Harris win, US could see its first female Native American governor
Kamala Harris’ candidacy for president, alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, brings the potential for another historic milestone: If the Harris-Walz ticket succeeds, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would become the first Native American woman to serve as a state governor.
Flanagan's career in public service spans decades. She served on the Minneapolis Board of Education from 2005 to 2009. She was also the executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota before running unopposed for a seat on the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2015.
She was elected lieutenant governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022. She has been a prominent advocate for Indigenous and abortion rights and helped oversee the creation of the state’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.
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Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren addresses a crowd at an indoor sports arena, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Fort Defiance, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
Tribes outraged over uranium ore hauls
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has temporarily stopped the transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation, saying tribes were not notified as required.
Energy Fuels had earlier agreed to notify tribal governments two weeks in advance before transporting trucks carrying uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine, near the Grand Canyon, to a uranium mill in Utah.
The Navajo Nation, however, says it never received notice and didn’t find out about the convoy until it had already passed through Navajo lands.
Navajo President Buu Nygren directed his police to stop the transport vehicles on the return trip and escort them off the reservation.
A spokesperson for Energy Fuels said the company had complied with notice requirements, and the company's president said the risks of transporting the unprocessed ore were minimal.
The plan was for an estimated six trucks per day to carry over 22,000 kilograms of ore over three to five years until the mine is exhausted.
The Havasupai Tribe has fears that mining in the area could contaminate the deep groundwater aquifer that supplies its drinking water and is calling on the government to stand by tribes.
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A female wolf pup is seen in North Park, Colo, in this February 2022 photograph. A handful of the predators have wandered into Colorado from Wyoming in recent years. ( Eric Odell/Colorado Parks and Wildlife via AP)
Colville tribes back out of wolf repatriation deal with Colorado
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation have backed out of an agreement to provide 15 gray wolves for Colorado’s reintroduction efforts. They say Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife agency failed to conduct “necessary and meaningful consultation with potentially impacted tribes,” in particular, the Southern Ute Tribe.
In January, the Colville tribes agreed to capture and send up to 15 wolves to Colorado.
But the Southern Ute Tribe has long opposed wolf reintroduction due to potential negative impacts on tribal livelihoods, livestock and wildlife, including elk and moose.
The Southern Ute Tribal Council passed a resolution in 2020 stressing the significance of the Brunot Agreement Area, more than 14 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of reservation they ceded to the government in 1873, while retaining hunting rights. That resolution also noted that gray wolves carry hydatid disease, a parasite that could infect domestic animals and humans.
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Ohlone Indians in a Tule Boat in the San Francisco Bay, 1816, published 1822, by Russian artist and explorer Louis Choris.
California tribe rides to Washington, DC, to seek congressional recognition
Members of a tribe calling itself the Muwekma Ohlone set out Sunday from San Francisco, California, on a three-month cross-country horseback ride to Washington, D.C. There, they hope to persuade lawmakers to grant them federal recognition long denied by the Interior Department.
They say they are descendants of the Verona Band of Alameda County, who have been present in the Bay Area for more than 10,000 years. Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh says “special interests, money and corrupted politics” have stopped them from being recognized.
The group, then calling itself the “Ohlone/Costanoan Muwekma Tribe,” first petitioned for federal recognition in 1989, claiming direct lineal descendency from the historical Verona Band. This tribe was last acknowledged by the government in 1927.
Bureau of Indian Affairs records show that the agency rejected their petition, saying the tribe had failed to provide evidence that it had operated as a cohesive political group on a "substantially continuous basis" as the Verona Band or as a tribe that evolved from that band.
Federally recognized tribes are acknowledged as sovereign entities and are entitled to receive some federal benefits, services and protections because of their special relationships with the U.S. government.
Tribes may bypass BIA and directly petition Congress for recognition. Between 1975 and 2013, members of Congress introduced 178 bills seeking to extend recognition to 72 Indian nations and recognized 32.
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