Good Morning NUNAverse,
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) formally executed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact Friday, finalizing a long-running effort to negotiate an agreement that reconciles the tribes’ historic treaty rights with Montana’s modern water rights doctrine. In exchange for the CSKT relinquishing legal claims to thousands of off-reservation water rights, the agreement allocates $1.9 billion to a trust fund dedicated in part to rehabilitating the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. The tribes have also regained control of the National Bison Range. The compact was originally endorsed by the Montana Legislature in 2015. Federal legislation authorizing the compact, initially co-sponsored by Montana Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, was passed by Congress and signed into law last year as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The final version of the agreement was then ratified by tribal leaders in late December.
The First Americans Museum opened its doors to the public on Saturday in Oklahoma City with a ceremony that included remarks from museum, city, and tribal leaders as well as a procession of delegates representing all 39 Tribal Nations in the state of Oklahoma. The museum opening is the culmination of some three decades of work, political squabbling, and stops and starts along the way. The concept was first pitched in 1994 and a groundbreaking ceremony occurred in 2005, but funding dried out in 2012, leaving the museum nearly forgotten about until additional funding was secured by the state, private funders, and Oklahoma City2.
Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada. To the south, a fire on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Giant Sequoia National Monument grew significantly overnight to more than 6 square miles, and crews had no containment of it, a Sequoia National Forest statement said. The Windy Fire, also started by lightning, has burned into part of the Peyrone Sequoia Grove in the national monument, and other groves were threatened. The wildfires are among the latest in a long summer of blazes that have scorched nearly 3,550 square miles in California, destroying hundreds of homes.
A statue of a Native person that served as a landmark at an intersection in a St. Louis business district was removed Friday after officials determined it did not “appropriately honor” Indigenous communities. The statue will be donated to the National Building Arts Center, a repository for area architectural artifacts, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Its sculptor, Bill Christman, endorsed the statue’s removal. The Cherokee Street Community Improvement District said in a social media post that the sculpture was removed early Friday, after a vote Thursday night at a meeting of the district.
Keep reading for a full news update.
Politics:
Interior Secretary Signs CSKT Water Compact
Native News Online, Eric Dietrich, September 18
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) formally executed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact Friday, finalizing a long-running effort to negotiate an agreement that reconciles the tribes’ historic treaty rights with Montana’s modern water rights doctrine. In exchange for the CSKT relinquishing legal claims to thousands of off-reservation water rights, the agreement allocates $1.9 billion to a trust fund dedicated in part to rehabilitating the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. The tribes have also regained control of the National Bison Range. The compact was originally endorsed by the Montana Legislature in 2015. Federal legislation authorizing the compact, initially co-sponsored by Montana Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, was passed by Congress and signed into law last year as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The final version of the agreement was then ratified by tribal leaders in late December.
Deb Haaland: Land Agency Moving Back To DC
AP News, Matthew Daly, September 17
Secretary of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) is moving the national headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres in Western states, back to the nation’s capital after two years in Colorado. The land management agency lost nearly 300 employees to retirement or resignation after President Donald Trump’s administration moved its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado, in 2019. The bureau has broad influence over energy development and agriculture in the West, managing public lands for uses ranging from fossil fuel extraction, renewable power development and grazing, to recreation and wilderness. Its staffing has remained in turmoil after four years without a confirmed director. The agency’s space in Grand Junction will become its western headquarters.
COVID-19:
Oglala Sioux Tribe Quarantines Students Due To COVID-19
Native News Online, September 18
The Oglala Sioux Tribe, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, has issued a quarantine order for all K-12 schools on the reservation due to rising numbers of Covid-19 cases. The quarantine order was sent out to parents and guardians earlier this week by Oglala Sioux Tribe Vice President Alicia Mousseau, stating a 10-day quarantine for all students and non-essential staff would go into effect until Sept. 29 and a five-day quarantine for essential staff until Sept. 22. Mousseau said on a Zoom call on Tuesday that there were 21 new Covid-19 cases and 41 total active cases within the reservation’s borders.
Cherokee Leader Calls For New Hospital In Speech
Cherokee Phoenix, D. Sean Rowley, September 17
For the second consecutive year, circumstances required Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. to give his annual State of the Nation address by video, with the COVID-19 pandemic again forcing most of the 2021 Cherokee National Holiday onto virtual platforms. While the video address touched various topics, perhaps the biggest was a plan to build a medical facility to replace W.W. Hastings Hospital, and begin investment toward a behavioral health network. Hoskin said the COVID-19 pandemic further confirmed concerns within the Cherokee Nation health system about mental health care for Cherokee Nation citizens. Hoskin also said the outpatient health facility in Salina will be replaced with a modern health center, bringing it in line with other Cherokee Nation Health Services sites.
MMIW:
FBI offers $10,000 reward for information on the disappearance of Native American woman
CNN, Alaa Elassar, September 18
The FBI has announced a reward for information on Mary Johnson, a Native woman who went missing from the Tulalip Reservation in Washington state in December 2020. The agency is offering $10,000 for information leading to the “identification, arrest, and conviction” of whoever is responsible for her disappearance, according to a Twitter post issued Wednesday. Mary Johnson, 40, also known as Mary Johnson Davis, was reported missing on December 9, 2020, according to the FBI’s Most Wanted website. She was last seen November 25, 2020, as she walked on Firetrail Road on the Tulalip Indian reservation in Marysville, Washington on her way to a friend’s house. She never arrived, according to the FBI. Her disappearance is being investigated by the FBI’s Seattle Field Office and the Tulalip Tribal Police.
Boarding Schools:
History’s Scars Laid Bare At Former Indian Boarding School
AP News, Elizabeth Hernandez, September 18
Ernest House Jr. pulled the plaque off one of the stone columns beneath the clock tower at the heart of Fort Lewis College, one of three panels that for the last two decades have offered an inaccurate portrayal of Federal Indian boarding schools. Afterward, stone remnants were the only traces left of three informational plaques that had adorned the base of the Durango college’s clock tower since 2000. A dozen panels lined the tower’s walk-thru base, bearing pictures and text illustrating the institution’s journey to becoming a college that serves a large Native population, thanks to a tuition waiver for students from federally recognized tribes or Alaska Native villages. A committee made up of Fort Lewis employees, students and community members charged with reckoning with the school’s dark past decided the three offending panels needed to go. The group now is tasked with coming up with a replacement display beneath the clock tower.
Other:
First Americans Museum Opens Doors To The Public, Pays Tribute To 39 Tribes In Oklahoma
Native News Online, Dalton Walker, September 18
First Americans Museum opened its doors to the public on Saturday in Oklahoma City with a ceremony that included remarks from museum, city, and tribal leaders as well as a procession of delegates representing all 39 Tribal Nations in the state of Oklahoma. The museum opening is the culmination of some three decades of work, political squabbling and stops and starts along the way. The concept was first pitched in 1994 and a groundbreaking ceremony occurred in 2005, but funding dried out in 2012, leaving the museum nearly forgotten about until additional funding was secured by the state, private funders and the City of Oklahoma City and construction resumed in 2019. The museum features comprehensive exhibits that honor Native people in a state that was once considered Indian Territory by the United States government.
California Wildfires Threaten Sequoia Trees, Tribal Lands
AP News, Noah Berger, September 17
Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada. To the south, a fire on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Giant Sequoia National Monument grew significantly overnight to more than 6 square miles, and crews had no containment of it, a Sequoia National Forest statement said. The Windy Fire, also started by lightning, has burned into part of the Peyrone Sequoia Grove in the national monument, and other groves were threatened. The wildfires are among the latest in a long summer of blazes that have scorched nearly 3,550 square miles in California, destroying hundreds of homes.
State Offers $4M To Build And Expand Recreation Facilities
AP News, September 18
Rhode Island is offering $4 million in grants to help communities build and expand recreation facilities. Democratic Governor Dan McKee and the Department of Environmental Management announced on Friday that the outdoor recreation matching grants would be available to local municipalities and tribes seeking to acquire, develop or renovate outdoor recreational facilities in their communities.The money is provided through a clean water and green bond approved by voters.
Preserving The Force Of The Navajo Language
Cronkite News, September 17
Manuelito Wheeler did not join millions of sci-fi fans who packed into movie theaters in May 1977 to see the original “Star Wars.” He was only 7, and living with his family in remote Window Rock on Navajo Nation land, hundreds of miles from the nearest movie theater and with little knowledge of any galaxy far, far away. After, an idea lingered: What if “Star Wars: A New Hope,” as the original now was called, was dubbed into Diné Bizaad, the 700-year-old language of the Navajo? There were so many parallels – of duality, of colonization, of landscape in the Indigenous land and a force that drives people to connect through shared experiences. Nearly 20 years after watching “A New Hope” for the first time, Wheeler, by then the director of the Navajo Nation Museum, headed the translation and dub of the dialogue into Diné Bizaad. It premiered in 2013 at a dusty rodeo arena in Window Rock and now lives on Disney+ for subscribers worldwide.
Colorado Panel Recommends Tribal Name Change For Mountain
AP News, September 17
A Colorado state panel has recommended that a mountain peak west of Denver be renamed in honor of a Native woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century. Thursday’s recommendation comes amid national efforts to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native people and other people of color after last summer’s protests calling for racial justice reform. It is the first of several name changes being considered by the state panel. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board recommended changing the name of Squ*w Mountain, located in Clear Creek County about 30 miles (48 kilometers) miles west of Denver, to Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain, which is pronounced “mess-taw-hay.”
Native American Statue Removed From St. Louis
AP News, September 17
A statue of a Native person that served as a landmark at an intersection in a St. Louis business district was removed Friday after officials determined it did not “appropriately honor” indigenous communities. The statue will be donated to the National Building Arts Center, a repository for area architectural artifacts, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Its sculptor, Bill Christman, endorsed the statue’s removal. The Cherokee Street Community Improvement District said in a social media post that the sculpture was removed early Friday, after a vote Thursday night at a meeting of the district.
3 Cherokees Make It Professionally In Cornhole
Cherokee Phoenix, September 17
From the backyard to the big stage, three Cherokee Nation citizens from Delaware County have made professional status in the sport of cornhole for the 2021-22 season. The objective is to throw a 6-inch-by-6-inch square bag 27 feet to an opposing board, attempting to make it into a hole that is 6 inches in diameter for three points, also scoring points if the bag stays on the board. The bags also have a fast side and slow side used for offensive and defensive strategies.