Good Morning NUNAverse,
A federal judge has struck down a gambling deal between Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida to allow online sports betting in the state. In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich said the multi-billion dollar agreement for online betting violated a federal rule that requires a person to be physically on tribal land when wagering. The lawsuit, filed by casino owners in Florida, challenged the approval of the agreement by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees tribal gambling operations. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had worked out the compact with the tribe earlier this year and the GOP-controlled legislature approved it soon after, with the state potentially receiving $20 billion over the next 30 years. Supporters argued that it adhered to federal rules because online bets, though they could be placed anywhere in the state, were still being processed on tribal lands.
A recent study found that Native peoples have lower life expectancies compared to other racial groups. For years, American Indian and Alaska Native people have been misclassified in death records, leading to significant underestimation of death rates and life expectancy. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released this month using 2019 data reports the first comprehensive, national mortality assessment of the population. The study confirmed previous analyses and expanded on them, finding lower life expectancies for American Indian and Alaska Native people compared to white, Black, and Hispanic people. Overall, Native peoples had a life expectancy of 71 years, compared to Hispanic life expectancy of almost 82 years, white populations at 78.8 years, and Black populations at 74.8 years, the study found.
Late Monday night, Joanne Shenandoah passed away at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona following complications of abdominal bleeding and suffering a cardiac arrest. She was 64 years old. Shenandoah was a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation and was the most critically acclaimed and honored Native singer since her debut recording in 1989, according to the Native American Music Awards. Joanne Shenandoah recorded a total of 15 albums with numerous other collaborations. Her music has been awarded multiple awards, including 14 Native American Music Awards, which is the most awarded to a single artist in the awards program. She also won a Grammy Award for her contribution to “Sacred Ground: A Tribe to Mother Earth”. She was nominated for two Grammy Awards for her albums, “Covenant” and “Peacemaker’s Journey”. She was inducted into the Syracuse Area Hall of Fame, and has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Syracuse University in 2002.
Keep reading for a full news update.
Thanksgiving:
What Do Native Americans Really Think About Thanksgiving?
USA Today, Nora Mabie, November 24
The first Thanksgiving is generally regarded in history as a friendly gathering among pilgrims and the Wampanoag Tribe. But as we learned from Eryn Dion in last year’s edition of This is America, the first Thanksgiving actually has a fraught history, as the pilgrims later violated their agreements and attacked and encroached upon Wampanoag lands. This brutality was not uncommon — upon arrival in America, Europeans broke promises and inflicted violence, disease and assimilation against Native people nationwide for generations. The following is a collection of responses from Native Americans across the country regarding their thoughts about the holiday.
Some Call For Thanksgiving Day Change For Native Americans
KTUL, Kimberly Jackson, November 24
Now that Columbus Day has been proclaimed as Indigenous Peoples Day, some people feel that Thanksgiving Day should be reconsidered. But others feel the holiday is celebrated just fine the way it is. We reached out to Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin for his perspective.
“I think it would not be good for the country, not good for Indian Country if we somehow got rid of Thanksgiving,” said Chief Hoskin. He does say the whole story about how Native Americans interacted with Pilgrims needs to be told. He says this is not the time for more division, but the time for everyone to give thanks.
What Thanksgiving Means Today To The Native American Tribe That Fed The Pilgrims
Time, Olivia Waxman, November 23
It’s been 400 years since the meal known as the first Thanksgiving took place in Patuxet, the area now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Two prominent figures in the Plymouth Colony described it as a three-day feast and celebration of the harvest, attended by the colonists and a group of Wampanoag Native Americans and their leader Massasoit. But the Wampanoag were likely not in so much of a celebratory mood. They had been reeling from an epidemic of a still-mysterious disease that had almost wiped them out; outbreaks would continue to roil the tribe for the next 30 years. Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, 29 year-old Brian Weeden, tells TIME, “Thanksgiving Day is a day of mourning [for myself and tribal members]. My grandfather Everett “Tall Oak” Weeden is one of the ones that helped originally start that tradition. A lot of tribal members will go out to the Massasoit statue overlooking Plymouth Rock. We’ll have a ceremony there, speak, march down to the church, have some more speaking, and then everyone will go home and have meals with their families.”
Law:
Native Americans Are Winning At The Supreme Court – With Help From Justice Gorsuch
USA Today, John Fritze, November 24
Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch had been on the Supreme Court just over a year when he threw Native Americans a line in a century-old battle over fish. In the 1850s, the tribes living in what would become Washington state gave up millions of acres of their land in exchange for the right to fish the salmon in the waters around Puget Sound. But culverts the state uses to direct streams under roads prevented salmon from spawning, reducing the species’ population and threatening a way of life. When the dispute reached the Supreme Court in 2018, Gorsuch shut down one of the state’s arguments – that its transportation needs allowed it to renege on the promises made in treaties signed three decades before Washington became a state. His swing-vote status on Native American issues has led to a number of victories for tribes on what Chief Justice John Marshall once described as the court “of the conqueror,” a place critics say has often ridden roughshod over appeals filed by Indigenous people. Gorsuch joined the court’s liberals and wrote for a 5-4 majority last year recognizing the eastern half of Oklahoma as Native American territory for purposes of criminal prosecutions. Some Oklahoma Republicans have called that ruling “profoundly flawed” and are already suing to ask the Supreme Court to overturn it.
Judge Blocks Seminole, Florida Online Sports Betting Deal
AP News, November 23
A federal judge has struck down a gambling deal between Florida and the Seminole Tribe to allow online sports betting in the state. In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich said the multi-billion dollar agreement for online betting violated a federal rule that requires a person to be physically on tribal land when wagering. The lawsuit, filed by casino owners in Florida, challenged the approval of the agreement by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees tribal gambling operations. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had worked out the compact with the tribe earlier this year and the GOP-controlled legislature approved it soon after, with the state potentially receiving $20 billion over the next 30 years. Supporters argued that it adhered to federal rules because online bets, though they could be placed anywhere in the state, were still being processed on tribal lands.
Journalists Released After Arrest At Pipeline Dispute
AP News, November 23
A photojournalist and a documentary filmmaker have been released by a Canadian judge, three days after being arrested while covering police enforcement of an injunction against pipeline protests in northern British Columbia. Amber Bracken, who had been on assignment for B.C.-based outlet The Narwhal, and documentarian Michael Toledano were released on the condition that they appear in court in February. The arrests came after citizens of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en Nation, set up blockades along a forest service road Nov. 14. Opposition among Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to the 670-kilometer (416 mile) pipeline sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada early last year, while the elected council of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and others nearby have agreed to the project.
Health:
Native Americans Die Younger, CDC Study Shows. They Say It’s Proof Of ‘Ongoing Systemic Harm.’
USA Today, Nada Hassanein, November 24
A recent study confirmed Native Americans have lower life expectancies compared to other racial groups. For years, American Indian and Alaska Native people have been misclassified in death records, leading to significant underestimation of death rates and life expectancy.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released this month using 2019 data reports it is the first comprehensive, national mortality assessment of the population. The study confirmed previous analyses and expanded on them, finding lower life expectancies for American Indian and Alaska Native people compared to white, Black and Hispanic people. The findings paint a grim picture that’s no surprise to Native Americans, who have seen too many lives cut short throughout their communities. A product of historical traumas, including genocide, colonization and forced removal and assimilation by the U.S. government, the disparities are a reality that echo throughout Indian Country. Overall, had a life expectancy of 71 years, compared to Hispanic life expectancy of almost 82 years, whites at 78.8 years, and Blacks at 74.8 years, the study found.
Other:
Joanne Shenandoah, The Most Honored And Celebrated Native American Female Musician, Dies
Native News Online, Darren Thompson, November 24
Late Monday night, Joanne Shenandoah passed away at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona following complications of abdominal bleeding and suffering a cardiac arrest. She was 64 years old. Shenandoah was a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation and was the most critically acclaimed and honored Native American singer since her debut recording in 1989, according to the Native American Music Awards. Joanne Shenandoah recorded a total of 15 albums with numerous other collaborations. Her music has been awarded multiple awards, including 14 Native American Music Awards, which is the most awarded to a single artist in the awards program, said Bello. She also won a Grammy Award for her contribution to “Sacred Ground: A Tribe to Mother Earth”. She was nominated for two Grammy Awards for her albums, “Covenant” and “Peacemaker’s Journey”. She was inducted into the Syracuse Area Hall of Fame, and has received an Honorary Doctors of Music from Syracuse University in 2002.
Group Finds Site Linked To Tribes Seeking Return Of Remains
AP News, Kim Chandler, November 24
Native American tribes fighting for the return of human remains and funerary artifacts excavated from an ancient settlement in present-day Alabama got help for their argument Tuesday when a federal advisory committee found the site to be culturally linked to their tribes. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee found a “preponderance of the evidence for cultural affiliation” between the remains and artifacts taken from the settlement founded 1,000 years ago and the Muskogean-speaking tribes known to live near there when European settlers arrived. Tribal officials said afterward that the finding means the University of Alabama will be in violation of federal law if it does not return the funerary objects and sacred items to the tribes.
Native American Group Looks To Boost Tourism In Maine
Native News Online, November 24
A group of Native American tribes is working on a plan to boost tourism efforts in the coming years. The effort is called the Wabanaki Cultural Tourism Initiative and it includes the five Wabanaki tribes in the state. The tribes are doing the work through Four Directions Development Corporation, which state officials described as a Native community development financial institution. The Maine Office of Tourism said Monday it has awarded the financial institution $150,000 to help with developing tourism. The development corporation wants to create a Wabanaki tourism economy by 2030, officials said. The tourism office said the money will also be used to enroll tribal members from the development corporation in George Washington University’s Cultural Heritage Tourism Certificate Program. That program is intended to help community leaders and others build tourism.
Love And Fury: Sterlin Harjo’s New Doc Premieres December 3
Native News Online, November 23
Sterlin Harjo’s new documentary feature, Love and Fury, has been picked up for distribution by ARRAY Releasing. Love and Fury premiered at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, and was an official selection of the Seattle International Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, and DeadCenter Film Festival. The film is produced by Harjo and executive producer Robin Ballenger. Harjo is Seminole and Muscogee American, and co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Reservation Dogs. The film chronicles a cadre of Native artists as they work to amplify Indigenous creativity in a post-colonial world, and “navigate their careers without seeking permission,” according to a press release.
Marcella LeBeau, Wwii Nurse And Tribal Leader, Dies At 102
AP News, Stephen Groves, November 23
Marcella Rose LeBeau, an Army nurse who was honored for her service during World War II and leadership in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has died. She was 102. Family members said she “passed on to journey to the next world” late Sunday in Eagle Butte, South Dakota after experiencing problems with her digestive system and losing her appetite. LeBeau had remained active all of her life and earlier this month traveled to Oklahoma for a ceremony honoring her induction into the National Native American Hall of Fame. Her daughter, Gerri Lebeau, said the matriarch of her family demonstrated fortitude, as well as an ability to seek healing, as she overcame the abuses she faced at an Indian boarding school during her youth. She went on to treat frontline soldiers as an Army nurse in Europe during the Allied invasion of Normandy. After returning home, she became an outspoken advocate for health in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Build Back Better Pell Grant Increase Is A Step Forward In Honoring Treaty Obligations For Education
Native News Online, Aaron Payment, November 23
Earlier this year, Senator Hirono (D-HI) introduced the Pell Grant Preservation & Expansion Act to make long overdue and critically needed investments in the Pell Grant program by doubling the maximum award, permanently indexing the grant to inflation, and shifting the program fully to mandatory funding. The Act would increase the current maximum Pell Grant from $6,495 by $1,475 for the 2022-2023 award year and double the maximum Pell Grant over a period of five years thereafter restoring the relative value of the award. President Biden’s Build Back Better Act would take a step in the right direction by increasing the Pell Grant by $550 annually and making it tax exempt. The increases in total Pell Grant awards is desperately needed for the population of Americans who have the greatest need and who have an educational treaty right pursuant to the United States Constitution.