The Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado is awaiting Environmental Protection Agency approval to regulate the air quality on its reservation. The Tribe developed a Reservation Air Code to administer point-source pollution under the Clean Air Act. The Tribe plans to regulate sources like coalbed methane wells. Congress long ago amended the Clean Air Act and [...]

The Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is seeking the return of land being used by the Episcopal Church. The diocese plans to close 11 churches on the Pine Ridge Reservation so the Tribe wants the land back. A lawyer says the church agrees. “It has always been our intention that if these properties aren’t [...]

Former members of a boys’ basketball team from a high school on the Navajo Nation reservation have settled their lawsuit against New Mexico state police. The young men will receive $95,000. The lawsuit alleged their lockers and bus were unreasonably searched during a basketball tournament in 2006. Their team, from the To’hajiilee Community School, was [...]

The Cayuga Nation plans to sue two counties in federal court after its smoke shops were raided on Tuesday. The Nation says Cayuga County and Seneca County lacked the authority to conduct the searches and seizures. More than 1.5 million cigarettes and other tribal property were taken from two smoke shops. The counties say they [...]

Three tribes sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to challenge the amount of their annual housing block grants. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Yakama Nation of Washington, and the Grindstone Indian Rancheria of Wintun-Wailaki Indians of California say that HUD illegally reduced the amount of their grants. The law suit is [...]

The police were called to a California public school on Tuesday after tensions rose among parents who are fighting over the cancellation of a Thanksgiving event for kindergarteners. Each year, the students dress up as “Pilgrims” and “Indians.” Michelle Raheja, a citizen of the Seneca Nation and an English professor, who specializes in Native American [...]

The nation is pretty shook up over the recession and economic turmoil we are experiencing. The unemployment rate is going up and that is scary. We worry about the State of Rhode Island having the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. of 9.3% and the city of Detroit is tied at that figure. We talk [...]

Associated Press Writer Mary Hudetz released a story entitled “National heritage day honors American Indians” on Friday Nov 28. She reported something I hadn’t heard of, had you? Here’s just part of her story: “For the first time, federal legislation has set aside the day after Thanksgiving — for this year only — to honor [...]

Four American Indian Tribes have sued in federal court to stop construction of the Keystone oil pipeline through eastern South Dakota and North Dakota. They argue that their treaties and federal laws and regulations were broken during the environmental assessment of the route and subsequent granting of a presidential permit for the pipeline. They also [...]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided on November 20 to require a federal agency to take a new and much closer look at its decision to allow Shell Offshore Inc. to drill multiple offshore exploratory oil wells over a three-year period in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. The case entitled Alaska [...]