Native Americans are among the populations with the lowest rate of vaccinations, whether it’s for flu, measles, COVID-19, or hepatitis B. Health professionals urge parents to immunize their infants against more than a dozen serious diseases including polio, pertussis, diphtheria, and mumps. But poverty, lack of health insurance, and distance to hea…

Drones are for more than just appealing aerial videos. Native drone pilots are building careers using drones for scoping out landscapes for construction, searching for lost hikers, and even assessing potentially sacred areas. One First Nations enthusiast sees the novelty factor of drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as a means to attrac…

Nathalie Standingcloud, left, and White Robinson in a scene from The Heart Stays. Two Native sisters venture out of their Native community to chase their dreams, only to run head on into the threats of urban life in the new film, The Heart Stays. The Native-made drama is produced by a Native multi-arts organization and features a Native cast includ…

Citing a troubling disparity for Native youth suicides, two tribes are suing the country’s most prominent social media companies. The lawsuit by the Spirit Lake Dakota Tribe and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin alleges the addictive pull of the platforms is driving a mental health crisis for young people – and Native youth are particularly v…

Ojibwe writer Marcie Rendon takes a break from her popular Cash Murder Mystery series for a new collection of poems, Anishinaabe Songs For A New Millennium. She invokes the plants, animals, wind, and people of her White Earth home. She challenges readers to listen along to the songs of their ancestors. Rendon is among the poets helping us mark Nati…

It’s the time of year when Native nerds, cosplayers, comic geeks, and gamers assemble for the first and biggest convention devoted to them. IndigiPopX is back at the First Americans Museum (FAM) in Oklahoma City for the second year, featuring panel discussions, vendors, musicians, a glowstick ball match, and a whole day devoted to the TV series Res…

With no supporting information, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) claimed tribal leaders in her state are “personally benefiting” from the presence of drug cartels. While campaigning for re-election, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) warned about tribes setting up “abortion-on-demand” clinics to subvert the states new abortion laws. No Oklahoma tribe expressed any int…

Numerous studies over the years point out the overrepresentation of Native American women in U.S. prisons. The Sentencing Project found a 525% increase over more than 20 years in the incarceration of women and girls. Juvenile Native American girls had the highest rate, at more than four times that of their white counterparts. We’ll talk about the f…

The Lummi Nation is among the tribes that continue to face serious threats from the ongoing opioid epidemic, despite their best efforts. Lawmakers in Washington State are poised to allocate millions of dollars in opioid litigation settlement money to Lummi and other tribes in an effort to stem troubling statistics that show Native Americans are ove…

Most tribes have important traditional connections to the stars and other celestial bodies in the night sky. But increasing encroachment from artificial lights is diminishing those connections. A handful of tribes are supporting a dark skies initiative to preserve what night sky visibility is left and promoting methods to limit light pollution. In …

A crime spree by two Ute youths in 1923 escalated into a mob of settlers bent on suppressing the nearby Ute and Paiute populations in what is now Utah. The conflict led to the deaths of two Paiute men, including William Posey, a leader who was vilified in the press for his resistance to oppressive settler tactics. The ‘posse’ formed to retaliate ag…

Roberto Múkaro Borrero spent two decades surveying historical documents and piecing together fragments of written texts to create a new, comprehensive Taino language dictionary. And Alaina Tahlate is using what she learned from hours of recordings and hundreds of documents as she races to preserve the language of Oklahoma’s Caddo Nation that has on…

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America struck 75 miles south of Anchorage in March 1964. More than 130 people lost their lives in the temblor and the subsequent tsunamis. The state’s largest city endured major damage to buildings, property, and infrastructure. Kodiak, Seward, Valdez, and the village of Chenega were among the pl…

Bestselling Blackfeet writer Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet), author and English professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, caps off his horror trilogy with his new novel, The Angel of Indian Lake. It’s the usual rough ride for protagonist Jade Daniels, a slasher movie buff who keeps finding herself the target of human and supernatural malev…

The future of Native agriculture depends on educating new generations of farmers and securing tribal water rights. Those are two of the conclusions from this year’s State of Native Agriculture Address. Federal ag agency leaders and Native non-profit ag representatives also praise new federal financial support programs and express the need make sure…

A Minneapolis Lakota man is developing an archive of music by Native American artists one record and cassette tape at a time. Justis Brokenrope (Sicangu Lakota), founder of Wathéča Records, music curator, DJ, and educator, has already amassed a sizable collection of mostly folk, rock, blues, and country music by Native musicians. Now he’s convertin…

Minot Public Schools issued a public apology over conduct of fans at a basketball tournament this month. The action comes after reports of "potentially discriminatory conduct" targeting Native players. It’s one in a series of complaints about racially insensitive actions. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating. …

About one out of every six high school students report being bullied, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number goes up significantly — as much as 40% — for LGBTQ2 students. The death of non-binary Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict, ruled a suicide, is sparking widespread conversations about the consequences of bul…

Alaska sets aside a day each year to honor William Henry Seward, Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln. Among other things he’s known for negotiating the U.S. Government’s purchase of Alaska in 1867, ushering in subsequent American colonialism in the 49th state, including the Klondike Gold Rush and other resource exploitation that larg…

When the Exxon Valdez supertanker broke open on March 24, 1989, the resulting oil spill coated 1,300 miles of shoreline in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and killed thousands of fish, birds, and wildlife. The environmental disaster is associated with the distressing images of water birds, otters, and other animals fighting for their lives through a …

Four states and six tribes in the Colorado River Basin are working on an agreement on water usage into the future. The agreement could be finalized as early as April. It comes as a flurry of agreements — and lack of agreement — involving other states and tribes is competing for a comprehensive water sharing agreement in time for an imposed 2026 dea…

The Fort Yukon (Alaska) Lady Eagles capped off a winning streak to capture the first state championship in the school’s history. Their coach said it’s like “winning the Super Bowl”. The Navajo Prep (New Mexico) boys team, also the Eagles, won their first state championship, joined by a championship win by the school’s girls team. It’s basketball to…

In the most compelling way, Whiskey Tender, the memoir by Deborah Jackson Taffa (Kwatsaán and Laguna Pueblo), is both an intimate personal story and Native American history lesson. It reveals her own epiphany over what she and her ancestors are pressured to sacrifice in striving for the American Dream. Her account is both poignant and humorous. Bes…

If the rates were equal among races, at least a thousand more Native Americans would have received life-saving liver transplants over a four-year period. An investigation by the Washington Post and The Markup shows Native Americans have the highest rate of death from liver disease, but the lowest representation on the waitlist for transplants. We’l…

A bill just introduced in Canada would outlaw what most of the developed world has considered a human rights violation for decades. The law would prohibit sterilizing women without their consent. An Indigenous woman testified in front of lawmakers that she was sterilized without any prior discussion. Her mother was also sterilized without consent d…

Bishop Paiute Chairwoman Meryl Picard is still in her second year in office and confronting the pressures of pit mining on traditional Paiute land. Chairman Andrew Alejandre of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians was a voice for California’s new Feather Alert MMIP notification system. They are among the 40 accomplished Native Americans being celeb…

Making the most of doing business on a global scale means understanding the competitive advantages tribes bring to the table. Tribes’ unique sovereignty status and tax exemptions appeal to a number of international business ventures. And markets overseas offer the potential for a bigger and broader customer base. The key is knowing the right fit. W…

Small businesses owners put their dreams and financial futures on the line when they open their doors for the first time. In the process of improving their own skills and financial standing, they become building blocks for their tribes, providing jobs and circulating revenue within the community. The Navajo Nation just secured nearly $89 million to…

For most states this time of year, shifting time is as easy as moving the hour hand forward an hour. But Daylight Savings Time doesn’t change the staunch allegiance to the clock required during the typical day. But it wasn’t always that way. Tribes once had built-in schedules for harvests, ceremonies, family and feasts. Some of those traditions may…

Native Americans are up for a historic three Academy Awards, thanks to Martin Scorsese’s groundbreaking film, Killers of the Flower Moon. The story of the Osage Reign of Terror earned nominations for Lily Gladstone for Best Actress, Scott George for Best Original Song, and the late Robbie Robertson for Best Soundtrack. We’ll hear from the nominees …

Two recent events are major wins for tribes in Washington State fighting to restore natural salmon runs. A federal judge just sided with the Puyallup Tribe in their lawsuit aiming to remove a dam on the Puyallup River because it harms endangered salmon and other fish. And a coalition of a half-dozen tribes just signed a $1 billion plan with the fed…

Super Tuesday is the biggest day of the primary election season, and voting in more than a dozen states increased the chances of a general election rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in November. There were some other clues about what voters were thinking in several races around the country. What is on your mind as the presidential race nar…

Wandering Stars, the new novel by Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma), weaves together the complex history of the Boarding School Era as witnessed by the ancestors to the characters in his best-selling debut novel, There, There. The story takes us from the devastating Sand Creek Massacre, through the founding of the Carlisle Indi…

Overfishing in Japan, a thriving black market, and even the Fukushima nuclear disaster are all fanning the flames of fishing disputes involving tribes in Nova Scotia and Maine. Eels cannot reproduce in captivity. So juvenile glass eels, known as elvers, are a valuable commodity for Japanese aquaculture. They supply demand for a popular traditional …

Sasquatch, also called Bigfoot, has captured the popular collective imagination around the globe for decades. But in addition to their pop icon status, Sasquatch have a deeper meaning for many Native American cultures. The name that’s often used most likely comes from the Coast Salish word “Sasq’ets.” The Sts'ailes First Nation in Canada consider S…

Native American agriculture sales nearly doubled from 2017 to 2022. That’s one of the takeaways from the most recent Census of Agriculture. It is now a $6.4 billion industry despite a global pandemic and a slight decrease in the number of Native farmers across the board in those five years. Also on an upward trajectory is the number of Native-owned…

There’s a richness when Black and Indigenous cultures meet. But there’s also some exclusion arising from outside expectations that someone needs to be one or the other. Artists who have a foot in more than one culture have a creative way of expressing that blended identity and the joys and drawbacks of a shared, but separate history. We’ll hear fro…

On a typical day, Scott George is making sure elders and others at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation have safe and secure housing. Now, he’s headed to the Academy Awards for the song, “Wahzhazhe,” he and other Osage traditional singers perform that appears on the film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. And after releasing her first solo album, Odanak First …

Before he was dubbed “The Hurricane” by Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, Brian Jackson (Cherokee, Muscogee, and Seminole) started out making animal balloons for a community church event. That small beginning has led him to breaking world records and traveling the world. He holds 12 Guinness World Records for blowing up balloons, exploding hot water bot…

A jury convicted Brian Steven Smith on all counts in the murders of two Alaska Native women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk. The trial, lasting just over two weeks, made international headlines, at least in part because the killer recorded graphic video of one of the murders. The trial exposed ongoing vulnerabilities and inequities Native …

The University of Wisconsin system takes in more than $1 million a year from lands given them by the federal government a century and a half ago. They are among the institutions that reap what a new investigation by the online publication Grist says is more than $2.2 billion dollars in 2022. The ongoing source of money comes from mining, drilling, …

President Joe Biden’s age in relation to his ability to do his job is a topic making front page news with questions about his memory, cognitive function, and physical stamina. At 81, President Biden is not that much older than his presumptive Republican election opponent, 77-year-old Donald Trump. Native Americans have a pronounced respect for the …

"Aloha" is a more than a word for Native Hawaiians — and its elevated importance in how people approach their own lives and wellbeing is invoked in one of society’s most controversial debates. The Hawaii Supreme Court upheld that state’s restrictions on carrying guns in public, in part saying "the spirit of Aloha" informs how the Second Amendment t…

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe is making kiosks available in key locations so tribal members can access important information for their judicial and law enforcement systems. It’s part of a multi-phase effort to make their official procedures more transparent and accessible. They plan on ultimately providing digital access to their entire law library,…

The film professionals who perform stunts do more than just fall down. They are highly skilled and physically fit experts who make movie stars look good. Native stunt actors also fill a sought-after niche and are able to contribute expertise that takes the action in films up a notch.โดย Koahnic

Thousands of Native American Catholics are entering the 40-day time of reflection and sacrifice known as Lent. Catholicism draws criticism for its connection to oppressive Spanish colonization and for the church’s role in boarding school abuses. At the same time the religion is a tradition—not to mention comfort—embraced by generations of observant…

It would be hard to find a legal victory any more important than the ruling named after federal judge George Hugo Boldt in 1974. It was the turning point for the fight led by Nisqually activist Billy Frank, Jr., initially affirming the treaty fishing rights for 20 tribes in western Washington State. But it provided the basis for a far-reaching tran…

The National Congress of American Indians’ newly-elected president Mark Macarro delivers his first address, highlighting the accomplishments and challenges of Native nations. His account comes at the start of a presidential election year. It’s also a time when tribes are seeing momentum for returned land as well as challenges to sovereignty from st…

It takes more than just the right tools to carve a totem. Unless they are made by members of one of the traditional totem-carving coastal Pacific tribes, they may appropriating the often sacred symbols and methods those tribes reserve. Totems on public display by cities, schools, museums, and sports teams are coming under new scrutiny.…

A coalition of Alaska Native tribes and organizations are urging federal officials to continue protections for 28 million acres of land in Alaska. Their action comes as the federal Bureau of Land Management is considering whether to remove protections against mining and other development that have been in place since the Alaska Native Claims Settle…