September 21, 2023
The Pembina Class Action Settlement Administrator began distribution of $59 million on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, of negotiated settlement proceeds to four Pembina Tribes (the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana, and the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Indians), and more than 30,000 individual eligible settlement class members.
Currents
California Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 issued the following statement about his AB 81 , a bill that would make necessary updates to California Indian Child Welfare Act (Cal-ICWA) following the landmark Brackeen decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in June:
Opinion
Guest Opinion. What does it mean to be an at large citizen of the Cherokee Nation? That’s something I went out to explore over a weekend in September. I drove through the countryside, explored the lakeshores, hiked the hills, fished the rivers, and met as many people as I could. One of my reasons for visiting was to meet Shawn Crittenden who is responsible for forming up the Gadugi Corps - a new volunteer-oriented program designed to facilitate citizens doing good for and serving other citizens and our Nation.
Opinion. Even in the midst of the threat to shutdown the federal government by the Republicans on October 1, Native Americans need to work to ensure the preservation of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI), due to expire at the end of the month.
Sovereignty
The Association on American Indian Affairs, the longest serving Native non-profit in the United States, on Monday announced the appointment of Dillon Dobson, a citizen of the Cowlitz Nation, as its new Program Director.
Since the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) established its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Regional Outreach Program in June, leaders in California have pressured the agency to include the state in the program.
Education
Bard College will be hosting the second annual conference of Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, part of the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times initiative, from October 12 to the 14.
Little Priest Tribal College (LPTC) celebrated its 25th anniversary of dedicated service to the educational needs of students hailing from both the Winnebago, Nebraska community and beyond since its inception in 1996. The event was commemorated on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.
Arts & Entertainment
The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans brings together works by many of today’s most boldly innovative Native American artists. The exhibition will be display for four months at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. beginning, Friday, September 22, 2023 until January 15, 2024.
Five time Native American Music Awards winner Robert Tree Cody (Maricopa/Dakota) has walked on. Cody was a gifted Native American flute player, singer, and powwow dancer. He was 72.
Health
Environment
Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of the climate crisis on Turtle Island on Tuesday morning, Sept. 19, 2023, took over Times Square in New York to paint a giant mural with the message, “No Green Colonialism; Land Back NOW!”
Over three years after a federal court ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to conduct a full environmental impact review of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was released on September 8, 2023.
