Judge protects Oneida Nation land from foreclosure (June 5, 2006)

A federal judge halted foreclosure proceedings against the Oneida Nation on Friday, ruling that the tribe's reservation in upstate New York still exists. The 250,000-acre reservation was set aside by a 1788 treaty and confirmed by the 1794 Treaty of...

Seminole Tribe acquires 232-year-old letter to leader (June 5, 2006)

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has acquired a 232-year-old letter to The Cowkeeper, who is considered the founder of the tribe. The letter was written on February 9, 1774 by a British official. It asks The Cowkeeper for peace between...

Red Earth celebration held in Oklahoma City (June 5, 2006)

The 20th annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival was held in Oklahoma City over the weekend. The festival returned to the downtown Cox Convention Center after being held in the State Fair Park for three years. That marked the...

Nez Perce Tribe to host Lewis and Clark event (June 5, 2006)

Dozens of tribes met the Lewis and Clark but only three are hosting signature events during the bicentennial commemoration of the expedition. That doesn't mean the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho is celebrating the explorers, said archivist Nakia Williamson. The...

Yankton Sioux Tribe wins grant to study pregnancies (June 5, 2006)

The Yankton Sioux Tribe has been awarded a $375,000 grant to study pregnancies of Indian women in South Dakota. The will fund the South Dakota Tribal Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. The program will examine the experiences of mothers and...

Harjo: Poarch Creeks worked against Native people (June 5, 2006)

"After Poarch Band became a federally recognized tribe, its then-chairman, Eddie L. Tullis, began closing doors on Muscogee Nation, especially the traditional people. He worked with intertribal groups to exclude traditional Native people from forums and as a consulting class...

Basketball in Southern Ute teen's heritage (June 5, 2006)

Tyla Frost, a member of the Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, has basketball in her genes. Frost's mother, brother, uncles and cousins all excelled at basketball. She's been playing ever since she was a little girl, training that earned...

Suspended Gila River governor seeks businesses (June 5, 2006)

William Rhodes, the suspended governor of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, has been seeking approval to open a hotel, restaurant and other businesses on land he owns on the reservation. Rhodes is negotiating a lease for the businesses....

Death of baby on Lummi Reservation a homicide (June 5, 2006)

The death of a four-month-old boy on the Lummi Reservation in Washington has been ruled a homicide. Tyrell A. Jackson was reportedly found in dirty diapers on a dirty mattress last Monday. He was dehydrated and 2 pounds lighter than...

John Fund: A Native race-based government (June 5, 2006)

"America's motto is "E pluribus unum," Latin for "Out of many, one." Some U.S. senators seem to be reading it backward. This week the Senate will consider legislation that would create an independent, race-based government for Native Hawaiians. If the...

Marlene Blackorbay recalled as Indian business pioneer (June 5, 2006)

Marlene Blackorbay, a Bad River Chippewa woman who co-founded one of today's largest Indian-owned businesses, died May 21 in Wisconsin. She was 70. Blackorbay was part of the federal government's relocation program in the 1950s. She went to Los Angeles,...

Ex-Bush official testifies on Abramoff dealings (June 5, 2006)

A former Bush administration official accused of lying about his dealings with Jack Abramoff took the stand in his own defense on Friday. David H. Safavian, a former lobbyist for gaming tribes, used to work with Abramoff. The two remained...

Activists plan to block sale of liquor in Whiteclay (June 5, 2006)

Native and non-Native activists plan to erect a blockade on the Pine Ridge Reservation in hopes of stopping the sale of liquor in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska. Pine Ridge is dry but some residents go to Whiteclay...

Oprah pushed powwow during Navajo Nation visit (June 5, 2006)

The Oprah Winfrey Show insisted a powwow be staged during the television star's visit to the Navajo Nation last week, The Gallup Independent reports. Tribal officials tried to steer her production company from the idea, since powwow is not...

Letter: Racism against Indians alive in Montana (June 5, 2006)

"Folks who think Billings is absent of racial discrimination should have been at MetraPark for Billings Senior High School's graduation ceremonies where four Anglos refused to let four Indian people sit down. The graduation exercises had already started when three...

Column: Reporter stays connected to heritage (June 5, 2006)

"I have been surrounded by American Indian culture all my life. I've always been drawn to it, but that's only natural. I was born in a federal American Indian hospital. My grandmother grew up in an Indian orphanage in Oklahoma,...

Bob Novak: GOPs lobby for Hawaiian Indians (June 5, 2006)

"Paid conservative lobbyists have helped grease the way for passage in the Senate this week of the long-pending bill, opposed by the Bush administration, that would give Native Hawaiians the same status as mainland Indian tribes. A report boosting the...

Mark Trahant: What went wrong at Fannie Mae? (June 5, 2006)

"The answer is 6.46. "You must have 6.46 branded in your brains. You must be able to say it in your sleep, you must be able to recite it forwards and backwards, you must have a raging fire in your...

Yellow Bird: More women needed in public office (June 5, 2006)

"Women's roles have changed only in the past 20 to 50 years at the hand of those women who led the movements in the 1960s and 1970s. In Indian country, there were exceptions. In 1934, when the government mandated that...