Good Morning NUNAverse,
An advisory panel recently advanced three proposals for overhauling district boundaries in New Mexico’s House of Representatives, with special deference to Native communities. Two of the endorsed redistricting maps follow competing recommendations from tribes in New Mexico, where a recent decline in population threatens to disrupt majority-Native voting districts. A coalition including 19 pueblo communities and the Jicarilla Apache Nation advanced a plan for the northwest region that emphasizes each tribe’s right to self-determination. Breaking with that emphasis, redistricting negotiators for the Navajo Nation have advanced a plan that focused on retaining Native majorities of roughly 65% or more in six House districts.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez testified before Congress on Wednesday in support of Native voting rights during a hearing titled, “Restoring the Voting Rights Act: Protecting the Native American and Alaska Native Vote.” President Nez also said that the Navajo Nation cannot rely on states to provide protections to their voting rights which is why he is calling on Congress to act. He also said that transportation options were limited in the Navajo Nation and most households only had one vehicle. Nez called traveling to polling places as a result “burdensome.” Other issues were brought up, including language barriers and the need to distribute materials in the Navajo language.
Utah lawmakers are proposing legislation that would ensure that Native students are allowed to wear tribal regalia during their high school graduation ceremonies. Representative Angela Romero, the bill’s sponsor, told an interim committee hearing Monday that the bill was inspired by the story of a Native student last year who was asked to remove her graduation cap that she had decorated with bead work and an eagle feather to symbolize her heritage. Legislators unanimously agreed to move the bill on for future consideration, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday. Romero said the bill is modeled after similar laws in Arizona and Montana.
Delegates to the California-Nevada United Methodist Church’s 137th Annual Conference to be held at the end of October will be asked to pass a resolution (Resolution #21) addressing the United Methodist Church’s role in operating Indian boarding schools in their diocesan district. The resolution was developed after the discovery of hundreds of graves at several residential schools in Canada earlier this year. Resolution #21 was authored and submitted by Douglas P. Sibley, a member of the California-Nevada United Methodist Conference’s Committee of Race and Religion. The resolution requests that the leadership of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) seek guidance and funding to review each former Methodist boarding school site in the conference area for marked and unmarked graves of Native children in preparation for repatriation consistent with Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPA).
Keep reading for a full news update.
Politics:
Advisory Panel Endorses Redistricting Maps For New Mexico
AP News, Morgan Lee, October 20
An advisory panel to the Legislature on political redistricting on Wednesday advanced three proposals for overhauling district boundaries in New Mexico’s Democrat-dominated House of Representatives, with special deference to Native American communities. Two of the endorsed redistricting maps follow competing recommendations from Indigenous nations and tribes in northwestern New Mexico, a celebrated cradle of ancient civilization where a recent decline in population threatens to disrupt and dilute majority-Native American voting districts. A coalition including 19 Native American pueblo communities and the Jicarilla Apache Nation painstakingly advanced a plan for the northwest region that emphasizes each tribe’s right to self-determination. Breaking with that emphasis, redistricting negotiators for the Navajo Nation have advanced a plan that focused on retaining Native American majorities of roughly 65% or more in six House districts.
Law:
Navajo Nation President Testifies Before Congress To Secure Native American Voting Rights
ABC4, Jacob Rueda, October 20
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez testified before Congress on Wednesday in support of Native American voting rights during a hearing titled, “Restoring the Voting Rights Act: Protecting the Native American and Alaska Native Vote.” Nez also said that the Navajo Nation cannot rely on states to provide protections to their voting rights which is why he is calling on Congress to act. He also said that transportation options were limited in the Navajo Nation and most households only had one vehicle. Nez called traveling to polling places as a result “burdensome.” Other issues were brought up, including language barriers and the need to distribute materials in the Navajo language
Lawmakers Say Tribal Regalia Should Be Allowed At Graduation
AP News, October 20
Utah lawmakers are proposing legislation that would ensure that Native American students are allowed to wear tribal regalia during their high school graduation ceremonies. Rep. Angela Romero, the bill’s sponsor, told an interim committee hearing Monday that the bill was inspired by the story of a Native student last year who was asked to remove her graduation cap that she had decorated with bead work and an eagle feather to symbolize her heritage. Legislators unanimously agreed to move the bill on for future consideration, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday. Romero said the bill is modeled after similar laws in Arizona and Montana.
Boarding Schools:
California-Nevada United Methodist Church Conference Asked To Find Funding To Look For Graves At Closed Indian Boarding Schools
Native News Online, October 20
Delegates to the California-Nevada United Methodist Church’s 137th Annual Conference to be held at the end of October will be asked to pass a resolution (Resolution #21) addressing the United Methodist Church’s role in operating Indian boarding schools in their diocesan district. The resolution was developed after the discovery of hundreds of graves at several Indian residential schools in Canada earlier this year. Resolution #21 was authored and submitted by Douglas P. Sibley, a member of the California-Nevada United Methodist Conference’s Committee of Race and Religion. The resolution requests that the leadership of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) seek guidance and funding to review each former Methodist boarding school site in the conference area for marked and unmarked graves of Native children in preparation for repatriation consistent with Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPA).
Other:
Joe Biden Move Could Block Minnesota Copper Mine
AP News, Steve Karnowski, October 20
The Biden administration dealt a serious blow Wednesday to the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, ordering a study that could lead to a 20-year ban on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The U.S. Forest Service filed an application with the Bureau of Land Management for a “mineral withdrawal,” which would begin with a two-year comprehensive study of the likely environmental and other impacts of mining if it were permitted in the watershed that flows into the Boundary Waters. The Biden administration has taken several steps on the environmental front to reverse the previous administration’s initiatives. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden restored the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, undoing President Donald Trump’s decision to open them for mining and other development. Biden also killed the Keystone XL oil pipeline, although he has disappointed environmental and Native American groups by not stopping the Enbridge Energy Line 3 oil pipeline.
Native News Online Reporter Selected For USC Data Fellowship To Measure Intergenerational Effects of Boarding School Era
Native News Online, October 20
The University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s Center for Health Journalism has selected Native News Online reporter Jenna Kunze, along with 19 other reporters, to participate in a data fellowship. The highly selective data fellowship is designed for reporters who want to learn how to find and analyze data to produce journalism that can shape decision-making and legislation on health policy, health equity, underserved populations and child and family well-being. Native News Online has committed to publishing Kunze’s self-designed project, which aims to collect data– through community-participatory research– on one tribe’s measurable intergenerational health impacts stemming from Indian boarding schools. To date, no study has comprehensively traced the historic trauma of a single community, to connect measurable health outcomes directly to the federal government’s forced assimilation policy.
Master Canoe Builder Teaches Northwestern Students Native American Tradition
Red Lake Nation News, October 20
One of only a handful of Native birchbark canoe builders remaining in the U.S., Northwestern University artist-in-residence Wayne Valliere is sharing the traditional Native art, unchanged in three millennia, with a group of students on the Evanston campus. Earlier this summer, a group of Northwestern faculty, staff and students, along with members of the urban Native community in Chicago, traveled to Valliere’s Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin to help gather materials used to create the canoe – cedar for the ribs, spruce roots for the stitching, pine pitch to seal the seams and, of course, birchbark.