Good Morning NUNAverse, 

Keeping a campaign promise to Indian Country, the White House announced on Wednesday that it will host a 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit this fall. While the exact date is yet to be announced, the summit will take place during the week of November 8, 2021. The summit will be held virtually this year. No reason was given for the summit taking place virtually, though the upsurge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant was likely a key reason. The summit replaces the tribal nations conference that was held for eight years during the Obama administration’s two terms in office. During the 2020 presidential campaign, the Biden-Harris Tribal Nations plan included a promise to immediately reinstate the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

Speaking in personal terms, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said extensive news media coverage of the disappearance and death of 22-year-old Gabby Petito while on a cross-country trip should be a reminder of hundreds of Native girls and women who are missing or murdered in the United States. Secretary Haaland said that her heart goes out to Petito’s family, but that she also grieves for “so many Indigenous women″ whose families have endured similar heartache “for the last 500 years.″ A report prepared for the state of Wyoming found that at least 710 Native people were reported missing between 2011 and late 2020.

After a private blessing and a prayer, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde invited gathered media to watch as an excavator tore into a wall of the old, abandoned paper mill that the tribe says has stood on its ancestral grounds for too long. The tribe held a symbolic demolition event at the old Blue Heron Paper Mill at Willamette Falls on Tuesday, representing a small step toward removing the industrial site and returning it to Indigenous hands. Chris Mercier, vice chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, said the tribe has been trying to reclaim as much of its traditional homelands as possible. The acquisition of the land at Willamette Falls represents the biggest step in that direction, he said.

The U.S. Department of Interior says the agency is pushing the priorities of President Job Biden’s agenda “rapidly,” citing moves to build a clean energy future while working to advance the needs of Indian Country. Secretary Deb Haaland held a news briefing with 10 reporters on Thursday to discuss the progress of the federal agency. Indian Country Today was the only Indigenous publication represented in the nearly 45-minute briefing. 

Keep reading for a full news update.

Politics:

Biden Administration to Host 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit

Native News Online, September 23

Keeping a campaign promise to Indian Country, the White House announced on Wednesday that it will host a 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit this fall. While the exact date is yet to be announced, the summit will take place during the week of November 8, 2021. The summit will be held virtually this year. No reason was given for the summit taking place virtually, though the upsurge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant was likely a key reason. The summit replaces the tribal nations conference that was held for eight years during the Obama administration’s two terms in office. During the 2020 presidential campaign, the Biden-Harris Tribal Nations plan included a promise to immediately reinstate the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference, which the Obama-Biden administration created.

MMIW:

Haaland: Petito Case A Reminder Of Missing Native Americans

AP News, Matthew Daly, September 23

Speaking in personal terms, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said extensive news media coverage of the disappearance and death of 22-year-old Gabby Petito while on a cross-country trip should be a reminder of hundreds of Native girls and women who are missing or murdered in the United States. Haaland, the first Native Cabinet secretary, said that her heart goes out to Petito’s family, but that she also grieves for “so many Indigenous women″ whose families have endured similar heartache “for the last 500 years.″ A report prepared for the state of Wyoming found that at least 710 Native people were reported missing between 2011 and late 2020.

Family Seeks Information After Woman Disappears In Las Vegas

AP News, September 23

A Native woman from northwestern Washington state went missing while on vacation in Las Vegas earlier this month and her family is seeking information. The Yakima Herald-Republic reports Reatha May Finkbonner, 30, of Bellingham was in Nevada with her fiancé and friends when she went missing Sept. 3. Her family has filed missing person reports with the Lummi Nation Police Department and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Boarding Schools:

Work Aims To Uncover History Of Boarding School Burial Site

AP News, Susan Montoya Bryan, September 23

Albuquerque city officials plan to use ground-penetrating radar as they research the history of a site where dozens of Native boarding school students are believed to have been buried more than a century ago. Orange flags also will be placed at the city park to signify the importance of the site as more permanent plans are worked out among city officials, Indigenous leaders and advocacy groups. Orange is the color used to symbolize the movement that is bringing more awareness to the troubled legacy of the boarding school system that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. Indigenous activists became concerned earlier this year when a plaque memorializing the students from the former Albuquerque Indian School vanished. They established a makeshift memorial of flowers and other offerings and demanded an investigation.

Other:

Grand Ronde Tribe Reclaims Willamette Falls In Oregon

AP News, Jamie Hale, September 23

After a private blessing and a prayer, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde invited gathered media to watch as an excavator tore into a wall of the old, abandoned paper mill that the tribe says has stood on its ancestral grounds for too long. The tribe held a symbolic demolition event at the old Blue Heron Paper Mill at Willamette Falls on Tuesday, representing a small step toward removing the industrial site and returning it to Indigenous hands, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported. Chris Mercier, vice chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, said the tribe has been trying to reclaim as much of its traditional homelands as possible. The acquisition of the land at Willamette Falls represents the biggest step in that direction, he said.

A Check In: Six Months As Interior Secretary

Native News Online, Aliyah Chavez, September 23

The leader of the U.S. Department of Interior says the agency is pushing the priorities of President Job Biden’s agenda “rapidly,” citing moves to build a clean energy future while working to advance the needs of Indian Country. Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) held a news briefing with 10 reporters on Thursday to discuss the progress of her federal agency. Indian Country Today was the only Indigenous publication represented in the nearly 45-minute briefing. September marks six months since Haaland took over as the leader of the Interior — a historic move that made her the first Native person to serve as a Cabinet secretary.

Bodies thought to be those of Mexican Indigenous men found

AP News, Mark Stevenson, September 23

Investigators in northern Mexico said Wednesday they have found six sets of skeletal remains and are performing forensic tests to see if they are some of the 10 men from Mexico’s most persecuted Indigenous group who were abducted in mid-July. The crime scene in the desert of the northern state of Sonora is likely to be a major embarrassment for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has made it his special project to bring justice to the Yaqui Indigenous community. The Mexican leader had invited U.S. President Joe Biden to attend a Sept. 28 ceremony to ask forgiveness of the Yaquis for a government campaign to exterminate or exile them around 1900; some Yaquis live in the United States. The U.S. is reportedly sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken instead.