Sorted by date Results 701 - 725 of 1085
Ursula Johnson, a Nova Scotia artist, has won Canada's largest prize for contemporary art, the $50,000 Sobey Art Award. A Mi'kmaw performance and installation artist, Johnson incorporates her heritage into her art, which challenges and explores issues of identity, traditional Indigenous culture and colonial history. The award's selection committee praised her "strong voice, her generosity and collaborative spirit. Through her work, she redefines traditional materials and...
A Wikwemikong First Nation girl from Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario has been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. Thirteen-year-old Autumn Peltier is the only Canadian being considered for the prestigious award. The public eye is not new to this young teen, who has been speaking on her passion for the environment, especially Canada's water, for years. Her advocacy began when she entered a community writing contest with an essay on water at eight...
WASHINGTON-In October 2017, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced the selection of Bryan Rice, a veteran federal administrator and citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, as the new Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the federal agency that coordinates government-to-government relations with 567 federally recognized tribes in the United States. "Bryan has a wealth of management expertise and experience that will well serve Indian Country as the...
TULSA, Okla.-The Cherokee Nation honored hundreds of Native-owned businesses, from construction companies to printing shops, during the tribe's 10th Annual TERO Certified Indian Owned Business Awards Banquet Thursday in November, 2017. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Employment Rights Office has more than 800 Indian-owned companies that are TERO-certified vendors able to do business with the tribe and better compete for government contracting jobs. In fiscal year 2017, TERO...
More than 5,000 elders of First Nations, Métis and Inuit descent gathered in Edmonton for the First National Gathering of Elders in September, 2017. The Northland's Expo Center in Edmonton is overflowing this week with Indigenous elders attending the first National Gathering of Elders. The purpose of the three-day event was "so the Elders can come together and take their rightful place as advisors, teachers and leaders," conference organizers wrote. Assembly of First Nations...
In a historic first, a provincial government building has been named for an Indigenous woman. In late October, during Women's History Month, the government announced the designation of the Edmonton facility, at 12360 142 Street, as the Muriel Stanley Venne Provincial Centre. Muriel Stanley Venne has been a leader in the First Nations and Métis communities of Alberta for more than 30 years and has advanced the fair treatment of Indigenous peoples within all levels of society....
PHOENIX-Law students, professors and tribal members gathered recently at the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law in downtown Phoenix to watch the new documentary "Tribal Justice." The documentary features two chief judges from tribes in Arizona and California, and highlights some of the issues found on reservations, including lack of federal funding and guardianship appeals for families in Indian Country. Those behind the documentary said they hope the project helps shed a...
With racial issues taking more attention on the North American stage the past couple of years, controversy was rife in 2017 over the appropriateness, or inappropriateness, of Halloween and party costumes depicting Native Americans. Halloween has morphed into a day that "celebrates creative self-expression," said author Alla E. Dastagir in USA Today. And for many, especially people raised on Disney depictions of indigenous people, dressing as Pocahontas or other strong...
MILWAUKEE, WI | On Tuesday, October 18, 2017, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) membership overwhelmingly moved to support Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde’s request that NCAI join AFN in working to establish an Indigenous Chapter in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). National Chief Bellegarde was addressing NCAI at the NCAI 74th Annual Convention and Marketplace in Milwaukee, WI. “I thank the National Congress of American Indians for passing a unanimous motion sup...
WASHINGTON-Tribal leaders backed a House bill on October 25, 2017, that would give tribes the ability to control more of their land, instead of having to get federal approval for virtually any use. The American Indian Empowerment Act would let tribes shift federally controlled trust land to "restricted fee land," a move that could save millions of dollars that tribes now spend on "burdensome regulation," while restoring a level of tribal sovereignty. While they called the...
BALTIMORE-According to an Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2017 Race for Results report, American Indian kids join children in immigrant, African-American, and Latino families as lacking in opportunities for success and well-being. Among the findings: • Thirty-eight percent of American Indian children live in households with incomes of 200 percent above the federal poverty level, compared to 69 percent of white children and 69 percent of Asian children. • Among fourth-graders natio...
WASHINGTON, DC-Families in more than half of Native American homes in Arizona now speak only English at home, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey data covering 2011-2015 showed that 53 percent of people who identified as American Indian in the state said they speak only English at home, up from 49 percent in the previous five-year survey. The increase comes despite efforts by tribes to keep their cultures and their languages alive, t...
MUSKOGEE, OK-The descendants of former slaves held within the Cherokee Nation are entitled to tribal citizenship, a federal judge ruled in a long-running controversy that has stretched through three U.S. presidential administrations. In the landmark decision, Judge Thomas F. Hogan settled the biggest issue in the dispute. He said a treaty signed in 1866 guarantees citizenship to the former slaves-more commonly known as Freedmen-and, by extension, to their descendants. "The...
OTTAWA—In a speech to the United Nations, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada has let down its 1.4 million indigenous people and that his government would do better to improve their lives. When the prime minister was elected in 2015, he pledged that his administration would work on its relationship with aboriginals. In his September 21, 2017 speech, Trudeau noted to the U.N. General assembly the history of Canada’s colonization as being filled with “humiliation, neglect and abuse.” Indigenous Canadians, compris...
In an answer to much prayer (and a long-time prayer), Intertribal Christian Communications (Indian Life Ministries) and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Inc., form a new partnership. For many years, ILM staff and Board have been praying for a First Nations believer to join ILM as Director, and the Lord has chosen now to answer this prayer! With this new partnership, NEFC Executive Director, Kene Jackson, will provide new leadership, wisdom and experience for ILM....
ST. JOHN'S, NF-A $50-million settlement was reached in May between the federal government and hundreds of students who attended residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, ending a 10-year legal battle. The Prime Minister's Office confirms that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize in Labrador. An exact date and location have not been confirmed, but an update is expected soon. Starting in the late 19th century, about 30% of children of Canada's native peoples, or...
TULSA, OK-The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is welcoming a federal court decision that confirms the boundaries of its reservation in Oklahoma. By a unanimous vote, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday said Congress never "disestablished" the reservation even though portions were parceled out during the allotment era. In a statement to The Tulsa World, Chief James Floyd called the 126-page decision a "complete and unqualified victory." "Today's unanimous decision is a complet...
The Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Indigenous Services congratulated Chief Charlene Belleau and Esk'etmc First Nation upon opening the new Sxoxomie School, which will welcome students from preschool to seventh grade. "It gives me great pleasure to share my congratulations and best wishes to Chief Charlene Belleau, and the entire Esk'etemc community on the opening of their new school," said Philpott. "This milestone reflects our shared commitment to safe and healthy...
WASHINGTON-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a report to the White House in late August that he will not call for the removal of any national monuments but will recommend downsizing an unnamed "handful" of monuments. The report follows a four-month review of national monuments that were created or expanded since 1996 by presidents invoking the Antiquities Act, in what critics have called an overreach of federal authority. Environmental groups had feared that the review...
WINNIPEG, MB-Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman along with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, attended the signing ceremony for Winnipeg's Indigenous Accord on June 20. Mayor Bowman, along with the full city council and representatives of dozens of Winnipeg organizations signed the accord during a two-and-a-half-hour ceremony at Oodena Circle at The Forks. The accord states that those who sign the document must publish an annual report...
WASHINGTON, DC-The White House is finally filling out its leadership team at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Gavin Clarkson, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, will be serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development at the BIA. He is the first senior political hire at the agency since Secretary Ryan Zinke, the new leader of the Department of the Interior, came on board in March. The job is not the top political one at the agency. That would be the...
SACRAMENTO, CA-Controversy is stirring over a bill in California that offers tax relief for tribes whose land-into-trust applications have been approved but have not yet been finalized. Land placed in trust is not subject to local and state taxation. But appeals in the courts and through the administrative process can tie up tribes for years. That's the situation facing the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. Although the BIA approved the tribe's application for 1,400 acres...
BISMARK, ND—The North Dakota Public Service Commission has scheduled a hearing to discuss the disturbance of tribal artifacts during construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. According to the commission, the firm waited too long—10 days to be exact—to notify the state after stone cairns and other artifacts were uncovered at a construction site last October. The firm also slightly modified the route of the pipeline without informing the state, the commission said in issuing a $15,000 fine against the wealthy backers of th...
WASHINGTON, DC-A landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court threatens the long-running case against the Washington NFL team's racist mascot. A group of young Native activists, led by Navajo Nation citizen Amanda Blackhorse, had secured victory when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said the team's symbols were "disparaging" to Native peoples. A federal judge agreed. But on June 19, 2017, the nation's highest court, in a complex ruling, changed the game. By a majority...
Eight Canadian cities hosted concerts from Halifax to Montreal, Toronto to Winnipeg, Calgary to Edmonton, Yellowknife to Vancouver. Performers included Metis Don Amero and Rick Leaf's Tribe of One, Burnt, and the Inuit Throat Singers Choir. Special guest singer was Nelly Furtado who performed from Winnipeg....
