Good morning, NUNAverse:
A 25-foot totem pole, intricately hand-carved and painted by Native people, arrived in the nation’s capital Wednesday afternoon after a two-week cross-country journey from Washington state, as part of a campaign to protect sacred tribal lands. Hauled on a flatbed trailer, the roughly 5,000-pound totem pole was brought to the front entrance of the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall, where a small crowd came to welcome it. Douglas James, a Lummi Nation member who was one of the pole’s carvers and traveled with the group that brought it across the United States, said they met thousands of people along their journey — many of whom became emotional as they touched the pole.
Negiel Bigpond (Yuchi), who’s family was forced from their land and marched across the Trail of Tears, and Sam Brownback, the former Kansas Governor, Senator, and U.S. Ambassador, have launched a campaign to raise awareness and ask President Joe Biden to formally recognize an apology that was issued in 2010. The United States did make an official apology for the Trail of Tears, but it was buried in a defense spending bill that was signed into law in 2010. Bigpond and Brownback are asking the President to recognize the apology in a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden.
More than 800 water rights claims by members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians have been pulled out of legal limbo following the Montana Water Court’s issuance of a first-of-its-kind order this month. The final decree is an 896-page order that covers 12 water basins across the state. The water rights in question are claimed by the United States on behalf of the tribe. The order by Chief Water Judge Russell McElyea represents the first time the Montana Water Court has reached resolution on tribal reserved water rights outside of a negotiated compact like the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact, which took more than a decade to reach ratification by the Montana Legislature, U.S. Congress and, late last year, the tribes. The CSKT water compact also has a fiscal component — the creation of a $1.9 billion trust fund dedicated in part to rehabilitation of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project — whereas there’s no such allocation involved in the Montana Water Court’s final decree on the Chippewa claims.
On Tuesday, July 27, the Crow Tribe filed a lawsuit in the Crow Nation Tribal Court against a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police officer for excessive use of force during a traffic stop for a bad turn signal on the Crow Reservation. According to the complaint, on July 20, 2021, BIA Officer Steve Stallings, a non-tribal member, was working in his capacity as a BIA agent on the Crow Reservation when he responded to a traffic stop in Lodge Grass, Montana. When Officer Stallings arrived on the scene, he deployed his K-9 unit, after the original officer deployed his taser while the victim was on the ground. After Officer Stallings was unable to get his K-9 to comply with his orders, the victim sustained emotional and physical injuries as a result of the incident.
Keep reading for a full news update.
Law:
Kamala Harris, Deb Haaland Call On Congress To Pass Indigenous Voting Rights Legislation
Native News Online, Jenna Kunze, July 28
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris and Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland (Pueblo Laguna) met with four tribal representatives to discuss expanding access to voting for Native American communities. The issue is “recent” because 30 new voting laws that effectively target tribal communities were passed in 18 states since the 2020 election, she added. In Arizona, one of those laws—upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this month—further restricts state voting protocol, which Native American and other minority communities say will effectively reduce their access to voting. In attendance on Tuesday was Oglala Sioux Tribal President Kevin Killer; chairwoman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana, Shelly Fryant; president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, representing 168 federally recognized tribes, Julie Kikta; Diné Navajo Nation voting activist, Allie Young; and co-founder of the North Dakota Native Caucus, Prairie Rose Seminole. Each representative shared with the White House specific barriers to the polls their communities face in North and South Dakota, Montana, Alaska and Arizona.
Montana Water Court Decides Tribal Water Rights In First-Of-Its-Kind Decision
Montana Free Press, Amanda Eggart, July 28
More than 800 water rights claimed by members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians have been pulled out of legal limbo following the Montana Water Court’s issuance of a first-of-its-kind order this month. The final decree is an 896-page order that covers 12 water basins across the state. The water rights in question are claimed by the United States on behalf of the tribe. The order by Chief Water Judge Russell McElyea represents the first time the Montana Water Court has reached resolution on tribal reserved water rights outside of a negotiated compact like the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact, which took more than a decade to reach ratification by the Montana Legislature, U.S. Congress and, late last year, the tribes. The CSKT water compact also has a fiscal component — the creation of a $1.9 billion trust fund dedicated in part to rehabilitation of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project — whereas there’s no such allocation involved in the Montana Water Court’s final decree on the Chippewa claims.
Crow Tribe Files Lawsuit Against BIA Officer For Use Of Excessive Force
Native News Online, Darren Thompson, July 28
On Tuesday, July 27, the Crow Indian Tribe filed a lawsuit in the Crow Nation Tribal Court against a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police officer for excessive use of force during a traffic stop for a bad turn signal last week on the Crow Indian Reservation. According to the complaint, on July 20, 2021, BIA Officer Steve Stallings, a non-tribal member, was working in his capacity as a BIA agent on the Crow Indian Reservation when he responded to a traffic stop in Lodge Grass, Mont. When Officer Stallings arrived on the scene, he deployed his K-9 unit, after the original officer deployed his taser on two separate occasions while the victim was on the ground. After Officer Stallings was unable to get his K-9 to comply with his orders, the victim Harris Redstar, a Crow tribal member, sustained emotional and physical injuries as a result of the incident.
Alaska Supreme Court Upholds $20,000 Fine For Metlakatla Fisherman In Fishing Rights Case
KRBD, Eric Stone, July 27
In 2014, U.S. Coast Guard officers reported a Metlakatla tribal member fishing in a closed area without a state commercial fishing permit. When they boarded the boat they found a few dozen coho salmon, which the skipper reportedly said he intended to sell. Metlakatla resident John Scudero Jr. was cited for three commercial fishing violations and fined $20,000 after a one-day trial the following year. He appealed the case. Metlakatla’s elected tribal government has long objected to state fishing regulations, arguing that its status as the state’s only Indian reservation gives it unique federally-guaranteed rights. The tribe filed a brief in support, arguing enrolled tribal citizens fishing outside the reservation’s boundaries were not under the state’s jurisdiction. But the Alaska Supreme Court disagreed in a 4-0 decision.
Native Mascots:
The Long Road To A Reckoning On Racist Team Names
Vox, Maria Givens, July 28
On July 23, American sports took a step toward treating my people as human. Major League Baseball and the Cleveland team announced it would stop using the team name — the Indians — and replace it with the Guardians. While a video, narrated by Tom Hanks, made no amends or mention of its previous mascot, the Cleveland team noted that “Cleveland was always the best part of our name.” But it wasn’t so long ago that changing the team’s name felt far out of reach. As a former policy analyst for the National Congress of American Indians, I worked for years on trying to eliminate mascots — and of all the policy fights and advocacy battles in Indian Country, Native mascots was the hardest issue I ever worked on.
Boarding Schools:
In 2010, The US Apologized To Native Americans. A New Spiritual Movement Aims To Recognize It.
The Washington Post, Emily McFarlan Mille, July 28
Negiel Bigpond’s family was forced from their land and marched across the country on the Trail of Tears. Bigpond, who is Yuchi, was sent away from his family as a child to what were known as Indian boarding schools, where he remembers being made to cut his hair and dress differently, as well as being punished for speaking his Yuchi language. Now he’d like an apology — or, rather, he’d like the United States to acknowledge the official apology it already has made to Native American peoples, which was buried in a defense spending bill and signed into law in 2010. And he’s not the only one. Bigpond and Sam Brownback, the former Kansas governor, senator and U.S. ambassador, have launched a movement to raise awareness of the apology and ask President Joe Biden to formally recognize it in a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden.
Indigenous-Led Nonprofit Asks To Help Federal Investigation Into Abuses At Native American Boarding Schools
The Seattle Lake Tribune, Zak Podmore, July 28
For many Native American residents of San Juan County who were born before 1970, their first trip to elementary school was made with a police escort and some weren’t able to to see their families again for months or even years. One county resident who serves on the board of directors for the Indigenous-led nonprofit Utah Diné Bikéyah recalls watching a police officer twirl handcuffs around his finger as he took two children, ages three and five, from their parents and removed them to a boarding school. This account and more were collected in a letter Utah Diné Bikéyah executive director Woody Lee sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last week. The stories were gathered in response to Haaland’s announcement last month that the Interior Department would conduct “a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies,” which forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of Native American children from their communities for over 150 years. In the letter, Lee encouraged the secretary to expand the review beyond federally run Bureau of Indian Affairs facilities like the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City — which was the subject of a 2018 report to the Navajo Tribal Council for its questionable management practices — to boarding schools and foster care programs that were run by churches or other entities.
Other:
Surfing USA: Indigenous Hawaiian Takes Gold
Indian Country Today, Dan Ninham, July 28
An Indigenous athlete in an Olympic sport with Indigenous roots is a gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Carissa Moore, 28, an ethnic Hawaiian representing Team USA, won the inaugural gold medal in Olympic women’s surfing when she defeated South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag, who earned the silver medal, 14.93 to 8.46, in the final round in Ichinomiya, Japan. Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki took bronze. Moore was ranked number one in the world heading into the Olympics, just in time for surfing’s debut as an Olympic sport.