribal communities across Nevada, and a new report finds protecting those lands is also a top priority for a large majority of voters statewide. Suzanne Potter has the story. Protection of public lands is a top issue for a large majority of Nevada voters, according to a new report from the Center for Western Priorities. Researchers aggregated multiple polls and found that most voters oppose the sale of public land and the rollback of environmental protections. The center's executive director, Aaron Weiss, points to the Colorado College Conservation in the West poll, which found that 82% of Nevada voters oppose the Trump administration's funding cuts to agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. “Western voters see public lands, waters, and wildlife as a motivating factor in how they vote and is worth everyone across the political spectrum keeping in mind as we head into this election season.” Last year, proposals from U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to sell off public lands were abandoned after they drew a big backlash. Environmental advocates say the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act of 1998 is a better model, because it established a process to identify land suitable for development while giving permanent protection to hundreds of thousands of acres of public land. Weiss says the feds have now thrown their support behind the data center boom. “We see them rushing to try to hand over public lands to build data centers over the objection of local and neighboring communities. The way that this process played out near Boulder City exemplifies that.” Recently, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum slashed the boundaries of two national monuments in Utah. Conservation groups are also concerned that the feds will target other national monuments next, including Gold Butte outside of Las Vegas. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, August 10, 2026 — August primary elections offer insights on Native candidates' prospects

Photo: Desks with art supplies sit ready for preschoolers at Kodiak’s North Star building on July 31. A wing of the building reopened to children on Aug. 3. (Katherine Irving / KMXT) The doors of what was once Kodiak's North Star Elementary School reopened August 3 for the first time since last June. The school closed because of budget cuts, but one wing of the building is now home to the Sun'aq Tribe's Alutiingcut Child Care Center, a preschool for two-to-five year-olds. KMXT's Katherine Irving toured the center before its opening and has the story. “This is our foxes classroom. This is our oldest.” Montana Sanchez is the childcare administrator for the Sun'aq Tribe. On a Friday at the end of July, the building that used to be North Star Elementary School was abuzz with activity. “You just walked into fixing the ceilings and the Wi-Fi on the same day.” Sanchez and the teachers had just three days left to get everything finished before opening their doors for preschoolers on August 3. She showed me some of the classrooms, freshly redecorated with dollhouses and play mats and tables covered with art supplies. “I think everyone's been here for the last three weekends in a row getting this set up.” She says this transition has been years in the making. The Tribe's Alutiingcut Child Care Center got its start in 2022 with one classroom at St. Mary's Catholic Church. The center has always accepted all children ages two to five, but with preference for Alaska Native and American Indian families. As demand grew, they expanded to three classrooms at St. Mary's. With a long waitlist, and no more room to grow at the parish, Sanchez says moving to the North Star building was the logical next step. Sadie Coyle, or Ms. Taqu as the kids call her, is the Alutiiq language teacher for the preschool and she has been with the Alutiingcut Child Care Center since the beginning. We caught her in the middle of pushing a cart of supplies to her classroom. “When we first started, four years ago, we had one classroom, and now eventually we're gonna have five. I think that's a good milestone for us.” Enrolling at the preschool costs $1,075 per month per child for kids aged two through three-and-a-half, and $1,025 per month per child for the older kids. That hovers around the statewide average of $1,009 per month, according to data from the non-profit First Five Years Fund. Sanchez says they currently have 35 preschoolers enrolled. They are planning to enroll 75 kids by December and hoping to be licensed for a maximum of 110 by next year. “We already know this is going to be a big change for them, although it's great. So we're going to take it slow, and then hopefully in another month and a half we'll open another classroom, and after that another classroom.” Even with the expansion, she says they still have people on their waitlist. There are several in-home daycares on the island, but the Alutiingcut is the only childcare center, besides the one on the Coast Guard Base Kodiak, which is not accessible to the general public. Sanchez says childcare is hard to come by. Preschools at the Kodiak Baptist Mission and the Lutheran Church closed in 2025 and 2022. “We just don't have many options. Especially the ages from three to five, it's such a hard age to find childcare for. Yeah, we're really hoping to fill that need.” The expansion to North Star brings new opportunities. Coyle, the language teacher, says she is excited to finally have her own classroom, with the space to teach the kids Alutiiq dances. “Dance is my passion, and I want to be able to teach some dances that I’ve learned for the last 15 years now, because they have a lot more fun singing and learning, and like adding a little bit of song and tune to the language helps a lot.” Coyle says she has been designing the curriculum for her class from scratch, which has been a lot of work and no small amount of stress, but she says it has all been worth it. “A couple weeks ago, one of my kiddos looked outside, and it was very sunny, and he said, ‘Oh, Ms. Taqu, it's macanguq out.’ Just those little moments where I'm like, oh, I'm doing something right, I'm doing something for the community.” After months of work and four weekends spent getting everything ready, the North Star wing opened for childcare on August 3. Sanchez says kids and parents alike were excited to explore the new space. A post marks where Enbridge's Line 5 crosses the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Photo: Danielle Kaeding / WPR) A federal appeals court is siding with a Wisconsin tribe in its long-running fight against an oil pipeline crossing its reservation. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Enbridge has been trespassing on land belonging to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, after pipeline easements on some tribal lands expired in 2013. The court says Enbridge must remove its Line 5 pipeline from those lands, but sent the case back to a lower court to reconsider how much time the company will have to complete a reroute. The court will also reconsider how much Enbridge owes the tribe for profits connected to the trespass. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, August 7, 2026 — Notable Native theater events range from horror to historic

Photo: Lifer inmates at Salem's Oregon State Correctional Institution connect with culture, family, and healing during the annual Many Nations Pow Wow. (Brian Bull) The power of a Pow Wow has been described as a collective heartbeat that draws people together. Celebrants often say they feel unity and freedom as they dance in a circle. Those elements are especially vital for those serving time at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Oreg., but as Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports, for one day each year, inmates get to move to the rhythm of a rawhide drum with friends and loved ones. A soft breeze rustles the frills on Anthony Salazar (Apache)'s regalia. He describes its colors, as his wife, Stephanie, helps with final adjustments. “Colors are white, black, red, and yellow, which is the colors of the four directions. The green represents Mother Earth. All the regalia is connected to nature somehow.” Drummers gather in a circle, while other dancers fix their bangles and beadwork. A man with a microphone greets the crowd of visitors with a smile. “We're so glad you guys were able to make it. We are about to prepare to do our Grand Entry.” At first, you'd think this was just any other Pow Wow getting underway. However … “I’m in here for two counts of murder, and I got a life sentence. I’ve been in 24 years.” Salazar, like everyone else preparing to dance or drum, is a “lifer” at this medium-security, all-men's prison. “This is actually the first “Pow Wow where I've actually dressed up in regalia, and I'm going to dance.” He is thrilled to be part of the Pow Wow – and that his wife Stephanie is here. “This is my first one that I've been able to come to, very fortunate to be here. Means a lot.” As dancers gather for the grand entry, a red-tailed hawk soars above. It is a simple, but powerful symbol of freedom in a place where guard towers and checkpoints remind everyone this is a prison. Emcee Shawn Jeffers-Monro says it is great having his wife and other loved ones here once a year. “My mother was dying of cancer three years ago, and I was able to have this ceremony with her and these last rites, and be able to say goodbye to her. So this is that one time of year that we get to be together as a community, as a family, and kinda be free in a way.” One of the guests for this Pow Wow is Aliza Kaplan, a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland. She says she and some of her students have been invited to this event about five times. “Because we aim to really get to know our clients and what matters to them, and see them as more than people who have committed crimes.” No one here glosses over the fact that they are behind bars for serious crimes, and may not ever step foot beyond the prison gates, but many see the Pow Wow as a way to hold on to tradition and find worth, says inmate Nestor Diaz-Miller (Cow Creek Band of Umpqua). “I've dealt with suicidal thoughts and actions in my past, and being able to focus on this inipi, this sweat lodge and that drum, literally saved my life. It's given me something to believe in, something to hope in. It's such a special feeling, I can't describe it other than special.” The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is advancing several bills aimed at settling tribal water rights and funding water infrastructure across the West. During a legislative hearing last week, senators considered measures affecting the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Arizona and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in California, along with legislation to strengthen the federal Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund. Supporters say the bills would help fulfill the federal government’s trust responsibilities while providing greater certainty for Tribal Nations and neighboring communities. The measures now await further action by the committee and Congress. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, August 6, 2026 — Testing the limits of religious freedom

Photo: The Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Colo. in May 2026. (Chris Clements / KNAU) The states that share the Colorado River have a new federal framework in place for managing the embattled waterway, but as KNAU's Chris Clements reports, the impact of the U.S. government’s strategy on tribal nations is less clear. The new framework from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation could result in steep cuts to the Central Arizona Project, a delivery system for Colorado River water. That worries some tribal leaders like Orlando Carroll, chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona. “We definitely would be concerned of any cutbacks that are generated.” Under a federal settlement, Carroll's tribe can lease its share of water from the river, but at least his tribe's water rights have been spelled out. Other tribes, like the Navajo, Hopi, and San Juan Southern Paiute are watching the U.S. put out a Colorado River management plan for the states, while their own water rights in Arizona remain unquantified. Brenda Jesus is a Navajo Nation council delegate. “I just don’t understand that they’ve gotten their water rights decree, yet in the year 2026, the Navajo Nation doesn’t have any.” A settlement to give the Navajo Nation its water rights in Arizona is still under consideration in Congress. Golden king crab season runs from August 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027. (Courtesy Ethan Nichols / Alaska Department of Fish and Game Golden king crab season opened on Saturday in the Aleutian Islands. This year, the total allowable catch for the region is 13% higher than it was last season, as Katie Reuther reports from KUCB. Ethan Nichols is an Area Management Biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) based in Dutch Harbor. He says this reflects a sizable increase for the western area of the fishery, at over a million and a half pounds this season. “The quota in the east this year is a very slight decrease from last season, it’s down 4%. In the western area, it's a large increase this year. It’s a 79% increase.” Due to the size of the golden king crab fishery, it is split into two different management areas: one east of Atka and the other to the west, each with their own harvest levels. “The east has more fishable depths or more fishable ground, whereas you get further west and much smaller islands that drop off quicker.” That means better fishing in the eastern area. Even with a slight decrease in allowable catch this year, the eastern area's limit is still more than double that of the west's limit at over three million pounds. Nichols says he is optimistic about the upcoming season. “I think it's a really unique crab fishery, just where the fishing occurs, it being a deep water fishery from a select few vessels, and I'm excited about the upcoming season.” Just four vessels are expected to fish for golden king crab this season. The fishery was worth $29.5 million at the dock last year, according to preliminary figures from ADFG. This year's season ends next April. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) meets for a business meeting in June 2026. (Courtesy ACHP / Facebook) Tribal historic preservation leaders are voicing concerns over proposed changes to the federal review process for projects that could affect sacred sites and cultural resources. Last month, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation voted to advance a proposed rule revising Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, a key law requiring federal agencies to consider impacts on historic properties and consult with Tribal Nations. The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers says the proposal would weaken tribal consultation, narrow protections for places of religious and cultural significance, and give federal agencies greater authority over the review process. The proposal now heads to federal review before it is published for public comment. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, August 5, 2026 — Tribes condemn federal Colorado River water use plan

Photo: Rose High Bear, left, David Mora-Flores, Roman Wood, Joaquin Ocana, Claudia Vega, Damian Salazar, Paige Wentzel, amd Jaimie Myrick Duckett in Salem, Oreg., July 9, 2026. (Brian Bull) A small, two-acre farm near Salem, Oreg. aims to save the planet. Elderberry Wisdom Farms launched in 2018 and is the creation of Rose High Bear. The 81-year-old Alaskan Native trains interns on urban forestry and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, but as Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports, funding challenges make its future uncertain. Inside the Elderberry Wisdom Farm classroom, several people monitor a kettle of pressed elderberries. Urban forestry coordinator David Mora-Flores reads a thermometer … “It’s at 133 (degrees) right now. We’re trying to get it to about 90 degrees. At 90 degrees, we can add our flavoring and pH stabilizing agents, which are honey, lemon, and cinnamon juice.” … as Rose High Bear observes. “We're using raw organic honey from the Willamette Valley, and we don’t want to put it in something more than like 90 degrees, so we can keep all the health properties of the honey.” It is a lesson in product creation and marketing. This syrup will be used in spritzer and other items, and sold at markets. 30 years ago, High Bear helmed an award-winning audio series called “Wisdom of the Elders”, which profiled venerable people from Indian Country. But then Martin High Bear, her husband and Lakota medicine man, died. “And when he died in 1995, I seemed to continue to get messages through interpreters. So he told me that I would be leaving Portland.” High Bear settled in Salem and launched her farm. Her focus has since been getting her hands dirty, with help. Intern Claudia Vega shows some potted yew trees that a resident donated to the farm. “They’re so small, but they’re so-they’re so resilient. I mean, even just interacting with the trees is medicine itself.” Eight years in, the environmental and political climates have heated up for the farm. Last year, the Trump administration slashed budgets for DEI and environmental programs. High Bear recalls what she was about to do with a $750,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant when the axe fell. “Planting trees in the city of Salem in the, you could call it, Title I school neighborhoods, low-income neighborhoods, where there is low tree canopies. Then on February 28, 2025, I lost four staff all in the same day after we got notified of the freeze.” U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR) was able to unfreeze the funds, which run out in 2028. High Bear says there is a need for her farm. “The prophecy says the day will come when the people of the earth will turn to Native people to learn how to care for the earth, and to care for one another. And so you know we’re just trying to help fulfill that. This work is really spiritual work.” Randy Merrill, left, and Brian Cassidy. (Courtesy AAIA) Two Army veterans are riding nearly 10,000 miles across Turtle Island to raise money and awareness for Native Nations. Randy Merrill and Brian Cassidy began the 2026 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge on August 2 with a goal of raising $10,000 for the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA). The nonprofit says the money will strengthen Native Nations, support Native youth and family programs, protect tribal sovereignty, preserve Indigenous cultures, and educate the public about Native Peoples. The veterans say the journey is also part of their own healing after military service and a way to stand in solidarity with Native communities. AAIA CEO Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) says the challenge represents healing through service and helps raise awareness that Native Peoples and their diverse cultures deserve equal protection. Missouri in 1824 when the Treaty of Washingon was signed. (Photo: Lucas Fielding, Jr. / courtesy State Historical Society of Missouri) On this day in 1824, the U.S. and leaders of the Ioway (Baxoje) Nation signed the Treaty of Washington. Under the agreement, the Ioway ceded their remaining lands in present day Missouri to the U.S., marking another chapter in the federal government’s expansion through treaty-making with Tribal Nations. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, August 4, 2026 — When is it OK to let a Native language die?

Efforts to encourage more Native Americans to vote are underway in more than a dozen states this year. Chuck Quirmbach reports on how things are going in Wisconsin, ahead of the state primary contests on August 11. The nonpartisan group Wisconsin Native Vote is about a decade old, and is now up to four organizers around the state. They have already been doing outreach at Pow Wows and a variety of other community events. Spokesperson and organizer Anne Egan-Waukau (Menominee) says a key message is that voting is a way to make sure Native voices are heard. “We tell people to vote for the Seventh Generation. That’s what really resonates with people, because our ancestors worked to make sure Mother Earth was clean and healthy for us. And, it’s our job to do that for our next seven generations. But also, it’s working to maintain our sovereignty.” Egan-Waukau says tribal sovereignty is an especially powerful theme for the Menominee, which only won back full tribal status in the early 1970’s after much activism and debate with state and federal elected officials. Still, this is not a presidential election year, and Wisconsin only has high-profile races for Governor, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the state legislature. Statewide voter turnout is expected to be down from 2024, but Egan-Waukau says there are some big problems, new and ongoing, likely to motivate tribal members to vote. “Like we had listening sessions and people came to talk to us about issues important to them, like data centers, the opioid problem we have on our reservations.” Egan-Waukau says she does encounter people who are cynical about voting and politicians, but she says she asks them do they really want to do nothing at election time. The Eklutna Tribe's Pow Wow and Potlatch happens only once every two years, but when it does, it draws hundreds of people to the village of Eklutna near Anchorage, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports. The weekend of dancing, drumming, and feasting kicked off Saturday morning at the tribe's Pow Wow grounds. Aaron Leggett, the president of the Native Village of Eklutna, says what makes him most proud is that no one leaves hungry, because the tribe feeds everyone. “We'll have moose, various types of moose stew, and roast and fish, salmon. It's just sort of our way of really being open and good community partners.” Many also bring dishes to share. Leggett says the tribe had plenty to celebrate this year — including the groundbreaking for its long-awaited gathering hall, funded in part by the success of its new casino. The Chin’an Gaming Hall is in a temporary, modular near the Birchwood Airport. (Photo: Rhonda McBride) But more than anything, Leggett says, the gathering is a chance for Anchorage, Chugiak, and Eagle River to get to know their neighbors in the village of Eklutna. “There's certainly people that wouldn't necessarily, you know, when think of Eklutna, maybe they would think of the cemetery and the church but don't really have any sense of it. The Pow Wow, the Potlatch, really was our way of increasing awareness to the community and building that up.” The theme for this year's event was “Restoring our River — 97 Years Later”. It highlighted the tribe's efforts to restore the natural flow of the Eklutna River and its wild salmon runs. Treaty of Greenville depiction, 1795, artist unknown. On this day in 1795, the Treaty of Greenville was signed, ending the Northwest Indian War. The agreement between the U.S. and several Tribal Nations ceded much of present-day Ohio to the U.S., marking a major turning point in federal-Tribal relations and westward expansion. Page 1 of the Treaty of Greenville. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, August 3, 2026 — New outbreak of food-borne illness shakes public confidence in food supply

Families and communities across western Alaska are getting long-awaited answers after federal investigators released their final report on last year’s deadly crash of Bering Air Flight 445. The report identifies multiple factors that contributed to the accident, including severe icing and safety shortcomings by the airline. Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. All nine passengers and the pilot died when a Bering Air Cessna Grand Caravan crashed during its flight between Unalakleet and Nome in February of last year. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) final report on the incident faults the pilot for “inadequate airspeed management”. It also says the plane faced severe icing conditions and was overweight, leaving less of a margin to avoid a stall. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy was on scene in Nome last year and visited the state again this week, meeting with families of the victims of the crash. She says several preventable problems contributed to the accident. “In this case, we had a number of issues. We had first chronic underreporting of weight loads on the aircraft. There were problems with airspeed management. Between the airspeed, the increased load, the icing conditions, and some pilot inputs, he ended up in a stall.” Homendy says the pilot encountered severe icing conditions that were not initially forecast. She says investigators found that the pilot checked the weather, but did not receive any support from the air carrier making the decision on whether it was safe to fly. “We found that there wasn’t a process in place for Bering to have a weather risk assessment of when to fly – go/no go decision. It was all on the pilot.” According to the report, a few minutes before the crash, a controller in Anchorage told the pilot that both of Nome's runways were temporarily closed for de-icing and advised the pilot to slow down. The pilot initially decreased speed before increasing engine power again. Flight data showed that the plane pitched nose up at one point before losing speed and altitude until its low airspeed awareness system activated, which disengaged the autopilot. The controller sent a low-altitude alert but had lost contact with the pilot. The NTSB report says the plane's anti-icing system was working, and the pilot used it before the crash. A U.S. Coast Guard plane found the wreckage resting on an ice floe east of Nome the next morning, with no survivors. The NTSB also listed “inadequate safety management” by Bering Air as a cause of the crash. The report says the airline's planes routinely flew overweight. Bering Air declined to provide a statement when reached for comment. Homendy says the agency looked at 16 other Bering Air flights and found that loads often exceeded what was stated. She says that the agency did not look at whether other Alaska operators were also underreporting weights, but broadly speaking, it is a concern. She says the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not provide adequate oversight of the air carrier, particularly as it rapidly expanded in the region in recent years. She says the agency advised the FAA to require operators to adopt safety management systems like evaluating risks, having procedures to make sure the loads are accurate, and look at how they do pre-flight planning and go/no go decisions. “Those, to me, are not burdensome. Those are procedures that any operator, including a single operator can put in place themselves and can save lives and frankly save a company.” Bering Air faces three wrongful death lawsuits related to the crash. Clay Robbins is an attorney representing the family of Talaluk Katchatag (Iñupiaq) from Unalakleet. He says the suit seeks compensation for Katchatag's children, but the family also hopes to set a standard for bush airlines across the state. “They must be held accountable for satisfying their responsibility to exercise the highest standard of care to protect their customers from tragedies such as this, that was entirely, entirely avoidable.” The report is NTSB's final action on the crash. It calls for more training for pilots to better handle loss of control situations. It also includes a host of recommendations for airlines like Bering Air, called Part 135 operators, like using certified dispatchers and expanding flight monitoring. KNOM's Ben Townsend contributed to this reporting Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, July 31, 2026 – Native film/TV round-up: A gritty tribal cop thriller, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reboot, and remembering Native ‘Emergency!’ TV star

Photo: Santa Fe Indian School campus. (Courtesy Administration for Native Americans for Children & Families) U.S. Rep Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) introduced two bills this week to modernize the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and potentially bring higher teacher salaries and more federal funding for tribal schools. KUNM's Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more. The Indigenous Students Excel through Parity Act and its supporting Act II bill would create a study under the Department of Interior (DOI) to recommend reforms in order to provide funds that could increase teacher pay, and provide more educational opportunities. An identical bill is sponsored in the Senate by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). DOI administers BIE, which funds 183 schools across the country. New Mexico has one of the highest concentrations of BIE-funded schools with 44. Despite this, Rep. Stansbury says BIE schools have traditionally been underfunded, but they are competing with state-funded schools to recruit teachers. “So what this bill would do is study the current formula funds that are allocated per student to these tribally controlled schools to evaluate one how to increase funding per student, how to address increasing teacher and staff pay, and how to make sure that those schools who have extra costs and needs can have their needs met.” Stansbury says the goal of the bills is to bring teacher salaries in tribal schools up to the same level as those in state-funded schools. “If you’re a teacher, I mean, think about it, and you really want to work in a tribal community, whether you are a Native person yourself or not. And you’re looking at the difference of getting paid, let’s say, $50,000 by the federal government versus going and teaching in APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) making $60,000, you know, you’re going to have to make that economic decision for yourself and your family, and so we don’t want teachers to have to make that decision. We want teachers to be teaching in the schools they want to.” The proposed bill does not have a cost included with it, but if the study recommendations are enacted, BIE would have to boost funding for tribal schools. Jaynie Parrish and her father drop off ballots at the one county ballot box in their town of Kayenta, Ariz., left, and members of Arizona Native Vote's Hopi team, the Firekeepers, register younger community members in Bacavi, Ariz. (Photos: Jason Biggs / courtesy Jaynie Parrish) The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day can still be counted. While the move is a win for Arizona’s Indigenous voters, it highlights the challenges Native people still face in rural parts of the state, as Mark Moran reports. Voting rights advocates say the debate highlights the challenges Native people face in trying to submit a ballot in person. The sheer geography, vast distances between physical polling places, and lack of transportation all present obstacles for Indigenous voters. In many places, the nearest polling place may be miles away, but Arizona Native Vote’s Jaynie Parrish says many people on reservations also lack physical addresses, which creates its own set of problems. “Even in some rural towns, they have physical addressing, but not on a lot of Tribal lands. We still predominantly use PO boxes. That means we have to go to a U.S. Post Office or another location to pick up mail, but our folks still vote by mail.” The Trump administration has pushed back on the high court’s ruling, asking justices to allow the president’s executive order to be implemented. The attempt to reject mail-in ballots received after Election Day is among a host of bold policy choices under the Trump administration. Parrish also points to efforts to challenge voter citizenship, which she says hit especially hard on Native reservations. “It’s just absurd. You get a look on people’s face when we have to explain this or when they hear about the news or what this means, and it’s another barrier. And it’s ridiculous to ask First Peoples, Indigenous Peoples of their citizenship.” According to research from the Brennan Center, Indigenous voters were about 7% less likely to cast their ballot by mail in the last General Election, reflecting a wider lack of participation among Natives. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, July 30, 2026 — The Menu: food heals in books ‘Our Knives Will Save Us’ and ‘Raven, Rising’

Photo: Kaiser Canyon fire in Washington, July 2026. (Courtesy Inciweb / USFS via National Interagency Fire Center / Facebook) Wildfires continue to burn across the U.S, including many areas of Indian Country. In Washington state, the largest fire is the Kaiser Canyon Fire which is burning through the Colville Indian Reservation. As of late Tuesday, the fire surpassed 126,000 acres and was 16% contained. In an update Tuesday morning, Keith Kelley, operations section chief for Northern Rockies Unit 2, shared the day's plan of attack against the Kaiser Canyon Fire. More than 1,000 personnel are committed to the effort. “And we do have resources looking at some additional containment lines, trying to find places to what we call pinch in the fire, to keep it from spreading. So we’re kind of like checking it up. So we’ll put some dozer lines in, and the fire will slow its progression, and then eventually it will it will kind of continue to move. But it gives us an opportunity to put some dozer lines and put in some containment lines so we can stop that progression as it moves to the north. So certainly have resources in there. We’ll continue to do that.” The Kaiser Canyon Fire started July 16 when a lightning strike hit the Nespelem area on the Colville reservation. Meanwhile, more than a million acres have burned in Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has closed its tribal government due to Level Three evacuations caused by the Bench Fire, which at last check had burned more than 45,000 acres. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation have set up a Wildfire Recovery Fund for volunteers and supplies to help those affected by the fires. Chris Deschene, left, and Emily Ellison are the two vice-presidential candidates in the upcoming 2026 Navajo Nation election. (Courtesy U.S. Department of Energy / Emily Ellison for Navajo President 2026 / Facebook) Following the Navajo Nation presidential primary last week, the top vote-getters have named their vice presidential picks. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley was first to announce her ticket in Window Rock, Ariz. “Excited to share this moment with you. I know people online were very anxious.” She picked former Arizona Democratic state lawmaker Chris Deschene. “Throughout my career, I know what it's like to be an underdog.” In 2014, the Marine Corps vet vied for the very seat Curley is now seeking, but after placing second in that primary, Deschene was disqualified, in part, because of Curley's November opponent – Farmington attorney Justin Jones. “This is where I grew up.” As for Jones, he returned to Rock Point, Ariz. to name his running mate. Emily Ellison is in charge of the Gallup nonprofit Battered Families Services. “I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to serve our Navajo people.” Billy Kirkland, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, visits Choctow Central High School, one of several Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-funded schools with a graduation rate above 90%. (Courtesy BIE / Facebook) The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) says 21 of the high schools they fund achieved graduation rates of 90% or greater in 2025, in what the agency calls an “unprecedented milestone”, reflecting their commitment to student achievement, college and career readiness, and workforce development. The 21 schools include Kickapoo Nation School, Santa Fe Indian School, Shoshone-Bannock School, Navajo Preparatory School, and Choctaw Central High School. The BIE's overall graduation rate reached 79%, the highest in its history. The BIE is aiming for a rate of 91% by May 2030. The Associated Press reports that, beginning in 2018, the BIE began standardizing data collection methods, which has helped improve data accuracy. While Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland (Navajo) said that these gains reflect the Trump administration's commitment to Native American students, there are concerns that the administration's changes to the BIE — including the planned dissolving of the U.S. Department of Education and further fallout from DOGE cuts — could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving students' performance. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, July 29, 2026 – Southeast Alaska tribes closer to land designation more than a half century after being locked out

Photo: First Nation leaders held a press conference on July 21, 2026 to address claims by the Ontario government. (Courtesy Nishnawbe Aski Nation / YouTube) Indigenous leaders in Ontario are calling for a public inquiry into how the provincial government responded to the wildfires that ripped through parts of Northern Ontario. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, at least two First Nations communities burned to the ground. Several First Nations leaders held a news conference in Thunder Bay recently to counter claims by the Ontario government that it did communicate and respond with Native communities about the fire dangers. Helen Paavola is the chief of the Collins First Nation. “There's nothing left but just ashes. My members barely escaped with the clothes on their back.” Paavola says her community was left to evacuate without notice or support from the government, but Ontario Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response Jill Dunlop insists there was communication. “There has been a lot of communication back and forth between First Nations communities with myself and with my colleagues and our ministry officials as well.” But Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of the Nishnabe Aski Nation, disagrees. “They were here on Saturday. Premier Doug Ford some ministers were here as well and they didn't even bother to reach out to First Nations leaders.” The chiefs are calling for changes, including officials at the top of the forest fire and emergency services for the ministry of natural resources, pending an independent investigation. And they want a public inquiry into decision making, emergency coordination, and communications with First Nations as well as over provincial preparedness. Jerrod Sessler addresses the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce candidate forum, July 21, 2026. (Courtesy Columbia Basin Herald / Facebook) A congressional candidate in Washington state has apologized for recent remarks that falsely claimed the Colville Tribe has an “incentive” for more fires, because they get “free money” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). KREM 2 TV reports that Republican Jerrod Sessler hopes to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) in an upcoming primary. The district includes parts of the Colville Indian reservation and the entire Yakama Reservation, which are both experiencing wildfires. At a candidate forum on July 21, Sessler made the following comments about the Colville Tribe. “They don’t pay taxes for anything, but yet we fight those fires to the tune of millions of dollars, and they got a check from FEMA for $30 million for the fire. So what's the incentive for them? The incentive is more fires, ‘Because we get free money.'” Tribal officials condemned Sessler's remarks, reminding people that Native citizens pay federal income “and other applicable federal taxes” while outlining how FEMA funds disaster responses. In a statement sent to tribal leaders Monday, Sessler said his remarks were “ill-informed and incorrect” and there is “no excuse for making these sorts of public comments without verifying the information.” Sessler is one of 11 candidates vying for the 4th Congressional District in the August 4 primary. And the 2026 Indigenous Media Conference just wrapped up in Portland, Oreg. The Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA) organized the three-day event, which held panels ranging from how to best cover the MMIP crisis to doing social videos. Melissa Greene-Blye (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) of the IJA education committee says final registration totals came to roughly 490 attendees, one of the best turnouts yet. “That’s really exciting, um, to maybe find out that word of what’s happening is spreading and people are saying, ‘I want to be a part of this’, and they’re showing up.” Chuck Sams (Cayuse/Walla Walla, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation), the first Native director of the National Park Service, gave the keynote address. Greene-Blye says new developments also sparked interest. “The launch of the Pacific Islander Journalism Network at conference, there was a lot of excitement with that. The new bylaws were an important point of discussion, because it had been decades since they had been updated. Now, the Indigenous Journalist Association renaming is official, official, official on paper, in law.” The event wrapped up with the IJA awards and banquet, which honored Osage News editor Shannon Shaw Duty with two IJA distinguished awards. Former National Native News host Antonia Gonzales (Navajo) was also recognized for her 22 years of hosting this program. Next year's conference will be held in Minneapolis, Minn. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, July 28, 2026 — Addressing public health with veterinary care in rural areas

Photo: The territory being purchased encompasses the headwaters of various tributaries to the Scott River in Siskiyou County in the Klamath River Basin. (Courtesy Trust for Public Land) California is moving forward with what could become the second largest tribal land return in state history. The California State Water Resources Control Board has approved $25 million in financing to help the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation acquire nearly 40,000 acres of the Scott River headwaters in Northern California’s Klamath River Basin. The acquisition would return ancestral lands that include salmon-bearing streams, cultural sites, forests, and critical drinking water resources to tribal stewardship. Quartz Valley Indian Reservation Chairman Leonard Lincoln says the project marks a truly historic moment for the tribe. He says for a tribe that was once terminated and subsequently confined to just 2,000 acres, reclaiming nearly 40,000 acres of our ancestral territory is a monumental victory that secures our sovereignty and our people. The acquisition is being supported by Trust for Public Land and the current landowner, EFM Investments and Advisory. Trust for Public Land says returning the land to tribal stewardship will help protect clean water, restore salmon habitat, improve forest health, and strengthen climate resilience throughout the Klamath River Basin while expanding opportunities for cultural access, ecological restoration, and conservation jobs. The great kiva in the plaza of Chetro Ketl at Chaco Canyon National Historic Park in New Mexico. (Courtesy National Park Service) The Trump administration is considering a complete or partial reversal of a 20-year federal mineral ban on new oil and gas leasing that protects New Mexico’s Greater Chaco region, and time for public comment is running out. Roz Brown explains. The Department of the Interior says revoking protections on a landscape that holds cultural importance for Indigenous people could boost oil production by more than two million barrels over the next 20 years. Jesse Deubel from the New Mexico Wildlife Federation says despite the importance of oil and gas to New Mexicans’ livelihood and the state’s economy, some things are priceless. “It’s really important to understand that there are some places where it is absolutely inappropriate to risk destruction of sacred sites for the idea that there might be some amount of oil and gas underneath that mineral estate.” The administration is looking at three options: keep a current 10-mile buffer in place, cut it to five miles, or revoke it entirely, which could destroy artifacts and architecture. It argues maximizing fossil fuel production through increased drilling could lower utility and fuel costs and bolster national security. The public has until this Wednesday to comment online through the Bureau of Land Management’s NEPA web page. The Federation’s Andrew Black, a public lands field director in New Mexico, says there is a good reason Chaco is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site — one of only 24 such sites in the U.S. “9th to 13th century complex Pueblo cultural settlements with multi-story houses, sacred sites… the architecture is truly unbelievable. Uh, just from that perspective alone, it is remarkable.” Last week, the New Mexico congressional delegation called on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to extend the public comment period to 90 days, conduct tribal consultation, and allow extensive public engagement before making a decision. Black says it is the least that should be done. “After various archaeological surveys and studies, that area was determined to have the greatest amount of cultural resources within it. More study and more examination and more analysis needed to be done within that buffer zone.” The buffer zone is home to bobcats, pronghorn, elk and deer, coyotes, bald eagles, small mammals, and various reptiles. New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich calls on the Interior Department to reconsider its oil and gas proposal and honor the public land order approved by the Biden administration in 2023. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, July 27, 2026 – Trial by concrete and steel: Native strongmen push their strength to the limit

Alaska's main Native healthcare organization is set to receive a $400 million settlement from the federal government for unpaid expenses to provide medical services. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the settlement Tuesday. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA reports. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) filed a lawsuit in 2021 claiming that the federal government did not fully compensate the organization for administrative costs over seven years of providing medical services. This settlement follows several U.S. Supreme Court decisions in favor of tribal health contractors like the consortium. Lloyd Miller is a tribal attorney who handled three cases involving costs that the government had refused to pay. “To be sure, a significant amount of money is owed to tribes, and the latest settlement you heard about is just one of many settlements that have been achieved throughout the United States over the last two years.” ANTHC provides health services in clinics throughout the state and at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. The organization also runs rural infrastructure projects in villages, including improving water and sewer systems. The consortium entered an agreement with the federal government under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Under that agreement, ANTHC is responsible for providing healthcare that the federal government would otherwise provide, through agencies like the Indian Health Service (IHS). The consortium said in its court complaint the government failed to reimburse administrative costs for healthcare services between 2014 and 2022, with the exception of one year. The consortium's attorneys dismissed its case this month after a settlement was reached, according to court documents. Natasha Singh is president and CEO of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. She said in a prepared statement that the settlement helps make sure that “resources accurately reflect the true cost of operating a complex Tribal health system and advancing self-determination in healthcare.” Singh said the details of the settlement are still being finalized, but it helps the consortium to expand their services for Alaska Native people. Tribal attorney Miller says this and other cases follow a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the federal government owed money to the Carlos Apache and Northern Arapaho tribes in Arizona and Wyoming. “When the court held that those two tribes had been underpaid, the court was saying that every tribe in the United States that has a contract with [IHS] has been underpaid.” Miller says many tribes have filed or reactivated litigation with IHS in the last two years. KIC's new gift shop is where tourists can purchase care packages for community members. (Photo: Hunter Morrison / KRBD) There is a new way to give back to Ketchikan's unhoused population. The Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC) rolled out a new program this month where people can pay for and assemble care packages to those in need, as KRBD's Hunter Morrison reports. Emily Edenshaw is the tribe's administrator and CEO. To her knowledge, there is no other program like it in Alaska. She says that the initiative is aimed at tourists “We often invite tourists to our homelands, but there’s really a need for service tourism. You have the second largest tribe in Alaska that’s really tried to innovatively create an experience for our tourists to leave a community in a better place than they found it.” Care packages are $25 and include necessities like toothpaste, deodorant, socks, and sanitary products. People who purchase the care packages can also leave a handwritten note. Edenshaw says each dollar raised from the program will go to support the tribe's permanent supportive housing project, a 28-unit housing complex for seniors, set to open next month. The care packages can be purchased at KIC's newly opened gift shop at the corner of Dock and Main Streets downtown. That space was once home to the tribe's seasonal warming shelter, which closed in the spring. The tribe will open another temporary warming shelter in the fall, although they haven't determined a location yet. Edenshaw says the new care package program is a way to carry on the legacy of the former warming shelter space. She says a little bit of support can go a long way. “For those who might be wanting to do this, make it a family affair. You know, use this as an opportunity to instill the value of giving back, to your children. You know, bring your families by the gift shop and use it as an educational opportunity while also making an impact in people’s lives.” Edenshaw says visitors to the tribe's gift shop will see information about the new program as soon as they walk through the door. She hopes to inform the cruise lines of the program so that more tourists can participate in it. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, July 24, 2026 — Zuni Pueblo responds to monsoon flooding

Photo: “Navajo” Bob Sandoval announces the results of the 2025 Navajo Nation presidential primary (Courtesy Crystalyne Curley for Navajo Nation President / Facebook) Tuesday was primary Election Day not only in Arizona, but across the Navajo Nation, which includes Utah and New Mexico. And as KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, incumbent President Buu Nygren will not be moving on to the general. Before midnight, the tribal radio station KTNN – known in these parts as the “Voice of the Navajo Nation” – called the 16-candidate race. Here is host “Navajo Bob” Sandoval reading the unofficial score from the 110 polling places. “Here we go, Justin Jones – 15,039. Crystalyne Curley – 8,424. Buu Nygren – 7,410.” Farmington attorney Justin Jones came in third behind Buu Nygren during the 2022 primary. Justin Jones speaks during his 2026 primary watch party in Window Rock, Ariz. (Courtesy Justin Jones for Navajo Nation President / Facebook) This time, Jones and sitting Navajo Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley beat out incumbent President Nygren, who has faced ethics violations and allegations of corruption. Now, Jones and Curley will pick their VP running mates before November. If elected, Curley would be the first Diné female president. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) makes remarks regarding her bill that passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on July 17 2026. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced last week that her bill allowing five Alaska Native communities in Southeast Alaska to receive land entitlements passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The legislation, called The Alaska Native Landless Equity Act, would allow Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Ketchikan, and Tenakee to form Alaska Native corporations and each receive about 23,000 acres of federal land, as KFSK's Baiz Hoen reports. Those communities were excluded from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) when it became law over 50 years ago. ANCSA transferred 44 million acres of land to more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims throughout Alaska. The Landless movement is not without controversy. ANCSA mandated the newly recognized Native corporations to make a profit. Because of this, some who oppose Sen. Murkowski's bill argue that it would privatize 115,000 acres of land in the Tongass National Forest. Murkowski spoke directly to the opposition in her committee remarks last week. She addressed concerns about environmental conservation, but said “this should not be the controversial measure it has historically been viewed as.” “There are no better stewards of our Alaska lands than the people who have lived on them for thousands of years.” The Alaska delegation has been introducing landless legislation since the early 1990s without success. In 2023, a landless bill introduced by Murkowski cleared committee for the first time. Murkowski also noted during remarks that a companion measure by U.S. Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) passed in the House of Representatives last month — with no recorded opposition. Rep. Begich's bill is the first Landless bill to clear the House. “ And I think there’s good reason for that because it comes back to the inequity that we have seen, uh, and in an effort to do right by the Alaska Native peoples who were excluded so many decades ago.” Murkowski's legislation now heads to the Senate floor for consideration. Fort Harney in Oregon in 1872. On this day in 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed an executive order canceling Oregon’s Fort Harney Military Reservation and placing those lands under the existing Malheur Indian Reservation. The order expanded the reservation established in 1872 for the Northern Paiute and Snake peoples as federal policies continued reshaping Native homelands. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, July 23, 2026 – First Nations in Canada wary of new bill addressing longstanding water issues

Photo: Navajo Mine is the sole supplier of the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico. An environmental group met in Window Rock, Ariz. Monday to argue against keeping a Navajo Nation coal mine alive. As KNAU's Chris Clements reports, critics say it would ignore a nationwide transition away from fossil fuels. Members of the group Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (CARE), like Devon Norberto, say the permit to extend the life of the Navajo Mine by 110 years is rushed. “A lot of the concerns we heard were around that the community hadn’t been fully notified of this permit.” The tribally owned Navajo Transitional Energy Company (N-TEC) operates the Navajo Mine in northwestern New Mexico and is pushing for its expansion. Supporters of that proposal argue it is essential to the tribe's economic stability and sovereignty, but Norberto says members of Burnham Chapter, a community near where coal would be mined, were not properly consulted. “It would relocate some of the families within the leasing area that they are trying to mine at. It would force them to lose their grazing lands. It would remove them from their ancestral ties to the land.” N-TEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A federal agency tasked with approving the mine expansion is expected to release a decision in August. The 65-year-old Hills Creek Dam and Reservoir roughly four miles east of Oakridge, Oreg. as seen on June 24, 2026. (Photo: Brian Bull / KLCC) Across the Pacific Northwest, tribes and conservationists are working to help the eel-like fish, the lamprey rebound. As KLCC's Brian Bull reports, dams have greatly diminished their numbers. Recently near Oregon's Coyote Creek, technicians with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs arrived with 100 lampreys in their truck. Aldwin Keo introduced himself and his slithering cargo. “They're filter feeders, they clean out whatever is in the sediment, that's where they stay for many years before they go out to the ocean.” A group of Native educators and students helped release the prehistoric critters into the creek. This is a practice called translocation, where adult fish are released in waterways above dams. Courtney Golts, a lamprey biologist with the tribe, says dam development has had its impact. “In the upper Willamette tributaries are areas that have been completely impassable to lamprey for decades, so these are reintroductions to areas that do not have Pacific lamprey, and as of today, they do.” The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) says lamprey once teemed in the millions through the Columbia River Basin, but only 23,000 were recorded in 2010. Jerrid Weaskus of the Nez Perce Tribe holds a lamprey before releasing it in a waterway near Hills Creek Dam on June 24, 2026. (Photo: Brian Bull / KLCC) Raymond Ellenwood Jr. is a fisheries technician with the Nez Perce Tribe. Near Oakridge, he and Jerrid Weaskus released more lamprey. The goal is to have adult lamprey stay and mate, creating little lampreys called ammocoetes. “The ammocoetes, they burrow into the sand and the substrate and they'll filter feed off the detritus in the river or stream. And what they're doing is the adults are smelling the ammocoetes, that are upriver in those river systems. They're telling them, ‘Hey that river system's good. There's good spawning habit. That's where we want to go.'” If all goes to plan, lamprey released here will start migrating to the Pacific Ocean around 2030, and come back as adults four years later. “Wanna welcome you guys to our annual lamprey celebration.” Recently in Oregon City, more than 1,200 people signed up for the annual Yakama Nation Willamette Falls Lamprey Celebration. It is a day of music, presentations, even a lunch with grilled lamprey. CRITFC's Jeremy Five Crows says they have updated their plan to include a technical document for scientists, students, and resource managers, and a policy brief for lawmakers. “The lamprey has been around 450 million years. We're closer to a T-Rex than a T-Rex was to lamprey. That's how far back they go, and so the thought of just in the past 100 years that we could drive something extinct that's been on Earth for that long, is terrible.” Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, July 22, 2026 — Accessing the vulnerability of Indigenous communities during 2026 wildfire season

The western Canadian province of Alberta is grappling with the divisive political issue of separation from the rest of Canada. Indigenous leaders in Alberta are opposed to the idea. And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations recently weighed in on their side. Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak made her position known during the three-day annual gathering in Ottawa of the Assembly of First Nations. She told delegates to the meeting that any movement by Alberta to separate from Canada is illegitimate without the consent of First Nations. Chief Nepinak says First Nations have always stood for Canadian unity and they want Prime Minister Mark Carney to know that. “We have made it clear that any proposal to separate from any province or territory from Canada is fundamentally illegitimate and unconstitutional without the explicit prior informed and collective consent of First Nations. We need to make him call it what it is because Albertans need to know that if they vote to separate from Canada, that they're not taking the land with them.” The chiefs from across the country expressed their overwhelming opposition to Alberta separation. Nepinak says First Nations chiefs want the federal and provincial governments to protect treaty rights from the threats posed by Alberta separatism. They passed a resolution asking Ottawa to ensure constitutional procedures that impact First Nations only go ahead with consultation and the consent of affected groups. They say that the Alberta government has failed to recognize or engage First Nations on the issue, adding that treaty rights would be fundamentally affected by such constitutional change. Alberta Premier Danelle Smith says she supports a stronger Alberta staying in Canada. Recently, an Alberta court quashed the approval of a pro-separation petition. The judge found that the province's chief electoral officer did not properly fulfill his duty to consult with First Nations – and also failed to consider a previous court ruling that said separation would violate treaty rights. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is criticizing a new White House report that it says misrepresents Native history and ignores the sovereign status of Tribal Nations. The report, “Saving America’s Story“, was released earlier this month and calls for changes in how American history is presented in museums and public institutions. In a statement, NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright Jr. says the nation’s history cannot be told truthfully without acknowledging Tribal Nations, the realities of land dispossession, forced removal, federal Indian boarding schools, and other documented chapters of U.S. history. “Tribal Nations are sovereign governments with a unique political relationship with the United States. This distinction is foundational to the U.S. government's relationship with Tribal Nations and should never be minimized or mischaracterized. America’s story begins with Tribal Nations. It cannot be told truthfully without us.” NCAI is urging federal leaders, museums, educators, and the public to reject efforts to revise the documented history of Tribal Nations and instead support accurate historical scholarship and implementation of federal Indian boarding school recommendations. (Courtesy Bureau of Indian Education) New federal data shows graduation rates are rising at Bureau of Indian Education schools. Some tribal schools credit career training, virtual classes and more accurate student records. But Crow Creek Sioux Chairman Peter Lengkeek says severely underfunded schools still depend on the government to fulfill its treaty promises. Swinomish Tribal Chairman Steve Edwards and La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman mark the day with an inaugural slurp. (Courtesy Swinomish Senate / Facebook) The Swinomish and Squaxin Island tribes in Washington state sued the federal government last week over changes to the Endangered Species Act. Swinomish Chairman Steve Edwards called the rule “anti-science”, saying weakened habitat protections threaten Chinook salmon and treaty fishing rights. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, July 21, 2026 – Native in the Spotlight: Laura Tohe

Pueblo leaders and environmentalists are angry that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released an environmental assessment last week with the intent of eliminating a buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park that has prevented oil and gas leasing. As KUNM's Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) reports, BLM is offering just two weeks for public comment on the report. A Biden administration order placed a 20-year ban on oil and gas development on federal lands within 10 miles of Chaco, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This upset some Navajo communities who rely on royalty payments and infrastructure from oil and gas for their livelihoods. President Buu Nygren said thousands of Navajo oil and gas allottees would be negatively impacted by the decision. But in April, the BLM gave the public one week to comment on a proposal to expand oil and gas leasing around Chaco. The current proposed environmental assessment has three options: leave the buffer intact, reduce it to five miles, or remove all protections. Brian Vallo (Acoma Pueblo), chairman for the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association, says the Trump administration is not working with Pueblo communities, despite tribes working together to create an ethnographic study on why this landscape is vital to Native cultures. The study is a first of its kind, he says, and was conducted by the Pueblos themselves. “So it really traces the ethnography of this cultural and sacred landscape from our present-day communities to the great houses in Chaco, but also everything in between, pilgrimage trails, shrines, sacred sites, springs, and other places that are significant to our continued observance and practice of our own traditions and you know, Indigenous way of life.” Vallo says the association is frustrated that the federal government is not adhering to a data-sharing agreement and not considering information from this ethnographic study, but moving forward with a draft environmental assessment. “All of humanity, the land, and the resources, the animals, the water. All of those things have connection, and that connection is maintained through the generations of those of us who are the practitioners, those of us who are the cultural leaders, and the greater Pueblo community as well.” Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have also condemned the BLM announcement as a move to push for more oil and gas drilling. The All Pueblo Council of Governors has continued to invite Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum to visit Chaco Canyon and hold a consultation with Pueblo members, but he has not responded. Vallo says young folks at Acoma are already mobilizing. “Young people from within our community who are going door to door with laptops and or notebooks to encourage tribal members to submit letters.” Public comment closes on July 29. The view of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation as resident evacuated across Collins Lake. (Courtesy Wayne Wastaken) Across Canada this weekend, nearly 900 wildfires were burning – from the Atlantic provinces to British Columbia. Northern Ontario is one of the regions that has been hardest hit. One Indigenous community there has been destroyed. And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, Indigenous leaders are calling on the federal government in Ottawa for more support. At least one small first nation in northern Ontario has burned to the ground by a devastating wildfire, which is one of nearly 200 alone burning in the province. Residents fled the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation by boat on Collins Lake, many having only a few minutes to gather some personal belongings, according to Chief Helen Paavola. “It was just a matter of minutes before my members would have died. And even during that whole time, there was no help.” Namaygoosisagagun, also known as Collins First Nation, is only one of ten communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, that have been evacuated as wildfires rip through the region. Namaygoosisagagun is now is ashes – and its residents say they face an uncertain future. The Assembly of First Nations is calling on Ottawa for help including financial support. Linda Debassige is the grand chief of the Anishnabek Nation. She says when the wildfire first approached the community, the chief herself tried to contact government officials, but they said they were not aware of the fire. “And so, had the community waited for the official emergency response activiation, this would be a recovery mission at this point in time, which is unfathomable.” Debassige says the community now needs accommodations, food, and especially a commitment to support rebuilding. One of the problems is that the Namaygoosisagagun is not federally recognized as an official Indigenous first nation. The remote first nation, more than 700 miles north of Toronto, has no road access. Debassige says the Anishnabek Nation Grand Council, which includes 39 first nations, does recognize it and is supporting members by providing accommodation, food, and clothing. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, July 20, 2026 — Tribes sue after feds redefine ‘harm’ in Endangered Species Act, upend decades of land conservation

Photo: Salmon prepared for drying at fish camp on Kuskokwim River near Napaskiak on June 21, 2016. (Rhonda McBride / KNBA) The state of Alaska is not ready to give up its fight just yet in the Kuskokwim subsistence lawsuit. It has filed a motion to appeal a federal judge's decision to award $1.8 million in attorney fees to several Native organizations, which joined a federal lawsuit against the state over subsistence fishing rights. The case began four years ago when federal managers sued the state for failing to uphold a rural subsistence priority, required under federal law. The state ultimately lost a series of court battles, which culminated when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Tanner Amdur-Clark works for one of the groups which joined the lawsuit, the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. He says the state's appeal continues a long pattern of delay. “It's yet another blow to Alaska Native organizations that are essentially taking money that they really should be using to be providing services and helping out folks in rural Alaska — and instead they're having to do this, to essentially fight for their lives against the state of Alaska.” The other groups in the lawsuit are the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Ahtna Native Corporation, and an Ahtna tribal advocacy group. Amdur-Clark says, combined, they spent more on legal costs than the court awarded them. “Eventually at the end of the day, it's the state of Alaska and the taxpayers of the state of Alaska that are going to pay for all of this, so the court got it right the first time. We'll continue the fight.” In a statement, acting Attorney General Cori Mills defended the state's spending. She said it was necessary to get clarity on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling’s impact on subsistence management. She also said the state should not be on the hook for attorney fees, because the Native groups voluntarily joined the federal lawsuit – and that the state is appealing the award, because it is “both legally impermissible and factually unreasonable.” Briana Murphy, the Chugach Regional Resources Commission mariculture liaison, harvests kelp in a bay near Port Graham, Alaska in 2026. (Courtesy Briana Murphy) A group of tribes in Southcentral Alaska partnered with a federal agency last month, as part of an effort to advance agriculture and mariculture projects. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. The Chugach Regional Resources Commission is a nonprofit that represents seven tribes. Last month, the consortium signed an agreement to establish the Chugach Region Tribal Conservation District. It's a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Carolyn Spencer is the environmental director with the tribal consortium. “Partnering with NRCS in this way helps us access funding for mariculture development as well as some of the agricultural streams that we’re trying to work on.” Tribal Conservation Districts are entities across Alaska and the country created to manage natural resources on Native lands with technical or financial assistance from the federal government. Jackie Kragel is the acting state tribal liaison for the program. She says these partnerships foster communication between tribes and help with work on specific projects. “For example, there’s been a couple culvert replacements to support fish passage and salmon habitat. We have different infrastructure opportunities for community gardens for food sovereignty, such as seasonal high tunnels, low tunnels, and the different irrigation systems.” The seven tribes in the Chugach Regional Resources Commission already use innovative approaches when it comes to food sovereignty, for example, through a mariculture operation in Seward that cultivates shellfish and kelp. “They want ways to access healthy food in their backyard, without having to pay the shipping costs because they’re so remote.” One project Spencer says the partnership might make easier is high tunnel construction in Port Graham. That is a covered structure that traps solar heat for growing vegetables. She says that forming a conservation district will also help tribes collaborate with other communities that might be working on similar projects. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Friday, July 17, 2026 – A conversation about law, advocacy, and redemption with Cherokee attorney Courtney Jordan