National Native News

Photo courtesy Cherokee Nation / Facebook In Tahlequah, Okla. this week, Cherokee language speakers and officials unveiled a Cherokee language dictionary app. They were joined by representatives of Kiwa Digital Limited, who developed the app based on a Cherokee dictionary 50 years ago, created by Native speaker Durbin Feeling. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Junior said the new app will allow every C...

Photo: Josh Engle, manager and peer support specialist at True North Recovery in Wasilla, gives out cookies as part of homeless outreach efforts in Anchorage on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. (Matt Faubion / Alaska Public Media) For people experiencing addition, it can help to talk to someone who has been through recovery themselves. Peer support specialists offer a different kind of support from the...

Native actress Elaine Miles, known for her roles in TV’s “Northern Exposure” and the 1998 movie “Smoke Signals” has spent the last month contending with a run-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – and the response to her sharing her story with local and national media. Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire reports. On November 3, Miles says she was at a bus stop in Redmond, Wash....

Photo courtesy Assembly of First Nations / Facebook More than sixty Indigenous artifacts have now been returned to Canada from the Vatican. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders were on hand at Montreal’s airport over the weekend to welcome them back. There were 62 items in large crates on board the plane that landed on Saturday morning. Many Native leaders as well as...

Photo: In her closing remarks, AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak thanked those who contributed to the success of #AFNSCA2025, the dedication of Chiefs and delegates, and emphasized the importance of unity, collaboration, and continued advocacy for First Nations. (Courtesy Assembly of First Nations / Facebook) The final day of the special chiefs meeting of the Assembly of First Nations was...

Curtis Rogers holds his master’s degree in tribal administration and governance outside AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. in May 2022. (Photo: Rachel Rogers) This year’s 29 Bush Fellows included five Native Americans from across the upper Midwest. The Bush Foundation provides up to $150,000 dollars over two years for their fellows to hone their talents and leadership skills. In the final fifth profile...

Canada’s Assembly of First Nations (AFN) chiefs have voted unanimously to reject any changes to the oil tanker ban off the northern coast of British Columbia. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, the resolution came during a First Nations meeting in Ottawa, and less than a week after the federal government and Alberta signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) about a future pipeline. The chiefs also voted...

Photo: Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph paints the Totem Heritage Center’s Eagle house post. (Hunter Morrison / KRBD) If you visited Southeast Alaska’s Totem Heritage Center this fall, you may have noticed something missing from one of its outside walls. That’s because three carved posts, which were made by students and master carvers, were temporarily removed for much-needed restoration work. A...

Photo: Reggie Paul of Kipnuk, Alaska holds up a house frame he helped to build. (Rhonda McBride) For several southwest Alaska communities, it took one night of hurricane force winds and floods to destroy what will take years to rebuild. How and where to begin is a question that a group of men from Kipnuk tackled at a construction workshop in Anchorage, where they’ve been staying since their villag...

Photo: A board with resources for evacuees at the Wingate hotel on November 14, 2025. (Matt Faubion / Alaska Public Media) Hundreds of evacuees from Western Alaska are staying in Anchorage hotels after last month’s storms destroyed their homes. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA spoke to a few families who are adjusting to their new daily lives, so far away from ev...

Photo: Annmarie Decoteau, left, Indigenous curriculum and instruction specialist for Bismarck Public Schools, and Tomi Cimarosti, the district’s Indian Education director, on Monday, October 13, 2025. (Courtesy Annmarie Decoteau) Thanksgiving is a holiday that often gives Native people mixed feelings. Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire shares a few perspectives from across Indian Country. One on h...

*Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify the vice president’s position.  The Navajo Nation Council is considering a motion to remove the tribe’s president, Buu Nygren, and Vice President Richelle Montoya after a special prosecutor accused President Nygren of misusing government funds. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the council could have taken action as early as T...

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation and Pueblo leaders held a press conference in Albuquerque last week to urge Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the state, and to continue protections from oil and gas drilling. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more. In October, the Bureau of Land Management bega...

This year, five Native Americans were among 29 people named Bush Fellows. The Bush Foundation provides up to $150,000 over two years for their fellows to build on their leadership skills. In the second of five profiles, Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire highlights what a South Dakota university administrator wants to accomplish. John Little is the director of Native Recruitment and Alumni Engagement at...

An important report on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis has been removed from the Department of Justice website. Many MMIP awareness advocates and officials have questioned its absence, according to Newsweek. U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) says the “Not One More” report disappeared in February. She was with the Senate Committee that introduced the 2020 Not Invisib...

Photo: Breakfast bar at the Wingate Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. (Courtesy Wingate by Wyndham) Hundreds of evacuees from Western Alaska are staying in Anchorage hotels after last month’s storms destroyed their homes. The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA spoke to a few families who are adjusting to their new daily lives, so far away from everything they know. Ally Shan...

For decades starting in 1907, Indigenous women and women of color across the country were sterilized without their informed consent. Last week, a coalition of women’s reproductive rights advocates called on New Mexico legislators to create a commission to investigate the abuses. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more. Numerous reports show sterilizations peaked in the 1960s th...

Photo: The Little Colorado River, a tributary of the Colorado River, flows during the springtime through the Navajo Nation near Cameron. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Last week, more than a dozen tribes commented on a proposal by the Trump administration to let developers obtain preliminary permits for hydropower projects on reservations in spite of tribal opposition. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has...

A Native American woman and her family are thankful that she’s not been detained – and potentially deported – by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire has the story. On Veteran’s Day, 24-year-old Leticia Jacobo completed a short sentence at the Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa for a traffic infraction. She was supposed to have been released at midnight,...

Photo: Construction is underway for a 22-unit housing project on the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone reservation, the first housing project on the reservation in over 20 years, on Monday, September. 15, 2025, in Fallon, Nev. (Jimmy Romo / Nevada Public Radio) Housing isn’t just a problem in major cities in Nevada. It’s also an issue in rural parts of the state, including Tribal nations. Thousands of tribal...

Photo: Liz West / Flickr A new study aims to shed light on the hidden impacts of domestic violence in Native communities. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Daniel Spaulding reports on the effort to understand the unrecognized brain injuries many survivors are living with. The Urban Indian Health Institute’s survey aims to find out how common traumatic brain injuries are among Native survivors of dom...

Current rules defining how the Colorado River is to be shared by 40 million residents in the West will soon expire. The seven Basin states had until Tuesday to negotiate those new guidelines. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, no deal was struck. States still cannot come to terms, leaving tribes lost in the shuffle. Daniel Cordalis (Navajo) runs the Native American Rights Fund’s Tribal Water I...

Photo: Janice Talas-Denny (Hopi), the tribal veteran support coordinator at Televeda, installs a Starlink at New Pascua on October 2, 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Without reliable internet, it’s tough for veterans to apply for and access financial and health benefits, including mental care. But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a Phoenix-based telehealth company and the Arizona Departme...

On Tuesday, Canadians will pause for Remembrance Day to honor those in the military who died serving their country, as well as those still serving. But as Dan Karpenchuk reports, special ceremonies were held over the weekend to honor Indigenous members of Canada’s military. It’s Indigenous Veterans Day and has been commemorated since 1994. Indigenous members of Canada’s military shared their...

Photo: Challistia Colelay, who went by “Tia,” was a 16-year-old Apache teen and went missing on October 16, 2025. (Courtesy Lula Mae Colelay / Instagram) The mother of an Apache 16-year-old who’s been missing since last month says her child’s remains were discovered by tribal and federal police earlier this week. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, it comes after the state recently named a new...