Native Americans Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Yakama Nation Radio Station Gets Tuned Back On Air 8 Months After Burglary Knocked It Off

By Esmy Jimenez July 8, 2019

KYNR host Ryan Craig at the station in February 2018, in front of the audio board that was stolen in October. CREDIT: Esmy Jimenez/NWPB

Typically, if you tuned in to KYNR 1490 AM, "The Voice of the Yakama Nation," you’d hear everything: local high school sports, birthday call-outs, musical guests. But eight months ago, the station was robbed and the broadcast came to a halt. That left 6,000 tribal members and other non-Native listeners without local news.Read More

14 Years Old And Chasing Horses On The Warm Springs Reservation

By Emily Cureton July 1, 2019

Avan Garcia and Blackhat get ready to chase wild horses on June 22, 2019.

As cowboys from the Warm Springs Reservation set out early one morning to capture wild horses, the youngest among them fiddled with a fresh red cast on his arm. Avan Garcia is a 14-year-old horseman with a budding reputation for roping skills — and for fearlessness.Read More

In Eastern Oregon, Joseph Gets New Statue From Artist Drawing On Several Tribal Traditions

By April Baer June 21, 2019

Artist Doug Hyde with “etweyé·wise” (literally, “I return from a hard journey”) on Main Street in Joseph, Oregon. CREDIT: Cheryl Coughlin/Courtesy of the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture

This Saturday, artist Doug Hyde will finish installing the latest bronze statue on Main Street in the Eastern Oregon city of Joseph. The road has become a showcase for the bronze foundries dotting Wallowa County. But while many of those statues feature Native American subjects, Hyde is the first Native artist to contribute.Read More

Joy Harjo Becomes The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate

By NPR News June 19, 2019

Joy Harjo will become the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, making her the first Native American to hold the position. Shawn Miller/Library of Congress

Poet, writer and musician Joy Harjo — a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation — often draws on Native American stories, languages and myths. But she says that she's not self-consciously trying to bring that material into her work. If anything, it's the other way around.Read More

Suicides In Northwest Jails Highlight Risk For Native American Inmates

By Austin Jenkins June 5, 2019

Vicky Jefferson holds a framed montage of photos of her daughter Shannon who died by suicide in the Whatcom County Jail. CREDIT: SARAH WALLACE

Deaths in the Whatcom County Jail highlight two stark realities: Native Americans are disproportionately more likely to be in Northwest jails. As a result, they are also more likely to die in jail. Read More

‘Genocide’ Has Been Committed Against Indigenous Women And Girls, Canadian Panel Says

By NPR News June 4, 2019

Women attend the closing ceremony of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls on Monday in Gatineau, Quebec. Chris Wattie/Reuters

A years-long government inquiry says human rights abuses "perpetrated historically and maintained today by the Canadian state" has led to violence against Indigenous women and girls that amounts to genocide.Read More

Don’t ‘Erase Me’ Says Quinn Christopherson In Winning NPR’s 2019 Tiny Desk Contest

By NPR News May 17, 2019

Quinn Christopherson is the winner of the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest. Ash Adams/Courtesy of the artist

Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Christopherson is a thoughtful songwriter with a powerful sense of perspective.Read More

Native Tribes Across The Rural West And Country Push For Better Internet Access

By NWPB News May 15, 2019

The Federal Communications Commission has not issued any new permanent licenses for the Educational Broadband Services spectrum in more than 20 years. The agency estimates that about one-third of the people living on tribal lands don't have access to high-speed internet, but others say the figure is twice as high. That's partly because homes on remote reservations are Read More

The Oral History Wasn’t A Myth. Tsunamis Hit This Tribal Village Five Times, Study Shows

By Tom Banse May 7, 2019

A mural in Port Angeles shows Klallam plank houses, as they might have looked after being rebuilt following a long-ago tsunami. CREDIT: SARAH STERLING / PSU

A legend about a great flood has been passed down through the centuries among the Klallam people on the north side of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. As re-told by Klallam elder Ed Sampson on a recording preserved by a University of North Texas linguist, the people noticed the fresh water turning salty -- a detail from which we infer a tsunami. Read More

Canadian Court Again Rules For Washington Man In Tribal Hunting Rights Case

By Emily Schwing May 2, 2019

British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has sided with a Washington man in a decade-long tribal sovereignty case. On Thursday the Court dismissed a second appeal of the sovereign tribal hunting rights case of Rick Desautel, effectively reinstating a tribe the Canadian government declared ‘extinct’ more than six decades ago. Read More

New Washington Law Seeks To Further Address Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

By Paige Browning April 25, 2019

The governor's conference room was full Wednesday, April 24, 2019 as tribal members from throughout Washington watched Gov. Jay Inslee sign Rep. Gina Mosbrucker's House Bill 1713 into law. Courtesy of Washington House Republicans media office

In what's being called a significant step for tribal communities, Washington state has a new law seeking to address the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. House Bill 1713 requires the State Patrol to write best practices for how to investigate those crimes. The new law also creates two state patrol positions to work on cases of missing Native people. Read More

Makah Tribe Could Again Hunt Whales Off Washington Coast

By Paige Browning April 4, 2019

Makah whalers celebrate atop a dead gray whale after a successful hunt seen in this May 17, 1999, file photo, in Neah Bay, Wash. CREDIT: ELAINE THOMPSON/AP

A proposal out Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would allow the Makah Tribe to hunt between 1-3 gray whales annually in their historic hunting range. The tribe last held a hunt 20 years ago.Read More

StoryCorps Northwest: Puyallap Tribe Member Remembers Mother’s Disappearance 20 Years Later

By NPR News March 29, 2019

Carolyn DeFord poses with her mother and daughter in La Grande, Oregon in their last photograph together before Leona disappeared in 1999. Courtesy of Carolyn DeFord

It's been 20 years since Carolyn DeFord, a member of the Puyallup tribe, last saw her mother, Leona Kinsey in La Grande, Ore. DeFord was raised by Kinsey in La Grande. She remembers her mother as independent and self-sufficient, working odd jobs to scrape by.Read More

South Dakota Pine Ridge Reservation Inundated As Flood Waters Douse Midwest

By NPR News March 25, 2019

National Guard members distribute drinkable water to residents of Sharps Corner, a community in the Pine Ridge Reservation in S.D. Courtesy of Lt. Col. Anthony Deiss, South Dakota National Guard

Water levels in overflowed creeks are slowly starting to decline on the Pine Ridge Reservation. "What used to be a dry creek is now a swelling, raging river," said Peri Pourier, South Dakota state representative for the district that includes Pine Ridge.Read More

‘No Family Deserves To Have To Go Through This’: Missing And Murdered On The Yakama Nation

By Esmy Jimenez March 22, 2019

File photo. The reservation of the Yakama Nation in south-central Washington covers over 2,000 square miles, with areas patrolled by tribal, city and county law enforcement.

On Dec. 26, 2017, Myrna Cloud’s 23-year-old cousin went missing on the Yakama Nation reservation in Central Washington. D. Lloyd’s body was found in a rural part of the reservation four days later. The murder is still under investigation. Read More

Conservative Justice Gorsuch Joins Supreme Court Liberals In Deciding Yakama Nation Treaty Case

By NPR News March 20, 2019

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch CREDIT: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On this conservative court, Gorsuch has been one of the most conservative voices. But in cases involving Native tribes' treaties and rights, he is most often counted among those sympathetic to tribes' claims.Read More

U.S. Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Yakama Nation Treaty Rights In Gas Tax Case

By Esmy Jimenez March 19, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case on gas taxes and tribal sovereignty involving the Cougar Den gas station on the Yakama Reservation. CREDIT: GOOGLE MAPS

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court decided in favor of tribal treaty rights in a case between the Washington Department of Licensing and Cougar Den, a gas station in White Swan on the Yakama Reservation. Read More

Peter Kaiser Takes First In Iditarod — Marking A Win For Alaskan Natives

By NPR News March 16, 2019

Kaiser is the first musher of Yup'ik descent to win the Iditarod sled dog race. His win is a significant point of pride for Alaska's indigenous people.Read More

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Pocahontas And The English Boys’ Bridges 2 Wildly Different Cultures

By NPR News March 12, 2019

Pocahontas and the English Boys, by Karen Ordahl Kupperman

Historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman shines a new light on Pocahontas, showing how she made her way as a go-between for her two cultures, and introducing us to her long-forgotten English counterparts.Read More

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Our History Is The Future’ Puts Standing Rock In Broader Native American Story

By NPR News March 6, 2019

Our History Is The Future, by Nick Estes

In his new book, Nick Estes points a way forward, with solidarity and without sentimentality, to an idea of Indigenous land alive with ancestry and renewal.Read More

Columbia River Art Installation At The Dalles Put On Hold By Yakama Nation Opposition

By Tom Banse February 9, 2019

Artist Maya Lin's design for Celilo Park included an elevated arc that would end at the edge of the now-flooded historic falls on the Columbia River. CREDIT: MAYA LIN STUDIO

A public art project proposed to be built beside the now-inundated great falls of the Columbia River has been put on indefinite hold by its sponsor. The installation was planned for Celilo Falls — east of The Dalles, Oregon — as the sixth and final outdoor artwork in a series by celebrated designer Maya Lin along the Columbia and Snake rivers.Read More

BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Heartbeat Of Wounded Knee’ Seeks A New Narrative For Native Americans

By NPR News January 26, 2019

Memorial to the Wounded Knee Massacre that occurred on Dec. 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.

Author David Treuer calls his new book a "counternarrative" to Dee Brown's 1970 classic. "I have tried to catch us not in the act of dying but, rather, in the radical act of living," he writes.Read More

Washington Lawmaker Unveils New Bill To Address Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

By Emily Schwing January 25, 2019

After a 2018 bill signing ceremony in Olympia, women from several local tribes performed a song in honor of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. and Canada. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS / NW NEWS NETWORK

Murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls are the focus of a bill introduced in the Washington House of Representatives on Friday.Read More

Washington Legislators Consider Statewide Native American Voting Rights Act

By Emily Schwing January 24, 2019

Washington state Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, is sponsoring the Native American Voting Rights Act. Courtesy of office of Joe McCoy

A bill in the Washington Senate seeks to improve voting rights for Native Americans. The Native American Voting Rights Act is sponsored by John McCoy, the only tribal member in the state Senate.Read More

‘We Need Action.’ Yakama Nation Leads Discussion On Violence Against Women

By Esmy Jimenez January 17, 2019

Charlene Tillequots is a member of the Yakama Nation’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Special Committee. Tillequots spoke at the meeting Jan. 14 meeting in Toppenish, saying, “We don’t need another study. We need action to address a human rights issue.” CREDIT: Esmy Jimenez/NWPB

On Jan. 14, the Yakama Nation held an all-day community meeting in Toppenish, Washington, to discuss violence that affects Native American women and girls. Over 200 people attended the community meeting, including Yakama tribal members, the Washington State Patrol, local police departments, and the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs. Read More

Washington Tribes Oppose Canadian Pipeline, More Oil Tankers In Salish Sea

By John Ryan December 1, 2018

Representatives of Washington tribes perform a "paddle song" at the start of a hearing in Victoria, B.C., on the Trans Mountain Pipeline. CREDIT: NATIONAL ENERGY BOARD

Tribal leaders and members from Washington state crossed the Salish Sea to oppose a pipeline that could bring more oil tankers to waters on both sides of U.S.-Canada border. The Canadian government wants to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline and triple the flow of oil from Alberta to the Pacific coast.Read More

A Yakama Woman’s Promise To Her Elders Sheds Light On A Forgotten Northwest War

By Tom Banse November 29, 2018

Emily Washines and Glen Hamilton met in person for the first time earlier this fall at Fort Simcoe on the Yakama Nation reservation. CREDIT: LAY CONN / KCTS-9

Emily Washines was 18 years old when she was crowned Miss National Congress of American Indians. Yakama tribal councilmembers and elders sung a warrior song for her and then extracted a promise. Tribal leaders had something in mind. They wanted Washines to remember a message about a little-known war that wracked the Northwest in the 1850s. Read More

Report Finds Seattle Has Most Missing And Murdered Native Women

By Amy Radil November 16, 2018

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Washington group members start the Women's March on Saturday, January 20, 2018, on Pine St., in Seattle. CREDIT: MEGAN FARMER/KUOW

More than 500 Native American women have disappeared or been murdered in U.S. cities, many since the year 2000, according to a new report from Seattle’s Urban Indian Health Institute.Read More

Judge Rules Native Americans In North Dakota Must Comply With Voter ID Law

By NPR News November 2, 2018

Residential roads with no street name or number signs, such as this one in Belcourt, N.D., are common on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Under recently tightened state rules, voters in North Dakota are required to present identification with a street address, which is a hurdle for Native Americans. CREDIT: Blake Nicholson/AP

A federal judge has ruled that Native Americans in North Dakota must comply with the state's recently tightened voter ID law. At the same time, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland acknowledged that the law had raised concerns.Read More

Native Women Turn Up The Volume In Violence And Sexual Assault Conversations

By Emily Schwing November 1, 2018

More than a hundred people gathered in Anchorage for a rally to bring attention to violence against native women in October.

Since last January’s Women’s March in Seattle, hundreds of Indigenous women have gathered in the Northwest to raise awareness of those who go missing, are abused or murdered. Now, demonstrations like this are also happening in Alaska’s largest city.Read More

Horror Older Than America: Whitewashing Native Tales For A Mass-Market Audience

By T.J. Tranchell October 26, 2018

Traditional and sacred Native American stories have often been used as tropes in the horror genre. Read More

Justice Department Expands Assistance To Tribal Police, Calling It ‘Right Thing To Do’

By NPR News October 22, 2018

Navajo Nation police Lt. Clifton Smith's department is among those with access to national anti-crime databases. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expanding that program. CREDIT: Felicia Fonseca/AP

The program covers a number of real-world situations: assisting with the registration of sex offenders; identifying human remains; locating endangered and missing people; arming tribal law enforcement with information about people they encounter in traffic stops; and conducting background checks to vet foster parents.Read More

More Than Radio: KYNR Brings Back ‘Voice Of The Yakama Nation’ After Theft

By Esmy Jimenez October 19, 2018

Earlier in October, someone broke into KYNR, stealing equipment and knocking them off the air. It highlighted issues not only of crime and safety on the Yakama Nation reservation, but also how important the station is to the community.Read More

IDs Of Many Native Americans Won’t Be Accepted At North Dakota Polling Places

By NPR News October 13, 2018

This June, instructions were posted at an early voting precinct in Bismarck, N.D. In that primary election, tribal IDs that did not show residential addresses were accepted as voter ID. But those same IDs will not be accepted in the general election. CREDIT: James MacPherson/AP

The Supreme Court has upheld a state law requiring voters' IDs to have street addresses, which many reservations do not use. Native American groups are now scrambling to prepare for Election Day.Read More

Jeremy Dutcher: The Newest Light In Canada’s Indigenous Renaissance

By NWPB Music September 25, 2018

Jeremy Dutcher, photographed at the conclusion of his performance during the 2018 Polaris Prize ceremony on Sep. 17, 2018, where he was given the evening's top prize. CREDIT: Dustin Rabin/Polaris Prize

Dutcher spent five years researching, writing and recording his brilliant and ambitious debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa -- now, it has earned one of Canada's most prestigious prizes.Read More

‘We’re Still Here:’ Washington’s Sinixt Tribe Defends Hunting Rights And Fight For Canadian Recognition

By Emily Schwing September 20, 2018

For nearly a decade, Desautel, who is a U.S. citizen living in Washington, has been making his way through British Columbia’s court system. He’s trying to reinstate his indigenous rights north of the border. His is a case about tribal sovereignty, recognition and reconciliation in Canada.Read More

In Canadian Court, Washington Tribal Member Again Argues For Indigenous Identity And Hunting Rights

By Emily Schwing September 12, 2018

More than 40 people – many from Washington state – piled into a courtroom in Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, Sept. 12, to hear arguments in a long-running case regarding indigenous rights in Canada.Read More

Despite Past Reforms, Native Women Face High Rates Of Crime

By NWPB News September 12, 2018

A woman performs a traditional Native American dance during the North American Indian Days celebration on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., Friday, July 13, 2018. North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says Native American women are often subject to high rates of violence. "It becomes a population that you can prey on because no one does anything about it, because there's no deterrence, because there's no enforcement and no prosecution," said Heitkamp, who has introduced a bill aimed at addressing this issue. CREDIT: DAVID GOLDMAN/AP

For generations, Native American women have been victimized at astonishing rates, with federal figures showing that more than half have encountered sexual and domestic violence at some point during their lives — even amid a wave of efforts aimed at reducing such crimes.Read More

Can Dams And Salmon Coexist? Congressional Hearing In Pasco Highlights Difference On Both Sides

By Anna King September 10, 2018

Tribal canoeists on the Memorial Bridge in Lewiston, Idaho, on the Clearwater River just before the confluence with the Snake River. The group joined the larger Free the Snake "flotilla" demonstration, Sept. 7-8, 2018. CREDIT: MIKE BEISER

In the past few days, dam advocates and people who want more wild salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers have been putting on their best shows. At the U.S. House committee hearing on Monday, dam advocates gave the bulk of the testimony.Read More

Native Tribes Propose Changes For Yellowstone Landmark Names

By NPR News September 10, 2018

Chief Stanley Charles Grier of the Piikani Nation hands over a declaration to Yellowstone National Park deputy superintendent Pat Kenney. CREDIT: NATE HEGYI

Last September, tribal leaders from across North America gathered at Yellowstone National Park and asked the federal government to change the name of Mount Doane to First Peoples Mountain. They also want to rename the iconic Hayden Valley.Read More

Android App Reconnects Community To Yakama Indigenous Language

By Esmy Jimenez September 3, 2018

Keegan Livermore types out “Good afternoon” on the Ichishkíin-English keyboard he created. The app is available on the Google Play store for Android users only at this time. He hopes to have an iOS version later this fall. CREDIT: ESMY JIMENEZ/NWPB

One of the 10 dialects of the Yakama Nation’s Sahaptin language is called Ichishkíin. With fewer than 50 fluent speakers, it’s considered endangered according to the Heritage University Language Center. But a new Android mobile app connects users to it.Read More

Tribes And Conservation Groups Study What’s Leading To Low Lamprey Counts

By Brian Bull August 28, 2018

Gary Vonderohe (right) of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, administers a low-grade shock to a lamprey, as volunteers stand by with nets to capture it. CREDIT: BRIAN BULL

With their tube-like bodies, gaping gill slits, and especially their sucker-like mouths lined with jagged teeth, lampreys aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing creatures. They look like they jumped out of a Ridley Scott sci-fi horror film. But for some Northwest Native tribes, they're a significant part of the culture.Read More

Tribes Call On FCC To Prioritize Native Needs In Broadcast Licences

By Emily Schwing August 13, 2018

Sign at headquarters of Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a rule change for licenses normally reserved for education and public broadcasting. In Washington, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville are calling on the agency to prioritize tribal reservations for improved communication.Read More

Can Washington Make A Plan To Save The Orcas?

By Eilís O'Neill August 8, 2018

Protesters call for the removal of dams on the Snake River to help salmon spawn — and consequently feed Puget Sound orcas. The protest came outside a meeting of the governor’s orca task force in Wenatchee on Tuesday. CREDIT: ELLIS O'NEILL/KUOW/EARTHFIX

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's orca task force met in Wenatchee this week to come up with a long-term plan to help the recovery of the orca population that spends much of its time in or around the Puget Sound.Read More

App Provides ‘Entry Point’ To Understand Indigenous History Of Land You’re On

By Emily Schwing July 12, 2018

The Native Land app aims to help educate people about Native peoples and their historical lands. CREDIT: VICTOR TEMPRANO

Regardless of where you live in the Northwest, someone was there before you…but who? Web developer Victor Temprano has created an app that can help educate people about Native peoples and their historical lands. Read More

Record Number Of Native Americans Running For State And Federal Offices In 2018

By NPR News July 4, 2018

Deb Haaland worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign before chairing New Mexico's Democratic Party. Now she's running for office with a record number of other Native Americans across the country.

In Oklahoma, there is a race between two Native American candidates, one a Democrat and the other a Republican. As for statewide offices, there are more Native Americans running for lieutenant governor alone, six candidates, than the number who ran for statewide offices across the country in 2016.Read More

U.S. Supreme Court To Review ‘Landmark’ Tribal Sovereignty Case Involving Yakama Nation

By Emily Schwing June 27, 2018

Last year, the Washington state Supreme Court granted the Yakama Nation the right to transport goods and services across state lines without taxation. Attorneys and tribal members called it a landmark case for tribal sovereignty. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review it.Read More