The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which wants the oil pipeline shut down, says spills near Lake Oahe were environmental violations.

Eight years after Standing Rock, water protectors are using novel anti-SLAPP laws to help expose the secrets oil companies want to hide.

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history has been completed near the California-Oregon border.

This is a description of the Federal Indian Boarding school program, the origins of Orange Shirt Day, and the relationship of the U.S. Federal Indian Boarding school program to Canada's residential school program.

Our Impact Report captures some of the highlights and significant achievements of our work, providing a glimpse into the comprehensive impact we are making. We are proud of the accomplishments featured, knowing they reflect only a portion of the full scope of our efforts.

Grassroots group concerned with current federal and Arizona legislation primarily impacting the Tohono O’odham Nation

October 4 -National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) by CalgaryLibrary_Indigenous - a staff-created list : In Canada, Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are murdered, abused, or disappear at shockingly high rates. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that this violence is rooted in colonization. Whether you are personally affected by this crisis and are looking for stories of healing and empowerment, or you want to become an ally by learning more about the devastating epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, these resources can be a source of information, reflection, action, resilience, and hope.

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-ytWe're joined by award-winning Cherokee writer and journalist Rebecca Nagle, whose new book, By th...

The University of Arizona (“University”) values its relationship with sovereign Indian Tribes and is committed to honoring the fundamental principles of tribal consultation (“Consultation”) and respect required by the Arizona Board of Regents Tribal Consultation Policy (ABOR 1-118). The purpose of the Tribal Consultation Policy is to provide a framework for the University to preserve a foundation of respect and to acknowledge the cultures, traditions, beliefs, governance processes, laws, codes, regulations, and protocols of sovereign Indian Tribes, while maintaining compliance with federal, state, and local laws.

The remote Duck Valley reservation that straddles Nevada and Idaho has battled toxic contaminants on its land for decades.

For nearly 50 years, the remains of two Native American individuals have been stored at the Arizona Capitol. Now, they are on their way back to their final resting place, but one state senator says that isn’t enough. In 1976, two fragments of bones were donated to the Arizona State Library. The remains were transferred to the newly opened Arizona Capitol Museum in 1982, where they remained until 2024. “Unfortunately we just know very little,” said Stephanie Mahan, a senior administrator at the Capitol Museum, of the remains and the individuals they belonged to. The remains are subject to a federal policy called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which was passed in 1990. NAGPRA requires all museums and universities receiving federal funding to return Native American remains and artifacts in their collections to the tribes they are most closely affiliated with. Many of the remains held by institutions across the country were taken by archaeologists working at burial sites of Indigenous peoples in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The federal law was enacted to outline a process by which tribes could recover those remains and return their ancestors to their homelands. Some of Arizona’s representatives in Congress at the time, like late-Rep. Morris Udall and late-Sen. John McCain, advocated for the law’s passage. In an effort to comply with the law, Capitol Museum officials reached out to the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona and transported the remains to Tucson earlier this year. The museum currently holds the largest collection of Native American remains in Arizona and is working to repatriate them back to the tribes they came from, in addition to assisting other institutions with their repatriations. Neither the Capitol Museum nor Arizona State Museum were able to determine a definitive cultural identity for the individuals in the Capitol Museum, but the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community have made a joint claim to the remains. Now that a claim has been made, Arizona State Museum can work with the tribes to return the individuals for reburial. It’s unclear where the remains held at the Capitol originated from or how they arrived in Phoenix, but an official from the State Museum said it's likely that the remains belonged to individuals who were part of one of the many Indigenous communities in the Phoenix area. “Because we can say … that there is a bit of a probability that the remains came from this general region, then it was decided that the tribes within the Phoenix basin area would claim those remains and provide them with a place to rest again,” said Cristin Lucas, the repatriation coordinator at the State Museum. “It may not be this specific group of individuals who are the specific descendants, but the ultimate concern is that everyone should be provided a place of rest in the end.” A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees the State Library, said there are no records at the library related to the individuals or their time before they were transferred to the Capitol Museum. Mahan said that the remains were stored at the Polly Rosenbaum State Archives and History Building – which is managed by the Secretary of State’s Office – not the Capitol Museum, which is located in the old Capitol building that once housed the state House and Senate. Despite the Secretary of State Office’s control over the archives building, the Capitol Museum retained legal control over the remains. Now, Arizona State Museum is working to transfer legal control over to the two tribal communities that will receive the individuals for burial. According to Lucas, the remains will likely be repatriated to the tribes in the next few weeks. “Cases like this are really important because they are individuals who basically no information is known [about], and so it's a complex situation both for institutions but also for tribes,” Lucas said. A representative for the Gila River Indian Community declined to comment for this story, citing the sensitive nature of repatriations. A representative for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community did not respond to requests for comment. State Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Tuba City, is a member of the Navajo Nation and said she was not aware that Native American human remains had been stored at the state Capitol, but said it is “an absolute shame.” “Tribal members are very respectful of how they handle their loved ones' remains,” Hatathlie said. “It's a time of observance and reverence, and so each culture has a certain process in place, but for it to be held like this, it's denying that individual's spiritual process.” Although the federal act governs the repatriation of Native American remains at the federal level, Hatathlie said she thinks more needs to be done at the state level. Museums and institutions in the state can receive federal funding for repatriation efforts, but the state government does not offer any support for institutions – even those like Arizona State Museum that are considered state entities. According to state statute, the musdeum is Arizona’s official archaeological repository and is responsible for all human remains and artifacts that are unearthed on state or private land. Arizona State Museum is allowed by state law to charge for the handling and storage of those remains and artifacts, but it does not receive any specific funding from the state to carry out those duties. “Going forward, specifically for the state of Arizona, to put together a policy tied with consequences, I think that that's a process that needs to take place,” Hatathlie said of institutions that are noncompliant. She said the return of the two individuals who have been held at the Capitol Museum is a start, but she doesn’t want “people [to] think they can walk away with a clear conscience.” “It's an absolute shame that we are even having this conversation in this day and age,” Hatathlie said. “It goes right back down to the blatant disrespect to the Indigenous tribes of the state of Arizona and all over the U.S.”

"Treaties made in the 1800s between the United States and the Indigenous nations of what is now Wisconsin have had profound influence on the region's cultural and political landscape. Yet few people realize that in the early part of that century, the Menominee and Ho-Chunk Nations of Wisconsin signed land treaties with several Indigenous nations from New York State. At the onset of the removal era, these eastern nations, including the Oneida Nation and the Six Nations Confederacy, were under constant pressure from the federal government and land speculators to move to lands around Green Bay and Lake Winnebago. In this groundbreaking book, Carol A. Cornelius has compiled a careful account of these nation-to-nation treaties, in large part in the words of those Indigenous leaders who served as the voices and representatives of their nations. Drawing on a rich collection of primary sources, Cornelius walks readers through how, why, and for whom these treaties were made and how the federal government's failure and unwillingness to acknowledge their legitimacy led to the further loss of Indigenous lands. The living documents transcribed here testify to the complexity and sovereignty of Indigenous governance then and now, making this volume a vital resource for historians and an accessible introduction to Indigenous treatymaking in Wisconsin"--

The politics of domination with which the United States oppresses and exploits the Native Nations, is a violation of the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, and the meaning of the text itself. The arguments of the advocates of the genocide of the 1830s and their appeasers have come to determine the law, policy, and conduct of the United States, while the arguments of the opponents of what came to be known as the Trail of Tears have largely been forgotten, at least among non-Native people. By recovering these arguments, and allowing readers to explore large questions of law, justice, genocide, and politics in a context closely tethered to empirical evidence and careful argument, this book should facilitate more widespread understanding of the Native Nations' rights to their treaty-guaranteed dominion over their own lands and perhaps help open communication between the American people and the peoples of the Native Nations; communication on which the emergence of what Martin Luther King, Jr. called 'the beloved community' depends. Arguments over Genocide aims to reach a broad audience of college students, in courses on American History, Indigenous Studies, and the United States and the World, as well as in more specialized upper division courses on constitutional law, American/European imperialism, and resistance, independence, and decolonization movements. Individuals interested in the founding of the United States, in the Trail of Tears, and in 19th century American history should find the work compelling, as should legal practitioners in the field

Firm moves ore through land without telling tribal leaders as mine resurfaces painful legacy of nuclear development

The Navajo Nation has temporarily banned any transport of uranium and other radioactive material over its land without an explicit approval. The executive order issued by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren will be in effect for at least the next six months. Earlier this week, Navajo police attempted to stop two trucks carrying uranium ore across the reservation from an Arizona mine to a Utah processing mill. Nygren said Energy Fuels Inc., which owns the mine and processing mill, did not provide any notice that the trucks would be crossing through Navajo Nation. Nygren said in a statement, “We’re taking this stance of interpreting and executing the law to ensure the safety of our people and respect for Navajo sovereignty.”

Wisconsin is home to 12 tribal nations, each with its own unique history, culture, and government. As sovereign entities, these nations have the inherent right to create, enforce, and adjudicate laws to protect and enhance …

This Note attempts to determine how tribal governments such as the Navajo Nation can exercise greater control over and protect their Nation’s data from external entities. Tribal Nations or Indigenous Nations can exercise their political and cultural sovereignty by utilizing both Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) and Indigenous Data Governance (IDGov). This Note will examine the Māori’s application of IDSov within their own culturally-specific IDGov framework. Then, there will be an overview of the existing mechanisms available within the Navajo Nation legal system that govern data and the fundamental principles embedded in the culture of the Diné (Navajo) people. Finally, this Note will discuss recommendations that the Navajo Nation can incorporate into its legal system using the Māori’s example of its own data governance model and tools as a template. Overall, the goal of this Note is to demonstrate the legal mechanisms available to the Navajo Nation to implement its own set of data sovereignty principles aligning with its own traditional values, similar to the Māori in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica are investigating sexual violence in Alaska, and why the situation isn’t getting better.

Who is killing the indigenous women of Alaska? Spoiler alert, it is not that hard to figure out if proper investigations had been done, yet time and time again, these victims’ deaths are ignored, suspects are not questioned, evidence is not collected, autopsy reports are glossed over, known repeat offenders are not prosecuted, and on the rare occasions when they are prosecuted, judges are letting them go with less than a slap on the wrist. Joining us to discuss two such cases is victims’ advocate Antonia Unaqsiq Commack of Missing and Murdered In Alaska, a group that often focuses on violence against Alaska Natives. Antonia is Inupiaq from the Native Village of Shungnak. Antonia herself has had two close friends murdered by their intimate partners and since 2017 has devoted herself to shouting loudly to make the public aware of the injustices going on in her community. Antonia takes us through the deaths of two women in Kotzebue, Alaska - Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton -- who died under extremely suspicious circumstances and who need to get much more attention from those in power to deliver justice. Their stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Please go to the Lawless website to find out more. https://www.propublica.org/series/lawless

Self-Determination as Voice addresses the relationship between Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance and the law of self-determination. Many states and international organizations have put in place institutional mechanisms for the express purpose of including Indigenous representatives in international policy-making and decision-making processes, as well as in the negotiation and drafting of international legal instruments. Indigenous peoples' rights have a higher profile in the UN system than ever before. This book argues that the establishment and use of mechanisms and policies to enable a certain level of Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance has become a widespread practice, and perhaps even one that is accepted as law. In theory, the law of self-determination supports this move, and it is arguably emerging as a rule of customary international law. However, ultimately the achievement of the ideal of full and effective participation, in a manner that would fulfil Indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, remains deferred.

A look at how an 1862 act impacted Native lands and eventually led to UA's fossil fuel use despite climate pledges.

There was celebration at a press conference in Berkeley a day after Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

Tribal climate action plans are being stymied by state-owned land within reservation borders.

Forcing Indigenous people out of protected areas they help manage and rely on is not the way to achieve biodiversity and climate goals.

Work on a $10 billion project to funnel renewable energy across western states has come to a halt in southwestern Arizona.

"A call for the rethinking Navajo sovereignty in a way more rooted in Navajo beliefs, culture, and values"--Provided by publisher.