The Wrap: A checkered past with tribes

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Kristi Noem: ‘Why have they not banished the cartels?’

Kristi Noem has been a hot topic in Indian Country since she first claimed on January 31 that Mexican drug cartels are operating on tribal land in South Dakota. Since then, the governor has repeatedly insisted cartels are operating on reservations. Noem even has alleged that tribal governments benefit from cartel presence and are failing their youth.

On May 17, Noem held a press conference to address her being banned from eight of the nine reservations in South Dakota.

“I ask them right back, ‘Why have they not banished the cartels? Why have they not banished the cartel affiliates?’” Noem said. “Why have they only focused their attention on me, who has offered them help, and not gone after those who are perpetuating violence?”

During the press conference, Noem again alleged the cartel is operating on tribal land in South Dakota. More specifically, she alleged the cartel has influence over drug trafficking in the state. READ MORE . — Amelia Schafer, ICT + Rapid City Journal

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Tribes receive historic preservation funding to protect natural resources, culture, traditions

As part of the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund, more than $2.5 million in funding is coming to 10 Arizona tribal nations to support various programs and projects to preserve cultural resources and history.

“The National Park Service is proud to support our state, Tribal, and local partners with annual funding that helps them preserve their significant historic and cultural places,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a press release. “Importantly, these grants aid communities across the country to invest in local stewardship of treasured resources.”

The Historic Preservation Fund was established in 1977 and has been authorized at $150 million per year through 2023, according to NPS. The fund has provided over $2.7 billion in grants to states, tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. READ MORE . — AZ Mirror

Osage veteran survives EF4 'train'

An Osage elder’s granddaughter pushed him into his storm shelter and held the door as the wind tried to rip it off and sweep both of them away.

“When you hear the train, it’s too late. You better be underground, because the trains are coming,” he told ICT and Tulsa World.

The Barnsdall EF4 tornado came to John Henry Mashunkashey’s front door late at night May 6.

“The train has no pity. The train has no heart. That’s the sound you hear. Rain, hail, then quietness, and then you hear the train,” said Mashunkashey.

This is the second time Mashunkashey heard this foreboding sound in his life. The first time, he was just a child, and a tornado tore up his family’s outhouses, but this time, he was the landowner and homeowner. READ MORE . — Felix Clary, ICT+Tulsa World

Taking back Native voting rights

Voting is the centerpiece of grassroots efforts across tribal communities in states that have large populations of Indigenous voters. For example, in rural parts of Arizona and Montana, voter education groups are leading initiatives to spread the word about why every vote counts, especially during a presidential election year.

Jaynie Parrish, Diné, is the executive director of Arizona Native Vote. She talked about her entry into voter education after working in various voter campaigns. “I was familiar with the various types of campaigns, such as those associated with public education and school funding, including a campaign to elect Denise Juneau, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, who ran for public office in Montana,” Parrish said.

Her organization primarily focuses on high school students by teaching juniors and seniors about democracy from an Indigenous perspective. Parrish said the goal is to establish a cohesive partnership with the students about why voting is important, while encouraging them to register to vote.

“Arizona Native Vote is in a constant state of growth, which means hiring more individuals to support the organization in the area of communications and media, in order to get the word out about voter information in a part of the state that are ‘news deserts,’” Parrish said. READ MORE . — Christopher Lomahquahu, ICT

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Tribal input for agriculture

On Monday’s ICT Newscast, the US Department of Agriculture is acting on tribal input. A tribal leader in California takes stock of newly protected, sacred land. And land back takes a new twist in an upcoming novel by Conor Kerr.

Watch:

Leading with the heart in a time of climate change

From an early age, Mona Polacca’s mother told her something that would guide her life’s work protecting the environment and advocating for Indigenous people: Water and all its inhabitants were her relatives. A citizen of the Hopi, Tewa and Havasupai tribes, Polacca took these words to heart – especially because the Havasupai are known as “the people of the blue-green waters.”

“When I became a young woman, she took me out in the street, out facing the east [toward the sunrise] and said, ‘You're not in this world for nothing. You have a responsibility,’” Polacca said of her mother. “‘What you do, what you say, how you behave, has an impact on all of life. Your family, your brothers, sisters, your parents, your extended family. Your community, your tribe,’ you know, ‘to all Indigenous people in the world. You have a responsibility and you have to take care of that.’”

Now 68, Polacca is a leader in strengthening Indigenous, sovereign self-determination worldwide. She is recognized internationally for her social justice work with the United Nations and as a founder of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an alliance that grew out of concern for the destruction of the Earth and of Indigenous ways of life. READ MORE . — The Fuller Project

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