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ANCHORAGE, Alaska-On October 7, the Indigenous Alaskans were honored in two ways. First, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed House Bill 126 into law, declaring November as Alaska Native Heritage Month. The bill reads, in part, "Alaska Native Heritage Month may be observed by schools, community groups, and other public and private agencies and individuals with appropriate activities to honor and recognize the contributions made by Alaska Natives in the history of this state and the...
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.-Two Confederate monuments were lifted by crane and removed from the Cherokee Nation Capitol Square in Tahlequah Saturday as directed by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., who observed from a few feet away. Both monuments were placed on the capitol square nearly a century ago when the property was a county courthouse owned by the state. The Cherokee Nation did not place the monuments. "We've suffered for centuries with too many others telling our story for us...
PICKLE LAKE, Ont.-CJTL (Christ Jesus the Light) Radio was started in Ontario, Canada in 2005, when an alliance was formed between a group of First Nation believers and Nations One For Christ, a US-based organization headed by Frank Drown. CJTL is licensed under the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (NEFC) and governed by an all-Native Board of Directors. CJTL "The Light" went on the air in October 2007 from its studios in Pickle Lake, Ontario, and with a repeater in...
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.-The Naabik'íyáti' Committee of the 24th Navajo Nation Council heard from programs and utilities Friday, May 22 on the water infrastructure needs aimed at providing clean, piped water to the Navajo People. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) Navajo Area Office reported together to the 24-member Committee that a total of more than $700 million is needed to address the w...
PHOENIX, Ariz.-As Miss Shoshone-Bannock, Stormie Perdash has represented her people all across the United States. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, she's representing them in a different way. Growing up on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, Perdash remembers just how badly she wanted the Miss Shoshone-Bannock title-or Miss Sho-Ban for short. "She was like the coolest thing ever," Perdash said. She spent her preteen years on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and...
OTTAWA, Ont.-Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde says the Prime Minister's announcement of new funding to fight COVID-19 in First Nations is much needed and welcome. Increased investments in health care and specialized equipment, social assistance for First Nations families on-reserve, and new shelters for women and girls ensures First Nations have better tools to protect their citizens during this pandemic. "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 cris...
PHOENIX, Ariz.-Time, distance and technology limitations are among the reasons Native Americans may be the most difficult demographic to count in the 2020 census, the Census Bureau says. But lack of trust is the biggest reason, said Patty Hibbeler, chief executive of the Phoenix Indian Center, which provides workforce and youth development, drug and alcohol prevention and language and culture revitalization. "It comes from a very long and very negative history with the...
OTTAWA, Ont.-A January 2020 report released by the Correctional Investigator of Canada shows that Canada's prisons are being "Indigenized," or filling up with Indigenous men and women at a rate surpassing 30 percent, which could rise to 33 percent, even though Indigenous people make up less than 5 per cent of the total Canadian population. Indigenous women account for a staggering 42 per cent of the women inmate population in Canada. The Correctional Investigator of Canada,...
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.-The Cherokee Nation is the first tribe in the United States to receive an invitation to deposit its traditional heirloom seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a long-term seed storage facility housed deep inside a mountain on a remote island in Norway. The Cherokee Nation Secretary of Natural Resources office collected nine samples of Cherokee heirloom crops to send to Svalbard, including Cherokee White Eagle Corn, the tribe's most sacred corn, which is...
On Friday, October 4, Indian Life hosted a banquet at Calvary Temple in Winnipeg to celebrate 40 years of ministry. We thank all those who contributed to organizing the banquet and those who joined us in this milestone celebration to praise our Lord for all He has done for and through this ministry. We enjoyed a fabulous meal catered by the Calvary Temple catering team and were blessed in song by Christopher Creasy and members of the band, Northern Fire. Our guest speaker, Dr....
WASHINGTON, D.C.- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced nearly $200 million in grant awards to 52 Native American Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) across the Nation for new housing construction, housing rehabilitation, and critical infrastructure projects. HUD announced the grants during the 2019 National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) Legal Symposium in Las Vegas. "HUD is excited for this new opportunity to...
AKWESASNE, Mohawk Nation-The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council signed Tribal Council Resolution 2019-58 in early December in response to public health concerns associated with vaping and e-cigarette products and their appeal to youth and young adults. Customers must now be 21 years old to purchase all products associated with vape, e-cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), or similar devices. The resolution also prohibits the retail sale and distribution of...
WASHINGTON-Dean Seneca didn't mince words after the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's "damaging news" in early March about the spread of the novel coronavirus that has killed thousands of people worldwide. "I want to make sure that I stated that tribes are not prepared for the coronavirus," he texted Indian Country Today a day after an interview in which he was more cautious. "I don't think that we are as prepared as we should be," Seneca-who has worked more than 18...
Ottawa, Ont.-The Trudeau government has promised $305 million to help Indigenous communities deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the $305 million Indigenous community support fund as part of a broader $82 billion aid package to help Canadians and businesses deal with the fallout from COVID-19. Trudeau announced last week that Indigenous communities could draw from a $100 million envelope that was part of a $1 billion investment to boost...
WASHINGTON-In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic, tribal nations -comprised of some of the most vulnerable communities in the United States-have been left out of the conversation. As the COVID-19 pandemic has now reached all 50 states, tribal governments also face heightened challenges to protect their citizens, and have inadequate federal funding and resources to do so. "We cannot ignore the elevated risks faced by Indian Country from this virus," said...
EDMONTON, Alberta-In 2018, the Canadian federal government bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan. And now several First Nations groups want to buy it. The Westline Indigenous Pipeline Group is a coalition of First Nations people determined to purchase from the government the 1,150 km pipeline that runs from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. Mike LeBourdais, chief of the Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band, and representative for the Western...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Recently, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, which sits on the National Mall in Washington, broke ground for construction of the Native American Veterans Memorial. The memorial, named Warrior's Circle of Honor, will be built on the grounds of the museum. The $15 million memorial will take over a year to construct and is scheduled to be dedicated on Veterans Day 2020. "The circle is something that is really meaningful to most- if not...
CHEROKEE NATION-Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker is sending out a message that might be a wise reminder for all Native Americans. "Native people have been historically underrepresented in the Census. The Census Bureau estimates that in the last Census of 2010, American Indians were undercounted by about 5%, which is more than double the undercount rate of the next closest population group. There are areas in Adair, Cherokee, Delaware and Sequoyah counties that...
Ottawa, Ont.-While premiers and territorial leaders meet in Saskatchewan recently to discuss the well-being of Indigenous children, youth and families, a new report released co-authored by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says First Nations children experience the highest levels of poverty in Canada. "Canada is not tracking First Nations poverty on-reserve so we did," said AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde. "The findings of this report are shameful and underscore the...
On a January day in 1988, I received a call from a George McPeek in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He called inviting me to come check out Intertribal Christian Communications, of which he was the founder and director. A week or so later, I travelled to Winnipeg, and spent five days in the home of George and his family, getting to know them and the Indian Life staff. Seven months later my family and I moved to Manitoba where I began my work as Assistant Editor to George. This adv...
A more detailed memorial will follow in the next issue....
Winnipeg, MB-The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) and the federal government signed a new agreement in early May that will bring $160 million to help Métis citizens improve skills and find good jobs. "This new agreement for Métis Employment and Training marks another important milestone on our journey towards reconciliation with Canada," said David Chartrand, President of the MMF. "This agreement reflects the partnership between the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Gov...
ADA, Okla.—Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby recently announced a partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and Chickasaw Nation to help ensure Native Americans are counted accurately during the 2020 census. “There has been an undercounting of certain populations and, as Native Americans, we have had a long-term issue that affects us,” Governor Anoatubby told census officials. Native Americans were undercounted by about 4.9 percent, a rate more than double the next population group. The Chickasaw Nation has forme...
WYOMING-The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) applauds the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion issued May 20 in Herrera v. Wyoming, a tribal treaty rights case. The dispute initially arose in 2014, when Herrera and fellow Crow tribe members were hunting on their reservation in Montana. They followed elk that crossed into the Bighorn National Forest in neighboring Wyoming, shot the elk there and took the meat back home. Fighting his Wyoming state convictions for hunting...
Winnipeg-In April, Indian Life newspaper received the Award of Merit in the Evangelical Press Association's annual Awards of Excellence contest. The contest had more than 1200 entries overall, in a couple of dozen categories. The judge said, "I have been judging a lot of publications this go-around. And none of them have matched Indian Life's commitment to telling the . . . stories of Indigenous people who have suffered pain over the generations. This newspaper not only...
