• People

A New Secretary and a New National Park

• climate change
• Department of Interior
• Native Americans
• Pueblo Tribe

Yesterday was historic as the Senate confirmed the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland!  When she was nominated she tweeted, “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior. Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce […]

• People

Special Interview with Raina Thiele, Former White House Liaison to Tribal Governments

• #30x30
• Alaska
• Bristol Bay
• Indigenous
• Indigenous Peoples Day
• indigenous rights
• Native Americans

Yesterday was the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.  In recognition of that, and the key role Indigenous peoples are playing in the conservation movement today in the U.S. and globally, we sat down with Raina Thiele, who is Dena’ina Athabascan, and Yup’ik, and has worked at the highest levels of government on Tribal […]

• Land

What Do We Do About Mount Rushmore?

• indigenous people
• Mount Rushmore
• Native American Tribes
• Native Americans
• Sioux
• South Dakota

Our nation is in the midst of a moment where statues and monuments celebrating our racist past are being reevaluated and taken down. However, some on the political right have begun calling into question the validity of this conversation. Conservative media personality Meghan McCain wrote in a tweet that we’re “one week removed from entire […]

• Health

Native American Tribes Deserve Their Full Stimulus Funding

• coronavirus
• COVID-19
• Native Americans
• Navajo Nation

When the CARES Act passed through Congress, $8 billion was set aside to help Native American tribes face the COVID-19 pandemic yet by the end of April none of the appropriated funds had been received. After a legal battle, the Trump administration finally agreed to release the funds although not the full amount.  As Indianz.com […]

• Politics

Lawmakers Begin to Value Indigenous Knowledge of Ecosystems

• Elizabeth Warren
• Environmental Justice
• indigenous people
• Native Americans
• wildfire

The risk of wildfires in California and across much of the West is an escalating problem during the summers and dry fall season. Unfortunately, measures to prevent these fires (like the PG&E blackout fiasco last week) haven’t been very effective and have left officials scrambling for solutions. Although we’ve known that Native tribes have managed […]

• People

Watch This: Indigenous Youth Drive Climate Movement

• climate strike
• Indigenous Peoples Day
• Native Americans
• Youth Climate Strike

While the youth climate movement has gained a lot of attention from the media this year, the efforts of young indigenous activists in this youth movement haven’t been reported enough. One of those activists is 19-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Martinez of Colorado.

One of Xiuhtezcatl’s most powerful messages is that our inability to see our planet as a precious and finite resource enables greed, over-extraction of resources, and disregard for the needs of future generations:

“We have to end this mindset that we can take whatever we want without ever giving back.“