National Native News

Gov. Gavin Newsom convened a meeting of tribal leaders in 2019 to acknowledge and apologize for the genocide and horrific mistreatment of Native American peoples throughout our state’s history. (Courtesy Asm. James Ramos / Facebook) A bill in the California legislature seeks a formal apology to Native Americans for the state’s role in atrocities committed against them during the formation of the s...

Photo: The microgrid at Blue Lake Rancheria generates renewable energy and provides about $150,000 in annual electricity savings. (Courtesy Schatz Energy Resource Center) Microgrids can be a lifeline in remote areas prone to power outages, according to local and tribal leaders in Humboldt County in California. Leaders spoke at an event on energy security in an era of wildfire, drought, and sea-lev...

President Donald Trump swore in Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee) as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security at the White House Tuesday. The president talked about Sec. Mullin serving in the House and Senate, mentioning that Mullin is Native American and has worked on tribal issues. “Markwayne has also been a fantastic advocate for our cherished tribal communities. He’s now the first member of the Che...

Photo: Audience holding up Kelly Hunt’s poster at March Madness game. (Waatsasdiyei Apayakuk Yates) Kelly Hunt was just 19 when she went missing from Shaktoolik, a small community near Nome. It is the kind of loss that does not just affect one family. It rocked an entire village — and reached hundreds of miles away — to the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, where March Madness brought tea...

The Iñupiat community of Kaktovik in northern Alaska is known as the polar bear capital of the U.S. Hundreds of tourists used to flock to the village of about 250 people to see bears. But several years ago, the tours were halted because of opposition from residents. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more on what happened to the tours, and what the tribe is doi...

Photo: U.S. Reps. Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo/D-NM), left, Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS), and Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee/R-OK), testify before a subcommittee on March 4, 2020 as members of the Native American Caucus. (Courtesy Rep. Markwayne Mullin) The nomination of U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee/R-OK) to be the next Homeland Security secretary cleared a key committee vote after overcoming...

The nomination of U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation/R-OK) to become the next Homeland Security Secretary hit a rough patch Wednesday.  Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lost the faith of President Donald Trump, but the pick to replace her, Sen. Mullin, lost the faith of the Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), for moc...

Legal online sports betting in Wisconsin would have to go through in-state tribal computer servers, under a bi-partisan bill given final okay by the state legislature Tuesday. Chuck Quirmbach reports. Supporters and critics of online sports betting acknowledge it frequently occurs in Wisconsin. Gamblers go through commercial companies like Draft Kings, but the Wisconsin Constitution says most lega...

Prosecutors in South Dakota have dismissed charges against an Indigenous rights advocate. South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s CJ Keene reports. Charges stemming from a 2022 incident against Nick Tilsen, CEO and founder of NDN Collective, were dropped. In a statement, Tilsen said, “my freedom wasn’t granted by a judge, a jury, or the settler colonial court system. My freedom was won by the peo...

The Chandler Museum in Arizona has a new exhibit called “Being Eddie Basha.” It is a retrospective of the hometown-turned-statewide grocer who died in 2013. And as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, this 3,800 sq ft installation is all about unpacking the man behind the grocery king persona. Chandler Museum’s storytelling coordinator, Sarah Biggerstaff, literally leaned on Basha’s own words for o...

This month, 34 bison were loaded into trailers at a park in Colorado’s foothills – and sent across the Mountain West region to tribal lands. Rachel Cohen reports. The bison are part of herds that the City and County of Denver has managed for almost a century. And since 2020, 170 animals have been gifted to tribes. Jason Baldes is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in Wyoming and works with the...

A new report shows access to nearby nature in the U.S. is not equal and the gap is closely tied to race and income. Researchers say Indigenous communities are among those most affected. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more. Communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in places with severe nature loss — fewer parks, fewer trees, more pollution. T...

Photo: A scenic overview of the Colorado River from the Navajo Bridge near Jacob Lake. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has invited tribal leaders to testify on Capitol Hill today. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the Northeast Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act is the hearing’s subject. This $5 billion deal would resolve claims for three part...

A second funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) sought to create a safeguard for tribes getting caught up in immigration crackdowns. Rep. Grijalva has been regularly meeting with tribal leaders from across southern Arizona, like the Pascua Yaqui, Tohono O’...

Photo: Quannah Chasinghorse checks out the dog teams at the Iditarod ceremonial start on Saturday. Her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, is rookie in the race. (Matt Faubion / Alaska Public Media) Five Indigenous mushers and their dog teams are headed to Nome, Alaska. KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports. (Desiree Hagen of KOTZ and Samantha Watson of KYUK contributed to this story) The 1,000-mile Iditarod...

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. is congratulating U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee/R-OK). On Thursday, President Donald Trump nominated Sen. Mullin as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Mullin would be the first Native American man to become a U.S. cabinet secretary if confirmed. Chief Hoskin said in a statement that having a Cherokee Nation citizen serve within...

A new report by the Urban Institute based in Washington D.C. is looking closely at Native American tribes and their continued challenges with broadband infrastructure. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) spoke with Amanda Hermans, a research associate for the report, on how sovereignty comes into play. Hermans says, as sovereign nations, Native American tribes have the right to gove...

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published numbers on how many employees left the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) during President Donald Trump’s first year in office. BIA focused on reducing its federal workforce through layoffs and hiring freezes. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. The 31-page report finds that more than 800 employees were gone by last July. That is roughl...

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn, which is also called the Battle of the Greasy Grass or Custer’s Last Stand. Ahead of commemorative events planned in late June near Crow Agency, Mont. are reports that the National Park Service (NPS) is removing signs sharing the Native perspective on the battle. Brian Bull (Nez Perce) of Buffalo’s Fire reports. In late January...

A state task force in Alaska released recommendations last month for making psychedelic therapy available, if treatments are approved at the federal level. Alaska Public Media’s Rachel Cassandra has the story. The Alaska state legislature established a task force in 2024 to examine psychedelic therapies, which hold a lot of promise but are still considered experimental. Jennie Armstrong is a forme...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees more than 12 million acres in Arizona alone. And much like the rest of the West, it has public lands making up national monuments that hold value for tribes. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, President Donald Trump’s pick to run BLM pledged to respect them in his confirmation hearing this week. During his first term, President Trump shrank the size...

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she is willing to help a northern Wisconsin town get reimbursed for money it paid to access roads. As Danielle Kaeding reports, the town of Lac du Flambeau made payments to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for access to four disputed roads. Three years ago, the Lac du Flambeau tribe barricaded four roads after negotiations failed over expired...

Canadian energy firm Enbridge will reimburse a northern Wisconsin county for the cost of policing protests expected with construction of the company’s Line 5 reroute. As Danielle Kaeding reports, the Ashland County board approved the deal Tuesday. The Wisconsin Counties Association negotiated an agreement where Enbridge will reimburse local governments for public safety costs tied to the Line 5 pr...

A Lake Superior tribe wants a court to halt construction of a Canadian energy firm’s $450 million plan to reroute an oil and gas pipeline around its reservation in northern Wisconsin. As Danielle Kaeding reports, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa asked a court last week to review a decision that upheld state permits for Enbridge’s Line 5 relocation project. The Bad River tri...

Photo: The entrance to the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Ganado, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The Interior Department is reviewing signs posted at more than a dozen national parks and monuments as part of President Donald Trump’s agenda to “restore truth and sanity to American history”. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, one figure featured at the...