Good Morning NUNAverse,
The Cherokee Nation on Tuesday announced three of the nation’s largest drug distributors will pay $75 million to settle legal claims that the companies created an opioid crisis on Cherokee tribal lands. The deal is the first of its kind with a tribal government. The Cherokee Nation filed the lawsuit in 2017, after it was determined that pharmaceutical distributors flooded Cherokee Nation communities with nearly 200 million opioid painkillers in a two year span. The overabundance equated to 153 opioid pills per individual. Tuesday’s settlement terms have yet to be announced, but a Cherokee Nation press release reported that McKesson, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, and Cardinal Health will make total payments of slightly over $75 million to be paid over six and a half years. This is the largest settlement in Cherokee Nation history.
The Wausau School District’s Board of Education of Wisconsin hosted a public forum Monday evening after one of its teachers was photographed dressing up as an “Indian” while teaching history earlier this month. Koen Johnson (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), a student, snuck his personal cell phone into class to take a picture of the September 22 incident, which has many people in the region outraged. According to Biskakone Greg Johnson, the teacher has been dressing up in various ethnic “costumes” for the last 16 years when teaching about other peoples. An open forum drew people from around the region including high school students, educators, parents, leaders, and members of the Lac du Flambeau Band and other Tribes. Some speakers voiced their concerns about ongoing racism and dehumanization of Native people.
A study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, suggests methamphetamine use is surging as a major cause of high-risk addiction and overdose death in the U.S. The researchers found American Indians and Alaska Natives still have the highest rate of methamphetamine use disorder and have seen sharp increases in drug deaths in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, the number of deaths linked to methamphetamine use rose from 5,526 a year to 15,489 a year — roughly a 180% increase.
Leaders of the Hopi and Navajo tribes on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to take action on two national monuments shrunk under the Trump administration, noting Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland submitted her recommendations months ago. In the letter, obtained by The Washington Post, Hopi Vice Chairman Clark W. Tenakhongva and Navajo Nation Representative Henry Stevens Jr. “respectfully request that” President Biden “take immediate action” on the restoration of the Bears Ears National Monument boundaries. They noted that Biden ordered a review of the boundaries eight months ago. Secretary Haaland in June submitted a report calling for the restoration of the original boundaries, as well as those of the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument. The Obama administration established the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, but the Trump administration later reduced its boundaries by 85 percent.
Keep reading for a full news update.
Law:
Cherokee Nation’s $75 Million In Opioid Lawsuit Is Largest Settlement In Tribe’s History
Native News Online, September 28
The Cherokee Nation on Tuesday announced three of the nation’s largest drug distributors will pay it $75 million to settle legal claims that the companies created an opioid crisis on Cherokee tribal lands. The deal is the first of its kind with a tribal government. The Cherokee Nation filed the lawsuit in 2017, after it was determined that pharmaceutical distributors flooded Cherokee Nation communities with nearly 200 million opioid painkillers in a two year span. The over abundance equated to 153 opioid pills per individual living in Cherokee Nation communities. Tuesday’s settlement terms have yet to be announced, but a Cherokee Nation press release reported that McKesson, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation and Cardinal Health will make total payments of slightly over $75 million to be paid over six and a half years. This is the largest settlement in Cherokee Nation history.
Boarding Schools:
Canadian Catholic Bishops’ Apology For Indian Residential Schools “Gives Permission” For Us To Follow Suit
Native News Online, Jenna Kunze, September 28
The Catholic Bishops of Canada are owning up to “grave abuses” committed by the church during the Indian Residential School period, a move that sets the stage for the United States to follow suit. “Many Catholic religious communities and dioceses participated in this system, which led to the suppression of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, failing to respect the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples,” the Catholic Bishops of Canada wrote in a formal letter of apology on Friday. In their letter, the Canadian Catholic bishops pledged to fundraise across the country to support initiatives chosen locally by Indigneous partners, and to make records public “that will assist in the memorialization of those buried in unmarked graves.” Now, for Indian Boarding School survivors south of the Canadian border, the question remains: will Catholic Bishops in the United States do the same?
Native Mascots:
Wisconsin High School Under Fire After Teacher Is Caught Dressing Up As An ‘Indian’ In Class
Native News Online, Darren Thompson, September 28
The Wausau School District’s Board of Education of Wisconsin hosted a public forum Monday evening after one of its teachers was photographed dressing up as an “Indian” while teaching history earlier this month. Koen Johnson (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), a student, snuck his personal cell phone into class to take a picture of the September 22 incident, which has many people in the region outraged. According to Biskakone Greg Johnson, the teacher has been dressing up in various ethnic “costumes” for the last 16 years when teaching about other peoples. An open forum drew people from around the region including high school students, educators, parents, leaders, and members of the Lac du Flambeau Band and other Tribes. Some speakers voiced their concerns about ongoing racism and dehumanization of Native people.
Indigenous Leaders, Native Americans Discuss Recent Incident At Wausau West High School
WSAW, Brittany Dobbins, September 27
Indigenous leaders, Native Americans and allies spoke at a press conference and at the Wausau School Board meeting Monday about a recent incident at Wausau West High School. A teacher was dressed recently in a “Native American costume” as part of a history lesson. An Ojibwe student took a picture of the teacher and sent it to his dad, who then contacted the principal. The Indigenous leaders and Native Americans want the school to acknowledge the disrespect they are feeling and an update to the school’s curriculum. Johnson said better education about their culture is needed. “There [are] people speaking out about it, but we have these nitwits they’re commenting and saying things [as] they know better or they know what it’s like to be discriminated against, but they don’t.”
Other:
Methamphetamine Deaths Soar, Hitting Black And Native Americans Especially Hard
NPR, Brian Mann, September 28
A study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, suggests methamphetamine use is surging as a major cause of high-risk addiction and overdose death in the U.S. The researchers found Native Americans and Alaska Natives still have the highest rate of methamphetamine use disorder and have seen sharp increases in drug deaths in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, the number of deaths linked to methamphetamine use rose from 5,526 a year to 15,489 a year — roughly a 180% increase.
Amid Killings And COVID, Yaqui People Get Pledges
AP News, Mark Stevenson, September 28
Mexico’s Yaqui people have been hit by a wave of killings and coronavirus deaths, so the country’s long-awaited public apology for centuries of abuses Tuesday rang a little hollow. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had hoped the ceremony would mark a turning point in the woes of what he has described as Mexico’s most persecuted Indigenous group, which suffered a government campaign to exterminate or exile its members around 1900. López Obrador came bearing gifts: His administration signed agreements to return almost 7,500 acres of Indigenous land to the community and make good on agreements to reserve half the water of the Yaqui River for Indigenous use. The government also promised to build an aqueduct to bring drinking water to Yaqui communities in northern Sonora state that have long lacked it.
Spirit Lake Tribe Gets New Border Signs
AP News, Dave Kolpack, September 28
The northern border of the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in northeastern North Dakota includes a large swath of Devils Lake, the state’s largest natural body of water that began to expand greatly during a wet cycle that began in the 1990s. State transportation officials on numerous occasions have raised roads in areas that were swallowed up by the lake and each time moved signs that marked major ports of entry to tribal land. In the years since, while serving as housing director, vice chairman and now chairman of the tribe, Doug Yankton has tried unsuccessfully to have the tribe’s boundaries remapped and restored as dictated by treaty. With help from the state Department of Transportation, the signs are back in their rightful place, along with a message from the chairman about tribal sovereignty.
First Native American Poet Laureate Begins Third Term, Releases A Memoir
Gaylord News, Nancy Marie Spears, September 28
Joy Harjo of Oklahoma, the first Native American woman to serve as the nation’s poet laureate, has begun her third term – an honor previously bestowed only once. Robert Pinsky was the first U.S. poet laureate to serve a third term, in 1999. “Throughout the pandemic, Joy Harjo has shown how poetry can help steady us and nurture us,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. “I am thankful she is willing to continue this work on behalf of the country. A third term will give Joy the opportunity to develop and extend her signature project.” That project is “Living Nations, Living Words,” a sampling of work by 47 Native Nations poets through an interactive ArcGIS Story Map, which visualizes locations and histories of Native poets in the U.S., and a newly developed Library of Congress audio collection. Harjo told Gaylord News that Indigenous social justice issues have evolved from her time as a poetry student at the University of New Mexico, where she completed her degree in 1976, to present day as the 23rd poet laureate and author of several works.
Native American tribes call for ‘immediate action’ to protect Bears Ears National Monument: report
The Hill, Zack Budryk, September 28
Leaders of the Hopi and Navajo tribes on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to take action on two national monuments shrunk under the Trump administration, noting Interior Secretary Deb Haaland submitted her recommendations months ago. In the letter, obtained by The Washington Post, Hopi Vice Chairman Clark W. Tenakhongva and Navajo Nation Representative Henry Stevens Jr. “respectfully request that” President Biden “take immediate action” on the restoration of the Bears Ears National Monument boundaries. They noted that Biden ordered a review of the boundaries eight months ago. Haaland in June submitted a report calling for the restoration of the original boundaries, as well as those of the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument. The Obama administration established the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, but the Trump administration later reduced its boundaries by 85 percent.