Yakama Nation Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Northwest Public Broadcasting

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

Helicoptering Logs In Yakima Valley For The Northwest’s Largest River Restoration

By Courtney Flatt November 8, 2018

A helicopter is used to fly logs from a staging area to streams that need restoration but are no longer reached by roads. This is the largest stream restoration effort ever in the Northwest. CREDIT: COURTNEY FLATT

Almost 40 years ago, Scott Nicolai started his stream restoration career taking logs out of the water. A project that’s putting more than 6,000 logs back into remote streams across Central Washington.Read More

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Yakama Nation Tax Case; Tribe’s Chairman Denied Entry Over Regalia

By Emily Schwing October 30, 2018

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

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

By Esmy Jimenez October 19, 2018

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

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

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

‘It Was Quite A Shock.’ Wild Weekend As Northwest Fires Claim Homes, Injure Firefighter

By Emily Schwing August 12, 2018

Washington fire managers responded to nearly 70 new fire starts August 11, 2018, including the Grass Valley Fire that threatened the Grand Coulee Dam area and forced hundreds of evacuations. CREDIT: INCIWEB

It was a wild weekend for wildfire in the Northwest. A cold front brought lightning and high winds -- but no rain -- to the region east of the Cascades already plagued by extremely dry conditions.Read More

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

By Emily Schwing June 27, 2018

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

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

Rare Find: Wolverine Mother In Washington’s South Cascades

By Courtney Flatt May 8, 2018

For the first time in recent history, a mother wolverine has been spotted in the southern part of Washington's Cascade Mountains. Courtesy of the Cascades Carnivore Project

For the first time in recent history, a mother wolverine has been spotted in the southern part of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. The carnivores had been wiped out of the region after excessive hunting and trapping in the mid-1900s.Read More

Yakama Nation Environmental Leader Russell Jim Dies At Age 82

By Anna King April 10, 2018

A Yakama Nation leader, Russell Jim, has died. The 82-year-old was well-known by tribes and environmentalists across the nation for his fight to clean up Hanford.Read More

Yakama Nation Says Quarry Expansion Threatens Tribal Burial Site

By Esmy Jimenez April 10, 2018

Site of proposed Rowley Quarry expansion south of Yakima off interstate 82

Yakima County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, April 10 to support mining operations that the Yakama Nation believes will disturb a Native burial ground. The battle is three years in the making.Read More

UW Spring Breakers Team Up With Rural And Tribal Schools For Student-Led Teaching

By Esmy Jimenez March 29, 2018

UW student Joshawah Eagle-Bear (center right) leads 6th grade students on a workshop titled "Water Is Life" at Campbell Farm in Wapato, Wash. CREDIT: ZIHAN CAO

Spring break is in full swing for some students. This season, 80 students from the University of Washington skipped the beach and headed for more rural parts of the state.Read More

New Washington Law Aims To Help Solve Cases Of Missing And Murdered Native Women

By Deborah Wang March 15, 2018

After a bill signing ceremony in Olympia, women from several local tribes perform a song in honor of the missing and murdered indigenous women in the US, Canada and Alaska. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS/N3

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law Thursday, March 15 aimed at shedding light on the cases of missing or murdered Native American women. At the bill signing ceremony, Native women in traditional regalia performed a women’s honor song.Read More

Federal Judge Rules Against Northwest Tribes In Religious Freedom Case

By Conrad Wilson March 5, 2018

A federal judge ruled against tribal members with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, as well as the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in a case about the Religous Freedom Restoration Act stemming from a 2008 road expansion near Government Camp. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. CREDIT: THE BECKET FUND FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

A federal judge in Oregon ruled Friday against several Northwest tribal members in a case over the destruction of a spiritual site near Mount Hood. A road expansion project a decade ago destroyed burial grounds and a stone altar, along with old-growth trees.Read More

Yakama Nation Sues For Cleanup Cost At Portland Harbor Superfund

By Ericka Cruz Guevarra February 20, 2018

A protestor holds a sign at a rally at the Vancouver Landing Amphitheater along the Columbia River on Nov. 11, 2017 demanding accountability for pollution in the river. CREDIT: ERICKA CRUZ GUERVARRA

Oral arguments in a federal lawsuit filed against 30 private companies and government entities for cleanup costs associated with pollution at the Portland Harbor Superfund site are expected to start in April.Read More

Dating Is Hard Enough, Harder As A Yakama Nation Member Mindful Of Tribal Identity

By Esmy Jimenez February 14, 2018

Going on a date on Valentine’s Day can be fun and full of decisions – where to eat, what to wear. But for members of the Yakama Nation in Central Washington, it can be complicated when trying to date within the relatively small tribal community. Read More

For Displaced Rattlesnake Ridge Residents, Emergency Goes On As They’re Told To Return Home

By Esmy Jimenez February 8, 2018

Antonio Martinez and his son, Ramon Mendoza

The emergency is over for now at Rattlesnake Ridge near Yakima. The state says a major, sudden landslide is no longer imminent, and Yakima County has lifted its evacuation order and told residents they can move back home. But that’s easier said than done. Read More

Northwest Museums Revive Native American Artifacts To Tell Richer Stories

By Emily Schwing February 2, 2018

Sven Haakanson, the curator of North American Anthropology at the Burke Museum, says he wants exhibits at the new museum to speak to the resiliency of North America's Native people.

Museum curators in the Northwest are now working to update exhibits that focus on the region’s indigenous people. They are trying to do that in a way that both modernizes stories of indigenous people and tells them more truthfully. Read More

Yakama Nation Has A Lot Riding On The Rattlesnake Ridge Landslide

By Anna King January 24, 2018

The Yakama Nation is asking Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency for the Rattlesnake Ridge landslide. It’s a steep slope outside of Yakima that is moving slowly and clings above a small community, a railroad corridor, Interstate 82 and the Yakima River.Read More