Native America
U.S. Interior secretary to promote big spending jump for tribal, climate programs
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will ask a U.S. House spending panel to increase funding for the department’s tribal programs and climate resilience efforts, according to written testimony released ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday. The administration’s budget request for fiscal 2023 would significantly increase spending for the Interior Department. Its agencies oversee onshore oil and gas drilling, […]
Tribe appeals to archeological firm to stop digging at Thacker Pass
The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony is asking a California-headquartered archaeological firm to stop digging at a site considered sacred to Nevada tribes. Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., began excavation work at Thacker Pass this month, an area about 35 miles south of the Oregon-Nevada border. The dig is part of a planned mine by Lithium […]
Department of Interior announces funding opportunity for tribal communities to address climate change
Tribal nations across the country have the opportunity to receive funding to address the unique impacts climate change has within their communities. “As the effects of climate change continue to intensify, Indigenous communities are facing unique climate-related challenges that pose existential threats to Tribal economies, infrastructure, lives, and livelihoods,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a […]
Nevada tribes taking advantage of improved voting access
Native Americans routinely face persistent and longstanding barriers to voting, but access is improving here in Nevada. In a 54-page report released last week, the Biden administration detailed a number of issues tribal communities face when voting, as well as specific actions policy makers at the federal, state and local levels can take to eliminate […]
Interior nearing release of research into boarding schools, Haaland says
The U.S. Department of the Interior is expected to begin releasing information next month from its investigation into federal boarding schools and their impact on Native American communities. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the department is close to completing its research into boarding school sites and the location of possible burial sites “at or near […]
Federal judge rejects NV tribe’s attempt to join lithium mine suit
A Nevada federal judge on Friday rejected a legal effort by the Winnemucca Indian Colony to join a lawsuit attempting to stop a lithium mining project at Thacker Pass, a religiously and culturally significant area considered sacred to the tribe. Also last week, Department of Interior attorneys urged the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals […]
‘A crisis that is hiding in plain sight’: Missing and murdered women of color
WASHINGTON — Parents at a Thursday congressional hearing about missing and murdered women of color detailed their frustrating attempts to get the attention of law enforcement and adequate media coverage. “This is a crisis that is hiding in plain sight,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat and chair of the U.S. House Oversight Subcommittee […]
Supreme Court to hear case tribes fear is a threat to sovereignty
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a dispute over a 44-year-old law that prioritizes placement of Native children in the foster system with extended family or Native communities whenever possible. The justices will review lower court decisions that ruled key aspects of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 unconstitutional after […]
Titus introduces bill establishing Avi Kwa Ame as national monument
Nevada Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus introduced a bill designating land considered sacred to ten tribes as a national monument Thursday, fulfilling a commitment she made last month. Tribes and environmentalists hailed the move that would permanently protect nearly 450,000 acres of biologically and culturally significant lands within the Mojave Desert as a breakthrough on […]
Another tribe joins fight against Lithium Americas project
Another Nevada tribe is seeking to join a lawsuit against a planned lithium mine in Humboldt County, they say would cause irreparable harm to sacred native lands. The Winnemucca Indian Colony is the third Native American tribe seeking to join litigation against a mine proposed by Lithium Americas, along with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and […]
Nevada tribes set to gain in opioid settlement
After years of court battles tribes in Nevada are on a path to receive reparations from some of the largest United States drug distributors and a top drugmaker they say fueled an opioid epidemic in their communities. Last week, tribal representatives reached settlements to resolve claims by hundreds of Native American tribes totaling $590 million […]