The Skokomish Tribe is breaching a dike on purpose.   It’s an effort to return part of the Skokomish River delta along the Hood Canal to what it once was, and the effort is expected to have a number of benefits.  The tribe is letting the sea back in onto what was diked and drained for [...]

The editors of Indian Country Today discuss this week that the national Indian museum is at a crossroads: “The National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is celebrating its third year of operation, having completed its initial building phase and entering a time of transition between leaders. Not only [...]

Indian Country Today reports on petroglyphs that were stolen and are being returned to their original places at the request of local tribes and Indians.    After recovering the artifacts, the Forest Service was worried that someone would just steal the centuries-old rock art from national forest land if they were returned to their sites.   The stolen [...]

Indian Country Today printed an Associated Press report that the ”dispute involving race and tribal identity that was supposed to play out in the courts now seems headed for Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers want the country’s second-largest Indian tribe stripped of $300 million in federal money. U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, a California Democrat who claims [...]

Harvard reports that a group of American Indian leaders joined with experienced and budding archaeologists on Wednesday (Sept. 26) to begin the search for the physical proof of Harvard’s Indian College roots. Buried somewhere under Harvard Yard lies the remnants of both the Old College and the Indian College, which more than 350 years ago combined to make [...]

As I have already discussed extensively on this blog, the Doctrine of Discovery and Russia’s audacious claim to the Arctic seabed has reawakened interest in the United States in becoming a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Two former U.S. Secretaries of State, James Baker and George Shultz, advocated [...]

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported on the Alaska Climate Impact Assessment Commission hearing in Barrow on Wednesday about the impacts of climate change. North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said the community has seen changes in wildlife, hunting and whaling. Eugene Brower, head of the Barrow Whaling Captains’ Association, said rising temperatures have affected waters.  “Our [...]

A New York Times editorial points out the woeful failure of the Department of Interior to collect all the royalties due the American tax payer from private oil and gas operations on federal lands.  “A yearlong investigation has now provided unassailable evidence that the Interior Department abdicated its responsibility to collect royalties from oil and [...]

Entrepreneurs from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota have created the Tanka Bar, an energy bar made from buffalo meat and berries.  The bar is based on wasna, a traditional Plains mixture of meat and berries. Combined, the two foods provide energy and protein and can be part of a healthy diet. Native American [...]

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services unveiled a new citizenship test on Thursday that includes two questions about Native Americans. “Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?” Acceptable answers include “Native Americans” or “American Indians.”  The second question requires test-takers to “Name one American Indian tribe in the [...]