The New York Times reports on the Gila River Reservation water settlement (get the full story): “More than a hundred years ago, the Gila River, siphoned off by farmers upstream, all but dried up here in the parched flats south of Phoenix, plunging an Indian community that had depended on it for centuries of farming [...]

On July 31, the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota adopted a secured transactions commercial code. The tribe has also agreed to work with the state to develop a joint sovereign filing system to administer the code.

Indian Country Today reports that the National Constituent Assembly that is drafting a new constitution for Ecuador has included Quechua and Shuar, along with Spanish, as official languages. Ecuador would be the fourth country in South America to include official languages after Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

John McCain picked Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate for the vice-presidency. She has only been the governor since December 2006 and served before that as mayor of a small Alaska city. She is currently embroiled in a political controversy of her own for attempting to fire a state trooper that had [...]

I have written about the use of Doctrine of Discovery claims in the Arctic region as global warming and climate change have led to the retreat of the polar ice. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Canada’s prime minister is moving to control the disputed Arctic waters. Stephen Harper announced that Canada will enforce a [...]

Brazil’s Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a complaint against the size of a 4.2 million-acre reservation in the Amazon. The Raposa Serra do Sol reservation is home to about 18,000 members of the Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko, Taurepang and Patamona tribes. Their land is increasingly targeted by farmers. Two elected officials in the state [...]

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is urging tribal citizens to write to Congress to seek more funding for the Indian Health Service. “We need to call it what it really is — a crisis of health care,” Secretary-Treasurer Mike Bongo said at a tribal hearing. “If it happened anywhere else in America, it would [...]

Acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven Gaison visited the Navajo Nation on Wednesday. Gaison helped dedicate a wellness center at the Tse’ Bit’ Ai Middle School in Shiprock, New Mexico. He also promoted the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future” initiative to the Navajo youth. Surgeon general takes on Tse’ [...]

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota has donated nearly $60 million to fellow tribes, Indian organizations, and non-profits in the past two years. The Tribe’s giving makes it one of the main sources of philanthropy in the state. “They are one of the, if not the, most generous tribes in the nation,” Ernie Stephens, [...]

Judge James Robertson will hold a hearing today to discuss the $455.6 million he awarded to the Cobell plaintiffs for the mismanagement of their trust funds by the United States. Robertson envisioned a proceeding to determine how to distribute the judgment. He also hoped the plaintiffs and the federal government could come to some type [...]