Indigenous Communities

Tiwahe Pays Tribute To Children Who Died While Attending Boarding School

June 6, 2025 Darren Thompson, Last Real Indians. Educate! American genocide, History, Indigenous Communities, Memorial, Rapid City, Residential Schools

On Saturday, the unveiling of "Tiwahe" brought hundreds together to pay their respects to children who died while attending boarding school a century ago. Tiwahe, meaning family in the Lakota language, is a bronze sculpture that memorializes the nearly 50 children who died while attending the Rapid City Indian Boarding School. The sculpture is on land placed into trust of the Oglala, Cheyenne River, and Rosebud Sioux Tribes, where the boarding school previously operated. “Where the past meets the future is right now,” said Dr. Donald Warne at the “Remembering the Children Memorial” dedication.

Another Inmate Death At Federally Operated Detention Center

April 11, 2025 Darren Thompson, Last Real Indians. Resist! Health Care, Indigenous Communities, Prisoner rights, Prisons

Red Lake Indian Reservation - A death at a federally regulated jail on the Red Lake Indian Reservation is one of several inmate deaths in recent years, and the family is speaking up. Robin Hanson, 52, a Red Lake Band of Chippewa citizen, died while in custody at the Red Lake Detention Center on April 2, said his wife Betty Hanson in an interview with LRI Media. The jail is on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), unlike other detention facilities in the state. “What they did to him and how they treated him feels like, to me, third world war—where they don’t care about anyone,” said Betty Hanson.

Gendered Perspectives On The Global Resource Economy

March 6, 2025 Brianna Nicole Hernandez, Resilience. Strategize! Ecology, Environment, Extraction, Indigenous Communities

Extractive economies are deeply gendered, disproportionately harming women and Indigenous communities (mining, land dispossession, violence, health effects) while benefiting multinational corporations and financial markets (Altamirano-Jiménez, 2021). Women are often the first to experience land loss, pollution, and social upheaval, yet they are often sidelined in decision-making. The relationship between people and the planet is undeniably complex. Historically, it has been marred by narratives of domination and exploitation.

Native Organizations Fill Gaps In Federal Support For Renewable Energy

January 22, 2025 Corrie Grosse, Dawn D. Davis, Robert Blake and Cheri Smith, Resilience. Create! Energy, Indigenous Communities, Renewable Energy

Native-led renewable energy organizations and projects are blossoming across the United States with the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) serving as the game changing catalyst. The IRA provides Tribes with renewable energy tax credits for the first time (covering up to 70% of project cost) and increases funding for Tribal energy loans from $2 to $20 billion! Accessing this money, however, is a different story. “The funding is like a fire hose for Tribal communities. It’s great for Tribes that can harness the money with 30% down, but feels like a huge gaslight for the many Tribes who lack development resources, capital funding, or adequate transmission lines to access it,” said Joseph McNeil Jr., Standing Rock Sioux member and Manager of SAGE, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s energy organization.

What’s The Difference Between Indigenous Nations Co-Managing Or Co-Stewarding Their Land?

June 1, 2024 Taylar Dawn Stagner, Scheer Post. Resist! California, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights

For a decade, wind farm companies had been eyeing Molok Luyuk — a mountain ridge of religious importance to tribes in northern California, whose people have worked for years to protect it. It’s also widely biodiverse with elk, mountain lions, and black bears, as well as 40 rare plants such as the pink adobe lily. Mia Durham is the secretary for the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a tribe that has been in a relationship with Molok Luyuk for thousands of years. In response to petitions filed by wind energy companies that wanted to develop the area, the tribe and its allies asked President Biden to protect it in 2019.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Prohibits Governor From Reservation

April 5, 2024 Darren Thompson, Last Real Indians. Resist! Cheyenne River Sioux, Indigenous Communities, Oglala Sioux, Sioux Nation, South Dakota, Sovereignty

Eagle Butte, South Dakota - On Wednesday, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council joined the Oglala Sioux Tribe in banishing South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem from tribal lands. The ban comes amid recent comments made by Gov. Noem suggesting that tribal leaders were in partnership with Mexican cartels, and a day after Noem made a statement asking tribal leaders to banish cartels from tribal lands. “I call on all our tribal leaders to banish the cartels from tribal lands,” said South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in a statement on Tuesday, April 4.

Indigenous Community Care: Traditions Of Reciprocity

April 2, 2024 Crystal Arnold, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Education, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous culture, Oregon

Today, Indigenous culture is sustained and celebrated in Southern Oregon through the leadership of people like Teresa Cisneros and Jasi Swick at the SOESD Indian Education program. They gather a group weekly in both Jackson and Josephine counties, and offer the chance for Native families to practice traditional ways, such as talking circles, stories, dances, crafting and beadwork. “As an Indian educator, there are two reasons that I am interested in the Offers and Needs Market: Social emotional learning and place-based education,” explained Teresa.

Towards An Indigenous Economics

September 19, 2023 Herbert Girardet, Resilience. Create! Economics, Forest Dwellers, Indigenous Communities, Sustainability

With a profound sustainability crisis facing humanity, it may be useful to try and glimpse what a sustainable relationship between people and planet might actually look like. This essay explores how cultures and their host environments mesh together in pre-industrial societies. It seeks to show how cultural beliefs and practices reflect and reinforce the environmental adaptations of seven different community settings – the Mbuti forest people in central Africa, the Kayapó people in the Brazilian Amazon, the Nuer cattle herders in South Sudan, the Chagga agro-foresters on Mount Kilimanjaro, Asian peasant farmers, and European small-scale urban systems.

‘Wall Of Forgotten Natives’ Encampment Revived After Five Years

September 5, 2023 Ellie Zimmerman, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Homeless encampment, Indigenous Communities, Minneapolis, Police

On the morning of Thursday, August 24, Minnesota State Troopers clambered over an overturned car, piles of street lamps, and concrete barriers brought in to fortify the perimeter of a strip of land known as the Wall of Forgotten Natives as its roughly 140 residents moved their belongings out. When unhoused residents of Minneapolis moved back to the Wall a week earlier after being evicted from a nearby encampment, activists rallied around it to call attention to the city’s ongoing practice of encampment evictions and advocating for a better solution to issues of homelessness and addiction facing the city’s Native American communities.

Leaders From 185 Countries Launch Biodiversity Protection Fund

August 27, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Biodiversity, Cooperation, Indigenous Communities, Investment

In a meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)’s Seventh Assembly in Vancouver, Canada on Thursday, representatives from 185 countries agreed to launch a new global conservation fund, with Canada pledging 200 million Canadian dollars and the United Kingdom contributing 10 million pounds. The United Nations is seeking contributions for the protection of 30 percent of terrestrial and coastal areas by 2030. “The new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) has been designed to mobilize and accelerate investment in the conservation and sustainability of wild species and ecosystems, whose health is under threat from wildfires, flooding, extreme weather, and human activity including urban sprawl,” a press release from the Global Environment Facility said.

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