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SAN FRANCISCO-The 42nd Annual American Indian Film Festival was held November 4th at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. Established in 1975, the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco is the oldest and most prominent media showcase in the world. Michael Smith, Founder/Director of the Film Institute and Festival describes this year's media as "a presentation to foster public truth and understanding of the social, economic, cultural and life ways of contemporary...
Ursula Johnson, a Nova Scotia artist, has won Canada's largest prize for contemporary art, the $50,000 Sobey Art Award. A Mi'kmaw performance and installation artist, Johnson incorporates her heritage into her art, which challenges and explores issues of identity, traditional Indigenous culture and colonial history. The award's selection committee praised her "strong voice, her generosity and collaborative spirit. Through her work, she redefines traditional materials and...
A Wikwemikong First Nation girl from Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario has been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. Thirteen-year-old Autumn Peltier is the only Canadian being considered for the prestigious award. The public eye is not new to this young teen, who has been speaking on her passion for the environment, especially Canada's water, for years. Her advocacy began when she entered a community writing contest with an essay on water at eight...
WASHINGTON-In October 2017, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced the selection of Bryan Rice, a veteran federal administrator and citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, as the new Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the federal agency that coordinates government-to-government relations with 567 federally recognized tribes in the United States. "Bryan has a wealth of management expertise and experience that will well serve Indian Country as the...
TULSA, Okla.-The Cherokee Nation honored hundreds of Native-owned businesses, from construction companies to printing shops, during the tribe's 10th Annual TERO Certified Indian Owned Business Awards Banquet Thursday in November, 2017. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Employment Rights Office has more than 800 Indian-owned companies that are TERO-certified vendors able to do business with the tribe and better compete for government contracting jobs. In fiscal year 2017, TERO...
More than 5,000 elders of First Nations, Métis and Inuit descent gathered in Edmonton for the First National Gathering of Elders in September, 2017. The Northland's Expo Center in Edmonton is overflowing this week with Indigenous elders attending the first National Gathering of Elders. The purpose of the three-day event was "so the Elders can come together and take their rightful place as advisors, teachers and leaders," conference organizers wrote. Assembly of First Nations...
In a historic first, a provincial government building has been named for an Indigenous woman. In late October, during Women's History Month, the government announced the designation of the Edmonton facility, at 12360 142 Street, as the Muriel Stanley Venne Provincial Centre. Muriel Stanley Venne has been a leader in the First Nations and Métis communities of Alberta for more than 30 years and has advanced the fair treatment of Indigenous peoples within all levels of society....
PHOENIX-Law students, professors and tribal members gathered recently at the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law in downtown Phoenix to watch the new documentary "Tribal Justice." The documentary features two chief judges from tribes in Arizona and California, and highlights some of the issues found on reservations, including lack of federal funding and guardianship appeals for families in Indian Country. Those behind the documentary said they hope the project helps shed a...
The Tomaquag Museum, Rhode Island's only museum dedicated to telling the story of the state's Indigenous Peoples, recently awarded Indian Life's Native Cooking columnist with their Lifetime Achievement Award. Dale Carson, of the Abenaki tribe, was born and raised near the water in Rhode Island. Both parents were artists so her home life was rich in books and artwork and Dale found her own niche in painting and doing crafts. She has had two retail shops featuring Native...
On October 6, 2017, The Canadian federal government agreed to pay C$750 million to the survivors of the "Sixties Scoop" program, in which 20,000 First Nations children were removed from their parents' households and placed with non-indigenous foster or adoptive parents. The plaintiffs claimed that this caused them mental and emotional anguish and loss of their ancestral culture. Carolyn Bennett, Canada's Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister, announced the agreement. "I have...
With racial issues taking more attention on the North American stage the past couple of years, controversy was rife in 2017 over the appropriateness, or inappropriateness, of Halloween and party costumes depicting Native Americans. Halloween has morphed into a day that "celebrates creative self-expression," said author Alla E. Dastagir in USA Today. And for many, especially people raised on Disney depictions of indigenous people, dressing as Pocahontas or other strong...
Whitesboro, a village of about 3,700 in central New York's Oneida County, recently unveiled a new official seal in efforts to respond to a charge of racism. The previous seal depicting a wrestling match between the community's founder and an Oneida Indian chief endured national scrutiny as it was interpreted as a white man strangling a Native American. Prompted by an online campaign disparaging the original, three-fourths of those voting in 2016 were in favor of keeping the...
MILWAUKEE, WI | On Tuesday, October 18, 2017, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) membership overwhelmingly moved to support Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde’s request that NCAI join AFN in working to establish an Indigenous Chapter in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). National Chief Bellegarde was addressing NCAI at the NCAI 74th Annual Convention and Marketplace in Milwaukee, WI. “I thank the National Congress of American Indians for passing a unanimous motion sup...
WASHINGTON-Tribal leaders backed a House bill on October 25, 2017, that would give tribes the ability to control more of their land, instead of having to get federal approval for virtually any use. The American Indian Empowerment Act would let tribes shift federally controlled trust land to "restricted fee land," a move that could save millions of dollars that tribes now spend on "burdensome regulation," while restoring a level of tribal sovereignty. While they called the...
KANSAS CITY-On October 9, Kansas City, Mo., officially declared the day as Indigenous Peoples Day, joining a growing list of more than 50 U.S. cities shucking the celebrations of Christopher Columbus in favor of recognizing the indigenous people of North America. The city council adopted legislation to officially declare Oct. 9 as Indigenous Peoples Day in Kansas City, Mo. Resolution No. 170786 states, in part: Christopher Columbus, a man who is known to have "discovered" the...
BALTIMORE-According to an Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2017 Race for Results report, American Indian kids join children in immigrant, African-American, and Latino families as lacking in opportunities for success and well-being. Among the findings: • Thirty-eight percent of American Indian children live in households with incomes of 200 percent above the federal poverty level, compared to 69 percent of white children and 69 percent of Asian children. • Among fourth-graders natio...
WASHINGTON-Sex trafficking in Indian Country is a significant problem, with tribal women and children suffering at higher rates than the general population, a panel of experts and activists told a Senate committee on September 27, 2017. Witnesses told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that tribes experience risk factors that can lead to victimization more often than other groups and that tribal women and children are targeted by traffickers "for their exotic beauty." "All...
WASHINGTON-Senators John Hoeven (R-ND) and Tom Udall (D-NM), chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), led a bipartisan group of 21 senators in introducing a resolution to recognize the month of November as National Native American Heritage Month. The resolution celebrates the heritage, culture and history of Native Americans and recognizes the many contributions Native Americans have made to our nation. "Native Americans have significantly...
According to Canada's 2016 Census, the indigenous population of the country is growing at four times the rate of the rest of the population. Nearly 1.7 million people identified as Aboriginal, which is a 4.9 percent share of the total population and a 42.5 percent increase since 2006, a growth rate more than four times that of their non-Indigenous counterparts. Statistics Canada says the spike is a result of natural growth-increased life expectancy and a high fertility...
Bear Ears Monument in Utah remains in the middle of controversy. The state of Utah has submitted maps to the Interior Department that show Bear Ears National Monument cut in size from 1.35 million acres to approximately 120,000 acres. While the Trump administration has not announced a final decision on the state's vision, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has issued a press release praising the administration's impending decree. Governor Gary Herbert's office argues that the state's pr...
WASHINGTON, DC-Families in more than half of Native American homes in Arizona now speak only English at home, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey data covering 2011-2015 showed that 53 percent of people who identified as American Indian in the state said they speak only English at home, up from 49 percent in the previous five-year survey. The increase comes despite efforts by tribes to keep their cultures and their languages alive, t...
MUSKOGEE, OK-The descendants of former slaves held within the Cherokee Nation are entitled to tribal citizenship, a federal judge ruled in a long-running controversy that has stretched through three U.S. presidential administrations. In the landmark decision, Judge Thomas F. Hogan settled the biggest issue in the dispute. He said a treaty signed in 1866 guarantees citizenship to the former slaves-more commonly known as Freedmen-and, by extension, to their descendants. "The...
OTTAWA—In a speech to the United Nations, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada has let down its 1.4 million indigenous people and that his government would do better to improve their lives. When the prime minister was elected in 2015, he pledged that his administration would work on its relationship with aboriginals. In his September 21, 2017 speech, Trudeau noted to the U.N. General assembly the history of Canada’s colonization as being filled with “humiliation, neglect and abuse.” Indigenous Canadians, compris...
In an answer to much prayer (and a long-time prayer), Intertribal Christian Communications (Indian Life Ministries) and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Inc., form a new partnership. For many years, ILM staff and Board have been praying for a First Nations believer to join ILM as Director, and the Lord has chosen now to answer this prayer! With this new partnership, NEFC Executive Director, Kene Jackson, will provide new leadership, wisdom and experience for ILM....
WASHINGTON-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a report to the White House in late August that he will not call for the removal of any national monuments but will recommend downsizing an unnamed "handful" of monuments. The report follows a four-month review of national monuments that were created or expanded since 1996 by presidents invoking the Antiquities Act, in what critics have called an overreach of federal authority. Environmental groups had feared that the review...
