Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 1025
SACRAMENTO, Calif.-A new California education law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will allow Native American students to be excused from school so they can participate in cultural ceremonies. Before Assembly Bill 516 was passed, when Native children missed school days to participate in cultural events, the days were not considered excused absence. As a result, at times students were not allowed to make up work or tests they missed. "It's certainly gratifying to see that the work...
GREAT FALLS, Mont.-In Great Falls, Montana, the public school administrators have set up 12 teepees to represent the 12 tribes of Montana. The structures will remain in place, overlooking the city, thoughout the month of November. During different weeks, the tepees will be lit in different colored lights-multicolored, representing diversity; red lights to recognize the missing and murdered indigenous people crisis; and orange lights, representing Every Child Matters. Most of...
NORMAN, Okla.-Resilient. That's the word used to describe Kim Holmes by the people who know her best. Holmes, a property manager for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, has lost 20 blood relatives and many more friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, but continued to push through and show up for those who needed her most. "She's been through a lot," said her supervisor, Greg Shim. "The word that comes to mind is resilient. She's very dedicated to serving the people at...
PHOENIX-Not long after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in 2020, Zoel Zohnnie was laid off from his pipe welding job. But the Tuba City, Arizona native knew other members of the Navajo Nation were faring far worse. To mitigate the effects of the pandemic, Zohnnie, 43, launched Water Warriors United, a project to deliver water across the reservation, where an estimated 30 percent of 174,000 residents lack running water and often must travel long distances to haul it back to the...
DULUTH, Minn.-During Native American Heritage Month, the government in Minnesota has acknowledged the 12 tribes of the state in a new way. In Northeastern Minnesota, state transportation officials are posting 12 highway signs to mark the boundaries of a treaty signed in 1854 by the U.S. government and three Ojibwe bands: the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Minnesota Department of...
CALGARY, Alb.-Traumas experienced by Indigenous Peoples due to residential schools and colonization can be passed down through generations, even among those now living in a "non-trauma environment," says Métis/Cree traditional knowledge keeper and ceremonialist Kerrie Moore. Moore is an integrative healing therapist and wellness Elder in the Faculty of Social Work and Writing Symbols Lodge at the University of Calgary. This, she says, is called intergenerational trauma. In...
At Indian Life Ministries, we wholly believe in the power of relationship. This is why, now that travel restrictions have opened up, Indian Life has been travelling! We are getting around to meet people and connect, let people know about the ministry, and build relationships. We have travelled to the BC Native Christian Conference in Kamloops, British Columbia, all the way east to Thunder Bay, Ontario for the Native Gospel Jamboree! And this past weekend, we travelled north to...
TORONTO, Ont.-In the summer of 2021, Ontario forest fires burned a record area of land. Nearly 800,000 hectacres of land burned in northwestern Ontario, which surpassed the record set 26 years ago. Besides the destroyed forestry, more than 3,000 people were evacuated, according to Ontario's Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES). The 793,000 hectares of land that were burned cover a span larger than the Greater Toronto Area and surpassed the 1995 record by...
Washington, D.C.-Christian Native Americans are leading an effort of reconciliation and forgiveness over the U.S. Government's 230-year treatment of native peoples. "The Apology," as the movement is called, doesn't ask for the destruction of monuments or history to be rewritten. They only seek what the name implies . . . an apology. And they're willing to forgive and move on. The Christian movement has gained big allies including former United States Ambassador-at-Large for...
Ottawa, Ont.-Indigenous law in Ontario is getting a federal boost. The federal government is earmarking funds for projects that are expected to help revitalize Indigenous legal traditions. Justice Minister David Lametti says $918,000 will go to the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians and Lakehead University's law faculty over three years to support Indigenous law-making research and "lay the foundation" for an Indigenous legal institute in Thunder Bay, Ontario. "We're...
TUCSON-"Getting lost is the best part of trail running," Marlinda Bedonie said with a chuckle as we shielded our eyes from the morning sun, searching for our cars. We spoke on a recent morning while trekking through Tucson Mountain Park on a mostly flat, single-track loop trail. Dipping in and out of washes and brushing against the creosote along the trail, the Tohono O'odham and Navajo mother and I chatted-out of breath-as we shared our running journeys and spoke about our...
Marker events-especially the scary ones like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 9-11 and Hurricane Ida-always leave some form of an emotional scar, even in those who weren't physically present for the trauma, according to clinical psychologist, media personality and humanitarian Judy Kuriansky. The COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Florida condo collapse and the terrifying fall of Afghanistan during the U.S. military withdrawal all can be...
KLAMATH, Calif.-A drought, a virus and a landslide-these concurrent crises have worsened the food insecurity of Northern California's Yurok Tribe and spurred some members to explore their own solutions. Their reservation, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the redwoods of the Klamath Mountains, was declared a rural food desert by the USDA in 2017. The situation worsened when the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with severe drought and a crumbling highway, slammed the reservation...
Change seems to be constant in life doesn't it? Change is good, but with it brings the need to say goodbye, and hello. It is time for our accountant, Sam Holukoff, to say goodbye to serving with Indian Life Ministries. Jo-Anne Anderson, our previous director, worked with Sam for years and says: I don't recall what year Sam Holukoff joined Indian Life as the new accountant, but I do remember how excited and thankful we were to have someone so qualified to step into this...
PHOENIX-Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona recently signed SB 1802 into law, recognizing August 14th as National Navajo Code Talkers Day and a state holiday. During World War II, the Navajo Code Talkers answered the call to defend the United States of America using the impenetrable code based on the Navajo language that is widely acknowledged as a deciding factor in the war effort. On July 28, 1982, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan designated August 14th as National Navajo...
WASHINGTON-For the first time in history, an Indigenous woman is overseeing U.S. agriculture law. Janie Simms Hipp, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, was confirmed July 30 by the Senate as general counsel for the Agriculture Department. She joins a list of successful Indigenous appointees. Pending nominations include Charles F. Sams III, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who was nominated in August to oversee the National Park Service,...
LOUISVILLE-COVID-19 has ravaged the Navajo Nation, killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the country. According to a report published earlier this year, Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic-especially on reservations, where access to basic resources, including food and water, can be limited. But by July 2021, according to a PBS report, nearly 46 percent of American Indians and Native Alaskans have...
PHOENIX-When the Phoenix Indian School was established in 1891, the top federal administrator considered it a budgetary win to send Native American children to boarding schools to enforce assimilation into white society. "It's cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them," Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan said at the opening of the school. The true cost of Indigenous boarding schools in the United States and Canada, and the abuses Native Americans endured in them, continues...
VICTORIA, B.C.-As another year of long-burning, uncontrolled wildfires decimates portions of the U.S. and Canada-even threatening the world's oldest trees, located in California-one expert says North American authorities need to take some guidance and advise from Native Americans. "We're not burning anywhere near as much as we should," fire ecologist and noted burn boss Bob Gray, from Chilliwack, B.C., told The Canadian Press. Gray consults for local, provincial, state and...
OTTAWA—On September 30, 2021 Canadians recognized the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honors the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process. Parliament passed bills to create this federal statutory holiday through legislative amendments. On June 3, 2021, Bill C...
OTTAWA-RoseAnne Archibald has been chosen as the new national chief for the Assembly of First Nations. She is the first women and the first person from Ontario to hold the post. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is an assembly of First Nations chiefs, modelled on the United Nations General Assembly. The AFN was established in 1982, emerging from the dissolved Canadian National Indian Brotherhood of the late 70s. The goals of the organization are to protect and advance the...
OTTAWA-When Pope Francis first learned of the graves found at the sites of Canadian residential schools, he expressed sympathy and sorrow, but offered no plans to go further. However, Canadian and Indigenous outcry rose for at least an apology for the Catholic Church's role in the abuse and death of thousands of Indigenous children. In recent weeks, investigators using ground-penetrating radar found hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of two residential schools for...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-In an important move to restore Tribal homelands, the Department of the Interior announced in late June the transfer of all lands comprising the National Bison Range (NBR), approximately 18,800.22 acres, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to be held in trust for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The lands, which are within the boundaries of the reservation, were transferred to the Bureau from the...
WASHINGTON-Tribal police have the authority to detain non-Natives traveling through reservation land if the officer has a reasonable belief that the suspect violated state or federal law, the Supreme Court ruled in June. The unanimous ruling overturned lower courts that said a Crow police officer should not have held a nontribal member who was found to have drugs and weapons in his truck. The Supreme Court said that the lower courts' rulings would "make it difficult for...
OTTAWA-Inuk leader and former ambassador Mary Simon has been chosen as the next governor general. She is the first Indigenous person ever to be appointed to the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Queen has accepted his recommendation to appoint Simon-a past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization-as the 30th governor general. Simon is an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, a village in northeastern Quebec. Her mother was Inuk and her father was a w...
