Good morning, NUNAverse:
Earlier today, Cleveland’s Baseball Team announced that they will be changing their name to the Guardians following the 2021 season. The ballclub announced the name change with a video on Twitter narrated by actor Tom Hanks. The decision ends months of internal discussions triggered by a national reckoning by institutions and teams to permanently drop logos and names based off Native peoples and stereotypes.
Meanwhile, as the NFL approaches the 2021 season, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that causes a game cancellation. The NFL sent a memo to its clubs stating that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week season due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and be credited with a loss. In addition, players on both teams will not be paid for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancelled game due to unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to potential discipline from the Commissioner’s office.
During her travels to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden spent two hours visiting Anchorage, Alaska. Biden focused on health services and support for Alaska Natives, Alaskans, and military families. She got a warm welcome at the offices of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium from consortium President Valerie Davidson (Yup’ik) and Alaska chief medical officer Dr. Anne Zink.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced earlier this month that it will begin consultations with tribal and Native Hawaiian community leaders about an overhaul of regulations that implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The draft regulations will reshape the processes by which federal agencies and museums return Native remains and cultural objects to descendants and Native communities. The DOI said the proposed new rules no longer require Native communities to initiate the repatriation process, and instead put the responsibility of completing the process on museums and federal agencies. Under the drafted rules, museums and agencies would be required to consult with descendants and Native groups when they complete an inventory of human remains and the objects discovered with the remains.
Montana tribes and the parents of 18 students filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging state education leaders are violating a constitutional requirement to teach about the unique culture and heritage of Native peoples. The lawsuit, filed in District Court in Great Falls, seeks an order to require the Board of Public Education to create specific educational standards for the Indian Education for All program and to require the superintendent of public instruction to ensure schools meet those standards and accurately report how they are spending money allocated for the program. Montana’s 1972 Constitution required all public school students to receive education about Native culture and heritage. In a 2004 lawsuit over school funding, a state court found that Montana’s educational goals showed no commitment to the preservation of Native cultural identity.
Keep reading for a full news update.
COVID-19:
NFL Informs Clubs That COVID-19 Outbreaks Among Unvaccinated Players Could Lead To Forfeited Games
NFL.com, Kevin Patra, July 22
As the NFL approaches the 2021 season, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that causes a game cancellation.
Native Mascots:
Cleveland’s Baseball Team Goes From Indians To Guardians
AP News, Tom Withers, July 23
Known as the Indians since 1915, Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will be called Guardians. The ballclub announced the name change Friday — effective at the end of the 2021 season — with a video on Twitter narrated by actor Tom Hanks. The decision ends months of internal discussions triggered by a national reckoning by institutions and teams to permanently drop logos and names considered racist.
Politics:
First Lady’s Alaska Visit Focused On Tribal, Military Health
Indian Country Today, Joaqlin Estus, July 22
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden has been to Alaska before and has old friends there, and she’s been told Alaska is a model for an effective, coordinated response to COVID-19. So she made a stop in Anchorage on her way to the Olympic games in Tokyo. During her 2-hour visit on Wednesday, Biden focused on health services and support for Alaska Natives, Alaskans and military families. She got a warm welcome at the offices of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium from consortium President Valerie Davidson, Yup’ik, and Alaska chief medical officer Dr. Anne Zink. Zink said the history of impacts on Alaska Natives from “every epidemic and pandemic worldwide” shaped the statewide drive and coordinated response to the pandemic.
Interior Department To Consult With Community Leaders On Major Changes To NAGPRA
Native News Online, Andrew Kennard, July 22
The Department of the Interior announced on July 15 that it will begin consultations with tribal and Native Hawaiian community leaders about an overhaul of regulations that implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The draft regulations will reshape the processes by which federal agencies and museums return Native American human remains and cultural objects to descendants and Native communities. The Interior Department said the proposed new rules no longer require Native communities to initiate the repatriation process, and instead put the responsibility of completing the process on museums and federal agencies. Under the drafted rules, museums and agencies would be required to consult with descendants and Native groups when they complete an inventory of human remains and the objects discovered with the remains, or “funerary objects.”
Law:
Montana Tribes Sue Over Indian Education For All Compliance
AP News, Amy Beth Hanson, July 22
Montana tribes and the parents of 18 students filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging state education leaders are violating a constitutional requirement to teach about the unique culture and heritage of Native Americans. The lawsuit, filed in District Court in Great Falls, seeks an order to require the Board of Public Education to create specific educational standards for the Indian Education for All program and to require the superintendent of public instruction to ensure schools meet those standards and accurately report how they are spending money allocated for the program. Montana’s 1972 Constitution required all public school students to receive education about Native American culture and heritage. The Legislature passed the Indian Education for All Act in 1999, stating it was the policy of the state to “recognize the distinct and unique cultural heritage of American Indians and to be committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural heritage.” In a 2004 lawsuit over school funding, a state court found that Montana’s educational goals showed no commitment to the preservation of Native American cultural identity.
Winona LaDuke Released From Jail With Conditions To Avoid Enbridge Line 3 Work Areas
Native News Online, Darren Thompson, July 22
Winona LaDuke was released Thursday from Aitkin County Jail in Minnesota, after spending three days in custody. LaDuke was held overnight in Aitkin County for violating conditions of release. She was arrested with six other women on Monday, July 19, for protesting in front of a Line 3 replacement site near the Shell River in Wadena County; Aitkin County issued a warrant for her arrest. After her initial appearance yesterday in Wadena County, her and 11 others posted bail and were released from custody except LaDuke. She was arrested on Jan. 9, 2021 for protesting at a Line 3 work site and posted bail with conditions to remain law-abiding.
Boarding Schools:
US Churches Reckon With Traumatic Legacy Of Native Schools
AP News, Peter Smith, July 22
The discoveries of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada have prompted renewed calls for a reckoning over the traumatic legacy of similar schools in the United States — and in particular by the churches that operated many of them. U.S. Catholic and Protestant denominations operated more than 150 boarding schools between the 19th and 20th centuries. Native American and Alaskan Native children were regularly severed from their tribal families, customs, language and religion and brought to the schools in a push to assimilate and Christianize them. Some U.S. churches have been reckoning with this activity for years through ceremonies, apologies and archival investigations, while others are just getting started. Some advocates say churches have more work to do in opening their archives, educating the public about what was done in the name of their faith and helping former students and their relatives tell their stories of family trauma.
Other:
Indigenous Athletes Set To Shine In Olympics
Indian Country Today, Dan Ninham, July 22
Athlete Jillian Weir will be representing more than the Canadian people in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She’s also representing the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte from the Tyendinaga Territory. Weir, 28, is apparently the only Indigenous athlete on Team Canada and may be the only one in North America set to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games, which start Friday, July 23, and continue through Aug. 8. It is her first trip to the Olympics. The U.S. apparently is not sending any Indigenous athletes to the Olympics this year, according to people familiar with the team. A Team USA spokesperson said that Indigeneity is “a self-identifying question” that is not tracked by the Olympics committee.
Exhibit Combines Influences Of Native Generations, Contemporary Issues
Indian Country Today, Natasha Brennan, July 22
Charles W. Bloomfield, whose traditional name is PḰȺELWEȽTEN, is among the 22 Native American artists featured in the Washington State History Museum’s 16th annual exhibition “In the Spirit: Contemporary Native Arts” now on display through Aug. 29. The Pyramid Lake Paiute, W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) and Lummi Nation artist has consulted with the museum as part of a Native advisory committee and has seen the exhibit and artists grow throughout his 14 years of participating in the show. The six-week-long exhibition is one of the largest and longest in the area, Bloomfield said, allowing for Native artists to be elevated in a prominent space.
Universities Have Held Onto Sacred Indigenous Remains And Items For Decades – And Have Been Slow To Give Them Back
CNN, Neelam Bohra, July 22
The Ponca tribe buried Chief Standing Bear more than a century ago in what is now Nebraska. But Standing Bear’s tomahawk, a symbol of protest against US government policies that didn’t define Native Americans as “people under the law,” has been sitting since 1982 in a glass case 1,500 miles away at a Harvard University museum in suburban Boston. And it won’t belong to the tribe again until at least September, when officials have agreed to let Ponca leaders visit the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology as a part of the tomahawk’s repatriation. The tomahawk technically does not fall under items that quality for repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act – or NAGPRA, a law that outlines legal processes for museums and universities to return ancestral remains and other qualified sacred items to Indigenous tribes.