Native America Calling

For many Native American survivors, a cancer diagnosis is more than just a biological battle. It is a matter of balancing modern oncology with community and cultural context. American Cancer Society data show a historic 70% five-year survival rate across the general population, but Native Americans continue to face unique hurdles, from geographic isolation to chronic underfunding of the Indian Hea...

A select few Native American artists choose to express their cultural and creative passions in miniature. An exhibition starting this month at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures celebrates those artists who make distinctive pottery, baskets, and carvings on a decidedly downsized scale. The top Indigenous beaders, potters, painters, and weavers are headed to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ari...

The Seneca Nation in New York is working to correct longstanding confusion over law enforcement on their land. A nearly 80-year-old federal statute handed the state control over certain crimes on Seneca Nation’s territory. A bill in Congress could chart a path to resolving that conflict. In Oklahoma, a Muscogee Nation citizen argues that those who work and live on the tribal land do not have...

Advocates working to accurately portray Native Americans in the K-12 education system in Texas scored a victory when the State Board of Education renewed a curriculum that was years in the making. The approval came at a time when the Trump administration and state officials pushed hard to scrub any hint of diversity from public school classrooms. Among other things, opponents of the Texas Native S...

Two new healing centers count on location, cultural practice, and family connections to break the destructive effects of substance abuse. In Lodge Grass, Mont., organizers plan an integrated foster care facility to complement a campus designed to support families affected by addiction . The non-profit organization behind the center estimates that number reaches as high as 60% of residents in the s...

A crew from Chevak, Alaska recover a submerged boat, part of the marine debris created by Typhoons Merbok (2022) and Helong (2025). (Photo: Richard Tuluk) Typhoon Merbok swept buildings, boats, and tons of trash into the sea off the west coast of Alaska in 2022. The city of Chevak is one of many coastal Alaska Native communities tasked with helping to find and recover that and other marine debris...

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Cary Morin (Crow/Assiniboine) is back with a new album featuring more of his introspective lyricism, soulful singing and skillful fingerstyle guitar playing. The new album, “ Pocket of Time “, captures memories and slices of everyday life on the Crow Reservation in Montana. It is a calm, mellow listen and another refreshing entry in his expansive catalogue t...

Honeycreepers only live in Hawai’i and the birds are interwoven into Native Hawaiian culture. Feathers from the strikingly colorful birds are a key part of ceremonial cloaks and other regalia. The birds themselves are prominent in cultural stories, but of the more than 50 original species of honeycreepers, only 17 survive — and those are threatened with extinction. Several factors contribute...

Kasey Jernigan (Choctaw) interviewed and observed Choctaw women over a period of years about food and their relationships to it. She documents what she learned in those observations in her new book, “ Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways and Indigeneity ”. The book uses federal food and nutrition assistance as the jumping off point for an exploration of individual perceptions of food and colon...

Choctaw homicide detective Perry Antelope works on a missing persons case alongside the Choctaw Lighthorsemen tribal police in Devon Mihesuah ’s (Choctaw) new mystery novel, “ Blood Relay “. The story of the disappearance of a young athlete is set against the backdrop of the competitive bareback horse relay racing. The fictional fast-paced thriller also takes on the real-life issue of...

Congress just approved significant funding increases going forward for a handful of core domestic violence funding and policy initiatives. But at the same time, many services for survivors face a new level of unpredictability. Victim support funds in some states plummeted as much as 70% , leaving states to try and cover some of those costs. The Trump administration instituted requirements that dom...

Former Osage Principal Chief Jim Gray is remembered as a leader who laid the foundation for a modern, self-governing tribal structure while also reconnecting the tribe with its cultural roots. Among his many accomplishments as a transformative leader, Jim Gray spearheaded the historic reform of Osage government in 2004. That secured the individual right to vote for each Osage citizen rather than h...

Native Americans have worked hard for decades to counter the stereotypes perpetuated in old movies and television shows about the American West. Now a new generation of Native technology experts worry that artificial intelligence is eroding that work. Scores of AI-generated images and videos are flooding people’s social media For You pages. The creations are within easy reach of anyone typing a pr...

Keeya Wiki (Yurok and Maori) is not yet old enough to vote, but she is making waves in official discussions about climate policy and environmental sustainability. She was among a group of young people who made a historic kayak journey down the Klamath River from its source in the Cascade Mountains to its confluence with the Pacific Ocean after the largest dam removal project in history. It was bot...

The federal panel that oversees commercial and subsistence fishing in Alaska is putting a hard limit on the number of chum salmon that are caught — and wasted — by commercial pollack trawlers. It is a long awaited — and controversial — decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council after years of outcry by tribes to address the factors that go into the disappearing runs of salmon that Al...

With help from Congress, the Trump Administration stripped some $1.5 billion in federal funds previously promised to tribes. A lot of that was in the form of contracts for clean energy manufacturing and development — new money doled out three years earlier as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. A new analysis by the Brookings Institution identifies three funding and policy chang...

Inuit siblings Ukaleq and Sondre Slettermark are competing for Greenland in the biathlon at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. In addition to making their mark in elite athletic competition, they have used their platform to speak out against the Trump administration’s threats to take over their homeland. The Slettermarks are among the handful of Indigenous athletes at this year’s Winter Gam...

Moses Wiseman (Yup’ik) always knew he wanted to be a leader. Specifically, one with qualities that Wiseman learned from elders and other community members in the Village of Chefornak. At 24 years old, he is pursuing an MBA in strategic leadership at Alaska Pacific University, while also helping to create a Yup’ik glossary for health care providers. He and five other young, emerging Nat...

Long before it was fully paved, the road that became Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., was designated as one of the nation’s original numbered highways 100 years ago. Crossing vast stretches of Native American land in places like Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, it eventually delivered a steady stream of mobile customers to enterprising Native merchants selling everything from trink...

Millions of Americans will get a bigger tax refunds this year thanks to an array of new tax breaks , including a larger standard deduction and a child tax credit for those eligible. There is also the elimination for taxes on tips and a larger deduction for elders. But there are some things to look out for, including the move away from paper checks, which will require some additional work for those...

The past year has seen Leonard Peltier’s release from prison, record revenue from casinos and other economic development, and the addition of a new federally recognized tribe. It is also seen major upheaval in federal funds and staff that directly affect Indian Country. Looking ahead, tribes are navigating the potential loss of lucrative federal contracts and indications that consultation and trea...

As the country gears up to commemorate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, several galleries are exploring the enduring strengths of Native Americans through both traditional and contemporary works. “Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives” at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, N.M. aims to stretch the boundaries of the paper medium while also examining Native cu...

An Iñupiaq village on Alaska’s North Slope is suing after the Trump administration removed protections for an area important to subsistence hunting. The suit by Nuiqsut Trilateral Inc. says the action is in response to a move to expand oil drilling beyond what is in a Biden-era agreement for the Willow project. Another fight pitting caribou and oil drilling is resurfacing over increased momentum t...

College Native American Studies courses are engines for Native-led research in addition to serving as a welcoming academic home for Native students. As it is, Native students are already the most under-represented group on college campuses. Their numbers declined  in the decade before the Covid pandemic . There are indications that the 2023 Supreme Court decision upending Affirmative Action and th...

The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe just held an event to commemorate 25 years since the landmark legislation outlining a historic co-stewardship agreement between the tribe and the National Park Service in Death Valley. The tribe’s name is on the entrance sign to the park. At the same time, the Trump administration is calling for the removal of informational plaques in the visitor center that tells the t...