Press release follows:

Native American Rights Fund and the Walton Family Foundation Announce First-of-its-Kind Tribal Water Institute

Walton Family Foundation commits 1.4 Million

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Native American Rights Fund and the Walton Family Foundation today announced the creation of the Tri…

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While not billed as a political event, 2024 Green Party POTUS candidate Cornel West, 70, is taking steps to firm up a major plank in his Indigenous affairs platform: protecting human and civil rights for all American Indians and Native peoples of America.

The acclaimed philosophical scholar is expected to detail some of h…

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Press release follows:

Padilla to Chair Hearing on Improving Access to Clean Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure in Tribal Communities

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, September 20, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, will…

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WASHINGTON — The Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA) offers the following handy guide to understanding how federal government shutdowns affect tribal communities.

In short, shutdowns can be really bad for tribes.

And with federal shutdowns seemingly always looming in this partisan American climate — i…

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Press release and full letter follows:

Huffman, Padilla Call on DOJ to Dedicate Personnel to Bring Justice to Missing or Murdered Indigenous People in California

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02) and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) led a bicameral letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garlan…

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration and tribes are pushing back against perceptions that tribes have received too much federal money to build out fiber-optic and broadband infrastructure in remote locations.

A Sept 5. Wall Street Journal article, titled, “The $53,000 Connection: The High Cost of High-Speed Internet for Everyone,” highlighted this issue of bubbling political tension, noting that the administration plans to spend “an average cost of $53,000 for each household and workplace connected” with fiber-optic cable on Nebraska’s Winnebago Tribe alone.

“That amount exceeds the assessed value of some of the homes getting hookups, property records show,” the article reports. “While most connections will cost far less, the expense to reach some remote communities has triggered concerns over the ultimate price tag for ensuring every rural home, business, school and workplace in America has the same internet that city dwellers enjoy.”

Blair Levin, a top communications policy official in the Clinton and Obama administrations who is currently an equity research analyst, said that the federal government would get more bang for its buck by forgoing broadband for remote areas, including tribal reservations.

“The problem is, money is not infinite,” Levin told the WSJ. “If you’re spending $50,000 to connect a very remote location, you have to ask yourself, would we be better off spending that same amount of money to connect [more] families?”

Tribal leaders fervently resist that notion, saying they have been perennially placed at the back of the line in receiving federal infrastructure funds, despite many reservations being forcibly moved to remote areas by the federal government.

Remote and poor tribes have been especially perturbed by the lack of equity in attention to their multi-fold, federally-created problems over many decades.

“Why wouldn’t we as a tribe deserve the same internet service that you guys have in the cities?” Sunshine Thomas-Bear, the Winnebago Tribe’s historic preservation officer, told the WSJ. “We are reliant on internet service just as much as anyone else.”

Pots of pandemic-related broadband monies dedicated to tribes amount to over $3.5 billion and counting during the Biden administration. These monies have largely come from the U.S. Commerce Department, but the Treasury, Interior and Agriculture Departments — as well as the Federal Communications Commission — have additionally provided hundreds of millions in combined internet-focused funding.

Some policymakers have been asking of late whether tribes are receiving too much money without the ability to spend it in a timely fashion — and whether the cost is even worth it.

Commerce officials scoff at that notion. They tell Indigenous Wire that such money for tribes on this front is long overdue, and Secretary Gina Raimondo has told tribal leaders that she will resist pressure from lawmakers to claw back dedicated tribal funding.

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The Associated Press offers this report on the passing of the influential Menominee leader at age 88.

Press release from Dems follows:

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and DNC Native Caucus Chair Clara Pratte …

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Lahaina has burned. Dozens are dead. The Hawaiian islands are in mourning.

The Great Banyan Tree, scarred and scorched, stands. For now, at least.

Heralded as one of the oldest such trees in the U.S., it symbolizes hope to Native Hawaiians and non-Natives alike.

“…

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I’m not sure I’d be the person I am today if it wasn’t for tribal journeys.

The 2012 Paddle to Squaxin Island was my first journey. Before that, I had tagged al…

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I had a Barbie-themed birthday this year. Jealous?

My kids took me to see Margot Robbie’s already iconic pic, and I enjoyed it, as did my 3 daughters and son.

Our 7-year-old twins twitched a bit in their seats toward the end of the two-hour, anti-patriarchy film, as we had read ahead they might. This is certainly much more of an …

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As a rule, I don’t reveal my sources.

But Nikki Ducheneaux, I think, wouldn’t mind in this case.

Often, I would check in with the Cheyenne River tribal citizen and partner with the Big Fire Law & Policy Group (“100% Native owned and majority woman owned”) to see what was going on in her world of Indian law.

“I’m on do not d…

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Accountability Office, in response to a June bipartisan letter from U.S. lawmakers, has agreed to “examine the criminal justice outcomes in states that have jurisdiction over tribal lands as a result of Public Law 83-280 (PL-280).”

“GAO committed to reviewing PL-280 and have assigned t…

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UPDATE: Full guide now online here.

Release event info follows:

The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative Releases Guide to help Improve USDA Tribal Consultations
 
WHAT:     
Tribal consultations are complex, and because of this, the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) at the University of Arkansas School of Law, with the generous support…

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The following article is published with permission from The Microdose, an independent journalism newsletter brought to you by the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. It’s written by our old Indian Country Today colleague and pal, Simon Moya-Smith, who knows how to tell a good tale. His new book, “Your Spirit…

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What did you think of the less than 7-minute sit-down (stand-up) interview by Indian Country Today on PBS with Vice President Kamala Harris?

EARLIER: Looks like the White House took our sage advice...

AND: Confidential to White House Press Office re: poor American Indian outreach

If you haven’t watched it yet, a spoiler alert: The question that most moved…

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