United States - Native Americans
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As part of 30x30, Native Americans' sacred Molok Luyuk has been added to Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California
If California conservationists, geologists, botanists and a Yolo County Native American tribe have anything in common, it’s a belief that this earthen backbone is a natural phenomenon deserving of federal protection and stewardship by its indigenous inhabitants.
In recent months, this diverse group has begun to push for President Joe Biden to incorporate Molok Luyuk into the adjacent national monument. A bill in Congress would do the same, recognizing it as a geological and biodiversity rarity for permanent protection. When President Barack Obama established the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument with the federal Antiquities Act in 2015, he protected 300,780 acres that extend 100 miles from Mendocino County to mountains on either side of Lake Berryessa.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article274362585.html#storylink=cpy
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This week is National Parks Week, a celebration across the United States in honor of the natural landscapes that have been protected as national parks and monuments.
Although national park lands are perceived as “untouched,” Indigenous peoples have been stewards of these lands and have ancestral ties since time immemorial. National parks were actually created by violently removing Native people from our homelands.
Some parks, including the Grand Canyon and sites that are sacred to Indigenous communities, are under threat from mining and fossil fuel extraction.
At Native Organizers Alliance, we’re working with Tribes, Native communities, and grassroots organizers across the country to grow the movement to re-Indigenize and protect national parks.
Re-indigenizing national parks includes incorporating traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge in park management and conservation, as well as increasing co-governance agreements between the federal government and Tribal Nations. These are steps needed towards correcting historical wrongs and ensuring greater protection of Mother Earth.
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The Crimes of Native American Boarding Schools
Amidst an unprecedented federal investigation into hundreds of native Boarding Schools and the 100,000+ children these institutions forcibly removed, one school has become the epicenter of controversy in America’s attempt to reckon with it’s dark history: Red Cloud Indian School. While today some see the school as a positive presence in the Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota Tribe, others cite it as a perpetrator of generational trauma. While the U.S. Government is starting to admit is culpability in a church-facilitated campaign of genocide, the quest for justice is exposing tension throughout the Native community. In this new podcast from IllumiNative, series hosts Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) and Sashay Wesley (Choctaw) hit the ground in Pine Ridge, South Dakota to chronicle the actively developing situation for themselves, covering every twist and turn in this true crime story about the compounding intergenerational pain of Native American boarding schools and whether it’s possible for a community, Native peoples, and the United States to achieve truth, healing, and reconciliation.
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The land near Yosemite National Park had been tended by Irene Vasquez’s family for decades. They took care of their seven acres by setting small fires to thin vegetation and help some plants to grow.
But the steep, chaparral-studded slopes surrounding the property hadn’t seen fire since Vasquez and fellow members of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation were barred from practicing cultural burning on a wider scale some 100 years before.
When a wildfire swept through in July, the dense vegetation stoked flames that destroyed Vasquez’s home and transformed the land into a scarred moonscape. With that, she became one of many Indigenous residents to watch her ancestral territory burn in recent years, despite knowing the outcome could have been different.
“If we were able to impart that wisdom and knowledge to European settlers, to the agencies, to not stop our burning, we would be in a way different place,” Vasquez said.
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ANIWA Gathering 2023 - Big Bear, CA
June 8- June 11
Immerse yourself in the rich culture and traditions of over 20 indigenous communities from around the world.
https://www.aniwagathering.com/?fbclid=IwAR39ZayEtOJMNxe1T8a6kgesCiR2PkPUnllPmUgjVTT9EfaRPvbghoumIGU
State Courts Bulletin
https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/state/2023.html
In the Matter of S.J.W. (Indian Child Welfare Act)
In re Manuel C. (Indian Child Welfare Act)
M. Y. v. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (Indian Child Welfare Act)
In the Matter of 2021 Redistricting Cases (Legislative Redistricting)
Friends of Oceano Dunes v. California Coastal Commission (Intervention; Regulatory Authority)
U.S. Legislation - 118th Congress Bulletin
http://narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/118_uslegislation.html
S.1286 - A bill to amend the Siletz Reservation Act to address the hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal gathering activities of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and for other purposes.
S.1287 - A bill to amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to address the hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal gathering activities of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community, and for other purposes.
H.R.2762 - To remove administrative barriers to participation of Indian tribes in Federal child welfare programs, and increase Federal funding for tribal child welfare programs, and for other purposes.
H.R.2783 - To establish an integrated research, education, and extension competitive grant program and scholarship grant program for certain Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving agricultural institutions, and for other purposes.
H.R.2839 - To amend the Siletz Reservation Act to address the hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal gathering rights of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and for other purposes.
H.R.2850 - To amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to address the hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal gathering rights of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community, and for other purposes.
For complete list: go to https://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/2023.html