Leotis McCormack answers the phone at his office at the Nez Perce Tribal Police Department in Lapwai, Idaho. (Credit: Lauren Paterson / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 4:02) Read More than 17 […]Read More
The Nez Perce Tribe is reclaiming an ancestral village site in the Eastern Oregon town of Joseph more than a century after being pushed out the area. This month, the tribe purchased 148 acres of an area known as “the place of boulders,” or Am’sáaxpa.Read More
Native American civil rights advocate Hank Adams died at the age of 77 this week. Once referred to as the "most important Indian" by Native American rights advocate and author Vine Deloria Jr., Adams was central to the fight to uphold tribal treaty rights during the 1960s and 1970s.Read More
Amid a widespread shutdown of athletic events, Washington state has become the 21st state to legalize betting on sports. Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed legislation to authorize sports wagers in tribal casinos only.Read More
A ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week reversed an opinion from a federal judge in Idaho. In the overturned opinion, Judge Lynn Winmill said federal courts didn’t have jurisdiction to enforce a ruling from the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Court against non-tribal members.Read More
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
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
Recently, a federal judge sided against the Yakama Nation in a jurisdiction case involving the tribe, the city of Toppenish and Yakima County. When a crime happens in Yakima County, a couple questions are key. One: Were either the victim or perpetrator Yakama Nation citizens? And two: Where exactly did it happen? Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, Oct. 30 in a five-year-old case that questions the rights outlined in an 1855 treaty between the United States and Washington’s Yakama Nation. Yakama Tribal Chairman JoDe Goudy was denied entry to the court for wearing his traditional headdress.Read More
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
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
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
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
At 2 o’clock on a recent Friday afternoon, the parking lot at the Mailbox Peak trailhead was almost full. This much was to be expected: Mailbox is a popular hike in the Middle Fork Valley, just outside of North Bend.Read More
British Columbia is taking the next step in a decade-long battle over native tribal rights. The province has filed paperwork to appeal a decision that granted Washington state tribal members rights to their ancestral lands in Canada.Read More
