Fast Company: LiveAndTell aims to keep Native languages alive (July 5, 2011)

"While you won't have any trouble finding a way to learn Spanish, French, or German in the United States, brushing up on your Lakota or Navajo isn't so easy. The Endangered Language Fund projects that half of the languages spoken...

Subcommittee to hold hearing on land-into-trust fix on July 12 (July 5, 2011)

The House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs will hold a hearing next Tuesday, July 12, on three bills. The main focus is a fix the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. Two bills -- H.R.1291 and...

Lisa Murkowski: Celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich, Alaskan hero (July 5, 2011)

"The Fourth of July, our Independence Day, is a time to recognize the American heroes -- from the founders to soldiers who have devoted, risked or lost their lives in the name of our freedom. It's an especially important day...

Mark Franco: Winnemem Wintu is inconvenient tribe once again (July 5, 2011)

"It appears that the Winnemem Wintu Tribe has once again become inconvenient. This has happened to us before and, generally speaking, it is not a good thing. Let me explain. We are the former proprietors of a good stretch of...

Marge Anderson: Beginning a new era in federal-tribal relations (July 5, 2011)

"I often think about the big-picture ideas that would help tribal governments address the small-picture details more efficiently. The one solution that I continue to come back to is this: We need a new round of agreements with the federal...

Jim Gray: Alaska Native corporations put Native people to work (July 5, 2011)

"For perspective, most Native 8(a) work is conducted outside of Alaska, as that is where the vast majority of federal contracts are located. The fact is, Alaska is not large enough to provide many contracting opportunities. Those who challenge the...

Jay Tavare: Honor Your Life helps Apache youth address issues (July 5, 2011)

"There is something special about a road trip that captures the spirit of a true journey like no other mode of transportation. That was my thought Monday night as my two German partners, Alex and Thure, and I loaded up...

Column: First Nations fishing 'rights' and non-Native 'privilege' (July 5, 2011)

"Not to make a fish joke, but the jig is, er, up. In cross-examination last week at the Cohen Commission examining the decline of the Fraser River sockeye salmon, an official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada admitted he believes nonnative...

Editorial: Canoe journey ties Native youth and law enforcement (July 5, 2011)

"Historically, relationships between law enforcement agencies and First Nations communities have been strained. Through the years a lot of effort has been made to improve that bond. This weekend, hundreds of paddlers gathered in Tofino to begin the Pulling Together...

Truthout: Blackfire uses music in battle to protect a sacred site (July 5, 2011)

""For us, music is a strategic tool to communicate social injustices that we face," Klee Benally, the vocalist and guitar player for the punk-rock band Blackfire, said. Blackfire, whose members are Klee, his brother Clayson and his sister Jeneda, played...

Editorial: Grand Ronde Tribes interested in name for longhouse (July 5, 2011)

"Now we have to face a new version of an old question: What’s the proper spelling of the name of the people who lived in the Willamette Valley before the settlement by descendants of Europeans? Is it Kalapuya, or is...

Subversify: The American Indian Movement and Leonard Peltier (July 5, 2011)

"June 26th. marked the anniversary of one of the greatest infamies committed in contemporary times by the U.S. Government against its own First People. On that day, in 1975, federal agents entered the Sioux Reservation, purportedly to question a crime...

Native Sun News: Brule raises money for Lakota Circles of Hope (July 5, 2011)

The following story was written and reported by Aly Duncan Neely. All content © Native Sun News. RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — Brulé, a seven-time Native American Music Awards winning act, came to Rapid City last weekend, along with thunder,...

Marshall Matz: Addressing high unemployment in Indian Country (July 5, 2011)

"We have much to celebrate on America's birthday 2011. We remain the shining light on the hill, and I remain optimistic about America. We have some very serious problems to face as a nation, and the extreme partisanship of Washington...

JD Colbert: Offering a new kind of formula for tribal membership (July 5, 2011)

“What was given to the (Mvskoke) tribal towns in the beginning, and to be kept and rekindled periodically? What are the major ingredients in Sofkey? Traditional Stomp dance grounds are often headed by whom? In the story, How Day and...

Wambli Sina Win: The ultimate expression of faith in Sun Dance (July 5, 2011)

Have your eyes ever been drawn to the heavens to bear witness to a star’s demise or a comet’s streak? As a Lakota (an Indian), in the spirit world, we know that no form of prison or iron bars can...

Vi Waln: Violence far too common on Rosebud Sioux Reservation (July 5, 2011)

The construction of Rosebud’s new adult correctional facility is now happening. Pine Ridge is also building a new jail. People talk about how the money funding the development of these new facilities might be better used elsewhere. I agree we...