Good morning, NUNAverse:
A state commission tasked with reviewing and suggesting changes to Massachusetts’ seal and motto, which includes a controversial depiction of a Native man, met for the first time this week. The commission was created by lawmakers in 2020 to investigate features of the official seal and motto that “may be unwittingly harmful” and recommend design changes. Members of the commission include local tribe members as well as representatives for the state commission on Indian affairs, the state historical commission, and the state cultural council, among other agencies.
Cronkite News reports on Zoel Zohnnie, a pipe welder who lost his job due to the pandemic in 2020 and went on to launch Water Warriors United, a project that delivers water across the Navajo Nation, where an estimated 30% residents lack running water and often must travel long distances to haul it back to their homes. In the past year, Water Warriors United has seen robust crowdfunding and a growing team of volunteers. As of May, the Warriors had delivered 250,000 gallons of water to more than 20 communities on the reservation, which stretches 27,000 square miles across parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
A bill introduced by the House Committee on Education in the Massachusetts legislature Monday would ban public schools from using Native logos, mascots, and team names. The bill is cosponsored by 52 Democrats, one Republican and one independent. The state currently has 24 public schools using Native logos and mascots, down from more than 40 just a few years ago. Lawmakers introduced similar bills in 2017, 2019, and 2020. Each time, the bill failed to emerge from committee.
The National Endowment for the Arts announced two programs created to assist nonprofit arts and culture organizations and local art agencies in securing funding allocated from the American Rescue Plan. The agency received $135 million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan, and according to the NEA webpage on eligibility, eligible applicants must be “Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes.” The agency is encouraging applications from first-time applicants and is offering workshops, Q&A’s, and other resources to assist applicants unfamiliar with seeking federal funding.
Keep reading for a full news update.
Boarding Schools:
Lost Lives, Lost Culture: The Forgotten History Of Indigenous Boarding Schools
The New York Times, Rukmini Callimachi, July 19
The recent discoveries of unmarked graves at government-run schools for Indigenous children in Canada — 215 graves in British Columbia, 750 more in Saskatchewan — surfaced like a long-forgotten nightmare. But for many Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, the nightmare was never forgotten. Instead the discoveries are a reminder of how many living Native Americans were products of an experiment in forcibly removing children from their families and culture. Many of them are still struggling to make sense of who they were and who they are. In the century and a half that the U.S. government ran boarding schools for Native Americans, hundreds of thousands of children were housed and educated in a network of institutions, created to “civilize the savage.”
Nevada Indian Commission Head On Residential School Deaths In U.S.: ‘Shocking’ But ‘Known All Along’
WBUR, Robin Young, Camila Beiner, July 19
The director of the Nevada Indian Commission says she’s relieved that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary — is calling for an investigation into the more than 350 church-run residential schools for Indigenous children that operated in the United States from the 1880s to the 1990s.
Native Mascots:
MA Bill Would Ban Native American Mascots For Public Schools
Patch, Dave Copeland, July 19
A bill introduced by the House Committee on Education in the Massachusetts legislature Monday would ban public schools from using Native American logos, mascots and team names.
Other:
Commission Meeting To Review Controversial State Seal, Flag
AP News, July 19
A state commission tasked with reviewing and suggesting changes to Massachusetts’ seal and motto, which includes a controversial depiction of a Native American man, is meeting for the first time. The 19-member Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth is gathering virtually Monday. The commission was created by lawmakers in 2020 law to investigate features of the official seal and motto that “may be unwittingly harmful” and recommend design changes. Members of the commission include Massachusetts tribe members as well as representatives for the state commission on Indian affairs, the state historical commission and the state cultural council, among other agencies.
Caltech Says It Regrets Drilling Holes In Sacred Native American Petroglyph Site
Los Angeles Times, July 19
Inside federal Ranger Chris Mason’s patrol truck, the radio crackled with alarming news: People were seen lugging bags of heavy equipment into a protected site containing prehistoric rock carvings. Archeologists know the site as the Volcanic Tablelands, an otherworldly landscape of pink-hued cliffs and terraces shaped by wind, rain and earthquakes. It was also an area where it was not unusual to find looters armed with shovels and saws prowling for anything that could be sold in the illegal antiquities market. But when Mason arrived at the scene on Earth Day 2017, he determined that the suspicious activity involved a faculty member and students from Caltech, the prestigious private research university in Pasadena. Joseph Kirschvink, a professor of geoscience, had used a portable pneumatic drill to extract core samples for paleomagnetic studies, officials said. He drilled into rock face roughly three feet from a petroglyph and left the site riddled with 29 1-inch diameter holes marked with blue paint. Native Americans, archeologists and federal land managers have long complained that unlawful removal and destruction of artifacts and sacred sites destroy priceless cultural connections, along with scientific data that allow a better understanding of the earliest inhabitants of North America.
Polymet Air Permit Case Sent Back To Agency
AP News, July 19
The proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota encountered a setback Monday when the state Court of Appeals ordered regulators to revisit a critical air emissions permit given to the project. The court ruled that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency hadn’t sufficiently justified granting the permit after opponents raised allegations that PolyMet was planning a much larger mine. Environmental groups and a tribe pointed to a report that PolyMet filed with Canadian regulators that suggested PolyMet was considering expanding the mine to four times the size that the air permit would allow. The appeals court last year said the MPCA hadn’t adequately evaluated whether the air permit understated the company’s real plans, only to have that ruling overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
How One Warrior Mobilized To Deliver Water To The Navajo Nation
Cronkite News, Gianluca D’Elia, July 19
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 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% of 174,000 residents lack running water and often must travel long distances to haul it back to their homes. In the past year, Water Warriors United has seen robust crowdfunding and a growing team of volunteers. As of May, the Warriors had delivered 250,000 gallons of water to more than 20 communities on the reservation, which stretches 27,000 square miles across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Native Gro Offers Tribes A ‘One-Stop Shop’ For Entering The Cannabis Industry
Native News Online, Andrew Kennard, July 19
It all started in a meeting in Las Vegas, where a couple of tribes expressed their concerns about managing the many operations involved with entering the cannabis industry to the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Violet Gro, Hyperponic, and Sunflower Consulting Group. Berland and Native Gro Chief Operating Officer Ali McKenzie said that meeting sparked the creation of Native Gro, a new company that was officially established on April 20 and made its debut at the Native American Cannabis and Hemp Conferenceon June 14, according to a press release. Berland said Native Gro is based in Nevada and has been in talks with tribes on the West Coast. Native Gro markets itself as a “one-stop shop” that combines the services of three companies to cover three cornerstones of the cannabis business.
Arts, Culture Grant Opportunities For Native Organizations
Indian Country Today, Vincent Schilling, July 19
The National Endowment for the Arts announced two programs created to assist nonprofit arts and culture organizations and local art agencies in securing funding allocated from the American Rescue Plan. The agency received $135 million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan, and according to the NEA webpage on eligibility, eligible applicants must be “Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes.” The agency is encouraging applications from first-time applicants and is offering workshops, Q&A’s and other resources to assist applicants unfamiliar with seeking federal funding.