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Sowing Sovereignty: Reclaiming Indigenous Agriculture in North Dakota

Grandfather’s vision about ‘gallons and gallons’ of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara seeds nurtures tribal college food sovereignty project. Dr. Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills recalls when her grandfather, Gerard Baker, shared with her some seeds – and his dream that they would multiply. “His wish was that there would be gallons and gallons of jars of these seeds […]

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Lakota tribes, grassroots close ranks to defend Black Hills watersheds

Forest Service responds with 20-year proposed ban on mining activity RAPID CITY, S.D. — When federal agencies responded positively in 2023 to citizen pleas to prevent a “modern gold rush” in the fabled Black Hills, it was a milestone for a decades-long grassroots movement defending the region’s habitat from looming mega-mining. Tribal and nonprofit organizations […]

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The Sacred & The Law in San Antonio, Texas

Indigenous Claims on Trial in Brackenridge Park Lawsuit

Author’s note: Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled that members of the Lipan-Apache “Hoosh Chetzel” Native American Church would be allowed space to worship at a sacred site in the headwaters of the San Antonio River within a city-owned park. However, in his preliminary ruling, he wrote that they were to be […]

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Native ‘hempsters’ follow global cooperative example

Organizers aim to create intertribal consortium for generational wealth

PINE RIDGE, S.D.- A global enterprise based in Spain may seem an unlikely role model for a fledging American Indian initiative. But inspired by its success, Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm in Anishinaabeg territory is sowing the start of an intertribal cooperative consortium. The new endeavor, called the Indigenous Hemp and Cannabis Farmers Cooperative, is […]

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Grief and Gratitude in a New Mexico Fire

As wildfire and floods bring devastation to Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak, community steps forward to rebuild lives

Shortly before midnight on May 3, we directly and personally entered the growing multitudes of climate evacuees. Such an event was not unexpected. Our forests had become drier than kiln-finished lumber. If you struck 100 matches and dropped them to the ground, 90 to 94 of them would ignite a fire. Precipitation had become a long-lost friend. The link of a warming climate to such a cataclysmic event was evident throughout the region long before the fire drew its first breath.

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Lakota child boarding school victims come home to rest

Community begins healing process with historic repatriation ceremonies

Malorie Arrow recalls the Sicangu Lakota Youth Council members’ tour of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania like it was yesterday. Their last stop was at the gravesites of children who had died while attending the boarding school some 140 years ago. They laid small pieces of candy on the graves as offerings. Her cousins […]

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KXL Victory Celebrations Roll Across the Great Plains

Native pipeline foes celebrate historic triumph over long-fought megaproject, shift focus to Line 3

BRIDGER, South Dakota, USA — The Keystone XL victory was sweet for Native pipeline foes in unceded Lakota treaty territory, and a month later, they were still celebrating. The historic victory over Canadian oil giant TC Energy Corp., however, did not erase the dire need of support for the ongoing effort — both here and […]

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Treaty People Gathering boosts pressure on disputed oil pipeline

Massive actions to stop Line 3 construction in Native Anishinaabe territory launch "Summer of Resistance"

BEMIDJI, Minnesota — Massive direct actions to stop Line 3 tar-sands crude-oil pipeline construction here in Native Anishinaabe ancestral territory launched a weeklong Treaty People Gathering on June 7. Attracting an estimated 2,000 participants, the occasion was “the beginning of a summer of resistance,” according to Indigenous-led groups, communities of faith, and climate justice organizations hosting it.

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Native hemp farming, opportunity to lead New Green Revolution

Academics join Winona LaDuke and other Indigenous innovators to forge carbon-friendly economy

This fall, when we bring in the sheaves, they will be of hemp. Then we’ll have a harvest hoedown to follow up.

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7 Immigration Myths We Must Unlearn to Reclaim Our Humanity

The time for a paradigmatic shift in how Americans view immigrants and immigration is now

There haven’t been many moments of joy in the US immigration space these past four years. But March brought celebration to the borderlands as we witnessed the good guys — and gals — prevail over the evil villain, Hollywood-style — if only for a moment. That’s when we saw men, women, and children crossing the […]

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Native observers question 'nefarious' attitude toward Deb Haaland

Laguna Pueblo Interior Department nominee awaits word on her confirmation after gruelling Senate hearing

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Deb Haaland, the first Native American nominated to be a Cabinet secretary, remained characteristically cool under grilling from Republican petroleum industry defenders during Senate committee hearings, ultimately gaining a recommendation March 4 for confirmation to the post at the Interior Department. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden nominated Haaland as Interior secretary to put […]

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'Honor the Earth' vs. Enbridge Line 3 Oil Pipeline 

Hundreds rally to oppose project in northern Minnesota that threatens climate, native wild rice and pristine sacred waters

“This would be like ripping out the heart of the Anishinaabe people,” said Sarah LittleRedfeather, Anishinaabe graphic designer, referring to Enbridge’s Line 3 Replacement tar sands oil pipeline. “To us, that water is life. It’s a being and a spirit.”

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Caravan of Unity 2020: A Personal Perspective

Through a nation divided, Peace Caravan drives its point home. 

This weekend the Unity.Earth Peace Caravan, which has defied racial and political division and pandemic to create a wave of unity across the nation, will come to a close on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. after a series of heart-opening performances, presentations and sharings by leading artists and leaders of the New Thought and […]

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Lyla June on The Truth of Thanksgiving

It's time to acknowledge the bitter reality - and only then can the healing begin. 

As we come together to celebrate family, food and a tradition that is largely fiction, many of us have been delving into deeper truths about our nation – because we are ready, because those who hold those histories are ready, and because it’s time.

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Oak Flat: Apaches Fight "Murder" of Sacred Site

Federally protected indigenous lands face obliteration by Australian mining company

We have one year left to repeal the fateful decision and prevent the murder of Oak Flat, an area of great spiritual, cultural, and historic significance to many different bands, including the Apaches of San Carlos, “Arizona”. Although this very area was once designated by President Eisenhower to be protected from mining, legislative efforts began […]

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From Ferguson to the Frontera

Elizabeth Vega: “Music and art should be the heartbeat of every movement.”

Elizabeth Vega has been incorporating art into her own work – as a journalist, a poet, a hospice and social worker and an activist – for decades. But it wasn’t until the shooting death of Mike Brown at the hands of St. Louis police officers that she began to truly understand the power of art […]

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