From Sungmanitu:
If you don’t know, I’m making an audio documentary about AIM and conducting on the ground research and interviews with organizers new and old about their conditions in order to find out what unity can be built. I will be traveling from Michigan to Colorado and will talk to many
Elders of the movement as well as many youth and people in between. If this seems like something worth supporting to you $ZitkatosTinCan on CA or @Zitkato On ven is where you can send that help. This will help pay for a car rental, gas, emergency shelter if we need it, and most
Importantly for mutual aid and food. You can also help out by offering me a meal or a couch to sleep on. I look forward to sharing what I learn as well as the archive of information and videos I have from the 5 years I’ve been studying AIM and the US conditions
We are at 720/2500
Comrade Sungmanitu has shared the history of the Indigenous movements in Northamerica before here in this community via the ChunkaLutaNetwork here is one of my favorites: Fish Wars, Climate Change, and Forgotten History
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/62855
The Health Work Committees, a prominent Palestinian non-governmental health and development organization operating in the occupied West Bank since 1985, was subjected to a sweeping arrest campaign by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) over the past couple of weeks.
On Sunday, June 21, the IOF stormed the headquarters of the organization in the central city of Ramallah, and shut it down under a one-year military closure order.
According to a well-informed HWC source, who spoke to BreakThrough News anonymously due to security concerns, the IOF arrested all of the organization’s board members, including its chairperson, Dr. Mazen Rantisi (71), before and after the organization’s main office was raided.
Rantisi was arrested from his home in Ramallah in the early hours of June 21. HWC’s financial director, Tayseer Abu Sharbak, was also arrested that same day from his home in Al-Am’ari refugee camp in the central city of Al-Bireh. Meanwhile, a physician, Khaled Ayash, was apprehended from the town of Biddu northwest of Jerusalem in late June.
On Wednesday, July 1, the IOF arrested other HWC staff after raiding their homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank.
The detained staff were identified as:
- Public Relations Director, Dr. Jamila Abu Dahou
- Board members: Etaf Bader, Jamila Kanaan and Myassar al-Faqih
- Accountant, Faten Hanaysheh
- And a driver known as Abu Sree
BreakThrough News learned from HWC’s unnamed source that no indictment has been issued against the arrested staff and leaders yet, and that they are still under investigation.
It is worth noting that the recent crackdown on HWC by the IOF is not the first. In June 2021, the organization was raided and shut down for six months. One month later former director, Shatha Odeh, was illegally detained in Israeli jails for 11 months and fined USD 9,000.
Odeh, who was given a 5-year suspended imprisonment sentence, was released on the condition of not providing health services to people.
The repressive campaigns against the HWC are not isolated incidents, but are part of a broader systematic crackdown on the Palestinian health sector as a whole, reflecting Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies.
Israel’s brutal crackdown on Palestinian health sector as genocidal tactic
Over the last three years, Israel has escalated its crackdown on the Palestinian health sector, deploying it as both a settler-colonial ethnic cleansing policy and a genocidal tactic.
At least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) in Gaza since Israel began its genocidal aggression on the besieged enclave on October 7, 2023.
According to UN experts, this equates to killing an average of more than two people per day.
In many cases, Israel targeted rescue workers in their clearly marked ambulances while they were trying to reach casualties. The Hind Rajab massacre represents one of numerous crimes, during which rescuers became the victims for only trying to save the lives of other victims.
Arbitrarily arresting health workers and medics and placing them under administrative detention and inhumane conditions without charge, have been among the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian health sector.
The case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician from Gaza who was arrested by Israeli forces in December 2024 during the siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital, may be the most shocking, but it is not the only one of its kind when it comes to detention incidents.
Read more: HRF urges ICC to issue warrants for 24 Israeli soldiers accused of the murder of Hind Rajab and her rescuers
More than 1,800 health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed over the same period, as per a latest report published by the the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Dr. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, clarified that the destruction affected not only big hospitals, but also smaller primary health care centres, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories.
Read more: Israeli attacks persist on northern Gaza’s last hospitals
UN experts argue that Israel’s systematic targeting of the Palestinian health sector amounts to “medicide”. The word denotes the war crime of intentionally targeting healthcare workers and medical facilities.
The international community must not remain silent, says PHM
The People’s Health Movement (PHM)issued a statement on Tuesday, June 23, unequivocally denouncing “the arrest of Dr. Mazen Rantisi, the closure order imposed on HWC’s headquarters, and the ongoing repression targeting Palestinian health institutions and civil society organizations.
“HWC is an important part of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), and we stand in full solidarity with the organization, its staff, and the patients and communities it serves.” The statement reads.
The movement called for “the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Mazen Rantisi and all Palestinian health workers and civil society personnel arbitrarily detained.”
It also demanded “the immediate reversal of the closure order against HWC, and the protection of Palestinian health workers and healthcare institutions from attacks, harassment, and arbitrary detention.”
The PHM stressed that international accountability for violations of the right to health and attacks on healthcare under occupation should be maintained, and international solidarity with Palestinian civil society and health organizations be sustained.
“The right to health cannot exist where health workers are imprisoned, health institutions are shut down, and communities are denied access to care. The international community must not remain silent. Defending Palestinian health workers is inseparable from defending the Palestinian people’s right to health, dignity, self-determination, and freedom.” The movement emphasized.
Viva Salud warns that the crackdown on HWC would contribute to broader climate of pressure and restrictions
For its part Viva Salud strongly condemned the “worrying” measures, which the Israeli occupation authorities took against HWC and its staff.
“The arrest of two senior HWC representatives and the closure of the organization’s headquarters raise serious concerns for the future of its activities and for the continuity of services provided to Palestinian communities. These measures also contribute to a broader climate of pressure and restrictions affecting Palestinian civil society organizations and health institutions,” Viva Salud stated.
The Belgian non-governmental organization further asserted that it will continue to stand alongside HWC – as a partner – and to support its efforts “to ensure that all Palestinians can enjoy their fundamental right to health, dignity and self-determination.”
Zoe. , July 7, 2026
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/61627
This story was produced byHonolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit news organization covering Hawaiʻi that specializes in accountability and in-depth enterprise coverage. For more stories like this,subscribe to their newsletters.
Hikari Mae Hida
Honolulu Civil BeatAngela Mulligan graduated with a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy last March, hoping to become a couples therapist for clients on the Big Island and give back to the community she calls home.
Instead, she made a difficult decision to build her career online while working toward full licensure, serving clients based in Colorado. Under Hawai‘i’s current system, pre-licensed therapists cannot bill insurance during the thousands of hours they have to work to become licensed, so serving Hawaiʻi patients would mean working for little to no pay, a reality Mulligan cannot afford.
“I didn’t have the option of not working for money,” she said.
“Sometimes, I have guilt because I prefer to be serving where I live, but it hasn’t been possible until now,” she said.
The situation for budding therapists will soon change.
A new state law taking effect Wednesday aims to bridge this chasm by removing the financial barrier driving local therapy graduates out of state. Act 93, signed by Gov. Josh Green in June 2024, creates provisional, associate-level licenses for marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, and psychologists in training. It allows them to legally bill insurance providers while accruing the clinical hours required for full autonomous licensure.
Applications for the new pathway officially opened through the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs on June 2. But there has been confusion over application technicalities and who needs to apply for the license. Some question how much this law will actually help retain local therapists.
Hawaiʻi has long grappled with a mental health workforce crisis. The federal government designates the entire state as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. A 2022 survey by Community First Access to Care found that mental health counseling was the state’s most critically needed medical specialty, cited by 78 percent of local healthcare providers.
The preamble to the bill reads: “This model of living is unsustainable and causes many of these practitioners to permanently move from Hawaii to one of the many other states where insurance reimbursements are allowed.”
‘Brain Drain’
Experts say that aspiring therapists in Hawaiʻi often underestimate the financial and bureaucratic obstacles that await them after graduation.
Under the current system, depending on the therapy license, post-graduate therapists have to accrue 1,000 to 3,000 hours of supervised experience — the equivalent of 25 to 75 40-hour weeks — over a minimum of two years before getting fully licensed.
The problem is that the new therapists cannot get paid for their work. Since there is no mechanism to bill insurance, in most cases, private practices and community clinics have to pay the fledgling therapists out of their own pockets, which many cash-strapped practices can’t afford.
Graduates are left with the choice of working those hours for little to no pay, taking on a second or third job, getting licensed in a state with associate licensing pathways or switching professions altogether, said John Souza, an assistant professor specializing in marriage and family therapy at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
Data collected by Souza illustrates this systemic toll. According to his preliminary findings, pre-licensed postgraduate therapists named licensing and bureaucratic barriers as top obstacles to practicing in Hawaiʻi. During grad school, 75 percent of students identified as local, compared to 33 percent percent of people surveyed who had graduated from their programs in Hawaiʻi. The research found that around 44 percent of therapists working toward licensure were paying for supervision in addition to working for free, at an average cost of roughly $8,400.
“These students are kind of walking into this fog,” Souza said. “It’s like they’re going into this blindly and not aware of just how much it’s going to cost for them to enter this career.”
Advocates warn that this financial bottleneck results in a loss of talent that directly impacts the competence of care available to Hawai’i locals.
“You have a terrible brain drain where people are leaving Hawai‘i because they can’t afford to work another year with either no income or very low income,” said Alex Lichton, legislative chair for the Hawai‘i Psychological Association.
And the system ends up perpetuating socioeconomic disparities.
Due to the inability to bill insurance, some younger therapists pursuing full licensure choose to work for private practices that mainly serve wealthier people who are able to pay for therapy in cash, creating even greater disparities in access to care.
“The people that survive the whole process disproportionately tend not to be Native Hawaiian, it’s disproportionately Caucasians,” Lichton said, adding that he received financial support from his family while pursuing licensure.
That demographic imbalance carries heavy clinical consequences. A study published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology demonstrated that racial and cultural mismatch between patient and therapist significantly increases premature dropout rates in therapy.
In Hawai’i, where Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations face disproportionately high rates of historical trauma, the lack of homegrown and Indigenous therapists widens existing healthcare inequities.
Kawaiolaakealiʻi Kapuni, born and raised on Maui, had a white woman as her first therapist whom she was paired with under her insurance at the time.
“I felt like I had to do more explaining about fundamental concepts before getting to the problem itself,” she said. When she switched therapists to a non-Indigenous woman of color, she had a similar experience.
She has never been able to see a Native Hawaiian therapist. “I don’t know how many kānaka ʻōiwi see a future for themselves in that field because there are so many barriers,” said Kapuni, adding that the bill doesn’t go far enough to address how healthcare inequities exist for Native Hawaiians.
In terms of one day having a Native Hawaiian therapist, she thinks there would be a level of intimacy that would make them better able to connect with their clients. “I think it would be life-changing,” she added.
Joanne Okika Shigeko Qinaau, a former PhD student in clinical psychology at UH Mānoa, wrote about the challenges facing local therapists in written testimony supporting the bill.
“The status quo is unsustainable and particularly challenging for those of us from underprivileged backgrounds,” Qinaau wrote, adding, “This bill would improve on-the-job training and cultivate homegrown talent – encouraging folx to stay in Hawai’i and meet the unique needs of our community.”
Uncertainties Remain
The state Office of Wellness and Resilience hosted a town hall meeting on Thursday to answer questions about the new law.
The comment section in the Zoom room flooded with confused applicants. Many worried that a surge of applications could take a long time to process, meaning clinicians whose applications are still in process on Wednesday can be in violation of the law if they continue treating their clients.
“Passing the national licensing exam was the easy part,” said Alexandra Love, who was born and raised in O’ahu and now runs her own private practice in Maui, about the time she applied for her license in 2016. She added that dealing with the department in charge of licensing was, “the true test, because everything is so slow.”
She expressed concern for her supervisees, who are applying for these associate licenses.
Cindy Matsushita, licensing administrator at the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, or DCCA, said during the town hall that the office has received 42 applications and 25 of them have been approved or are “in the process” of being approved, as of noon on Thursday. Previously, DCCA estimated that it would receive between 200 and 300 applicants during the initial one-month rollout window of the new program.
Tia Roberts Hartsock, director of the Office of Wellness and Resilience, wrote in a statement to Civil Beat: “We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it.”
It is also unclear how much private insurance companies like Hawaii Medical Service Association and Kaiser Permanente will reimburse. While the new law allows associate billing, it does not mandate specific reimbursement rates.
Kathleen Kozak, Medical Director at UHA Health Insurance, declined to share UHA’s reimbursement rates, but said that “CMS reimburses different levels of providers, and we tried to come up with something that was similar in percentages.”
A spokesperson for HMSA said that “eligible services provided by practitioners in training are reimbursed at a lower rate than services provided by fully licensed providers, which reflects their licensure status and supervised role in care delivery.”
If commercial insurance companies set associate reimbursement rates too low, private practices may still struggle to offer livable wages to graduates.
Mulligan, the pre-licensed therapist on the Big Island currently accruing her hours online in Colorado, is in no rush to apply for the associate license.
With only eight months left before she qualifies for full autonomous licensure via her out-of-state remote work, she is uncertain how much applying for the program will change her current situation.
“Even if I can take insurance here, if they offer low rates to associates, I might as well wait to go through all of the paperwork later,” she said.
Civil Beat’s health access reporting is supported in part by the Atherton Family Foundation.
The post Hawaiʻi is losing therapists before they even start. A new law could help appeared first on ICT.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/61918
This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix.
Liv Caputo
Florida PhoenixA Miccosukee Tribe member wants her nation to be the new protector of the so-called ”Alligator Alcatraz” site, calling Friday on Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to give it the territory to conserve.
But there’s a problem.
The DeSantis administration, which controversially seized the land last summer, still hasn’t given it back to the county, even after the state cleared out the lockup’s detainees and declared the center closed for business.
This means Miami can’t begin to sell or transfer the Everglades land to a conservator, as planned — at least not yet.
“The State has not returned the land to the County and has provided no timeline for doing so,” Dianne Fernandez, Cava’s deputy director of communications, told the Phoenix in an email. She provided a letter Cava sent Monday to the governor, asking DeSantis to coordinate the site’s “orderly transition” back to Miami-Dade.
The governor’s office referred the Phoenix to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency in charge of “Alligator Alcatraz” operations, which has not responded to a request for comment.
“Alligator Alcatraz” was hastily built last summer atop the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 5,120-acre plot deep within the Everglades complete with a 10,000-foot runway for pilots learning to fly. Although owned by Miami-Dade County — until it was temporarily commandeered last June — the airport pays taxes to Collier County.
The county estimates its value at $20 million. Cava, however, had estimated in early conversations with state government before construction that the plot would be worth closer to $190 million. State officials disagreed, and simply seized the land under emergency declaration instead of paying out Cava’s hefty request.
Remarkably, after a year of bitter debate between politicos and activists over the facility and its alleged wrongdoings — although none have been proven in court — the one point many agree on appears to be the site’s future as an environmental safe haven.
Attorney General James Uthmeier, the mastermind behind the facility, and Cava both have advocated to environmentally protect the land. After DeSantis announced the facility’s shuttering, Cava declared her plan to sell or transfer the site to an environmental conservator, such as the National Park Service.
Miccosukee Tribe member Betty Osceola said her nation is an interested buyer, considering its reservation abuts “Alligator Alcatraz” and it’s been an active environmental opponent of the facility’s construction and operation. The tribe joined most of the legal onslaught against the state for its alleged environmental harms caused by the facility.
“Miami-Dade County has title to the landscape, but all of Florida belongs to the indigenous people, regardless of what name and county you want to give to it,” Osceola said during a Friday press conference. She insisted tribe members would devote “110%” to preserving the land if it were theirs.
“I encourage the mayor’s office to have those conversations with the Miccosukee Tribe to see how [a transfer] could happen,” she said.
However, the Tribe said Osceola speaks for herself — not for them.
“The Tribe’s official positions are established through its elected leadership. At this time, Chairman Talbert Cypress has not issued any public statement or expressed any intention that the Tribe seeks ownership or control of the land,” chief communications officer Alvaro Zabaleta said.
The mayor’s office did not respond to questions about whether aides have spoken with the Miccosukees or any other buyer.
Correction: This story has been updated to show that Betty Osceola’s comments are hers, and not representative of the Miccosukee Tribe.
The post Miccosukee Tribe member wants ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ — but Miami doesn’t have the land back appeared first on ICT.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/60375
Gabriela Sá Pessoa
Associated PressFORMOSO DO ARAGUAIA, Brazil — On a vast island in northern Brazil, an unusual debate about cattle and conservation is taking place.
Federal authorities last year ordered the removal of herds from protected Indigenous territory on the world’s largest river island, Bananal Island. They argued the land was reserved for Indigenous peoples and conservation, and that the herds kept there by outside ranchers were illegal and contributed to habitat degradation.
To comply with the order, wranglers drove more than 100,000 cattle from the island when the rivers were low enough. But the removal has created new problems for Indigenous residents who had come to rely on money they earned leasing the land to ranchers.
The events underscore the challenge of balancing conservation, Indigenous interests and pressure from agribusiness, one of Brazil’s most powerful sectors. Brazil is the world’s largest beef producer, accounting for about 20 percent of global output and 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Protecting Indigenous territories is widely seen as one of the most effective ways to curb deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of the global climate.
Brazil has made progress in reducing deforestation, but cattle ranching remains the main driver of it. Ranchers clear large swaths of forest so cattle can graze.
Tocantins state, home to Bananal Island, was among the states with Brazil’s highest deforestation levels in 2025, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit group tracking land use. Biodiversity is threatened as trees that absorb pollution are replaced by cattle that emit methane, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
Cattle brought benefits and conflicts to the island
Brazilian law prohibits commercial activity on Indigenous lands. Cattle raising is allowed only for subsistence.
In practice, however, parts of Bananal Island were leased for decades. Under the informal system, ranchers paid village leaders a monthly fee of about 15 reais ($3) per head — far below the roughly 60 reais ($12) charged outside the island.
When the over 100,000 head of cattle were on the island, monthly revenue from leasing could reach 1.5 million reais ($290,000). Payments went to Indigenous chiefs, who passed part of the money to local associations.
“Cattle, over the years, have covered many of our community’s expenses,” said Cleiton Javae, chief of Txuiri village, citing schools, medicine, transport and traditional festivities.
But some residents say the money was concentrated among leaders and did not benefit the roughly 5,000 people in more than 40 villages.
“The law requires consultation and shared benefits,” said Leandro Milhomem, the chief of IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, in Tocantins. “Instead, some chiefs had significant resources while, in the same community, children died of malnutrition.”
Indigenous residents told the AP that wranglers also fenced off parts of the island and restricted access to farming areas that were meant for communal use.
Leaders who supported agreements with ranchers say such incidents were isolated and argue that raising cattle has been blamed for broader policy failures. Still, they acknowledge the system spiraled out of control, with ranchers bringing far more cattle than declared.
“The situation became unsustainable, and removing the cattle was the only alternative,” Javae said.
Indigenous residents say they own the remaining cattle on the island. But in March, environmental authorities seized 550 head of cattle and issued 21 citations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. One cited a wrangler who said an Indigenous chief told him to falsely claim the herd was Indigenous‑owned to avoid sanctions.
Cattle ranching caused soil acidification and fueled wildfires
Bananal Island lies between the Javae and Araguaia rivers at the junction of Brazil’s top soy and cattle-producing states of Tocantins, Mato Grosso and Para.
When European colonizers reached the area in the late 18th century, they found the island inhabited by Indigenous peoples and covered with wild banana groves that inspired its name: Ilha do Bananal in Portuguese.
The region remained largely overlooked by settlers and the Brazilian government until the 1950s, when it was designated a protected area. At the same time, authorities began promoting non-Indigenous cattle ranching through leasing agreements with local communities.
Ranching offered villages a potential source of income but also fueled inequality and environmental problems.
Cattle ranching caused soil acidification and fueled wildfires, according to Brazil’s environmental agency, with investigations finding blazes often started near grazing areas. Ranchers have long used fire to manage land and renew pasture.
Three Indigenous groups live on the island: the Javae, Karaja and Ava-Canoeiro. The Javae have long maintained close ties with non-Indigenous ranchers. Many outsiders married Indigenous women and settled on the island. Through these relationships, ranchers gained access to develop economic activity inside legally protected territory.
The island’s traditional cultures and non-Indigenous practices can be seen in the contrasts. Brick houses stand alongside thatched structures of wood and straw. In Txuiri village, children play with bows and arrows near a Protestant church. In another village, Boa Esperanca, Lucirene Javae, the eldest in the community, on a recent day prepared to roast turtles for lunch while watching cooking videos on YouTube.
Brazilian Indigenous people rethink economic models
The Javae are working with The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to land conservation, to develop a land management plan on the island that outlines their social, environmental and economic needs, along with pathways to meet them.
In May, Javae leaders and other Indigenous representatives visited the Macuxi people in Roraima, a state in the northern Amazon seen as a model for using agriculture to generate income and strengthen land rights.
In the 1980s, Macuxi leaders began raising cattle to help reclaim territory under pressure from farmers, miners and land grabbers. The land was only officially demarcated as Indigenous territory in 2005.
Today, the Macuxi collectively own about 45,000 head of cattle, said Ivo Aureliano Macuxi, an Indigenous rights advocate and member of the Indigenous Council of Roraima.
The Macuxi and Bananal Island peoples’ experiences reflect a broader debate by Indigenous groups in Brazil to balance economic activity with protection of their rights and the environment, he said.
That debate also has advanced in mining. In February, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ruled that the Cinta Larga people, who live in a region spanning the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia, have the right to mine within their own territory.
Aureliano said Indigenous communities need legal frameworks that both support their territories and respect the diversity of Brazil’s 391 Indigenous peoples.
“You can’t apply a single model as a template for other Indigenous lands,” Aureliano said, but instead must tailor plans to “each region, each territory, each people.”
The post A conflict over cattle in Brazil’s Amazon highlights tensions for Indigenous peoples appeared first on ICT.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/58249
Daniel Herrera Carbajal
ICTThe Tohono O’odham Nation has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over its plans to construct a border wall on the tribe’s lands.
The suit was filed Tuesday as DHS plans to award contracts in the coming weeks to construct the border wall, according to a press release from Tohono O’odham.
“We do not believe, and we know that Customs and Border Protection has no legal authority to take any of our reservation land nor use it without permission,” said Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon M. Jose in a speech Wednesday at a National Congress of American Indians event in Memphis, Tennessee.
About 62 miles of the Tohono O’odham Nations land are contiguous with the US-Mexico border.
“To build these walls, (Customs and Border Protection) will have to diminish the size of the Tohono O’odham Nation. … There is no good reason to steal even more tribal land or destroy tribal land” Jose said.
The Tohono O’odham Nation has said building a wall on its reservation would be illegal and DHS and other contracting personnel who enter the nation would be trespassing.
The tribe’s ancestral homelands lie adjacent but on opposite sides of the US-Mexico border. The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 divided the nation’s lands and separated families.
According to the Tohono O’odham Nation, there are more than 3,000 enrolled members who live in the tribe’s ancestral lands in the Mexican state of Sonora.
“The United States-Mexican border was drawn through the heart of our traditional territory, making it more difficult for us to visit our families, our cemeteries, our sacred places, our ceremonies,” Jose said.
The Tohono O’odham Nation has strongly opposed the construction of a border wall on its lands while strongly supporting border-security measures. The tribal nation spends millions of dollars a year on border security and has its own tactical patrol unit under the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency called the “Shadow Wolves” – an all-Native patrol unit whose mission is to delay, disrupt and interdict illicit trafficking, according to ICE.
“We believe in border security, to protect our people and to protect the United States,” Jose said.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/60262
“The overwhelming scale and rate of children killed and injured in Gaza have been unparalleled across modern conflicts globally,” a new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reaffirmed this week. Building upon earlier evidence and new testimonies, the report backs warnings from Palestinians and international activists that Israeli forces deliberately target Palestinian children as part of a strategy to “destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“That’s a very serious conclusion to come to,” said Australian legal expert Chris Sidoti, one of the commission’s members, during a press conference on June 26. Yet the widespread use of torture and other degrading treatment, attacks on schools and orphanages, and strikes on key infrastructure needed for children to lead dignified lives – such as hospitals – during the Gaza genocide left little room for doubt.
Read more: “There is no peace and no plan” for Gaza, health workers warn
The report details various ways Israeli occupation forces have harmed children in the Strip since October 7, 2023. These include killing and injuring children through mass bombardment and indiscriminate attacks, as well as direct targeting via sniper fire and quadcopter shootings. These attacks have not ceased since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October last year, with over 100 children killed in Gaza since then. Combined with obstruction of aid deliveries and reconstruction, these actions continue to create a harrowing environment for all residents, particularly children.
“It’s all as it was in October 2025,” Sidoti added. “The [Gaza Peace] Plan should be declared a failure.”
The commission cited dozens of examples of children’s suffering. The list includes six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed in an Israeli attack on her family’s car and the ambulance responding to help them. It also describes how small children witnessed their families being shot or kidnapped. In December 2023, the report notes, Israeli soldiers threw four hand grenades into a house in Gaza City hosting 30 people. During the attack, a five-year-old suffered severe injuries, including abdominal evisceration. He was forced to evacuate without medical care. “He lost consciousness at the school, while he was treated by a doctor who reinserted his exposed intestines by using diapers and taped his stomach.”
No “normal-sized” babies in Gaza
Interviews with international health workers volunteering in Gaza’s hospitals also revealed the extent of injuries suffered by children. From head and chest wounds to damage to eyes and hearing, the report warned that “at least 21,000 children were made newly disabled in Gaza and approximately 40,500 children suffered ‘war-related’ injuries.”
This means tens of thousands of children require long-term, often lifelong, rehabilitation but are unlikely to receive it due to the systematic destruction of healthcare infrastructure by Israeli forces. The impacts are equally felt by children with pre-existing chronic conditions, newborns, and pregnant women. “By October 2024, women in Gaza were reported to be three times more likely to die in childbirth and three times more likely to miscarry than before October 7, 2023,” the report notes.
By June 2025, a third of births in Gaza were premature, underweight, or required intensive care, including babies born at 32 weeks weighing only 0.9 kilograms. “Doctors have reported no longer seeing ‘normal-sized’ babies in Gaza.”
“There is a direct targeting by Israel to affect the long-term health outcomes of babies,” a pediatric nurse told the commission. “There is no reason why we cannot bring medications into Gaza to help pregnant women and babies, so it makes no sense except to think that this particular group is being targeted due to which there is a higher mortality among newborns.”
Read more: Intergenerational hunger: the effects of Israel’s starvation of Gaza
Compounding factors for children’s health include extreme temperatures and malnutrition, worsened by conditions created by Israel on the ground: destroyed housing, sanitation infrastructure, and aid obstructions. Speaking at the same conference as Sidoti, emergency physician Dr. Mahmooda Syed referred to infectious diseases contracted by children with compromised immune systems due to hunger as “manufactured conditions.”
She emphasized that everything from basic hygiene to administering insulin is impossible in the current situation. A similar point was raised by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights on June 25, highlighting the spread of insects and rodents resulting from Israel’s actions. The center warned that “diseases and serious public health hazards have proliferated throughout displacement camps and residential areas amid the absence of clean water, sanitation supplies, and essential services.”
The report highlights cases of skin and hair conditions and faltering oral health. Such “manufactured conditions” often become deadly for children with compromised immunity. One case involved a 12-year-old girl with celiac disease who suffered severe malnutrition after Israel’s 2025 blockade restricted access to gluten-free foods. The report notes that she lost “one-third of her body weight over six months, resulting in frail limbs, diarrhea, fatigue, and a weakened immune system.” The child died “due to septic shock from a simple infection.”
“I was not able to finish any operation because every time child patients were taken back to the operating room, their injuries would be covered in maggots and sepsis under the dressings,” another health worker was quoted saying. “These child patients had no immune system due to malnutrition. Children just did not recover.”
Read more: The unbelievable stories about the children of Gaza
Beyond Gaza, the report also sounds the alarm against a sharp increase in violence against Palestinian children in the West Bank, perpetrated particularly by Israeli settlers. The commission documented dozens of settler and Israeli forces attacks, which include killings, maiming, and sexual violence – and expose children to constant fear and trauma.
“By targeting children, Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality, and overall capacity of the Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its future as a people,” the commission concluded. It recommended that governments take urgent and specific action, including a full arms trade ban on Israel, severing financial flows to illegal settlements, and investigating individuals known to have participated in attacks on Gaza – starting with their own citizens.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch*. For more articles and subscriptions to People’s Health Dispatch, click* here.
Ana Vračar , June 28, 2026
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/59372
Amelia Schafer
ICTThe Caddo Nation is situated in an extreme childcare desert, a place where the demand for childcare disproportionately outweighs available services. Only one dedicated childcare facility exists within a 5-mile radius of Binger, Oklahoma, where the tribe’s headquarters are located according to a state database.
For years, Caddo parents have faced persistent waitlists, often of 90 children at a time, coupled with their status as long commuters, meaning the average parent travels more than 30 minutes to and from work each day, said Lauren French, who is Delaware and Caddo and serves as the Caddo Nation’s Child Care Director.
To top it off, the average Caddo parent has to travel an additional 20-40 minutes per day to and from child care, she said, often traveling far from their work site just to find an available day care provider.
A new tribal childcare facility opening this fall aims to relieve not only families in search of childcare, but provide a multi-function space for Caddo Nation youth. The center is more than three years in the making, French said.
The new 12,250-square foot facility, located in Hinton, Oklahoma, about one hour west of Oklahoma City, is purposely near Interstate 40, which a majority of parents use daily on their commutes, French said.
But French said she didn’t want to stop there.
An aerial photo of the new Caddo Nation Child Care center showcases the buildings unique design. Credit: MASS Design
She and others like Caddo Nation Chairman Bobby Gonzalez wanted to provide a multi-use space, not just a building with four walls and a roof where you drop your kid off every day, because for many children this will be their second-home. They wanted a space that reflected Caddo culture and tradition and provided a variety of learning opportunities both inside and outside of a traditional classroom, she said.
To create that second-home feeling, the Caddo Nation partnered with MASS Design, a nonprofit design lab that works with tribal nations to help develop new culturally-informed infrastructure, to create a culturally informed multi-purpose facility. From these conversations, the teams worked to develop an innovative center that could meet a variety of needs expressed by community members.
The new Caddo Nation Childcare Center will feature both indoor and outdoor classrooms and learning centers as well as a gym, a pool, a library, a fully staffed nursing center and a playground highlighting the Caddo Nation’s mound-building tradition, something that’s central to Caddo culture, French said.
The center will create an estimated 20-23 new jobs for the community and serve a total of 75 children between as early as six months old capping at 12 years old.
The project is one of the Caddo Nation’s first new construction projects in decades, according to MASS Design, and was constructed by Arrowood Kakinah Enterprise, a new Caddo-owned construction company.
“The whole impetus was, ‘How do we kind of think about seeding the site with the future leaders of the Caddo Nation,’” said Joseph Kunkle, Northern Cheyenne and a principal with MASS Design. “This is a facility for the generations to come, so how can we ensure we’re starting this larger development right?”
A childcare center is a critical part of a community’s infrastructure, much like a fire station, an emergency dispatch station or a police department, Kunkle said. The ability for families, especially rural families that often commute long distances daily for work, to have a safe-space they can take their children to was paramount to the project’s design and conception, he said.
“All communities need this type of infrastructure in order for us to go to work, to go to school, to make sure that our children are learning about the culture,” Kunkle said.
Native communities don’t often get that type of luxury, French said, referring to the ability to send their children to a culturally enriching environment they can trust isn’t always an option.
“We [Natives] should be able to have quality and we should be able to have a premier site for our families and for our communities to be, to grow up in and to share milestones with the communities and everything else like that,” French said.
One key component aimed at helping families is the facilities offering an on-site registered nurse. Rather than needing to take time off work to drive to a hospital or urgent care clinic, families can have their children taken care of at the same facility they take them to every day, French said.
From a design perspective, every aspect of the center’s creation is rooted in Caddo culture. Caddo people traditionally lived in structures called Koo Hoo Kiwat, which are dome shaped thatched homes made of river cane, tall grasses and logs. The Caddo Nation Child Care center’s exterior, a cedar shake facade, pays homage to the traditional look of the Koo Hoo Kiwats, while the interior features several motifs and murals alongside laminated timber structures and exposed wood.
The center is set to open in fall 2026.
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Shirley Sneve
ICTCROW AGENCY, Montana – Thousands from across the continent flocked to the rolling plains along the Little Bighorn River where 150 years ago to the day Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer met his demise at what U.S. schoolchildren know as the Battle of Little Bighorn or Custer’s Last Stand – but Native Nations know as Greasy Grass.
“You know, Custer planned [a large-scale attack on tribes gathered along the river] because he wanted to be president,” said Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out. “And so news was supposed to hit Washington, D.C., that he defeated the Sioux. … Well, we changed history.”
Dawson Richards helps his father set up a tepee during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Montana. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
In preparation for the commemoration events – that include a full-scale re-enactment of the battle planned for Friday – hundreds of tribal members, mostly youth, rode in on horseback to a campsite at Veterans Memorial Park on the Crow Agency. It’s an annual memorial ride that has been going on for decades.
The ride honors the 8,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho people – and their horses – who were gathered at the river a century and a half ago.
“At first I rode for fun, then I slowly got other reasons,” said one young rider, Kyliana Lovell, a Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ Dakota citizen from Wagner, South Dakota. “I started riding for my family, my passed-away relatives and mostly for my grandpa, because he loved riding horses when he was young.”
Gwen Spotted Horse, Northern Cheyenne, followed along in her car as her son and daughter rode over to the camp on Wednesday.
“Makes me feel proud,” Spotted Horse said. “We’re proud that our kids are wanting to learn [about their ancestors]. They’re the ones that kind of push us to come out.”
Men help erect a tipi on the evening of June 24, 2026, at the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe camp near the Greasy Grass battlefield. (Kevin Abourezk/ICT)
This year’s ride held extra meaning for Terry Richards, Oglala Lakota. His sons have ridden in the memorial ride for years and his ancestor, High Wolf, fought at Greasy Grass alongside Sitting Bull and other Lakota leaders.
“He fought this battle along with his mother and his brother and his father. They all fought here. They all followed Sitting Bull to Canada and came back,” said Richards. “High Wolf signed the 1868 treaty for the Black Hills.”
That treaty was swiftly broken when settlers discovered gold in the Black Hills in 1874.
“They [our ancestors] were lied to,” Richards continued. “So they came out to fight, fight for the land. And, the way of life. We’re happy to have this [150th commemoration] here today.”
A man walks back to camp during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Montana. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
Gathering at the battlefield area in Montana means “we’re still here,” said William Good Bird, a traditional singer from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota who woke up the camp where hundreds of people were gathered from numerous tribes with a song and drumming.
“Today I am celebrating the victory of our people, celebrating my life as a human being and my spot on this earth,” he said.
At the time, the Lakota were one of the largest and most powerful tribal nations, with strong leaders in Sitting Bull and warriors like Crazy Horse. Native warriors quickly overwhelmed Custer’s men as the U.S. forces were spread miles apart over the hilly area.
News of Custer’s defeat stunned Americans, who were celebrating their country’s centennial. The federal government accelerated efforts to subdue resistance, bringing years of hardship and upheaval for Native Americans. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, and starvation brought about the surrender of others in 1881.
Tepees dot the campground during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Mont. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
Organizers bussed in more than 1,000 people to Thursday’s commemorative events on the Crow Agency, which over 19 tribes were involved in planning.
“It’s pretty impressive … all the response from the tribes,” said Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Ryman LeBeau.
Crow Tribe Chairman Frank White Clay noted that his tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe set aside traditional rivalries in the run up to the 150th anniversary.
“This is historic. This hasn’t been seen for 150 years,” White Clay said. “It’s a step forward to unifying all the nations. … We all have similar issues, and we all have treaties and (are) calling on the U.S. government to uphold those treaties that were promised to us long ago.”
President Star Comes Out agreed.
“This shows that we can unite and we do have power because we’re still here. … I’m just excited,” Star Comes Out said. “I know that we’re all coming together in a good way.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This story was originally published by Utah News Dispatch.
Annie Knox
Utah News DispatchA plan from Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy to change how the federal government manages a Utah national monument is facing a steeper road ahead after moving slower than anticipated and missing a deadline.
With support from the rest of Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation, Lee and Maloy in March proposed undoing a Biden-era management plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument spanning 1.9 million acres in southern Utah. Their effort drew intense opposition from environmental groups and Native American tribes.
In Lee and Maloy’s view, the 2025 guidelines went too far in restricting uses like road access. The lawmakers noted neighboring rural counties opposed the restrictions, saying standards set by the first Trump administration were better for managing the protected land.
Lee and Maloy invoked the Congressional Review Act, allowing Congress to review and overturn federal rules in an expedited process and by a simple majority of votes in the U.S. House and Senate. But the deadline for those votes came and went on the evening of Thursday, June 11, without any action from Congress.
In a joint prepared statement, Lee and Maloy said they’re not abandoning their plan.
“While the CRA pathway is no longer available for this measure, our focus on this issue is unchanged,” they said in the statement. “This was a procedural outcome, not a reflection of support for the underlying policy, and we are evaluating next steps. We remain committed to restoring our community’s voice in the monument’s future.”
Legal experts told Utah News Dispatch in May that if successful, the effort would have caused immense uncertainty on the ground, leaving federal land managers guessing about how they’re supposed to do their jobs. Under the act, they’d be barred from using a “substantially similar” framework in the future, but it’s not clear how different their next steps would need to be.
On Friday, June 12, a coalition of Native American tribes said the proposal would bring “devastating effects for the monument and for our peoples” and celebrated that the 2025 plan remains intact.
“That plan, for the first time, heeded our voices and our Traditional Knowledge by establishing a framework for Tribal co-stewardship over our ancestral lands,” said Autumn Gillard, coordinator for the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, and who is Southern Paiute.
Gillard said use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn the monument guidelines would have been a “a direct strike against the Federal government’s duty to consult with Tribes.” It would also be the first time Congress used the act to undo a management plan for a national monument.
The current plan protects cultural places, petroglyphs, pictographs and structures that remain important for traditions, ceremonies, and domestic life, Gillard said, and removing it would have raised the risk of looting and vandalism.
The management plan also sets guidelines for camping, cattle grazing and other uses inside the monument. Changes to the plan could alter which activities are allowed and where within the monument they’re permitted, but would not affect its size.
The coalition said now that the fast-track window has closed, Lee would need 60 votes that he’s unlikely to get in order to overcome the Senate filibuster, a procedural maneuver to delay legislation.
The monument was created by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, over the objections of Utah officials. Clinton used his power under the Antiquities Act, a century-old law giving presidents authority to declare monuments to protect places of cultural, historical and scientific significance.
President Donald Trump drastically reduced the monument’s boundaries in 2017, before President Joe Biden restored it to its original size in 2021.
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Over eight months after US President Donald Trump announced the launch of phase one of his ceasefire deal for Gaza, modest progress seems to have been reached towards phase two.
During the first phase, Israel committed around 3,300 violations in the besieged enclave, killing almost 1,000 people and injuring thousands of others. The entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as emergency medical evacuations, have been significantly restricted.
However, the Trump administration has held Hamas accountable for obstructing progress toward the next phase of the deal. For many, this approach aims to pressure the movement and other Palestinian resistance factions to lay down arms, even as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza.
Read more: Hamas demands that Israel implement phase one of Gaza ceasefire
Mladenov’s biased “roadmap” for Gaza
Since being appointed by Trump, Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative of the Board of Peace for Gaza (a body criticized by Palestinian groups as advancing US and Israeli interests in Gaza), has effectively maximized pressure on the Palestinian resistance through both his public statements and the 15-point roadmap he revealed last month.
According to Mladenov, the roadmap is designed to implement Trump’s 20-point “comprehensive plan,” which includes reconstruction, demilitarization, the flow of humanitarian aid, the deployment of an international force, and Palestinian self-governance in the Gaza Strip.
Mladenov claimed that the proposed roadmap “rests on the principle of reciprocity.” Yet, analysts argue that it tends to frame the delay in disarming Palestinian factions as the sole obstacle hindering phase two of the deal.
Although the roadmap mentions that the killing has not stopped in the Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire, it does not point to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) as the perpetrator. Neither does it stipulate the cessation of Israeli violations as a primary condition for phase two of the deal.
Moreover, it heavily focuses on decommissioning Palestinian weapons rather than demanding that Israel unconditionally withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Under international law, the Gaza Strip is recognized as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), where sovereignty ultimately belongs to the Palestinian people. The plan, however, prioritizes disarming Palestinians over ending the occupation, which in turn reflects a bias toward Israel that is evident throughout the proposal.
Mladenov’s roadmap uses the October 7 attacks as a pretext to justify and whitewash the mass killing and destruction, which Israel’s genocidal aggression has caused for around three years.
This was stated bluntly, without mentioning Israel’s 78-year occupation, which for decades had systematically exterminated Palestinians before October 7 erupted as a response to the oppression.
This oppression has been fueled by unwavering US support and the inefficiency of a decaying international community, which both bolstered Israel’s impunity.
While Mladenov raved about the return of all Israeli captives – whose number does not exceed 251 – he ignored the fact that about 10,000 Palestinians have been held in Israeli jails, most arrested many years before October 7. The return of these Palestinian hostages does not seem to concern the newly-appointed high representative for Gaza at all.
Weapons in Gaza will be passed to Palestinian committee
While Mladenov’s plan exposes a blatant alignment with Israel, analysts view it as a positive development that the decommissioning of weapons in Gaza is kept within the hands of the Palestinians themselves.
As per the roadmap, all weapons will pass to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), including those held by the Palestinian resistance and local Israeli-led militias. The NCAG is a transitional, technocratic Palestinian administration tasked with running daily affairs in post-war Gaza.
“Decommissioning of weapons will be gradual, sequenced and time-bound, against an agreed timetable. It will be monitored and supported. It will be Palestinian-led, with weapons transferred to the NCAG. All armed groups, and the text says that explicitly, including the militias, take part, to decommission all weapons and all militant infrastructure,” the eighth principle of the roadmap reads.
Palestinian factions categorically reject unilateral disarmament, insist on IOF’s withdrawal from Gaza
After weeks of extensive consultations with mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire deal from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye, Palestinian factions submitted a unified, official response to Mladenov’s roadmap on Saturday, June 13.
In their response, the factions categorically rejected any unilateral disarmament, insisting that it cannot be a prerequisite and must be implemented only after Israel ends its military actions in Gaza and stops its violations of the ceasefire deal.
They affirmed that the IOF must completely and immediately withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and dismantle any outstanding security zones or dividing corridors.
The factions required the immediate entry and full activation of NCAG in Gaza, and formed an internal handover committee in Cairo to pave the way for a smooth transition of civil governance and public services.
The demands of the Palestinian factions also included compelling Israel to fully implement the humanitarian protocols of phase one. This includes ceasing all military incursions, opening all border crossings, and allowing the unrestricted distribution of fuel and aid.
Furthermore, Palestinian factions refused linking the reconstruction of Gaza to the demilitarization process, asserting that humanitarian rebuilding should be implemented independently, without being connected to political and security-related issues
Omar Assaf hails Palestinian factions for linking armed resistance to the existence of occupation
BreakThrough News spoke to Palestinian political activist, freedom fighter, and former prisoner in Israeli jails, Mr. Omar Assaf, to get his insights about the response of the Palestinian factions to Mladenov’s plan.
Assaf stated that Palestinian factions have handled ceasefire negotiations with a high degree of responsibility since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza to protect the interests of their people. This sense of responsibility is demonstrated during their recent consultations in Cairo, and in the response they submitted to Mladenov:
“The factions gave clear responses to all the issues raised, particularly concerning the weapons of the Palestinian resistance,” the prominent Palestinian activist noted. “They linked the possession of weapons to the existence of occupation. As long as Palestinian independence and statehood are not achieved, our homeland remains under occupation, and in accordance with international law, people under occupation have a legitimate right to defend themselves and their rights.”
From Assaf’s point of view, the wording of the response, which was unanimously supported by the Palestinian grassroots and all national movements, represented a major breakthrough. It was also welcomed by mediators, especially the part that indicates passing the weapons to a Palestinian committee, rather than to the Israeli occupation or other external parties.
The veteran Palestinian freedom fighter praised the factions for insisting on dismantling the Israeli-backed militias in Gaza as a major requirement for proceeding to Phase Two.
Regarding the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), Assaf said that this force should play the role of a peacekeeping force that must protect the Palestinian people, “instead of acting as another occupying power on Palestinian soil.”
Assaf affirmed that the ball is now in Washington’s court regarding the roadmap’s success, arguing that the factions’ response offered a viable solution to several key issues, including demilitarization.
elevation , June 17, 2026
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Amelia Schafer
ICTOn the 10th anniversary of the #noDAPL movement, a three-day summit in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where the occupation took place, aims to address gaps in renewable energy funding for tribal nations and pave a pathway for future sustainability projects.
Amidst rising energy costs and the halting of numerous multi-million dollar tribal renewable energy projects following federal budget cuts, The People of the Sun summit, to take place Sept. 16-18 and hosted by the capacity-building, nonprofit organization Indigenized Energy, will provide space for strategy building and planning amidst celebration.
“It’s really time to try to understand how important energy sovereignty is,” said Cody Two Bears, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and CEO and founder of Indigenized Energy. “Whether it’s in your home, whether it’s in your community, your state or your country, it’s really time to look at that and see the importance of truly becoming energy sovereign where you come from.”
Dozens of tribes currently risk losing $1.5 billion in climate project funding previously promised to them through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 as a result of cuts made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to the Brookings Institute.
Through the event, organizers hope to raise funds to support tribes whose grants were pulled. Two Bears said Indigenized Energy was supposed to be awarded one of the $136 million federal solar grants intended to power five different states, but following the mass cut of renewable energy projects, it lost that funding opportunity.
“There’s a lot of tribes that are sitting here with the whole plan ready to deploy, and this is just another way to create movement on making some of those projects feasible and make sure that they’re not for nothing,” Two Bears said. “So that’s just another way to bring attention and awareness around that, but also another way to make sure that a lot of our energy sovereignty plans through our tribal nations don’t lose that momentum. So that’s the importance of this event.”
The #noDAPL protests brought global attention to Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice and energy development as a whole, making a 10th anniversary celebration the perfect setting for dialogue on continued development projects, Two Bears said.
At the time of the protests, Two Bears was serving as a tribal council representative for the Cannon Ball district, the very area where protesters were gathered. The movement inspired him to start Indigenized Energy in 2017, he said.
“I got a chance to learn about many different cultures, many different stories, and many different things that have happened as far as extraction and fossil fuels that happen within their reservation homelands,” he said.
While the summit’s main focus centers on tribal energy, the event will also feature a concert with the band Mumford and Sons, and Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas. Taboo is Shoshone and Hopi. The event will also feature appearances from several A-list celebrities, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Shailene Woodley. Woodley attended the 2016 #noDAPL protests and was arrested on Oct. 10, 2016, and charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot while protesting and was later sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
“Even though the pipeline has been laid, even though the pipeline has gone through, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we hang our heads and we feel bad because of that,” Two Bears said. “There’s a lot of good that has happened because of it, a lot of seeds have been planted all over the world and we want to be able to recognize all those success stories at this event and to be able to build upon them and then be able to continue to network and collaborate for the future.”
The event will also feature an awards ceremony to celebrate leaders in Indigenous energy.
“We want to make sure we’re showcasing those Native tribes, those champions and leaders out there,” Two Bears said.
Event tickets are not yet available, but proceeds will go toward supporting Indigenized Energy’s goal of providing no-cost, renewable energy projects to tribal nations.
“The reason why there’s a ticket price is because we want to continue to make sure that our work in ongoing supporting tribes is free of charge,” Two Bears said. “A lot of the projects are slowing down and tribes are really wanting to pursue renewable energy more than ever.”
While the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is not directly responsible for organizing the event, all of the events take place on the tribe’s lands and several will be held at its tribal casino, Prairie Knights in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not respond to requests for comment.
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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Ella Carter-Klauschie
CalMattersWhen Amelia Giron, 41, started taking courses at California Indian Nations College in 2023, she was three months into Alcoholics Anonymous, battling homelessness and drug addiction and not on speaking terms with her four children.
Now, Giron has been sober for more than two years, has a relationship with her children, and has been joined by her two eldest in taking courses at the college. Giron expects to graduate with an associate degree in sociology this month and attributes her reconnection with her family to the tribal college.
College leaders say Native students have long been left behind in education, and tribal colleges give them a chance to attain culturally supportive higher education. While California is home to the largest number of Native residents of any state in the U.S., it has just one confirmed tribal college and little state funding support.
Now, two Assembly bills introduced earlier this year look to further strengthen tribal education in California.
Assembly Bill 1641 would add tribal colleges to the California education code’s definition of public higher education and Assembly Bill 1769 would allow tribal college students to transfer their units to other colleges and universities. College leaders hope the assembly bills, as well as recent accreditation, could open the door to consistent state or federal funding. The president of California Indian Nations College, Celeste Townsend, said Native students have been “bypassed, ignored and suppressed” in education over the decades. For students like Giron, tribal colleges offer a chance to experience a culturally relevant curriculum and revitalize their languages.
“When I started participating in the different workshops, and I started to really learn the culture it really helped me,” Giron said. “Understanding and also just participating in ceremony, sweat lodge and stuff like that… it helped really ground me and keep me on the road to recovery.”
Nationwide, Native Americans graduate from college at lower rates in comparison to other groups.
In California, the community college system reports that 58 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native students stay enrolled after their first year, in comparison with 68 percent of students overall. Within the California State University system, the four-year graduation rate for American Indian or Alaska Native students is 29.1 percent, while the overall rate is 37.3 percent. At the University of California system, American Indian students’ four-year graduation rate is 62.7 percent, compared to the overall rate of 74 percent.
California Indian Nations College opened in 2018 and is located in Palm Desert near Coachella, where it offers associate degrees through a partnership with the College of the Desert. All courses have been fully transferable to four-year colleges and universities because degrees were conferred by College of the Desert.
Now, the tribal college has received an eight-year accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Colleges and Junior Colleges, allowing it to offer associate degrees independently.
Taking a community-centered approach to education
California has the largest indigenous population of any state in the country, at over 700,000. Besides California Indian Nations, the state lists only two other tribal colleges: California Tribal College in Sacramento and Kumeyaay Community College near El Cajon east of San Diego. Officials with California Tribal College and Kumeyaay Community College did not respond to multiple requests to confirm they are still in operation.
Shawn Ragan, executive vice president of California Indian Nations College, said Native Americans have a traumatic history with Western education systems. Federally recognized Tribal Colleges and Universities are an effort to put formal learning into the hands of tribes.
“Education has been used as a tool of colonialization,” Ragan said. “It’s been used to strip language, identity, culture, from Native Americans.”
Though the college has been offering instruction entirely online since the COVID-19 pandemic, students routinely have opportunities to connect in person for basket weaving, hikes, sweat lodge ceremonies and gatherings.
Giron now serves as student body vice president overseeing academics and clubs, a brand new position this year. The student government at the college is currently working on its bylaws and setting up a bank account.
Growing up, Giron was not in contact with her mother’s side of the family, which has connections to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Her younger brother started attending the college, recommended it to her, and she started taking courses as well.
One day, she invited her four teenage children, who were estranged at the time, to join her on a hike hosted by the college, and they agreed. While walking through Palm Desert’s canyons, a cultural guide from the college spoke with them about the medicinal and ancestral uses of the plants in the area. When they reached a body of water, the guide sang bird songs and burned sage to cleanse negative energy, Giron said.
“That was that first connection, again, with my kids,” Giron said. “We’re building a relationship. CINC is a huge part of that. It was that bridge between me and my family, and reuniting us.”
Giron said the tribal college’s teaching style emphasizes community building more than her K-12 schools and the College of the Desert. From the time she started at the college, Giron said she felt investment from administrators and professors. Without the college, Giron said she may have started drinking again.
At California Indian Nations College, some exams incorporate collaboration with other students in a “talking circle” format, where students are able to work in groups and engage in discussion.
Giron said she chose to study sociology because it provides a broad range of employment opportunities where she could give back to her community. She’s considering becoming a counselor, social worker or therapist.
“That same system that was designed to oppress us, we’re now utilizing as a tool, to be resilient, come out on top, and just prosper,” Giron said. “I just feel so empowered by the idea of being a part of that.”
Accreditation is a historic milestone for California tribal college
California Indian Nations College became the only tribal college in the state to be accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Colleges and Junior Colleges on Feb. 3. The commission’s accreditation enables a college to qualify for federal grants and contracts, distribute federal financial aid and transfer student credits more easily.
The college currently has no consistent funding stream, relying on $9 million in seed money from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians at its founding. The federally recognized tribe also provides funding for the college to cover tuition costs for all students.
Three years ago, the state granted the college $5 million in one-time funding, and in 2025, the state gave an additional $10 million. This year, the college is requesting $13.5 million from the state.
Townsend said the college’s accreditation will enable students to take pride in their degree, knowing it is fully recognized and accepted at the university of their choice, as well as being culturally specific.
“We’re showing [students] that through education, the value of a degree can carry a lot of weight,” Townsend said. “We’re giving them that empowerment, and we’re proud to do it and open the door and encourage them to go further.” The college has served 517 students since it opened in 2018. Three-quarters are first-generation college students. In 2024, 59 percent of graduates transferred to another college or university to continue their education, up nearly 30 percent from the previous academic year.
In the 2024-25 academic year, 25 students graduated from the tribal college with associate degrees. This spring, Townsend is expecting 33 graduates.
“This strengthens academic pathways as well as honoring our commitment to our people, to educate… and empower them, bringing that community reciprocity,” Townsend said of the accreditation.
Student body president Erica Muñoz, 22, said she traveled to Sacramento last year to speak to lawmakers to advocate for Cal Grant support for students at California Indian Nations College. She said she was proud to show up for herself and for her school, and share her story.
In high school, Muñoz said she didn’t get much support from teachers and counselors. She felt like she was a statistic, joining the ranks of Native students who struggle to keep up with schoolwork. Muñoz said it seemed easy to “slip through the cracks” before she enrolled in California Indian Nations College. She is now the first member of her family to attend college. Muñoz lives in Banning, about 35 miles from the college, and grew up in San Bernardino.
“This school is not just an institution, it’s a community, it’s a family,” Muñoz said. “There’s going to be more opportunities for students, more career pathways to open up. This is giving us the structure and stability that we’ve always wanted.”
Solidifying tribal colleges’ place in California higher education
The current state education code defines public higher education as campuses within the California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California systems. AB 1641 would add tribal colleges and universities to the list.
Ragan said the bill is a chance to codify what tribal colleges mean to the state.
“The Native community has been invisible throughout the nation and also in California,” Ragan said. “We’re not part of the framework for how California thinks about higher education.”
Bill co-sponsor Assemblymember James Ramos became the first Native American assemblymember when he was elected in 2018. The Democrat represents District 45, which encompasses parts of San Bernardino, about 60 miles from Palm Desert.
Ramos said AB 1641 is about making sure the state recognizes tribal colleges.
“The tribal community continues to suffer at a rate higher than other groups that are out there with high school attainment, college attainment and education attainment,” Ramos said. “Tribal colleges are a way for tribes to start to fill in that gap of making sure that people do pursue higher education.”
Ramos also authored AB 1769, which he introduced on Feb. 23. This bill would ensure that courses taken at California tribal colleges are transferable to Cal State campuses and community colleges. The bill would require the Cal State Board of Trustees and the community college system’s Board of Governors to develop and implement a transfer agreement for accredited tribal colleges. It would request the UC Regents do the same.
“It opened doors for us to be part of the conversations,” Ragan said. “As California is doing its master planning, or any kind of higher education planning, that tribal colleges are included in that conversation… This is a first step towards eventually becoming a regular line item in the state budget, but there’s still a lot between here and there.”
Ella Carter-Klauschie is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
The post ‘It’s a family’: How a California tribal college is opening doors for Native students appeared first on ICT.
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Shirley Sneve*ICT*
MINNEAPOLIS – How do high school dropouts get advanced degrees and become leaders in their community?
Turns out one of the keys might be language. Indigenous language.
Kate Beane and Carly Bad Heart Bull are identical twins and citizens of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and Muscogee Creek.
They dropped out of school in El Cerito, California, at age 15 but each went on to get advanced degrees and move back to – and take leadership roles in – their ancestral community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on unceded Dakota land.
“For both of us, reconnecting to our Dakota language and really understanding, not just the root words or vocabulary, but the meaning and how the language is so closely tied to the land. All of that was incredibly important for us to feel centered and to understand also our place in Minnesota,” Beane said. “Because as people who come from a community that was removed from the state, for us to come back home and to understand this place at that deeper level helped us to understand ourselves.”
Twins Kate Beane, left, and Carly Bad Hear Bull made the cover of City Pages magazine in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for their successful efforts to change the name of a major lake in the city to remove the name of a Civil War era politician who championed slavery. (Courtesy photo)
In 2018, the sisters led an effort to change Lake Calhoun to its traditional Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska. Named for John C. Calhoun, who was no friend to Dakota people and a pro-slavery politician. Bde Maka Ska is the largest lake in Minneapolis. It is surrounded by city parkland and a favorite for year-round recreational activities.
In their day jobs, Beane is the executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She holds a Ph.D. in America Studies from the University of Minnesota. She was also the Charles A. Eastman Predoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College.
Bad Heart Bull is the executive director of Native Ways Federation. She holds a Juris Doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota, and an Associate of Arts degree from Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
I got the chance to ask them about their journey from dropouts to leadership in March during the Indian Land Tenure Foundation conference at Mystic Lake Casino in Pryor Lake, Minnesota – a property of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
Beane is the oldest – by three minutes. Her Indian name is Ahdipiwiŋ, which translates to English as “Brings Them Home Woman.” Bad Heart Bull’s Dakota name is Wakan’yan Mani Win, “Woman who Walks Toward the Future.”
The family lived in El Cerrito, California, when the twins were growing up.
“We went to a large high school where the history of our people was not being taught. We didn’t see the use of going, and, you know, when I look back now, I wish that wasn’t the case,” Bad Heart Bull said. “I used to blame myself for it. It wasn’t my fault. It’s the system.”
Beane said the school let them skip the eighth grade.
“They gave us a social promotion, because they said we were more mature than other students. We stopped going to school and they wanted us to go back,” Bad Heart Bull said. “What they found was it wasn’t an issue with the work. We could do the work. We just didn’t want to.”
The twins dropped out when they were 15 years old. Because a student needed to be 16 to take the GED (general education development) test, they took the California High School Proficiency Exam.
“When we took that test, it was a legal way to opt out of school so that our parents wouldn’t get in trouble,” Beane said. “No teachers encouraged us to stay. And that’s something that I’ve thought about a lot as a parent now. As a mother of three little girls, two of whom do not like school, and who struggle in school, I constantly tell them what really is important for them to understand is not the grades that they bring home, it’s that they’re good people.”
Charles Eastman, the storied medical doctor and writer is a great uncle, or grandfather in the Indian Way. For generations, education for the Flandreau Santee Dakota family has been important.
But the twins credit their parents with their ability to learn beyond the classroom and the sisters agree that, while education is important, it’s the connections to people and organizations that have really shaped their careers. Understanding “the system” has been instrumental in being change makers.
Parents Syd Bean and Beck Barnette Beane made careers out of activism and working to create better economic and cultural opportunities for Native peoples.
Twins Kate Beane and Carly Bad Hear Bull toddle along with their mother Beck Barnette Beane in this undated family photo. The twins later dropped out of school but didn’t end their education. “We were raised to read. We were avid readers growing up. For us, our frustrations were with the educational system. We came from a family of teachers and organizers who told us, if we don’t like the system, change it,” Beane said. (Courtesy photo)
“We grew up going to nonprofit board meetings, sitting under the table with those yellow notebooks and pens and playing office,” Bad Heart Bull said. “We played nonprofit, because that’s what our parents were doing.”
Beane added: “We were raised to read. We were avid readers growing up. For us, our frustrations were with the educational system. We came from a family of teachers and organizers who told us, if we don’t like the system, change it. And when we were younger, that was something we had no interest in. We were like, why are we going to fix that problem? It was really frustrating. But then as we grew older and I think for me, it was years of waitressing, it was years of working in a factory. It was like doing all these jobs, across the country, struggling and working for other people. We were frustrated with the educational system coming from a family where our grandparents were in boarding schools. They didn’t trust that system. And I think at a certain point, I realized I needed to figure out a way to create a better opportunity for my kids. And so for me, it was thinking about the next generation.”
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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Carolyn Jones
CalMattersWhen Celestina Castillo filled out the ethnicity forms at her children’s school, she’d always check Latino and Native American. After all, the family is proud of both its heritages.
But because of a loophole in the state’s data collection system, checking Latino or Hispanic meant that her children’s Native American identity was not counted at all, and they would not receive the extra services they’re entitled to. When Castillo learned of this, she stopped checking the Latino box altogether
According to the arcane way California counts its 5.8 million students, students who say they are Hispanic and Native American get counted as solely Hispanic. Native American students who also identify as another race, such as Black, white or Asian, are counted as “two or more races,” not Native American.
The problem affects all multiracial students, but it’s especially pronounced among Native Americans because the majority are multiracial. It’s resulted in an undercount of Native American students by as much as 90 percent, advocates said.
“If someone is Black, or Asian, or white, they’re counted that way,” said Castillo, a director of a college learning center who lives in Los Angeles. “Why does it not count if someone is Native American? That’s not OK. It feels like erasure.”
More services, fewer stereotypes
Last year California schools said they had 24,822 Native American students, but the actual number may be as high as 156,000, according to an Assembly report on a new measure, Assembly Bill 1581, that seeks to fix the problem. If those students were identified, they’d be entitled to cultural services and other programs that could help them succeed in school.
A more accurate count could also change the public perception of Native Americans generally, according to Assemblymember James Ramos, the San Bernardino Democrat who authored the bill. Instead of being thought of as rare or even extinct, the public could see that Native Americans are everywhere, Ramos said.
“We’ll start to see the true picture of Native Americans in California,” said Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe. “Native American students should be able to stand up in the classroom and say who they are and be proud of it.”
Changes in the U.S. Census
There’s a long history of the government marginalizing Native Americans in California, particularly in schools. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, not long after 90 percent of California’s Native American population was murdered or killed by disease, the federal government forced thousands of Native American children in California into boarding schools, where they were forced to speak English and abandon their cultures.
Things started to change in 1970 when the U.S. Census Bureau started improving the way it counted Native Americans. Now, Native Americans can write in their tribal affiliation or list themselves as multiracial, and still be counted as Native American. Although Native Americans are still undercounted more than any other ethnic group, the census changes resulted in a tenfold increase in the official number of Native Americans in the U.S. In 1960, Native Americans only made up .3 percent of the population. In 2020 they were almost 3 percent.
The improved census data also revealed that California has more Native Americans than any other state. More than 760,000 people in California identify as Native American, with most living in urban areas like Los Angeles.
Ramos’ bill would allow Native American students to write in the name of their tribe on school forms and identify as Native American plus another race, if applicable. The hope is to give a more comprehensive, more nuanced view of California’s Native American student population, allowing them to get extra services regardless of their biracial identity. So far, the bill has no opposition.
‘We’re in the modern world, too’
Shannon Rivers, who works on education issues for the Los Angeles-based California Native Vote Project, said an accurate count of Native Americans is essential to dispel stereotypes and bring public awareness to issues affecting Native American communities.
“In the eyes of many Americans, there’s still this image of Native American people from the past, from the 1800s,” said Rivers, who is a member of the Akimel Oʼodham tribe in Arizona. “That history is important, but we’re in the modern world, too. We’re doctors, lawyers, scientists, artists, educators.”
He’s hopeful that Ramos’ bill will improve conditions generally for Native American students in California schools. With more accurate student counts, schools could get more federal and state funding to provide extra services, such as tutoring, to Native American children. More schools could host events and curriculum centered on Native American history and culture.
When Ramos was growing up in San Bernardino, he remembers staring at the ethnicity form at school and not knowing what bubble to fill. His mother was Native American but she was labeled “white” on her birth certificate. His father, also Native American, was labeled “Hispanic.”
“Were we white or Latino? I didn’t know. We had to accept whatever the school told us we were,” Ramos said. “I’d go home and ask, ‘Are we Caucasian?’ That started a whole other conversation. It was confusing.”
Castillo, a descendent of the Tohono O’odham tribe in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, said that as a child, she thought everyone was Native American. But when she started school she realized that very few people identified as she did, and worse, it was stigmatized.
Years later, she saw her own children singled out as oddities. One day her son, who had long hair, was dressed for a Native American dance and another child pointed and said, “Look, mom, it’s an Indian!”
“My son felt like a dinosaur or a unicorn, like we didn’t exist,” Castillo said.
By leaving the ethnicity question blank on school forms, Castillo knew it meant her children would not receive extra services they’re entitled to, either at the charter school they attend or through Los Angeles Unified.
“That angered me,” Castillo said. “I’m hoping that this bill will help make Native students visible to local and state education policy makers.”
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Hundreds of Greenlanders demonstrated outside the new US Consulate in Nuuk on Thursday as President Donald Trump's envoy signaled that he's still seeking to control the self-governing Danish territory that straddles the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
Various Greenlandic politicians also declined invitations to attend the opening of the consulate, with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen telling the local outlet Sermitsiaq that "we haven't made a decision in principle, but I won't participate."
Protesters were armed with Greenland's red and white flag and signs that read "USA ASU," which translates to "Stop USA," as well as messages in English, including "Make America go away!" and "We are not for sale!" Their chants included "Greenland belongs to Greenlanders," "Go home," and "No means no."
"It's very important, now more than ever, to show the American people what we already said, that no means no, and that the future and self-determination of Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people," said Aqqalukkuluk Fontain, a 37-year-old IT account manager and protest organizer, according to The Guardian.
"The protest itself is not to provoke Donald Trump or Jeff Landry but to show the world that Greenland has its own democracy," Fontain added. Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana and the president's envoy to the island, arrived in Nuuk on Sunday.
The newspaper noted Trump's envoy traveled there "uninvited with a delegation including a doctor, who caused fury by saying he was there to 'assess the medical needs of Greenland.' Landry briefly attended a business conference with the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Lowery, and left Nuuk on Wednesday night."
During Landry's "ham-handed trip," The New York Times reported, "he offered chocolate chip cookies and red MAGA hats to people he met on the street. He didn't get many takers, and Greenlandic officials criticized the visit."
It was Landry's first visit to the island of 57,000 since Trump appointed him as envoy in December. On Monday, he met with Greenlandic Foreign Minister Múte Egede and Nielsen, who called the talks "constructive," even though there was "no sign... that anything has changed" regarding Trump's position.
While polling has shown Americans and Greenlanders alike oppose Trump's takeover threats, Landry told Agence France-Presse near the end of his trip that "I think it's time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland."
"I think that you're seeing the president talk about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland," he continued. "Greenland needs the US."
The envoy made similar remarks on Friday during a Fox News appearance, highlighting Greenland's oil resources amid soaring global prices—which stem from Trump's illegal war on Iran that led the Iranian government to restrict ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route for fertilizer and fossil fuels.
In addition to waging war on Iran and continuing to threaten both Greenland and Cuba, Trump invaded Venezuela early this year, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and seizing control of the South American country's nationalized oil industry.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/51219
This story was originally published by Grist.
Te Aniwaniwa Paterson
GristThis story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, record-breaking storms and flooding are impacting Māori land, health, and culture. And, according to a new national climate report, colonization has intensified those risks.
The 2026 National Climate Change Risk Assessment is composed of four reports, including a companion document focused on Māori communities. That report argues that climate change is likely to deepen existing inequities shaped by colonization, exclusion from decision-making, and chronic underinvestment.
To mitigate the impacts of climate change, the assessment points to Māori-led adaptation as uniquely effective. It calls for policy grounded in Māori customs and knowledge, Indigenous data sovereignty, and stronger Māori authority in climate decision-making.
“For more than 150 years Māori have been pushed to the margins, literally, by an aggressive colonization process,” said Paora Tapsell, who is Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāti Raukawa, and the director of the Kāika Institute of Climate Resilience at Lincoln University.
The assessment, released earlier this month, adds to a growing body of national reports that highlight the harmful impacts of colonial policies on Indigenous peoples and the environment. In 2023, the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment found that land theft and colonization had exacerbated climate change’s impact. The year before, Australia’s State of the Environment report was prepared with an Indigenous lead author for the first time; it found that Indigenous peoples were more likely to be impacted by extreme weather events like fires. It too called for incorporating Indigenous knowledge into climate policies. Despite these findings, Indigenous leaders around the world say national governments are still not listening to them.
Aotearoa New Zealand recently experienced one of its most active severe weather seasons on record, with multiple declared states of emergency across the nation’s two islands. It also found that the country’s Indigenous peoples are essential in responding to such disasters. “The report accurately acknowledges that many kāinga [Māori settlements], despite their relative impoverishment, are still willing first responders on the front line of increasingly severe climate events,” Shaun Awatere, who is Ngāti Porou and lead author of the companion report, said.
The assessment’s seven interconnected risk areas span environmental, cultural, and economic domains. It says the loss of protected endemic species is not only a biodiversity issue but also affects food gathering places, the Māori lunar calendar, traditional customs, and intergenerational knowledge systems. According to the report, some species could face near-irreversible decline in parts of the country under high-emissions scenarios by 2090.
Across Māori lands, climate-driven extreme weather events have had a destructive impact on infrastructure. But the report outlines how flooding, erosion, storms, and wildfires also present cultural risks by threatening tribal meeting places, burial sites, and communal homes. It warns that repeated damage and displacement could lead to long-term cultural fragmentation and disconnection from ancestral land.
Climate impacts may also be felt economically. Māori-owned forestry, farming, aquaculture, and horticulture enterprises face rising pressure from climate hazards, costs, and underinvestment in adaptation. Without structural reform and targeted support, the assessment says that economic vulnerability will increase.
Awatere said the findings confirm what tribes have been saying for years. “Climate events do not arrive one at a time,” he said. “A storm floods a road, damages a marae [tribal meeting place], erodes whenua [land], disrupts access to mahinga kai[food gathering places], and overwhelms health and welfare systems that were already stretched, all at once. Each of those harms compounds the next.”
The assessment also said climate-driven displacement and ecological degradation could disrupt the transmission of language, customary practices, lineage relationships, and Indigenous knowledge systems between generations.
Awatere highlighted ongoing structural exclusion of Māori from climate planning and adaptation systems, despite the government’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi, which is the country’s founding document. The report describes legal exclusion and governance failure as a major risk multiplier, compounding climate impacts across all domains.
Awatere said the central question is whether adaptation plans will reflect that evidence, or whether Māori communities will continue to carry a disproportionate risk of harm.
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Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News + ICTPORTLAND, Ore. – Around 300 high school students dressed in gowns, costumes and elaborate makeup danced until their feet hurt to music from DJ Aspen blaring through the speakers, their smiles and laughter filling the air at this year’s annual Queer Prom.
The Native American Youth and Family Center’s Two-Spirit program has hosted the event for four years since taking a hiatus during the pandemic.
“My ultimate goal with this is creating a space for queer youth, especially Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth, to be unabashedly themselves, to truly not have to worry about the way that they’re being perceived, but just be able to celebrate themselves, celebrate each other, and to showcase the fact that we’ve always been here — Indigenous, trans, queer, we’ve always been here. We’re not going anywhere,” said Kiara Wehrenberg, Tlingit and the Two-Spirit program coordinator at the center. Wehrenberg coordinates Queer Prom.
As prom season is well underway, Queer Prom is a space built for students from all backgrounds to have a space centering joy, in Portland.
“Queer Prom is so unique and so special,” said this year’s emcee, Dr. Poison Waters, an iconic Portland drag queen. “There are people in this country that wish they could come to a Queer Prom.”
Planning Queer Prom
Wehrenberg worked with youth from the center’s Two-Spirit program to find a theme and organize a prom built for them. The group made pamphlets for a swag table during the May 15 event, that offered a resource guide, information about the term Two Spirit and a list of Two-Spirit powwows across the country
This year’s prom theme was “Superheroes vs. Villains Edition” and students showed out in all kinds of costumes. From Captain America and the Joker to fantasy inspired looks include elf ears and elaborate makeup. The theme extended beyond dress as projected graphics all around the room feature comic book inspired illustrations.
Food, catered by Brittinie Love and her company Cooking with B. Love, took the superheroes versus villains theme to the next level. The menu featured items such as “Gotham Fire Beef Skewers” and “The Green Goblin Spring Rolls” with mocktails like “Radiant Recharge” and “Arctic Blast.”
Planning for Queer Prom began as soon as last year’s ended, according to Wehrenberg. This began with reaching out to vendors and event venues, such as AVENUE Portland, where this year’s prom took place.
“I think Queer Prom is just a beautiful place for connection,” said Marvin Colbow, whose drag name is Marvin Killboy, a senior at Benson Polytechnic High School. “I just went to my own prom, and I did not feel the same amount of connectivity that I feel here with my fellow transgender and queer people.”
Wehrenberg reached out to Queer-Straight Alliances and Indigenous Student Unions across Portland and beyond to open up the event to youth across the city, beyond youth at the center’s Many Nations Academy.
“Queer specific spaces are necessary across the board,” said Ellen Whatmore, a teacher at Franklin High School and the school’s co-advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance. “Having an opportunity to shine and be in the spotlight and be celebrated is unparalleled.”
Whatmore attended Queer Prom dressed in a Medusa-inspired look, as an event volunteer and also helped advertise the event to Franklin students after receiving an email invitation from Wehrenberg.
Guest Appearances
A few hours into the dance, students were interrupted from tearing up the dance floor when Dr. Poison Waters invited two other drag performers from Darcelle’s XV out onto the dance floor.
Dressed in a big, blonde wig with hot pink heeled boots and a matching hot pink ruffled robe, T’Kara Campbell Star made her way onto the dance floor. As “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus filled the speakers, she shed her robe to reveal a bright green body suit and matching sun hat decked out in fake flowers. Her performance was met with cheers as students formed a half circle around her. At the end of three songs, T’Kara Campbell Star invited a student dressed as Maleficent to the center of the floor to dance with her.
Following her performance, Ilani E. Nova made her way onto the dance floor, decked out with a black feather boa, thigh high leather boots and a black and tan body suit. She danced with the students, lip syncing to a compilation of Abba classics.
And of course, Dr. Poison Waters herself also performed, moving from stage to the middle of the dance floor.
As the night wore on, the dance floor remained full as laughter and song sing-alongs drifted through the air, mixed with the beats spun by DJ Aspen.
“I just see so much queer joy in our youth and I’m so happy and honored to be a part of this,” said Mitch Saffle, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a chaperone at Queer Prom and a data and evaluation support specialist at the center. “I’m so grateful to see that a space like this exists for our youth. Not only our queer youth, but our Indigenous queer youth.”
Later on in the evening, Yin Glossier, Dior Glossier and Deity 007 from PDX Ballroom brought vogue to the dance floor as students sat in a circle around the three performers, completely engaged.
Following their own performance, Yin Glossier explained a bit about the ball scene which started in Harlem in the 1920s, expanding in the 1970s and 1980s, when Black and Brown drag queens were not allowed to be at White drag queen pageants.
“So, as Black and Brown people do, we make our own shit,” Yin Glossier said. “In that, we have the birth of ballroom.”
They then explained some of the main categories that “Houses” of the ball scene compete in: fashion, body, sex appeal, face, vogue.
Students were then invited to compete in ballroom style, lining up to compete for “best dressed.” A hard decision on the part of the judges, composed of performers from Darcelle’s XV and PDX Ballroom. Ultimately a student dressed in a Master Shake, from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, costume took home the prize: a pair of rainbow beaded earrings donated by the center’s Two-Spirit program.
For Wehrenberg, Saffle, volunteers and students an event like Queer Prom is so crucial for the community.
“Being able to have a space like this is really important because it provides an opportunity for us to come together in community and celebrate queer joy,” Wehrenberg said.
Wehrenberg expressed that so often when Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ stories are told in the media, it is through a lens of oppression and tragedy.
“It is also really important to highlight and tell stories of resilience and love and joy, because we all deserve to be seen as we are here, queer, trans, Indigenous, proud, strong and fully human, because only telling the stories of oppression and tragedy, in a way, strips us of humanity because it doesn’t highlight or show any understanding of the fact that we have whole lives and joy and love surrounding us too,” Wehrenberg said.
This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.
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