Pentagon to review whether soldiers deserved honors for actions in Wounded Knee Massacre
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a panel to review Medals of Honor (MOH) awarded to 20 soldiers for the actions during what the directive calls the “engagement at Wounded Knee Creek” in December 1890 in which U.S. soldiers killed approximately 350 to 375 Lakota men, women, and children.
As the country's highest military honor, the MOH is awarded for gallantry beyond the call of duty.
Experts will assess each awardee's actions to determine whether their actions violated MOH standards, such as “intentionally directing an attack against a non-combatant or an individual who has surrendered in good faith, murder or rape of a prisoner, or engaging in any other act demonstrating immorality.”
The review's findings and recommendations are expected by mid-October.
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Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, pictured May 13, 2024, in New York.
Native Americans speak out against Trump pick for VP
Some Native Americans are voicing concerns about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s pick for a running mate, J.D. Vance, believing him to be anti-Indigenous.
When President Joe Biden designated October 11, 2021, as Indigenous People’s Day, Vance took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to denounce it as a "fake holiday created to sow division.”
Vance also spoke out against the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to rename Ohio’s Wayne National Forest, which was named after 18th Century general Anthony Wayne, who spent much of his military career fighting and divesting Native Americans of their lands.
“He fought wars and won peace for our government, the government you now serve, and hewed Ohio out of rugged wilderness and occupied enemy territory,” Vance wrote in an August 23 letter to the National Forest Service. [[ https://www.vance.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-vance-opposes-plan-to-rename-wayne-national-forest/ ]]
Native Americans also cite pieces of legislation Vance has introduced that they say would undermine tribal sovereignty.
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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Native Americans: Deb Haaland would be a good pick for Harris running mate
As for the Democratic Party vice presidential nomination, now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the likely presidential candidate, some Native Americans think she should choose Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as her running mate.
They point to her achievements running the Department of the Interior (DOI), which manages public lands and minerals, national parks and wildlife refuges and works to uphold Federal trust obligations to Native Americans.
She set up a Missing and Murdered Unit inside DOI’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, which collaborates with law enforcement agencies to help solve missing or unsolved homicide cases.
She launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to investigate Indian boarding schools and account for students who died in the system.
She has also negotiated scores of public land co-stewardship agreements with tribes across the United States.
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Water from the Colorado River diverted through the Central Arizona Project fills an irrigation canal, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Maricopa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Southwestern tribal leaders to Congress: Act now on water rights bills
Leaders and representatives from Colorado Plateau tribes were in Washington this week, urging Congress to act quickly on water rights settlement acts.
Lawmakers from both parties have introduced legislation in Congress after the Navajo, Hopi Tribe and Southern San Juan Paiute tribes signed off on a historic water rights settlement for waters in the upper and lower basins of the Colorado River, the Little Colorado River basin, the Gila River Basin and claims to groundwater in several aquifers.
Testifying before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries, they highlighted the need for access to water and better water infrastructure.
“Roughly a third of all Navajo households lack running water, including the home I grew up in,” Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren told lawmakers. “Thousands of our people continue to haul water, thirty miles round trip to meet their daily water demands.”
The bill would fund essential water development and delivery projects' acquisition, construction, and maintenance. One of the key components of this initiative is a distribution pipeline projected to cost approximately $1.75 billion. That project would improve water delivery and ensure that tribes gain reliable access to this vital resource, which has long been a concern in areas dependent on the Colorado River.
Specifically, the bill would allow the three tribes to secure over 56,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water each year. To put this into perspective, an acre-foot of water can sustain an average American household for an entire year.
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Oklahoma tribes outraged by Atlanta Braves ‘tribe night’ celebrations
A group of prominent Oklahoma-based tribal officials is demanding an apology from the Atlanta Braves baseball team for celebrating "Georgia Tribe Night" at its stadium.
During that June 29 event, the Braves hosted representatives from three state- but not federally recognized tribes and members of a state council on American Indian concerns.
Attending a quarterly meeting in Tulsa earlier this month, leaders of the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Tribes passed a resolution calling for the Braves to apologize and engage in meaningful consultations with federally recognized tribes.
The Inter-Tribal Council comprises leaders from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations, who were driven out of Georgia in the 19th Century and marched along the so-called “Trail of Tears” to what is today Oklahoma.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., called event organizers offensive and tone-deaf, noting the Braves’ history of problematic depictions of Native American culture, including the controversial "tomahawk chop" gesture, in which spectators hack at the air and sing a “war chant” rooted in a 1950s children’s cartoon show that stereotyped Indians.
“The Atlanta Braves corporation may consider meaningful consultations with actual Indian tribes instead of trotting representatives of fraudulent organizations posting as tribes as a PR stunt, Hoskin said in a June 30 statement. “This piles insult on top of insult.”
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