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This article explores the issue of state trust lands on Native American reservations in the United States. It discusses how these lands, which were taken from tribes in the past, are now managed by states and generate revenue for public institutions. The article highlights specific examples of tribes leasing their own lands from the state, and the challenges faced by tribes in accessing and managing their own resources. It also mentions the LandBack movement, which advocates for the return of these lands to tribes. The article emphasizes the importance of returning the lands for cultural preservation, resource management, and climate resilience, but acknowledges the legal and political obstacles that hinder the process. It calls for public support and political action to address these issues and promote land return to tribes. [Extracted from the article]

This article from High Country News highlights the work of three Indigenous climate experts who are bringing their knowledge and perspectives to the conversation on climate change. The profiles feature Amelia Marchand, a senior tribal climate resilience liaison who emphasizes the importance of equitable research and data sovereignty; Lydia Jennings, a soil microbiologist studying mining and natural gas sites near tribal communities and advocating for Indigenous rights in land management; and Roberta Tuurraq Glenn-Borade, who bridges the gap between Western science and Iñupiat knowledge to address climate change in Alaska. These experts emphasize the need to listen to Indigenous voices and incorporate their traditional practices and knowledge into climate strategies. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the unique threats faced by Indigenous immigrants under a potential second Trump administration, highlighting the traumatic experiences of individuals like C.M. and Kaxh Mura'l. It explores the historical context of U.S. political intervention in Central and South America, leading to displacement and the struggle for cultural continuity. The lack of federal data on Indigenous immigrants and the need for Indigenous language services at the border are also emphasized, with calls for increased consultation with Indigenous communities. The article underscores the importance of recognizing Indigenous rights and the need for sustained solidarity to address structural and global issues affecting Indigenous peoples. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the potential impacts of a second Trump term on Native communities, focusing on increased resource extraction and the loss of protection for sacred places. Project 2025, a blueprint for Trump's presidency, outlines plans for more oil, gas, and mineral extraction on tribal and public lands, reversing climate change initiatives and protection of culturally significant sites. The article highlights concerns about the lack of policies addressing Indigenous issues, such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, tribal co-stewardship of public lands, and the Indian Health Service. It also mentions the potential repeal of the Antiquities Act, which could affect national monument protections for tribes. [Extracted from the article]

A recent report reveals that 10 states in the United States own 1.6 million acres of land within 83 tribal nations' reservations. These state-owned lands, known as trust lands, generate revenue for non-Indigenous institutions and services, such as public schools and hospitals. The presence of state trust lands on reservations complicates issues of tribal jurisdiction and undermines tribal sovereignty. While the Biden administration aims to assist tribes in reacquiring tribal homelands, there is currently no clear mechanism to return state trust lands to tribes, leaving tribes to purchase the land at high costs. [Extracted from the article]

Near a field where the tribe's single tractor was working the soil, Escobar described the Chemehuevi's agricultural plans. Escobar, the Chemehuevi's tribal administrator, would prefer to use his tribe's water, not lease it. AT NIGHT, THE LIGHTS of Lake Havasu City's hotels, boat launches and neighborhoods reflect off the reservoir that gave this busy Arizona tourist town its name. [Extracted from the article]

John, with the tribe's water department, said the state "politically maneuvered" to force the tribe to accept its demands. ARIZONA'S DEMANDS No one has defined the terms of water negotiations between Arizona and tribes more than former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. But in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin - which includes seven states, two countries and 30 federally recognized tribes between Wyoming and Mexico - whatever river water a tribe wins through this process comes from the state's allocation. While the process can be contentious anywhere, the large number of tribes in Arizona amplifies tensions: There are 22 federally recognized tribes in the state, and 10 of them have some yet-unsettled claims to water. [Extracted from the article]

The government has spent over $17 billion on hatcheries for the Snake and Columbia rivers, yet salmon continue to decline. FEATURE THROUGH MILLENNIA OF LAVA FLOWS and erosive flooding in the Columbia Basin, a river emerged. Last year, the Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association proposed a compromise: drawing down two of the reservoirs to help salmon recovery while avoiding total removal. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the ongoing efforts of five tribes and two federal agencies to co-manage Bears Ears National Monument. Despite political backlash and obstacles in Congress, the tribes and agencies have collaborated to create a draft management plan that centers the traditional knowledge and priorities of the tribes. The plan, known as Alternative E, recognizes the spiritual, cultural, and ancestral connections to the landscape and aims to protect Indigenous traditional uses of the monument. However, challenges remain, including funding for tribal governments and the need to educate state officials and the public about the tribes' relationship with the land and their cultural resources. [Extracted from the article]

IN SEPTEMBER 2020, the Hopi Tribe's four- decade effort to secure its right to water culminated in a court proceeding. If the Hopi decree survives the tribe's planned appeal, other tribes will be subjected to the same scrutiny of their way of life, said Rhett Larson, a professor ofwater law at Arizona State University. The legal battle - one of the tribe's largest expenses in recent years - resulted, in May 2022, in the court awarding less than a third of the water sought by the Hopi Tribe. [Extracted from the article]

In a settlement between the Pueblo of Zuni, the Salt River Project and others that was passed by Congress in 2003, Zuni was able to guarantee 10,000 acre-feet for wetland restoration on their reservation lands in Arizona. The case focuses on the Navajo Nation's claims that the federal government has a treaty-based responsibility to protect its future water interests, since the nation still does not have settled water rights in Arizona. THAT RELATIONSHIP between the state of Arizona and business interests was recently on display in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, which went in front of the Supreme Court and will be decided this summer. [Extracted from the article]

Last fall, President Joe Biden announced that he intended to designate Avi Kwa Ame a national monument, one that would cover 450,000 acres of BLM land just north of Ward Valley. And though Ward Valley was the focus of the nuclear waste dump conflict, it's part of a broader region known as Avi Kwa Ame, which is just as important to the tribes in the region. REPORTAGE THE PROTEST encampment was easily visible from Highway 40 going West from Needles, California - a cluster of olive-green Army tents that stood out from the low-lying creosote bushes and sagebrush that cover the expanse of Ward Valley. [Extracted from the article]

Tyana Arviso PHOTO (COLOR): Source: Ten Tribes Partnership Tribal Water Study Data reflects water diversions from 10 tribes in the Colorado River Basin. In Arizona, for example, nearly 70% of the state's water allocation belongs to tribes, and nearly all the tribal nations with unresolved water rights in the Basin have at least some territory in the state. [Extracted from the article]

They were conducting the tribes' first fish-kill survey of the year, a weekly outing to recover any suckers that may have died in order to monitor the status of the fish population. SPOTLIGHT ON THE KLAMATH C'WAAM AND KOPTU FISH usually arrive in early spring to spawn in the creeks and rivers around Upper Klamath Lake, in southern Oregon. For Case, the encounter with the wild adult c'waam earlier this year was a vision of what the fish the tribes are raising will one day become, and motivation to continue the c'waams' lineage, unbroken. In 2017, for example, the Fish and Wildlife Service, a local landowner, the Klamath Tribes and nine other partners completed a 25-year project to reconnect Sun Creek, a tributary to the Wood River, which empties into Upper Klamath Lake. [Extracted from the article]

The article explores the complex relationship between tribal nations and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While tribal governments have used the ESA to protect culturally important species and secure funding for reintroduction efforts, the law does not fully acknowledge tribal sovereignty. The article highlights conflicts that arise when the ESA's protections clash with tribal development plans or hunting rights. It also suggests that recovery goals under the ESA should aim for historic abundance to support tribal foodways and cultural practices. Ultimately, tribes want endangered species to not just recover, but flourish, in order to restore their own relationship with these plants and animals. [Extracted from the article]

Johnson's family traveled for council meetings or community events and often visited Bay Center, a sleepy town without a grocery store, school or gas station, where many of Johnson's elders lived. FEATURES BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, the cedar plankhouse called Cathlapotle would have been full of stories and fire. Tony Johnson has continued his tribe's campaign to regain that recognition. In 2009, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, then a tribe of around 4,300 based in the area of Great Falls, Montana, received a response to their petition for acknowledgment: 31 years after beginning the process, $2 million spent, and an amount of paperwork 35 feet high, and the government told them they wouldn't be recognized. [Extracted from the article]

As county recorder, Cazares-Kelly will oversee voter registration, early voting and voting by mail - a critical job in a state like Arizona with a history of voter suppression. Despite the pandemic, many states reported record turnout among Black voters, who have long been targeted by voter suppression. With the boom in mail-in voting, many faced new barriers: Historically, voters from communities of color are more likely to have their ballots rejected than white voters. A report from the Black Futures Lab highlighted how Nevada's voter policies made Black voters less likely to be automatically mailed ballots. [Extracted from the article]

REPORTAGE IN EARLY MARCH, five hours into a markup hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee, a conversation about an energy bill evolved into an existential half-hour debate on "meaningful tribal consultation." While Hageman's record in Indian Country is sparse, she says she supports tribal sovereignty, and both Hageman and Westerman agree that tribes would be better at managing lands than federal agencies. [Extracted from the article]

IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS of an October day in 2010, Rick and Linda Desautel left their hunting camp on traditional Sinixt lands near Vallican, British Columbia, and drove to the steep, thickly forested hills a few miles away. "The vast majority of the province is not covered by any treaty, and so the First Nations there have not given up their rights to the land", said Mark Underhill, Desautel's attorney. That began to change with First Nations land claims - when tribal nations pursue legal recognition of their right to land and resources - which set the stage for Desautel. PHOTO (COLOR): Linda and Rick Desautel sit outside their home near Inchelium, Washington, as Rick describes his legal battle and his adventures as a hunter, trapper and game warden. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusss how Klamath River water crisis and ensuing fish kill is indicative of a pivotal moment for the Yurok Tribe. Water districts and irrigators, namely the Klamath Water Users Association, have sided with the Bureau, disputing the need for increased river flows and claiming they cannot give up any more water. The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the Yurok Tribe's treaty rights to fish by traditional means, including gillnetting.

Fort Mojave Tribal Administrator Ashley Hemmers said in an interview that the Biden administration has been intentional in its engagement and has consulted with her tribe throughout the process. While the Biden administration has prioritized co-stewardship, Congress has not passed legislation ensuring that future administrations follow the same policy. REPORTAGE SINCE THE START of his administration, President Joe Biden has taken significant actions that have resonated in Indian Country: restoring Bears Ears National Monument; nominating the first Indigenous Cabinet member, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo); investing billions in tribal water-rights settlements and infrastructure. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the rebellion of citizens in State of Jefferson, a proposed U.S. state to separate from the state of California. It cites on the fight of Kayla Brown who believes on the northern counties of California to renew their separatist efforts. The article also discusses the experience of Mark Baird, a Vietnam veteran with the California's urban-rural divide that affect his ranch.

Instead, the tribe received BLM lands of relatively lower timber quality - checker-boarded lands, instead of the contiguous land base of many reservations. Rhett Lawrence, conservation director for the Sierra Club's Oregon chapter, says that his group opposed the timber company and privatization, not the concept of tribes regaining their lands. Tribes are often better at managing timberland holistically, says Smith, adding: "The tribal capacity with most of the tribes now, particularly the self-governance tribes, is at least equal to or better than the federal government". [Extracted from the article]

Ballot measures are a powerful tool of direct democracy, since they enable any citizen who can gather enough signatures to put an issue in front of voters on a ballot. But now, some state legislatures, including Arizona's, have referred measures to the ballot that would put limitations on future initiatives. The measure is similar to a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2002, though the state's ballot measure carries harsher consequences. [Extracted from the article]

President Donald Trump's outgoing administration had opened ANWR for sale just weeks before Biden took office. In addition to reviewing the Tongass protections, the Biden administration also has to decide on a rule proposed by 11 Southeast Alaska Native tribes in July 2020. REPORTAGE TRIBAL LEADERS see President Joe Biden's administration as an opportunity to increase tribal consultation regarding issues like water management, oil and gas leasing, and land conservation. [Extracted from the article]

REPORTAGE WHEN SHANE MORIGEAU was growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation, he knew that the land inside the fenced National Bison Range was different from the tribal lands elsewhere on the reservation, at the base of Montana's Mission Mountains or the shores of Flathead Lake. In December, a bipartisan bill that would transfer the lands and management of the National Bison Range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes looked as if it might die in Congress with the end of the session. In 1971, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes took the U.S. to court for taking its lands in the early 1900s. [Extracted from the article]

REPORTAGE IN MID-JUNE, THE RURAL COASTAL towns in Lincoln County, Oregon, experienced a COVID- 19 outbreak. Jorge Guzman, executive director of Portland-based Vive Northwest, works with translators regularly, and in just three weeks he set up a helpline with four Oregon-, Washington- and Guatemala-based Mam speakers. The Oregon study of COVID-19's impact on agricultural workers shows the effects on a family level. [Extracted from the article]

IN THE FIRST WEEKS of June, as protests against police brutality spread across the country, a group of people who were neither demonstrators nor law enforcement began to appear in the streets. Then, as protests against police violence spread, Three Percenters and other Patriot militia groups positioned themselves as guardians of private property and free speech. THAT CONCERN IS REFLECTED in Patriot militia groups' presence at protests as an extrajudicial authority, which they point to as another example of fulfilling a civic duty. [Extracted from the article]

REPORTAGE AS CITIZENS ACROSS the country fill the streets to protest police killings of Black people, the violent response from law enforcement has added urgency to a national conversation about police brutality. The CAHOOTS system relies on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction, which reduces calls to police, averts harmful arrest-release-repeat cycles and prevents violent police encounters. In 2019, Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and Street Roots, a homeless advocacy publication, introduced Portland Street Response, a police alternative based on the CAHOOTS model. [Extracted from the article]

REPORTAGE IN 2018, MONTANA VOTERS approved a law that was originally framed as a way to address election fraud. Within the last decade, a host of new laws have appeared that further disenfranchise marginalized voters, including Indigenous voters, according to the Native American Voting Rights Coalition, a nonpartisan alliance of voting rights advocates. Created in 2017, the group is tasked with making recommendations to state election officials and developing an action plan to increase tribal voter registration and election participation. [Extracted from the article]

Vigil, the interim executive director of the Ten Tribes Partnership, helped co-facilitate the Water and Tribes Initiative, coalitions focused on getting increased tribal participation on Colorado River discussions. One really looks at the Colorado River as a plumbing system, getting water to people who need it, versus the other end of the spectrum - when you start to look at tribes and others who have similar values, who look at it as a living entity, who look at it as an entity that provides life. And so that's proven part of the conversation that we were having - that the next set of guidelines absolutely needs to be able to capture not only the water-delivery issues that already are at the forefront, but really start to address the cultural, environmental, traditional values of the Colorado River and integrate that into the next set of planning. [Extracted from the article]

In 1992, Kivalina - a federally recognized tribe - voted to relocate due to the threat of erosion and storms, but the community's attempts to move were blocked by the U.S. government. One way is through a "relocation governance framework" first put forward by the Obama administration in 2013, which recognized the lack of progress agencies had made in assisting Alaska villages in their response to climate change. "Climate change has a lot to do with local capacity to coordinate", says Kyle Whyte (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), a professor of philosophy and community sustainability at Michigan State University. [Extracted from the article]

Followup In June, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) announced plans for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a first-of-its-kind "comprehensive review" of the U.S. government's history of separating Native children from their families and forcing them into boarding schools. THE LATEST Backstory The residential boarding schools of the early 19th and mid-20th century left a brutal legacy: Native children were taken from homes, abused, forced to assimilate and used as leverage against tribes that resisted U.S. expansion ("The U.S. stole generations of Indigenous children to open the West", 10/14/19). Their descendants have long demanded transparency about why so many died at government- and church-run schools like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and why their remains were not returned to their tribes. [Extracted from the article]

The ongoing fish kill is reminiscent of the traumatic 2002 die-off, in which 60,000 fall run adult chinook salmon died of disease because of low water in the Klamath. Ongoing fish kill on the Klamath River is an "absolute worst-case scenario" But they aren't leaves; they're the bodies of juvenile salmon, most of them no longer than a finger, dead from a warm-water disease exacerbated by drought on the Klamath River. [Extracted from the article]

Desautel then turned himself in - all part of a concerted effort to reaffirm his U.S.- based band's right to hunt on its historic territory in British Columbia. THE LATEST Border Unbound Backstory In 2010, Rick Desautel, an Arrow Lakes Band tribal member and Sinixt descendant, crossed the border to Canada and shot an elk without a license. The resulting decade-long litigation challenged the Canadian government's 1956 assertion that the Sinixt were "extinct" ("How an Arrow Lakes elk hunt became a case of tribal recognition", 10/28/19). [Extracted from the article]

Wilson's careful use of time allows readers to draw a throughline from the theft of three Dakota children in 1920 by federal boarding school agents to Rosalie's lonely foster-home childhood two generations later. REFLECTION & REVIEW IN THE OPENING SCENE of The Seed Keeper, Rosalie Iron Wing drives a pickup truck through deep Minnesota snow, intent on reaching a home she can barely remember. Dakota women keep seeds - and their families - safe. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers information on the New Code of the West conference held in Whitefish, Montana in October, 2018, focusing on Native Americans. Topics discussed include the views expressed by Elaine Willman, former chairperson of the Citizens for Equal Rights Alliance (CERA), at the event; the need to classify anti-American Indian groups as hate groups; and American people's understanding of civil and Indigenous rights.

The article discusses prevailing harassment at the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is one of the oldest agencies of the Interior. Surveys have revealed that employees at BIA, an agency staffed mostly by American Indians, experience more harassment than other Interior agencies. Overall, 40 percent of BIA employees surveyed admitted that they had been harassed in the previous 12 months.

The article discusses the problems of salinity and pollution in California's Salton Sea which is an important habitat for migratory birds and a change in the nesting pattern of birds because of natural gas well pads and compressors in Rattlesnake Canyon Wildlife Area in northern New Mexico.

The article reports that record-breaking wildfire season in Montana brings public health into the spotlight. Montana has long experienced wildfire and smoke. But the season was notable for the number of large, intense fires near populated areas. The long-term human health effects of breathing wildfire smoke daily are unknown.

The article offers business news briefs as of May 2017 on topics including issues on grazing and mining, suspending resource advisory councils of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management by Interior Department and bankruptcy of coal giant Peabody Energy.

The author presents a personal narrative of her experience visiting the Valley of the Giants forest preserve public land in Western Oregon.

This summer, the Yurok Tribe declared rights of personhood for the Klamath River - likely the first tribal nation to do so for a river in North America. The resolution draws from the Rights of Nature - an international concept that argues that nature should have the same rights as humans - and is the first law to recognize legal rights of plant species. [Extracted from the article]

Cash Armstrong: My sister, Alpine, actually went into the Fire Service first; she volunteered five years ago, worked her way up to a Hotshot. HCN: Fire Service officials are facing lawsuits as a result of that burn, but the redacted documents released so far are inconclusive. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports that treaty rights oblige the U.S. to offer certain environmental protections for tribal nations.