Sinoghł xiłdhoyh STORIES FROM AROUND
Bill introduced to grant Southeast Native lands
The Sealaska Regional Corporation would maintain sub-surface rights to the land while the village corporations would maintain surface rights, and the bill includes land selections that differ between the U.S. Senate and U.S. House bills. For more, read Alaska Public Media’s coverage.
State of Alaska loses lawsuit challenging hunting rights
“As Alaska Native people, we are only too familiar with the devastation that disease and epidemics can cause to our communities,” said President of the Organized Village of Kake Tribal Council Joel Jackson. “The State of Alaska’s lawsuit is an attack on the right of our people to continue our traditional way of life. Our Tribe is determined to join this lawsuit to defend ourselves and our subsistence way of life.” Learn more from the Native American Rights Fund.
Alaska Native Vietnam War Veterans receive land allotments
While Alaska Native people were able to apply for land allotments through December of 1971, when the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed, military service members serving in Vietnam were often unable to apply for land before the deadline, as the war went through 1973.
“The Department (of the Interior) will continue to move forward expeditiously so that Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans are able to select the land allotments they are owed, with an expansive selection area,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna.)
Federal process established to review and replace derogatory names
U.S. Secretary of the Interior
(Pueblo of Laguna)
“Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands. Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage—not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression,” said Sec. Haaland.
Read more on the Department of the Interior release.
Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately impacting Native people, communities of color
NPR reports “74% of American Indian and Alaska Natives… said someone in their household has struggled with depression, anxiety, stress and problems with sleeping.”
Yet they also report that Native communities had unique, and even stronger, methods of coping than their non-Native counterparts, and culture has been something highly beneficial to the health and healing of Native communities.