“The U.S. Forest Service signed a final decision to protect the sacred Cave Rock in Nevada. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit developed a plan to ban climbing at the rock. The plan was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which cited the importance of the site to the Washoe Tribe and to [...]

“Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, is seeking an investigation of a manufacturing company owned by the Spirit Lake Nation of North Dakota. Dorgan asked the Department of Defense to look into Sioux Manufacturing Corp. He is concerned that the company manufactured faulty equipment for American soldiers. Two [...]

Indiana Professor Steve Russell writes in Indian Country Today: “Cherokees, as my Plains Indian pals never hesitate to remind me, are among the most assimilated peoples indigenous to North America. We’ve been a constitutional republic since 1827, but our fascination with written law goes back farther. In Oklahoma, they say a Creek who gets too [...]

“At least four major Indian water rights settlements are headed to Congress this year. The largest is a $800 million deal between the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico. The Bush administration has balked at the high cost of the settlement. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has already approved a $60 million deal [...]

“The Kickapoo Tribe of Texas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Indian gaming case.  The tribe has been trying to negotiate a Class III gaming compact with Texas. But state officials have refused. So the tribe turned to the Interior Department for help. Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Interior can issue [...]

“Commissioners in Cherokee County, Kansas, filed suit against the Interior Department in hopes of stopping the Quapaw Tribe from building a casino. The $300 million Downstream Casino Resort is located on three parcels of land in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. The gaming portion is on the Oklahoma side. The county says the casino site was [...]

“New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) has ordered state police to block access to the Fort Sill Apache Tribe‘s casino site.  Officers were posted at the site near Las Cruces yesterday evening. Richardson said the Oklahoma tribe’s bingo operation is illegal. “Because the federal government is abdicating its responsibility, I have no choice but to [...]

The Narragansett Tribe is attempting to manuveur around its ongoing conflict with Rhode Island. “The Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island is asking the Interior Department to take its entire reservation out of trust.  Council member John Brown said the move will enable the tribe to put its 1,800 acres back in trust without state jurisdiction. [...]

The Senate passed the Indian health care bill and the attached resolution by Senator Brownback of Kansas to apologize to American Indians for 200 years of active oppression.  Read about it here: “It only took nine years of negotiation, but the U.S. Senate finally reauthorized the legislation that oversees delivery of health care to all [...]

The Anchorage Daily News . com reports:  “The eroding village of Kivalina in the Northwest Arctic is suing Exxon Mobil and 23 other energy companies for damage related to global warming.  The suit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of the Native village’s federally recognized tribe and its [...]