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Tag: Indigenous people

  • Indonesian presidential vote highlights tradeoffs between fast growth and a healthy environment

    Indonesian presidential vote highlights tradeoffs between fast growth and a healthy environment

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — A presidential election in Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, is highlighting choices to be made as the country seeks to profit from its rich reserves of nickel and other resources that are vital to the global transition away from fossil fuels.

    President Joko Widodo capitalized on Indonesia’s abundant nickel, coal, oil and gas reserves as he led Southeast Asia’s biggest economy through a decade of rapid growth and modernization that vastly expanded the country’s networks of roads and railways.

    Increasingly, voters are demanding that the men vying to succeed him address the tradeoffs between fast growth and a healthy environment in the world’s fourth most populated country.

    Indonesia has the world’s largest reserves of nickel — a critical material for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods needed for the green energy transition.

    It’s also the biggest producer of palm oil, one of the largest exporters of coal and a top producer of pulp for paper. It also exports oil and gas, rubber, tin and other resources.

    In recent years, surging commodity prices have fueled fast economic growth and helped Indonesia become a middle-income country. That growth is expected to slow as the boom loses steam, according to a World Bank report.

    The downside of rapid expansion of logging, mining and other resource extraction has been razing of rainforests, pollution of coastal waters and waterways and smoggy cities.

    President Joko Widodo — who must step down after a second term due to a constitutional two-term limit — prioritized economic growth, welcoming foreign investments in manufacturing and other industries and building infrastructure such as the country’s first high-speed railway.

    He also has championed his legacy project of moving the capital from traffic-congested, polluted Jakarta, which is flooding as the city of 11 million sinks, to Nusantara, a new city under construction on the tropical island of Borneo.

    To speed up development of key industries, Widodo banned exports of certain raw commodities such as nickel and bauxite, which is used to make aluminum, obliging companies to build refineries to process and add value to what Indonesia sells to the rest of the world.

    The candidates to take his place are Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto; the former governor of the capital Jakarta, Anies Baswedan; and the governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo. All say they will continue that strategy, with slight variations, said Josua Pardede, chief economist at Indonesia-based Permata Bank.

    The export ban has its drawbacks. Under Widodo, Indonesia is negotiating a critical materials trade deal so that it can benefit from U.S. tax credits for electric vehicles that extend to U.S. free-trade agreement partners. But Washington would expect Indonesia to relax its limits on exports.

    Economists say the country needs a more open trade and investment environment to transform itself into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicle batteries and other competitive products. “As EV batteries need more than just nickel, Indonesia must engage with many countries, including those with internationally-oriented automotive industries,” said Arianto Patunru, an economist at Australian National University.

    The project to move the capital has been lambasted by environmentalists and Indigenous communities that say the mammoth undertaking will degrade the environment, further shrink habitats of endangered species such as orangutans and displace Indigenous people that rely on the land for their livelihoods.

    It’s also a drain on national finances.

    “There seems to be very little appetite from foreign investors towards (the new capital),” said Patunru. “That means, if the government forces its development, it will involve inefficient and unproductive allocation of resources.”

    Another campaign issue: food estate programs, massive plantations the government set up to fortify national food security. They have come under fire for causing massive deforestation and land conflicts with Indigenous peoples, and for their ineffectiveness.

    Presidential candidates Subianto and Pranowo say they are committed to the programs. Baswedan has criticized them for neglecting local community needs and failing to grow suitable crops, pointing to the failure of cassava fields at a food estate in Kalimantan.

    Many voters believe Indonesia needs a greener and more inclusive approach to growth, says Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, executive director of the Indonesia-based Center of Economic and Law Studies.

    In 2021, coal-rich Indonesia was the world’s ninth-largest source of carbon emissions that are causing global warming, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

    The country’s transition towards cleaner energy— which is being kick-started by a $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership deal — is supported by all three presidential candidates, with each outlining different strategies to wean the country off fossil fuels.

    But prospects for significant changes seem uncertain since the country, instead of switching off coal-fired power plants, is building new ones to power refineries and metal smelters in industrial parks across the country.

    “The full transformation towards more sustainable development in Indonesia is still a long way ahead,” said Pardede of Permata Bank.

    Other voter concerns include job creation, poverty reduction and managing inflation.

    While Indonesia’s unemployment has been declining to pre-pandemic levels, the amount of middle-class jobs has dropped from 14% to 9% of total employment. Underemployment, self-employment an the amount of informal workers also rose between 2019-2023, according to the World Bank. Youth employment also remains relatively high, with 17% of those aged 20-24 unemployed in 2022.

    That could hinder Indonesia’s aim to become a achieve high-income country status by 2045. Indonesia’s gross national income per capita reached US$4,580 in 2022. A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a gross national income per capita of US$13,845 or more in 2022.

    While the World Bank predicts Indonesia’s inflation will ease, there is some upward pressure on the cost of basic food items due to El Nino, which is disrupting food production globally. ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • A woman stole a memory card from a truck. The gruesome footage is now key to an Alaska murder trial

    A woman stole a memory card from a truck. The gruesome footage is now key to an Alaska murder trial

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A woman with a lengthy criminal history including theft, assault and prostitution got into a truck with a man who had picked her up for a “date” near downtown Anchorage. When he left her alone in the vehicle, she stole a digital memory card from the center console.

    Now, more than four years later, what she found on that card is key to a double murder trial set to begin this week: gruesome photos and videos of a woman being beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel, her attacker speaking in a strong accent as he urged her to die, her blanket-covered body being snuck outside on a luggage cart.

    “In my movies, everybody always dies,” the voice says on one video. “What are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.”

    About a week after she took the SD card, the woman turned it over to police, who said they recognized the voice as that of Brian Steven Smith, now 52, a South Africa native they knew from a prior investigation, court documents say.

    Smith has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault and tampering with evidence, in the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019, seven months after they last saw her.

    Henry and Abouchuk were both Alaska Native women who had experienced homelessness. They were from small villages in western Alaska, Henry from Eek and Abouchuk from Stebbins.

    Authorities say Henry was the victim whose death was recorded at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a hotel in midtown Anchorage. Smith was registered to stay there from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2019; the first images showing her body were time-stamped at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 4, police said.

    The last images on the card were taken early on Sept. 6 and showed Henry’s body in the back of a black pickup, according to charging documents. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, Smith’s phone was in the area of Rainbow Valley Road, along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same area where Henry’s body was found several weeks later, police said.

    As detectives interrogated Smith about the Marriott case, authorities said, he offered up more information to police who escorted him to a bathroom: He had killed another woman, and he went on to identify her — Abouchuk — from a photo and to provide the location of her remains, along the Old Glenn Highway north of Anchorage.

    “With no prompting, he tells the troopers in the bathroom, ‘I’m going to make you famous,’” District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said during a court hearing last week. “He comes back in and says … ‘You guys got some more time? You want to keep talking?’ And then discloses this other murder.”

    Alaska State Troopers in 2018 incorrectly identified another body as that of Abouchuk, because Abouchuk’s ID had been discovered with it, for reasons that remain unclear. But with the information Smith provided, investigators re-examined the case and used dental records to confirm a skull with a bullet wound found in the area Smith identified was Abouchuk’s, authorities have said.

    Smith’s attorney, Timothy Ayer, unsuccessfully sought to have the digital memory card’s evidence — or even mention of it — excluded at trial. The woman who turned in the card initially claimed she had simply found it on the street, and it wasn’t until a second interview that she confessed she had stolen the card from Smith’s truck while he tried to get money from an ATM and she had it for a week before giving it to police, he said.

    For that reason, he argued, prosecutors would not be able to demonstrate the provenance of the 39 photos and 12 videos, establish whether they were originals or duplicates, or say for sure whether they had been tampered with.

    “The state cannot produce a witness to testify that the video fairly and accurately depicts any act that actually happened,” Ayer wrote.

    However, Third Judicial District Judge Kevin Saxby ruled late Friday that the woman can testify about her possession of the card until she handed it over to police and that the recordings can be properly authenticated.

    Henry’s family has not spoken publicly about her death and efforts to reach relatives have not been successful. Abouchuk’s family has not returned messages from The Associated Press.

    “These were two Alaska Native women,” Dunlop, then the assistant district attorney, said in 2019 after Smith was charged. “And I know that hits home here in Alaska, and we’re cognizant of that. We treat them with dignity and respect.”

    Authorities said Smith, who is in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Facility, came to Alaska in 2014 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the same month Henry was killed.

    In a 2019 letter to the AP, he declined to discuss the case. He added that he was doing well: “I have lost weight, I have much less stress and I am sober.”

    His wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage, and a sister acting as a family spokesperson in South Africa, both declined to comment until after the trial.

    The trial, expected to last three to four weeks, was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.

    Prosecutors had suggested the possibility of closing the courtroom to prevent the gruesome videos from being seen by the public. The Associated Press, the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s News Source and Alaska Public Media objected to any such move in a letter to the court’s presiding judge.

    Afterward, Saxby said he has no intention of keeping the public from the courtroom, but safeguards will be in place to prevent those in the gallery or watching the trial’s livestream from seeing them.

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  • Oklahoma’s oldest Native American school, Bacone College, is threatened by debts and disrepair

    Oklahoma’s oldest Native American school, Bacone College, is threatened by debts and disrepair

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    MUSKOGEE, Okla. — The hallways of Bacone College are cold and dark. In the main hall, there are no lectures to be heard, only the steady hum of the space heater keeping the administrative offices warm.

    Students aren’t attending classes here this semester, but work still needs to be done. In the college’s historic buildings, there are leaks to plug, mold to purge and priceless works of Native American art to save from ruin. Not to mention devising a plan to keep the college from shuttering for good. It’s a daunting task for the nine remaining employees.

    But on this rainy December morning, the college’s president is running a DoorDash order. “If we have the money, we can pay,” Interim President Nicky Michael said regarding salaries. Even she has to find a way to make ends meet.

    Founded in 1880 as a Baptist missionary college focused on assimilation, Bacone College transformed into an Indigenous-led institution that provided an intertribal community, as well as a degree. With the permission of the Muscogee Nation Tribal Council, Bacone’s founders used a treaty right to establish the college at the confluence of three rivers, where tribal nations had been meeting for generations.

    Throughout the 20th century, the center of this was Bacone’s Native American art program, which produced some of the most important Indigenous artists of their time, including Woody Crumbo, Fred Beaver, Joan Hill and Ruthe Blalock Jones.

    They and their contemporaries pushed the boundaries of what was considered “Native American art.” During a period of intense hostility against tribal sovereignty by the U.S., Bacone became defined by the exchange of ideas its Native faculty and students created and represented a new opportunity for Indigenous education and academic thought.

    “Bacone was the only place in the world where that could happen for Native people,” said Robin Mayes, a Cherokee and Muscogee man who attended Bacone in the ’70s and taught silversmithing there in the ’90s. “It’s a tragedy to think that it’s going to be discontinued.”

    For decades, the college has been plagued by poor financial choices and inconsistent leadership, triggering flashpoints between administration, students and staff over the mission and cultural direction of the college.

    Some have accused recent administrations of embezzlement, fraud and intimidation, resulting in multiple lawsuits. Students expressed frustration with a lack of resources and cultural competency among some school leaders. The college also has had trouble maintaining its accreditation.

    Last year, a lawsuit crippled Bacone’s finances. Ultimately, Michael made the decision to suspend classes for the spring semester. She hopes the deferment is temporary, but if the college can’t muster up millions of dollars, Oklahoma’s oldest continually operating college likely will close its doors.

    “It has endured for over 140 years through terrible decisions,” said Gerald Cournoyer, an instructor who was hired in 2019 to restart the college’s art program.

    “Providing oversight for Bacone has been a struggle because of the leadership or lack thereof,” said Cournoyer, who also is a renowned Lakota artist. Some presidents focused time and money on athletic programs, others on Bacone’s Baptist missionary roots. “When you put absolutely no money, nothing, not $20, not $10, into your fundraising efforts, this is what you get.”

    During the time Patti Jo King was the director of the Center for American Indians at Bacone from 2012 to 2018, leadership wanted to build a state-of-the-art museum to replace the 80-year-old building housing many priceless pieces of Native art.

    “We didn’t even have the money to keep it open seven days a week,” said King, now a retired Cherokee professor, writer and academic.

    Even when she first arrived on campus, King said Bacone’s financial debts already had caught up to it. The student dorms didn’t have hot water, staff were severely underpaid and graduation rates among the college’s remaining students were low.

    Still, she and other faculty endeavored to make it a place where Native students could find community, but Bacone’s old problems never went away. Like Cournoyer, after years of working toward rebuilding, she left in frustration.

    Today, the old museum is empty. Its artifacts were moved to another location so they wouldn’t be exposed to extreme temperatures.

    The remaining staff act as caretakers of the historic stone buildings that predate Oklahoma, themselves important pieces of the past. In the museum, Ataloa Lodge, the fireplace is made of stones sent to the college from Indigenous communities across the country: one from the birthplace of Sequoyah, one from the grave of Sitting Bull, another from the field where Custer died. Five hundred in all, each stone a memory.

    Michael, the interim president, and others have been cleaning up buildings in hopes they might soon host graduation banquets and student gatherings. Other staff chase off looters. Rare paintings still hang across campus, including pieces by members of the Kiowa Six, who became internationally famous a century ago, and Johnnie Diacon, a Muscogee painter and alumnus whose work can be seen in the background of several episodes of the television show Reservation Dogs.

    A few years ago, experts from a museum in Tulsa warned that many of the paintings are contaminated with mold, which will spread to other nearby works of art. Leslie Hannah, a Cherokee educator who sits on the college’s board of trustees, said he’s concerned, but the cost of restoring them falls far down the list, behind broken gas lines, flooded basements and a mountain of debt.

    Bacone’s current financial crisis stems partially from a lawsuit brought by Midgley-Huber Energy Concepts, a Utah-based heating and air company that sued the college over more than $1 million in unpaid construction and service fees. Twice last year, the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office put Bacone’s property up for sale to settle the debt. Both times the auction was called off, most recently in December.

    MHEC owner Chris Oberle told KOSU last month that he intended to purchase the historic property. Attorneys for MHEC have not returned repeated requests for comment from the Associated Press.

    Alumni have called the validity of any sale of the property into question, pointing to the treaty right that established the campus and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Attorneys for the college declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

    Michael said she doesn’t know what stalled the auction, but she is grateful for more time to try to save Bacone.

    Across the country, there are only a few dozen tribal colleges, according to the American Indian College Fund, a nonprofit that supports Native American access to higher education. Tribal colleges must be sponsored by a federally recognized tribe and have a majority Native student enrollment. But unlike most of those colleges, Bacone was built on its identity as an intertribal school, a quality that former staff and alumni say made it special.

    Now a private institution, Bacone no longer receives state or federal assistance. Its finances have long relied heavily on student tuition, and now it has no students. Michael said judging from the finances, it’s a miracle the college managed to keep its doors open this long.

    “Now I’m looking back on this thinking this was set up for failure,” she said.

    ___

    Graham Lee Brewer is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on social media.

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  • Penn Museum buries the bones of 19 Black Philadelphians, causing a dispute with community members

    Penn Museum buries the bones of 19 Black Philadelphians, causing a dispute with community members

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    For decades, the University of Pennsylvania has held hundreds of skulls that once were used to promote white supremacy through racist scientific research.

    As part of a growing effort among museums to reevaluate the curation of human remains, the Ivy League school laid some of the remains to rest last week, specifically those identified as belonging to 19 Black Philadelphians. Officials plan to hold a memorial service for them on Saturday.

    The university says it is trying to begin rectifying past wrongs. But some community members feel excluded from the process, illustrating the challenges that institutions face in addressing institutional racism.

    “Repatriation should be part of what the museum does, and we should embrace it,” said Christopher Woods, the museum’s director.

    The university houses more than 1,000 human remains from all over the world, and Woods said repatriating those identified as from the local community felt like the best place to start.

    Some leaders and advocates for the affected Black communities in Philadelphia have pushed back against the plan for years. They say the decision to reinter the remains in Eden Cemetery, a local historic Black cemetery, was made without their input.

    West Philadelphia native and community activist aAliy A. Muhammad said justice isn’t just the university doing the right thing, it’s letting the community decide what that should look like.

    “That’s not repatriation. We’re saying that Christopher Woods does not get to decide to do that,” Muhammad said. “The same institution that has been holding and exerting control for years over these captive ancestors is not the same institution that can give them ceremony.”

    As the racial justice movement has swept across the country in recent years, many museums and universities have begun to prioritize the repatriation of collections that were either stolen or taken under unethical circumstances. But only one group of people often harmed by archaeology and anthropology, Native Americans, have a federal law that regulates this process.

    In cases like that between the University of Pennsylvania and Black Philadelphians, institutions maintain control over the collections and how they are returned.

    The remains of the Black Philadelphians were part of the Morton Cranial Collection at the Penn Museum. Beginning in the 1830s, physician and professor Samuel George Morton collected about 900 crania, and after his death the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia added hundreds more.

    Morton’s goal with the collection was to prove — by measuring crania — that the races were actually different species of humans, with white being the superior species. His racist pseudoscience influenced generations of scientific research and was used to justify slavery in the antebellum South.

    Morton also was a medical professor in Philadelphia, where most doctors of his time trained, said Lyra Monteiro, an anthropological archaeologist and professor at Rutgers University. The vestiges of his since-disproven work are still evident across the medical field, she said.

    “Medical racism can really exist on the back of that,” Monteiro said. “His ideas became part of how medical students were trained.”

    The collection has been housed at the university since 1966, and some of the remains were used for teaching as late as 2020. The university issued an apology in 2021 and revised its protocol for handling human remains.

    The university also formed an advisory committee to decide next steps. The group decided to rebury the remains at Eden Cemetery. The following year, the university successfully petitioned the Philadelphia Orphans’ Court to allow the burial on the basis that the identities of all but one of the Black Philadelphians were unknown.

    Critics note the advisory committee was comprised almost entirely of university officials and local religious leaders, rather than other community members.

    Monteiro and other researchers challenged the idea that the identities of the Philadelphians were lost to time. Through the city’s public archives, she discovered that one of the men’s mothers was Native American. His remains must be repatriated through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the federal law regulating the return of Native American ancestral remains and funerary objects, she said.

    “They never did any research themselves on who these people were, they took Morton’s word for it,” Monteiro said. “The people who aren’t even willing to do the research should not be doing this.”

    The university removed that cranium from the reburial so it can be assessed for return through NAGPRA. Monteiro and others were further outraged to discover the university had already interred the remains of the other Black Philadelphians last weekend outside of public view, she said.

    Members of the Black Philadelphians Descendant Community Group, which was organized by people including Muhammed who identify as descendants of the individuals in the mausoleum, said in a statement they are “devastated & hurt” that the burial took place without them.

    “In light of this new information, they are taking time to process and consider how best to honor their ancestors at a future time,” the group said, adding that members plan to offer handouts at Saturday’s memorial with information they have gathered on the individuals in the mausoleum.

    “To balance prioritizing the human dignity of the individuals with conservation due diligence and the logistical requirements of Historic Eden Cemetery, laying to rest the 19 Black Philadelphians was scheduled ahead of the interfaith ceremony and blessing,” the Penn Museum said in a statement to The Associated Press.

    Woods said he believes most of the community is happy with the decision to reinter the remains at Eden Cemetery, and it is a vocal minority in opposition. He hopes that eventually all the individuals in the mausoleum will be identified and returned.

    “We encourage research to be done moving forward,” Woods said, noting the remains of the Black Philadelphians were in the collection for two centuries and, along with his staff, he felt the need to take more immediate action with those remains.

    “Let’s not let these individuals sit in the museum storeroom and extend those 200 years anymore,” he said.

    Even if all the crania are identified and returned to the community, the university has a long way to go. More than 300 Native American remains in the Morton Cranial Collection still need to be repatriated through the federal law. Woods said the museum recently hired additional staff to expedite that process.

    ___

    Graham Brewer is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on social media.

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  • The debate over Native American mascots persists as some schools reinstate the logos

    The debate over Native American mascots persists as some schools reinstate the logos

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    It was a passionate student letter in 2020 that caused the Southern York County school board to reconsider its logo: a Native American man, representing the “Warriors.”

    Though the conversation had come up before in the suburban district located in southern Pennsylvania, 2020 was a turning point of racial reckoning after the death of George Floyd. Less than a year later, the school board voted to retire the warrior logo after it considered research on the impact the reductive imagery had on Native and non-Native students.

    “I understand the attachment people have to that at the school,” said Deborah Kalina, who served on the school board at the time. “But it’s more than that. And I think we did the right thing.”

    Three years later, however, the logo — a Native American man with feathers, a tomahawk and pipe — is back after a newly elected conservative bloc acted on its campaign promise and reinstated it earlier this month. It’s shaken Native communities across the country that work to challenge such logos, said Donna Fann-Boyle, co-founder of the Coalition of Natives and Allies. When one school district does it, they worry others will try, too.

    “Everything could just go backward,” said Fann-Boyle, who says she has Choctaw and Cherokee heritage.

    It’s a marked departure from the larger tide of communities deciding to change their mascots, a trajectory that has been underway for decades, but ramped up in 2020.

    The battle to change the use of Native Americans in logos, team names and fan-driven behavior has often been in the bright spotlight due to major sports teams. The NFL’s Washington Commanders changed their decades-old name in 2019, while Cleveland’s baseball team became the Guardians in 2021. Protests are being planned at the Super Bowl once more in response to the Kansas City Chiefs.

    But beyond the high-profile fights to change names, mascots and team identities, there are battles going on in local communities. It’s a rare move for the Pennsylvania district to reverse course, but it’s not the first time. At least two other school districts in Massachusetts and Connecticut reverted to logos that many Native Americans have called offensive.

    A number of states have passed legislation to prohibit the mascots in the years since. Nationally, the largest nonprofit dedicated to representing Native nations, the National Congress of American Indians, has worked to challenge the use of Native imagery in logos and mascots. The organization maintains a database tracking Native mascots, and has found that nearly 2,000 schools still use them. At least 16 dropped their use of Native imagery or names between March 2022 and April 2023.

    Numerous studies have found that mascots are harmful to the mental health of Native students, and increase negative stereotyping of Native people in non-Native students, said Laurel Davis-Delano, a professor of sociology at Springfield College.

    The mascots are all historic — and often inaccurate — depictions, erasing the fact Native people exist today, she said. And though to some the mascots can seem like positive representation on the surface, they’re adapted from a “bloodthirsty warrior” stereotype, which was historically used in a genocidal way, Davis-Delano said.

    “It’s hostile when the mascot exists, it’s hostile during the change and hostile afterwards because even when they eliminate Native mascots successfully, there’s still a backlash,” she said. “There’s still people holding on to it and purposefully displaying it. And that lasts for some years. Most of the time, people shift over and are good to go, but there are people who hang on.”

    Maulian Bryant, Penobscot Nation tribal ambassador, remembers having a visceral reaction to seeing the mascots as she was growing up. Mentors in her life helped her speak out about it, and her work resulted in a 2019 law in Maine to prohibit them in public schools and colleges.

    School has its pressure of homework, socializing and sports, Bryant said. Seeing non-Native peers act out stereotypes, dressed up with feathers and war paint, adds a layer for Native students: “an assault on something core to who they are,” she said.

    “Adults put their pride and their resistance to progress above what students really need,” she said. “The students and teams and towns are just as proud of the new mascots.”

    Some schools — like the University of Utah and Florida State University — have agreements with local tribes to use their names and imagery. The Seneca Nation approved the use of Native imagery in the Salamanca School District, due to its location on the nation’s Allegany Territory, and large percentages of Native American students and staff.

    One group, Native American Guardians Association, which has Native American membership, has pushed for the continued use of the mascots across the country. Speaking at Southern York County’s school board meeting on Jan. 18, members argued removing the logo would be erasure.

    Supporters agreed, and said use of the warrior head image denoted positive features and didn’t erase history. They sent droves of emails pushing for reinstatement, board member Jen Henkel said during the meeting.

    But opponents — who vastly outnumbered supporters speaking at the board meeting — criticized reopening an issue that was decided years ago.

    Jen Henkel said during the meeting that every single board member, save for one, lost reelection or did not run. Other candidates who did not support reinstating it lost too, she said.

    “The majority community has spoken on this issue loud and clear. You might not like the results, but here we are,” she said.

    After a lengthy presentation, debate and public comment, the school board ultimately voted to reinstate it, 7-2. Board President Nathan Henkel did not return a message seeking comment.

    The board’s decision and Native American Guardians Association’s push, though, is in direct contrast to the Native family in the community in southern Pennsylvania, and descendants of the local Conestoga-Susquehannock tribe who sent a letter decrying the decision. Today, their tribe — which is not federally or state recognized — has about 50 members.

    “We give more energy to an inanimate object than we do to actual human beings,” said Chesterfield Hall, a member of the tribe.

    Andrea Ligon, a tribal elder, said the mascot is a misrepresentation of their identity.

    “This is fundamentally disrespectful and offensive. We are undermined by images of the mascot that disrespects historical and personal experiences of our tribe with a one-dimensional representation,” she said. “We are opposed to this mascot because they are playing an Indian with no understanding of the deeper meaning of feathers, face paint, chants and dancing, which are all part of our culture.”

    Katy Isennock, who is a Sicangu Lakota citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, grew up in the district, going to school with the warhead mascot. As a teenager, she never felt she had the power to speak out about it, or the support of the community. Then she watched her children go through the renewed discussion of the mascot.

    Her son — who is Sicangu Lakota, Oglala Lakota and Seneca — wears his long hair in a braid and has been made fun of for his hair. He has started to hide it, she said. It’s something that is so normal when they’re among other Native people, but has been scrutinized in a predominantly white community, making him feel embarrassed rather than proud, she said.

    “He goes through so much, having hair like that, and he shouldn’t have to and it’s like — you guys have a Native mascot and you don’t know that?” she said.

    Speaking to the board, she asked them to drop the politics.

    “To put the mascot away is respect,” she told them. “Retiring it is respect — for the past, for the present and for the future. It is respect for my Native kids in the district and Native kids that may pass through here in the future.”

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  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom backs dam removal projects aimed at sustaining salmon populations

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom backs dam removal projects aimed at sustaining salmon populations

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    EUREKA, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon from returning to the state’s chilly mountain streams and acting as the keystone of a complex ecosystem that sustains both economies and spiritual beliefs for tribes.

    Newsom — now in his second term and seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate beyond 2024 — has worked hard to stake a claim as the nation’s most environmentally-conscious governor. But his record has been dogged by criticism from environmental groups who say his water policies benefit big agriculture at the expense of salmon and other species of fish in danger of becoming extinct.

    Millions of salmon once filled California’s rivers and streams each year, bringing with them key nutrients from the ocean that gave the state an abundance of natural resources that were so important to indigenous peoples that they formed the foundation of creation stories central to tribes’ way of life.

    But last year, there were so few salmon in the state’s rivers that the officials closed the commercial fishing season.

    Frustrated by the criticism leveled against him and his administration, Newsom on Tuesday released a plan outlining his strategy to protect salmon — a plan that includes a heavy helping of projects that would remove or bypass aging dams that prevent from returning to the streams of their birth to lay eggs.

    “These are tangible. And so much of the work we do is, you know, you can’t see it, you can’t feel it,” Newsom told The Associated Press in an interview near the banks of the Elk River in Eureka near a recently completed project that returned some agricultural land to a flood plain habitat for salmon. “But when you see a dam being removed and you come back a few months later — a year or two, five years later — and you see real progress.”

    Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a promise to complete an agreement by the end of the year to remove the Scott Dam and replace the Cape Horn Dam along the Eel River that have blocked salmon access to 288 miles (463 kilometers) of habitat. Once completed, the Eel would be the longest free-flowing river in the state, flowing north through the Coast Ranges before emptying into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Fortuna.

    By next summer, Newsom said he would complete plans for the removal of the nearly 100-year-old Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek in western Los Angeles County that would give steelhead another 15 miles (24 kilometers) of spawning and rearing habitat. And by 2026 — the last year of Newsom’s term — he promised to complete the infrastructure necessary to remove the Matilija Dam in Ventura County along a tributary of the Ventura River.

    These projects have already been announced and are in the early stages of development. Newsom’s plan, however, puts on record his goal to either complete them or have them approved by state regulatory bodies before he leaves office.

    “I got three more years. And I want to put it all out there,” Newsom said.

    Newsom’s embrace of some dam demolitions comes as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history got underway in earnest last week when crews blew a hole in the bottom of the Copco No. 1 dam along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. It’s one of four dams set to be removed along the Klamath.

    In addition to demolishing dams, Newsom is trying to bring attention to some of the $800 million he has signed off on in recent years for projects that return some creeks and streams to their natural state so that salmon can live there.

    Monday, Newsom trudged through thick mud to visit a project along Prairie Creek in Redwoods National Park. The creek had been converted to a ditch, with steep rock walls preventing the water from spilling into a flood plain where baby salmon can eat and grow before heading out to the ocean. The goal is to get the baby fish to stay longer in this creek so they can grow larger before heading out to the ocean — making it more likely they will return.

    Newsom watched as Kate Stonecypher, a graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt, pulled juvenile coho salmon and steelhead trout from the river that had been tagged with a tracking device. Researchers are still studying the results. But early indications have been positive. Fish from the creek were later found to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) to Humboldt Bay.

    But the biggest criticism of Newsom’s environmental policies have not been a lack of restoration projects, but a lack of water in the rivers. Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a controversial proposal to seek voluntary agreements with major farmers over how much water they can take out of the rivers and streams. Some environmental groups, including the San Francisco Baykeeper, have called this plan “astonishingly weak.”

    San Francisco Baykeeper Science Director Jon Rosenfield said California has already done lots of habitat restoration projects, but they have failed to result in significant boosts salmon populations.

    “Without the essential ingredient of a river, which is the flow of water, fish … are not going to survive,” he said. “The governor is out there promising actions that are not adequate to restore the population.”

    He also pledged to continue to work with native tribes, who often refer to the rivers where salmon live as their church. Newsom formally apologized to Native American tribes four years ago for how the state had treated them historically. And he has committed to partnering with them to conduct much of the work around salmon habitat.

    Monday, Frankie Myers, vice chair of the Yurok Tribe, told Newsom the tribe’s work on Prairie Creek had changed the community by restoring the tribe’s purpose.

    “This goes beyond that apology. This is about restoration,” he said.

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  • A famed NYC museum is closing two Native American halls. Harvard and others have taken similar steps

    A famed NYC museum is closing two Native American halls. Harvard and others have taken similar steps

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    NEW YORK — New York’s American Museum of Natural History is closing two halls featuring Native American objects starting Saturday, acknowledging the exhibits are “severely outdated” and contain culturally sensitive items.

    The mammoth complex across from Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is the latest U.S. institution to cover up or remove Native American exhibits to comply with recently revamped federal regulations dealing with the display of Indigenous human remains and cultural items.

    The museum said in October that it would pull all human remains from public display, with the aim of eventually repatriating as much as it could to Native American tribes and other rightful owners.

    Sean Decatur, the museum’s president, said in a letter to staff Friday that the latest move reflects the “growing urgency” among museums to change their relationships with tribes and how they exhibit Indigenous cultures.

    “The halls we are closing are vestiges of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives, and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” he wrote. “Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others.”

    Earlier this month, Chicago’s Field Museum covered several displays containing Native American items. Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has said it would remove all Native American funerary items from its exhibits. The Cleveland Museum of Art is another institution that has taken similar steps.

    Shannon O’Loughlin, head of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a national group that has long called for museums to comply with the federal requirements, welcomed such developments but said the true test is what ultimately becomes of the removed items.

    “Covering displays or taking things down isn’t the goal,” she said. “It’s about repatriation — returning objects back to tribes. So this is just one part of a much bigger process.”

    Todd Mesek, a Cleveland Museum of Art spokesperson, said the institution is consulting with Native American groups to secure their consent to display certain items as well as reviewing archival records to determine if there is already some agreement on record.

    Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, said the Peabody is committed to returning all ancestral remains and funerary items and has more than doubled the number of staffers working toward that end in recent months. The museum also announced this month that it would cover the expenses of tribal members traveling to campus as part of the repatriation process.

    The revised regulations released in December by the U.S. Department of the Interior are related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The changes include expanded requirements for consulting with and receiving tribes’ consent to exhibit and conduct research on Indigenous artifacts, including human remains and funerary, sacred and cultural objects.

    Native American groups have long complained that museums, colleges and other institutions dragged out the process of returning hundreds of thousands of culturally significant items.

    “The only exception to repatriation is if a museum or institution can prove they received consent at the time the item was taken,” O’Loughlin said. “But most institutions can’t do that, of course, because these items and bodies were usually taken through violence, theft and looting.”

    Decatur said in the letter that rather than simply covering up or removing items in the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls, the ones closing this weekend, the decision was made to shutter them entirely because they are “severely outdated.”

    Meanwhile, some displays elsewhere in the museum, including ones showcasing Native Hawaiian items, will be covered, he added.

    Decatur acknowledged one consequence of the closures will be the suspension of visits to them by school field trips. The Eastern Woodlands Hall, in particular, has been a mainstay for New York-area students learning about Native American life in the Northeast.

    The museum remains committed to supporting the teaching of Indigenous cultures, Decatur said, and officials are reviewing the new federal regulations to understand their implications.

    O’Loughlin of the Association on American Indian Affairs said there isn’t as much gray area as museum officials might suggest.

    “The new regulations make it crystal clear,” she said. “It doesn’t prohibit research. It doesn’t prohibit exhibiting native cultural heritage. It only requires prior and informed consent before doing so.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this story.

    ___

    Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

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  • Pharrell Williams’ sophomore collection at Louis Vuitton showcases Americana, Native American spirit

    Pharrell Williams’ sophomore collection at Louis Vuitton showcases Americana, Native American spirit

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    PARIS — It was Wild West meets melting pot America at the Louis Vuitton Fall-Winter 2024 men’s show Tuesday, where musician-turned-designer Pharrell Williams unveiled his highly-anticipated sophomore collection.

    The show, set against the dramatic silhouette of the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, masterfully channeled Americana, with Native American designs mixing with modern luxury and showcasing Williams’ unique vision for the powerhouse.

    Celebrity guests including Bradley Cooper, Omar Sy and Carey Mulligan gathered to witness a boulder-laden landscape that evoked the rugged terrains of an idealized America. The collection itself was a vibrant celebration of the American spirit, dripping in the famed confidence of Williams — a lauded music star who is a newcomer to fashion design at this level.

    The designs emphasized loose proportions, reflecting a modern take on classic American silhouettes. Models — male and female — strutted down the runway in leather cowboy hats, cowhide valises, and checkered denim jackets adorned with bull badges, their cowboy boots boasting shiny metal points. Rodeo jackets shimmered with intricate embroideries, showcasing the luxurious craftsmanship synonymous with the LVMH-owned brand.

    The show highlighted the dazzling Vegas-style suiting — jackets with glimmering stripes paired with flared pants, exuding an energy reminiscent of the city’s iconic Strip. The collection also featured oversized jackets, including a statement-making gangster-style fur coat, in bold reinterpretations of traditional Western wear.

    Yet, the soul of the collection is its collaboration with Dakota and Lakota nation artists, a partnership that could be seen in intricate designs on scarves, bags, and blankets with floral and geometric patterns telling stories of heritage and identity.

    “Pharrell wanted to bring out the Native American spirit, (…) he wanted to showcase we’re still here, we’re still resilient,” Rebecca Brady, 54, a Native American from New Town, North Dakota, told The Associated Press.

    Beyond the fashion, the event turned into a cultural spectacle. VIP guests enjoyed Louis Vuitton-branded hamburgers in a Champagne-fueled barbecue, symbolizing a quirky blend of high fashion and classic Americana. The atmosphere was further charged with performances by Mumford & Sons and artists from the Native American nations.

    The evening reached its peak when Williams himself took to the stage, eliciting a wave of excitement from the crowd.

    Williams’ performance demonstrated his artistic versatility and highlighted the unique energy he brings to the Louis Vuitton brand. The collection was a daring fusion of styles and cultures, exemplifying a journey beyond fashion into a realm where art, music, and cultural heritage intertwine.

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  • A cluster of lost cities in Ecuadorian Amazon that lasted 1,000 years has been mapped

    A cluster of lost cities in Ecuadorian Amazon that lasted 1,000 years has been mapped

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    WASHINGTON — Archeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that was home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago.

    A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain. But at the time, “I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding Thursday in the journal Science.

    Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years.

    “It was a lost valley of cities,” said Rostain, who directs investigations at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. “It’s incredible.”

    The settlements were occupied by the Upano people between around 500 B.C. and 300 to 600 A.D. — a period roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire in Europe, the researchers found.

    Residential and ceremonial buildings erected on more than 6,000 earthen mounds were surrounded by agricultural fields with drainage canals. The largest roads were 33 feet (10 meters) wide and stretched for 6 to 12 miles (10 to 20 kilometers).

    While it’s difficult to estimate populations, the site was home to at least 10,000 inhabitants — and perhaps as many as 15,000 or 30,000 at its peak, said archaeologist Antoine Dorison, a study co-author at the same French institute. That’s comparable to the estimated population of Roman-era London, then Britain’s largest city.

    “This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complicated society,” said University of Florida archeologist Michael Heckenberger, who was not involved in the study. “For the region, it’s really in a class of its own in terms of how early it is.”

    José Iriarte, a University of Exeter archaeologist, said it would have required an elaborate system of organized labor to build the roads and thousands of earthen mounds.

    “The Incas and Mayans built with stone, but people in Amazonia didn’t usually have stone available to build — they built with mud. It’s still an immense amount of labor,” said Iriarte, who had no role in the research.

    The Amazon is often thought of as a “pristine wilderness with only small groups of people. But recent discoveries have shown us how much more complex the past really is,” he said.

    Scientists have recently also found evidence of intricate rainforest societies that predated European contact elsewhere in the Amazon, including in Bolivia and in Brazil.

    “There’s always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon, not only one way to live,” said Rostain. “We’re just learning more about them.”

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Things to know about Minnesota's new, non-racist state flag and seal

    Things to know about Minnesota's new, non-racist state flag and seal

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    MINNEAPOLIS — Love it, hate it or yawn at it, Minnesota is set to get a new state flag this spring that echoes its motto of being the North Star State, replacing an old flag that brought up painful memories of conquest and displacement for Native Americans.

    During the monthslong selection process, some publicly submitted designs gained cult followings on social media but didn’t make the final cut. They included: a loon – the state bird – with lasers for eyes; a photo of someone’s dog; famous paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; and an image of a rather large mosquito.

    Instead, the flag design adopted in December includes a dark blue shape resembling Minnesota on the left, with a white, eight-pointed North Star on it. On the right is a light blue field that to those involved in the selection process symbolizes the abundant waters that help define the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

    The new state seal features a loon amid wild rice, to replace the image of a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with a rifle at the ready. The seal was a key feature of the old flag, hence the pressure for changing both.

    Unless the Legislature votes to reject the new emblems, which seems unlikely, they will become official May 11. Other states are also considering or have already made flag changes. Here are things to know about Minnesota’s new flag and seal, and how the debate unfolded.

    WHY THIS DESIGN?

    The flag was designed by committee — a commission that included design experts and members of tribal and other communities of color. More than 2,600 proposals were submitted by the public. The commission picked one by Andrew Prekker, 24, of Luverne, as the base design.

    The main changes the commission made were rotating the star by 22.5 degrees so it pointed straight north, and replacing the original light blue, white and green stripes with a solid, light blue field. The significance of the light blue area is up to the beholder. The original Dakota name for Minnesota, Mni Sóta Makoce, which will go on the new seal, can be translated as “where the water meets the sky.” The commission’s chairman, Luis Fitch, said that to him, the light blue represents the Mississippi River, which originates in Minnesota, pointing to the North Star.

    THE CRITICISM

    It’s fair to say that much of the public reaction to the new flag fell into the category of “meh” or worse when the design adoption was announced. But supporters of the new flag hope it will grow on people. It’s not like many people were particularly attached to the old flag.

    Some criticism circulated by conservatives has been inaccurate. The flag does not resemble that of Somalia nor of its Puntland region.

    While it’s true that both the original design and the Puntland flag had light blue, white and green stripes in the same order, the commission dropped the stripes in favor of simplicity and symmetry. And it’s a stretch to say the final version bears much resemblance to the Somali national flag, which is a solid light blue with a white, five-pointed star right in the center. The state Democratic Party chairman issued a news release taking one GOP lawmaker to task for fueling the spread of the misinformation on social media.

    Two Republican lawmakers who were nonvoting members of the commission objected to putting the Dakota name for Minnesota on the seal. They said they will propose letting voters decide up or down this November. That proposal is unlikely to get traction in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. And Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, a commissioner who backed both designs, said a referendum would probably be unconstitutional.

    Additionally, Aaron Wittnebel — a voting member of the commission for the Ojibwe community — said in a minority report last week that adopting the Dakota phrase on the seal “favors the Dakota people over other groups of peoples in Minnesota.”

    THE PRAISE

    While the new flag might strike some critics as uninspired — and a waste of time and the $35,000 budgeted for the commission — the change is important to many Native Americans in a state where there are 11 federally recognized Ojibwe and Dakota tribes.

    “Dare I say anything that’s not a Native person being forced off their land is a flag upgrade?!” tweeted Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “Excited to have a new state flag that represents every Minnesotan.”

    Democratic state Sen. Mary Kunesh, a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota, was a chief author of the bill that launched the redesign and a nonvoting member of the commission. She said in a statement that the more than 2,600 submissions and the lively public debate showed that Minnesotans care deeply about their state.

    “It was an incredible experience to see our community’s energy and passion captured in the beautiful designs they submitted,” Kunesh said. “From loons and wild rice to water and the North Star, we have captured the essence of our state in the new flag and seal. These designs honor our history and celebrate the future of Minnesota.”

    One Indigenous graphic designer is already selling T-shirts online that bear the new design and say, “At least the flag isn’t racist anymore.”

    Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, who studies flags and was involved in the redesign, has said the new Minnesota flag gets an “A+” from him for its simplicity, uniqueness and inclusion of meaningful symbols.

    THE REST OF THE COUNTRY

    Several other states also have been redesigning flags.

    The Utah Legislature last winter approved a design featuring a beehive, a symbol of the prosperity and the industriousness of its Mormon pioneers. Mississippi chose a new flag with a magnolia to replace a Confederate-themed flag. Other states considering simplifying their flags include Michigan, Illinois and Maine.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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  • Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites as US advances energy agenda

    Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites as US advances energy agenda

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    RENO, Nev. — The room was packed with Native American leaders from across the United States, all invited to Washington to hear from federal officials about President Joe Biden’s accomplishments and new policy directives aimed at improving relationships and protecting sacred sites.

    Arlan Melendez was not among them.

    The longtime chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony convened his own meeting 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away. He wanted to show his community would find another way to fight the U.S. government’s approval of a massive lithium mine at the site where more than two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were massacred in 1865.

    Opposed by government lawyers at every legal turn, Melendez said another arduous appeal would not save sacred sites from being desecrated.

    “We’re not giving up the fight, but we are changing our strategy,” Melendez said.

    That shift for the Nevada tribe comes as Biden and other top federal officials double down on their vows to do a better job of working with Native American leaders on everything from making federal funding more accessible to incorporating tribal voices into land preservation efforts and resource management planning.

    The administration also has touted more spending on infrastructure and health care across Indian Country.

    Many tribes have benefited, including those who led campaigns to establish new national monuments in Utah and Arizona. In New Mexico, pueblos have succeeded in getting the Interior Department to ban new oil and natural gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land for 20 years to protect culturally significant areas.

    But the colony in Reno and others like the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona say promises of more cooperation ring hollow when it comes to high-stakes battles over multibillion-dollar “green energy” projects. Some tribal leaders have said consultation resulted in little more than listening sessions, with federal officials not incorporating tribal comments into the decision making.

    Rather than pursue its claims in court that the federal government failed to engage in meaningful consultation regarding the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony will focus on organizing a broad coalition to build public support for sacred places.

    Tribal members are concerned other culturally significant areas will end up in the path of a modern day Gold Rush that has companies scouting for lithium and other materials needed to meet Biden’s clean energy agenda.

    Melendez was among those thrilled when Biden appointed Deb Haaland to lead the Interior Department. A member of Laguna Pueblo, Haaland is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.

    Melendez, a former member of the U.S. Human Rights Commission who has led his colony for 32 years, said he understands the difficulty of navigating the electoral landscape in a western swing state where the mining industry’s political clout is second only to the power wielded by casinos.

    Still, he was disappointed Haaland declined an invitation to visit the massacre site.

    “The largest lithium project in the United States and they don’t even have the time to come out here and meet with the tribal nations in the state of Nevada,” he said.

    The tribe’s lawyer, Will Falk, urged other tribes to resist “tricking ourselves into believing that just because the first Native American secretary of Interior is in office that she actually cares about protecting sacred sites.”

    Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz didn’t respond directly to that criticism but said in an email to The Associated Press that there has been “significant communications and partnership with tribes in Nevada.”

    The federal government in early December published new guidance for dealing with sacred sites. While Falk and others are skeptical, they acknowledged the document speaks to concerns tribes have raised for decades.

    Among other things, the guidance says federal agencies should involve tribes as early as possible when planning projects to identify potential impacts to sacred sites and to determine whether mitigation measures can allay concerns. Agencies also should consult with tribes that attach significance to the project area, regardless of where they are located.

    It also suggests Indigenous knowledge should be on equal footing with other sciences and incorporated into the federal decision-making process. That knowledge can consist of practices, cultural beliefs and oral and written histories that tribes have developed over many generations.

    Justin C. Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington (D.C.) Office, said the new guidance appears to have incorporated some of the recommendations made by tribal leaders but that it could have gone further.

    “If this guidebook increases transparency in the consultation process, we will take it as a win,” Ahasteen said. “But ultimately the thing we all seek is for the federal government to acknowledge the necessity of tribal consent before changing rules that affect tribes.”

    The problem, Falk said, is none of it is legally binding.

    “These kinds of documents function more as pacifying propaganda,” he said.

    Western Shoshone Defense Project Director Fermina Stevens said the changes were “more ‘lip service’ for the government to deal with the ‘Indian problem’ in this new day and age of mineral extraction.”

    Morgan Rodman, executive director of the White House Council on Native American Affairs, disagrees. He said the guidance is intended to serve as a springboard to improve engagement with tribes and that the administration will be aggressive with training to make sure employees have an understanding of what sacred sites are.

    “While change certainly doesn’t happen overnight, it’s part of a continuum of important policy statements — part of the momentum we’ve been building the last three years,” he said in an interview.

    Rodman made clear he wasn’t referencing Thacker Pass, but some directives he highlighted have been key points of contention in that case.

    U.S. Judge Miranda Du in Reno twice ruled the tribe failed to prove the massacre occurred on the specific grounds of the mining project, or that far-flung tribes had a legal stake in the fight. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her earlier ruling in July.

    The tribe says the government has ignored evidence that the land they consider sacred isn’t limited to a specific site where the U.S. Calvary first attacked men, women and children as they slept.

    They cited newspaper accounts, diaries and a government surveyor’s report documenting human skulls discovered along a miles-long escape route crossing the mine site where troops killed and scalped those who tried to flee.

    Tribal historic preservation officer Michon Eben said the whole stretch is an unmarked burial ground.

    Melendez said he’s pleased Biden has promised to enhance consultation.

    But if federal agencies don’t follow through, he said, “Well, it’s just words that really don’t mean anything to us.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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  • Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites as US advances energy agenda

    Nevada tribe says coalitions, not lawsuits, will protect sacred sites as US advances energy agenda

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    RENO, Nev. — The room was packed with Native American leaders from across the United States, all invited to Washington to hear from federal officials about President Joe Biden’s accomplishments and new policy directives aimed at improving relationships and protecting sacred sites.

    Arlan Melendez was not among them.

    The longtime chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony convened his own meeting 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away. He wanted to show his community would find another way to fight the U.S. government’s approval of a massive lithium mine at the site where more than two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were massacred in 1865.

    Opposed by government lawyers at every legal turn, Melendez said another arduous appeal would not save sacred sites from being desecrated.

    “We’re not giving up the fight, but we are changing our strategy,” Melendez said.

    That shift for the Nevada tribe comes as Biden and other top federal officials double down on their vows to do a better job of working with Native American leaders on everything from making federal funding more accessible to incorporating tribal voices into land preservation efforts and resource management planning.

    The administration also has touted more spending on infrastructure and health care across Indian Country.

    Many tribes have benefited, including those who led campaigns to establish new national monuments in Utah and Arizona. In New Mexico, pueblos have succeeded in getting the Interior Department to ban new oil and natural gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land for 20 years to protect culturally significant areas.

    But the colony in Reno and others like the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona say promises of more cooperation ring hollow when it comes to high-stakes battles over multibillion-dollar “green energy” projects. Some tribal leaders have said consultation resulted in little more than listening sessions, with federal officials not incorporating tribal comments into the decision making.

    Rather than pursue its claims in court that the federal government failed to engage in meaningful consultation regarding the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony will focus on organizing a broad coalition to build public support for sacred places.

    Tribal members are concerned other culturally significant areas will end up in the path of a modern day Gold Rush that has companies scouting for lithium and other materials needed to meet Biden’s clean energy agenda.

    Melendez was among those thrilled when Biden appointed Deb Haaland to lead the Interior Department. A member of Laguna Pueblo, Haaland is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.

    Melendez, a former member of the U.S. Human Rights Commission who has led his colony for 32 years, said he understands the difficulty of navigating the electoral landscape in a western swing state where the mining industry’s political clout is second only to the power wielded by casinos.

    Still, he was disappointed Haaland declined an invitation to visit the massacre site.

    “The largest lithium project in the United States and they don’t even have the time to come out here and meet with the tribal nations in the state of Nevada,” he said.

    The tribe’s lawyer, Will Falk, urged other tribes to resist “tricking ourselves into believing that just because the first Native American secretary of Interior is in office that she actually cares about protecting sacred sites.”

    Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz didn’t respond directly to that criticism but said in an email to The Associated Press that there has been “significant communications and partnership with tribes in Nevada.”

    The federal government in early December published new guidance for dealing with sacred sites. While Falk and others are skeptical, they acknowledged the document speaks to concerns tribes have raised for decades.

    Among other things, the guidance says federal agencies should involve tribes as early as possible when planning projects to identify potential impacts to sacred sites and to determine whether mitigation measures can allay concerns. Agencies also should consult with tribes that attach significance to the project area, regardless of where they are located.

    It also suggests Indigenous knowledge should be on equal footing with other sciences and incorporated into the federal decision-making process. That knowledge can consist of practices, cultural beliefs and oral and written histories that tribes have developed over many generations.

    Justin C. Ahasteen, executive director of the Navajo Nation Washington (D.C.) Office, said the new guidance appears to have incorporated some of the recommendations made by tribal leaders but that it could have gone further.

    “If this guidebook increases transparency in the consultation process, we will take it as a win,” Ahasteen said. “But ultimately the thing we all seek is for the federal government to acknowledge the necessity of tribal consent before changing rules that affect tribes.”

    The problem, Falk said, is none of it is legally binding.

    “These kinds of documents function more as pacifying propaganda,” he said.

    Western Shoshone Defense Project Director Fermina Stevens said the changes were “more ‘lip service’ for the government to deal with the ‘Indian problem’ in this new day and age of mineral extraction.”

    Morgan Rodman, executive director of the White House Council on Native American Affairs, disagrees. He said the guidance is intended to serve as a springboard to improve engagement with tribes and that the administration will be aggressive with training to make sure employees have an understanding of what sacred sites are.

    “While change certainly doesn’t happen overnight, it’s part of a continuum of important policy statements — part of the momentum we’ve been building the last three years,” he said in an interview.

    Rodman made clear he wasn’t referencing Thacker Pass, but some directives he highlighted have been key points of contention in that case.

    U.S. Judge Miranda Du in Reno twice ruled the tribe failed to prove the massacre occurred on the specific grounds of the mining project, or that far-flung tribes had a legal stake in the fight. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her earlier ruling in July.

    The tribe says the government has ignored evidence that the land they consider sacred isn’t limited to a specific site where the U.S. Calvary first attacked men, women and children as they slept.

    They cited newspaper accounts, diaries and a government surveyor’s report documenting human skulls discovered along a miles-long escape route crossing the mine site where troops killed and scalped those who tried to flee.

    Tribal historic preservation officer Michon Eben said the whole stretch is an unmarked burial ground.

    Melendez said he’s pleased Biden has promised to enhance consultation.

    But if federal agencies don’t follow through, he said, “Well, it’s just words that really don’t mean anything to us.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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  • Taylor Swift's new romance, debt-erasing gifts and the eclipse are among most joyous moments of 2023

    Taylor Swift's new romance, debt-erasing gifts and the eclipse are among most joyous moments of 2023

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A romance that united sports and music fans, a celestial wonder that drew millions of eyes skyward and a spiritual homecoming for some Native American tribes were just some of the moments that inspired us and brought joy in 2023.

    In a year that saw multiple wars, deadly mass shootings, earthquakes, wildfires, sexual harassment stories and other tragedies, these events were among those that broke through the tumult of 2023 and made people feel hopeful.

    As Taylor Swift would say, “Hold on to the memories.” Here are a few of them:

    ___

    That’s how Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce planned to woo superstar Taylor Swift when he went to her Eras Tour concert stop in the Missouri capital. It didn’t work — at first.

    But the romantic gesture, and public admission of defeat on his “New Heights” podcast, caught the Grammy Award-winner’s attention. After the power pair took their relationship public — she went to a Chiefs game and sat in a box with Kelce’s mom, to the delight of fans — they began taking the world by storm.

    Sportscasters calculated Swift’s effect on Kelce’s game stats and TV viewership, national magazines offered up comprehensive dating timelines, and Swift fans scoured Kelce’s old social media posts to make sure he was fit for their queen.

    On tour in Buenos Aires, the then-33-year-old singer changed a lyric from “Karma is the guy on the screen” to “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs.” And fans went crazy when she jumped into Kelce’s arms for an iconic post-concert kiss.

    “I think we’re all excited about it. Until they start making good romcoms again, this is what we have,” said Michal Owens, a 37-year-old longtime fan from the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville.

    While pint-sized pairs of trick-or-treaters donned glitzy dresses and Chiefs jerseys this Halloween, Owens transformed her outdoor display into a tribute. The mother of three dressed one 12-foot-tall (3.66-meters-tall) skeleton in a Chiefs jersey, another in a sparkly dress and then stacked three smaller skeletons atop one another to create what she called a “tower of Swifties.”

    “We’ve got so many things in the world to be sad about,” she said. “Why not find something to root for and give us some joy?”

    ____

    From Oregon’s coast to the beaches of Corpus Christi, Texas, millions of people in October donned special glasses and gazed upward to take in the dazzling “ ring of fire” eclipse of the sun.

    “It’s kind of spiritual, but in a way that is almost tangible,” University of Texas at San Antonio astrophysics professor Angela Speck said as she recalled the type of eclipse that ancient Mayan astronomers called a “broken sun.”

    Crowds in the path of the eclipse erupted in cheers when the moon blocked out all but a brilliant circle of the sun’s outer edge. Participants at an international balloon fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whooped from the launch pad. Broadcasters for NASA said they felt a chill as the moon cast a shadow over the earth — and one broadcaster was so overcome with emotion that she began crying.

    The phenomenon was a prelude to the total solar eclipse that will sweep across Mexico, the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, in April 2024. But the next “ring of fire” eclipse won’t be visible in the U.S. until 2039 and then only in parts of Alaska.

    ___

    Surprise letters are showing up in mailboxes, informing recipients that their medical debt is wiped away.

    They have Casey McIntyre to thank. The 38-year-old New York City book publisher nearly died of cancer in May. But in what her husband, Andrew Rose Gregory, called a “bonus summer,” the young mother made plans to help people after she was gone. Her goal: To erase medical debt.

    In a message posted after her death in November, she asked for donations, writing, “I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved.”

    By December, more than $900,000 had been raised, enough to erase nearly $90 million in debt. That’s because the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt says every dollar donated buys about $100 in debt.

    “Her positive spirit is just resonating with a lot of people,” said Allison Sesso, the nonprofit’s president and CEO.

    The effort was inspired by the people McIntyre met during treatment. They weren’t just worried about their health but how to pay for their care. She had good insurance — and “couldn’t even fathom having to deal with that on top of the cancer,” Sesso said.

    The fundraiser, which quickly shattered its initial goal of $20,000, gave her family a sliver of “something positive” to focus on amid their grief. It was particularly hard for the family because when McIntyre died, her daughter was just a toddler, not yet 2.

    “This sounds crazy but she didn’t seem angry at all,” said Sesso. “She was like, ‘This happened. I’ve accepted that this has happened, and I’m going to do this positive thing.’”

    ____

    When the Grand Canyon became a national park over a century ago, many Native Americans who called it home were displaced.

    In 2023, meaningful steps were taken to address the federal government’s actions. In May, a ceremony marked the renaming of a popular campground in the inner canyon from Indian Garden to Havasupai Gardens, or “Ha’a Gyoh,” in the Havasupai language.

    It marked a pivotal moment in the tribe’s relationship with the U.S. government nearly a century after the last tribal member was forcibly removed from the park. The Havasupai Tribe was landless for a time until the federal government set aside a plot in the depths of the Grand Canyon for members.

    Then in August, President Joe Biden signed a national monument designation — over the opposition of Republican lawmakers and the uranium mining industry — to help preserve about 1,562 square miles (4,046 square kilometers) to the north and south of Grand Canyon National Park.

    It was another big step for the Havasupai, and for the 10 other tribes that consider the Grand Canyon their ancestral homeland.

    The new national monument is called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. “Baaj Nwaavjo” meaning “where tribes roam,” for the Havasupai people, while “I’tah Kukveni” translates to “our footprints,” for the Hopi Tribe.

    The move restricts new mining claims and brings tribal voices to the table to manage the environment, said Jack Pongyesva, of the Grand Canyon Trust, an advocacy group that represents tribal and environmental issues in the region.

    He said it also could open the door for more cultural tourism, where visitors could learn not just about the landscape but about the tribes — from the tribes themselves.

    Pongyesva, a member of the Hopi Tribe, said the dedication is “The beginning of hopefully this healing and looking back and seeing what was wrong and moving forward together.”

    ___

    Firs are mainstays of Christmas tree lots. But on the Isle Royale National Park near Michigan’s border with Canada, balsam firs were being devoured.

    Gray wolves on the remote island cluster in Lake Superior were already dying out from inbreeding, causing the moose population to become a “runaway freight train” and strip trees that were wolves’ primary food during long, snowbound winters, said Michigan Tech biologist Rolf Peterson.

    An ambitious plan was hatched to airlift wolves from the mainland to the park — and it’s starting to make a big difference. A report this year shows the resurging wolf population is thriving and the moose total is shrinking, giving the trees a chance to recover.

    There were critics of the plan, but Peterson said there weren’t other viable options. Because of climate change, particularly global warming, there are fewer ice bridges, reducing wolves’ ability to trek from the mainland and diversify the gene pool.

    “That was a huge undertaking,” Peterson said, and it turned out “spectacularly well.”

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  • Former NBA player allegedly admitted to fatally strangling woman in Las Vegas, court documents show

    Former NBA player allegedly admitted to fatally strangling woman in Las Vegas, court documents show

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    LAS VEGAS — A former NBA G League player allegedly admitted to fatally strangling a woman whose remains were found earlier this month near Las Vegas, according to court records obtained Wednesday.

    Chance Comanche, 27, was taken into custody last week in Sacramento, California, where he described for Las Vegas detectives the alleged murder of Marayna Rodgers, 23, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department affidavit.

    “I cannot comment on the substance of any statements made to law enforcement, Comanche attorney Michael Goldstein said Wednesday. “We made our initial appearance yesterday, and the allegations will be addressed in court.”

    The basketball player, who is being held without bond, appeared in a Sacramento County court Tuesday and agreed not to fight his transfer in custody to Nevada, where authorities said he’ll face murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges.

    “We’re going to let the courts deal with it,” Goldstein told reporters outside the court. “We’re going to deal with it in Nevada.”

    Comanche’s former girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, 19, is also facing charges in Rodgers’ death, police said. She is being held without bond in a Las Vegas jail.

    Anna Clark, a deputy Clark County public defender representing Harnden, declined comment Wednesday about the case.

    Rodgers, a medical assistant from Washington state, was reported missing Dec. 7 during a trip to Las Vegas to visit friends. Her remains were later found in the Vegas suburb of Henderson.

    According to the affidavit, Comanche and Harnden worked together to choke Rodgers in the early hours of Dec. 6.

    Police said Harnden and Rodgers were both sex workers and that Harnden had an ongoing dispute with Rodgers over an expensive watch.

    According to the affidavit, the plot called for Comanche to pose as a sex customer who would tie Rodgers’ hands behind her back. Comanche then used a cord while Harnden used both her hands to choke Rodgers, the affidavit said.

    Once Rodgers was dead, police said, Comanche and Harnden left her body in a ditch off the side of a road.

    Before his arrest, Comanche had been playing for the Stockton Kings, the NBA G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings, and averaged 14 points and seven rebounds in 13 games.

    Comanche, a 6-foot-10 power forward and center, played college basketball at the University of Arizona from 2015-17 before declaring for the NBA draft.

    He went undrafted and signed a free-agent contract with the Portland Trail Blazers last April but played only one game.

    Sacramento signed Comanche in October but waived him 10 days later, at which point he joined Stockton.

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  • Mining company agrees with court decision ordering Guatemala to grant property rights to community

    Mining company agrees with court decision ordering Guatemala to grant property rights to community

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    MEXICO CITY — Solway Investment Group, a Switzerland-based mining company with interests in Guatemala, said Monday it agreed with a regional court’s decision requiring the Guatemalan government to recognize the property rights of an Indigenous community.

    The company, which was not a party to the case, stressed that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision handed down Friday “does not cover the right of the company to conduct mining operations in the areas outside the Agua Caliente community lands.”

    The delineation of those lands will be part of the process for the Guatemalan government in complying with the court’s decision, Carlos Pop, one of the lawyers representing the community, said Monday.

    On Friday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Guatemala violated the rights of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ people to property and consultation by permitting mining on land where members of the community have lived at least since the 1800s.

    The court ordered Guatemala to adopt new laws that recognize Indigenous property and gave the government six months to begin awarding a land title to the Agua Caliente community.

    As of Monday, Guatemalan authorities had not commented beyond saying they would review the court’s decision closely.

    The land dispute began years before Solway purchased the two local companies in 2011. The company said it had not actively mined the disputed area, though Pop said exploration under prior owners had occurred there.

    “Solway will assist and cooperate with the Guatemalan Government to achieve justice for the Indigenous peoples whose rights were found by the Court to be injured,” the company said in a statement. “We will support the efforts of the Guatemalan government to conduct discussions with (the) Agua Caliente community as the court ruling stipulates.”

    Solway also said it hoped to soon resume production at the nickel mine after the U.S. Treasury suspended sanctions against its local Guatemalan subsidiaries in late September.

    The sanctions, unrelated to the court case, had been imposed against the companies and two of their employees last year for allegedly bribing judges, politicians and local officials, according to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The employees were fired and Solway said it had implemented reforms aimed at improving transparency and accountability.

    “We are hopeful that, now that OFAC has issued Solway a one year license, that the Guatemalan government will agree to re-issue the export permits immediately. This would allow the Solway’s Guatemalan companies’ nickel mines to renew their supplies to the U.S. and other customers who need this valuable nickel for electric car batteries and other clean energy uses,” said Lanny J. Davis, a Washington D.C. attorney representing Solway.

    ____

    Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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  • Civil Rights Undone

    Civil Rights Undone

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    In late 2020, even as the instigators of insurrection were marshaling their followers to travel to Washington, D.C., another kind of coup—a quieter one—was in the works. On December 21, in one of his departing acts as attorney general, Bill Barr submitted a proposed rule change to the White House. The change would eliminate the venerable standard used by the Justice Department to handle discrimination cases, known as “disparate impact.” The memo was quickly overshadowed by the events of January 6, and, in the chaotic final days of Donald Trump’s presidency, it was never implemented. But Barr’s proposal represented perhaps the most aggressive step the administration took in its effort to dismantle existing civil-rights law. Should Trump return to power, he would surely attempt to see the effort through.

    Explore the January/February 2024 Issue

    Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

    View More

    Since the legislative victories of the civil-rights movement in the 1960s, legal and civil rights for people on the margins have tended to expand. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 were followed by voting provisions for Indigenous people and non-English speakers, a Supreme Court guarantee of the right to abortion, increased protections for people with disabilities, and formal recognition of same-sex marriage. The trend mostly continued under presidents of both parties—until Trump. Though his administration could be bumbling, the president’s actions matched his rhetoric when it came to eroding civil-rights enforcement.

    From the March 2021 issue: American democracy is only 55 years old—and hanging by a thread

    Under Trump, the Justice Department abandoned its active protection of voting rights. The Environmental Protection Agency ignored civil-rights complaints. The Department of Housing and Urban Development scaled back investigations into housing discrimination. Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court, for their part, have whittled away at landmark civil-rights legislation and presided over the end of affirmative action.

    In a second term, the most effective way for Trump to continue rolling back protections would be to dismantle disparate-impact theory. Under the theory, the federal government can prohibit discriminatory practices not just in instances of malicious and provable bigotry, but also in cases where a party’s actions unintentionally affect a class of marginalized people disproportionately.

    The theory is important because discrimination can be perpetuated without ill intent; even seemingly benign or neutral policies can perpetuate a legacy of bias, or create new inequities. But disparate impact is also essential because landlords, business owners, and municipal officials who do wish to discriminate have learned how to operate without expressing overt bigotry. Under disparate impact, the government’s burden is not to prove that these actors intended to discriminate, only that their actions resulted in discrimination.

    For decades, lawyers have invoked disparate impact as a means of fighting discrimination. The standard has been applied across the federal government. After the housing crisis of 2008, the DOJ brought a series of lawsuits against banks that had charged higher mortgage rates and fees to minority borrowers, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from the lenders. In 2015, the DOJ released a damning report on the practices of the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, after an 18-year-old Black man, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a police officer. Disparate impact was mentioned at least 30 times in the report, including in its main takeaway: “African Americans experience disparate impact in nearly every aspect of Ferguson’s law enforcement system.”

    Adam Serwer: Trump is making it easier to get away with discrimination

    Many conservatives have long been suspicious of disparate impact. The most principled objections center on the claims that it invites government overreach and inefficiency, that it impedes state and local policy development, and that it always entails some degree of ghost-chasing—in a country as unequal as America, discerning what exactly contributes to a disparate outcome can be difficult.

    But these philosophical and practical objections to the theory have always served to disguise a more visceral disdain. Many conservatives simply believe that ensuring equality is not a legitimate federal priority. In the Trump era, as the Republican Party has embraced white nationalism, its leaders have been emboldened to abandon the guise. They edge closer to the line once held by the architects of Jim Crow: Equality is undesirable because people are not equals; some of us might not even be people.

    Trump himself has always had a preternatural gift for identifying and channeling grievance; white backlash against civil-rights legislation was one of the major forces behind his advancement to the presidency, and that backlash can be traced directly to disdain for civil-rights legislation and enforcement. Once Trump was in office, one of his early targets was HUD. In 2020, the department finalized a rule that demolished its discriminatory-effect standard, which had been the basis for enforcement at the department for at least 40 years. Trump’s HUD secretary, Ben Carson, said that the move would spur efficiency at the local level without undermining the department’s antidiscrimination work. But Carson has long been a skeptic of desegregation; during his 2016 presidential campaign, he described desegregation efforts in cities as “failed socialist experiments.” Ultimately, Carson’s attempt to undermine the discrimination standard was stymied by lawsuits. But the cause of fighting bias suffered nevertheless. In 2020, at the end of Carson’s tenure, the number of secretary-initiated complaints had gone from several dozen in 2015 to three.

    Trump did serious damage to disparate impact as president; there’s little question that he would finish the job if given another chance. A second Trump administration could go beyond simply abandoning the theory, perhaps even bringing lawsuits seeking to declare the entire concept unconstitutional. Trump could thus attack civil-rights law from both sides, sabotaging the government’s capability to adjudicate cases while also arguing that it should not have that capability in the first place. If this two-pronged strategy succeeds, it will be difficult for any future administration to undo the changes. With today’s conservative-dominated judiciary and high levels of political polarization, any substantive changes Trump makes to civil-rights enforcement could effectively become permanent.

    Without disparate impact, the DOJ would lose its primary tool for addressing brutality in police departments, and current efforts to finally enforce environmental laws in communities of color and hold cities accountable for creating slums in Black and Latino neighborhoods would be stalled. Given the damage that has already been done by the courts, there is a future—perhaps a likely future—in which the remaining foundations of the civil-rights era are undone. If Trump were to win in 2024, he would see the victory as a mandate to tear everything down now.

    This article appears in the January/February 2024 print edition with the headline “Civil Rights Undone.”

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    Vann R. Newkirk II

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  • Biden to sign executive order on federal funding for Native Americans

    Biden to sign executive order on federal funding for Native Americans

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Wednesday during a tribal nations summit that aims to make it easier for Native Americans to access federal funding and have greater autonomy over how to invest those funds and will throw his support behind a request to allow a confederacy to compete under its own flag in the 2028 Olympics.

    “Tribal nations still face unacceptable barriers to fully exercising their inherent sovereignty, and really too often that occurs because of the way we are administering federal funding programs,” said Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser.

    Historically, Tanden said, federal policies attacked Native people’s rights to self-governance and caused lasting economic damage. The Biden administration is working to undo that damage, she said.

    The order in part creates a clearinghouse for Native American tribes to find and access federal funding, and it requests that federal agencies ensure that funding is accessible and equitable.

    The order will be unveiled on the first day of an annual summit, when Biden is expected to address Native American leaders gathered in Washington. The Democratic administration is also expected to announce more than 190 agreements that allow tribes to manage federal lands, waters and natural resources and a new study to help better interpret and tell the history of Native Americans, particularly during periods of federal reform.

    “Yes, there are parts of our history that are painful, but there are also those that we celebrate and that show our resilience, strength and our contributions,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna.

    Biden is also expected to announce his support for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to compete under its own flag in lacrosse during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, in part because the group invented the sport.

    That would require the International Olympic Committee to make an exception to a rule permitting only teams playing as part of an official national Olympic committee to compete in the Games. The Haudenosaunee have competed as their own team at a number of international events since 1990.

    Lacrosse will be included in the 2028 summer games for the first time in more than a century. According to the White House, Biden recognizes the Confederacy’s “unique role” in the sport, “their sustained global leadership within the sport since its invention and their nation-to-nation request for support.”

    The leadership met with White House officials starting in July to discuss the idea. The Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse Organization, established in 1983, is among the best in the world. The confederacy is made up of six different nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscarora Nation. It spans the border between the U.S. and Canada.

    The Department of the Interior is also working on final revisions to a rule overhauling how human remains, funerary objects and sacred objects are repatriated. The new rules streamline the requirements for museums and federal agencies to identify possible items for repatriation.

    Biden hosted the summit in person last year and virtually the year before.

    This year, White House officials said, the goal is to provide an opportunity for tribal leaders to have more meaningful conversations directly with members of Biden’s Cabinet.

    While the federal government has an obligation to consult with tribal governments, some Native American and Alaska Native leaders have complained that federal agencies often treat the process as a check-the-box practice despite efforts by Haaland to make changes.

    From Nevada to Alaska, permitting decisions over mining projects, oil and gas development and the preservation of sacred areas, for example, have highlighted what some leaders say are shortcomings in the process.

    Officials also announced that the White House Council on Native American Affairs, which is co-chaired by Haaland and Tanden, has published a guide outlining best practices and procedures for the management, treatment and protection of sacred sites. The document was recently finalized after taking into account feedback from tribal leaders.

    ___ Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

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  • US military affirms it will end live-fire training in Hawaii's Makua Valley

    US military affirms it will end live-fire training in Hawaii's Makua Valley

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    The U.S. military has confirmed that it will permanently end live-fire training in Makua Valley on Oahu

    ByThe Associated Press

    December 2, 2023, 6:15 PM

    FILE – An Army Kiowa helicopter flies over a convoy of U.S. soldiers at the Makua Military Reservation in Hawaii, Dec. 8, 2003. In December 2023, the U.S. military confirmed that it will permanently end live-fire training in Makua Valley on Oahu, in a major win for Native Hawaiian groups and environmentalists after decades of activism. (AP Photo/Carol Cunningham, File)

    The Associated Press

    HONOLULU — The U.S. military has confirmed that it will permanently end live-fire training in Makua Valley on Oahu, a major win for Native Hawaiian groups and environmentalists after decades of activism.

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth filed a statement with federal court in Hawaii on Friday affirming the military’s new stance that it would “no longer need to conduct live-fire training at (Makua Military Reservation), now or in the future,” Hawaii News Now reported.

    Under the terms of a 2001 settlement, the military hasn’t conducted live-fire training at Makua Valley since 2004. But the court filing “removed the threat that Makua will ever again be subjected to live-fire training,” environmental nonprofit Earthjustice said in a news release.

    Earthjustice has represented local activist group Malama Makua in its long-running legal dispute with the Army.

    Makua Valley was the site of decades of live-fire military training. The training at times sparked wildfires that destroyed native forest habitat and sacred cultural sites, Earthjustice said.

    The Makua Military Reservation spans nearly 5,000 acres. It is home to more than 40 endangered and threatened species and dozens of sacred and cultural sites, according to Earthjustice.

    The military seized Makua Valley for training following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, “evicting Hawaiians with the promise that their lands would be cleaned up and returned,” said Malama Makua board member Sparky Rodrigues. “Almost 80 years later, we’re still waiting. Ending live-fire training is an important first step in undoing the wrongs of the past and restoring Makua — which means ‘parents’ in Hawaiian.”

    Friday’s court filing came 25 years after Malama Makua sued the Army to compel compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The law requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed federal actions.

    In 2018, the Army agreed to restore access to cultural sites in the valley.

    The state’s lease to the Army for its use of Makua Valley expires in 2029.

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  • Panama’s high court declared a mining contract unconstitutional. Here’s what’s happening next

    Panama’s high court declared a mining contract unconstitutional. Here’s what’s happening next

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    PANAMA CITY — In a historic ruling, Panama’s Supreme Court this week declared that legislation granting a Canadian copper mine a 20-year concession was unconstitutional, a decision celebrated by thousands of Panamanians activists who had argued the project would damage a forested coastal area and threaten water supplies.

    The mine, which will now close, has been an important economic engine for the country. But it also triggered massive protests that paralyzed the Central American nation for over a month, mobilizing a broad swath of Panamanian society, including Indigenous communities, who said the mine was destroying key ecosystems they depend on.

    In the unanimous decision Tuesday, the high court highlighted those environmental and human rights concerns, and ruled the contract violated 25 articles of Panama’s constitution. Those include the right to live in a pollution-free environment, the obligation of the state to protect the health of minors and its commitment to promote the economic and political engagement of Indigenous and rural communities.

    The ruling would lead to the closure of Minera Panama, the local subsidiary of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals and the largest open-pit copper mine in Central America, according to jurists and environmental activists.

    The court said the government should no longer recognize the existence of the mine’s concession and Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo said “the transition process for an orderly and safe closure of the mine will begin.”

    Analysts say it appears highly unlikely that Panama’s government and the mining company will pursue a new agreement based on the resounding rejection by Panamanians.

    “There are sectors in the country that would like a new contract, but the population itself does not want more open-pit mining, the message was clear,” said Rolando Gordón, dean of the economics faculty at the state-run University of Panama. “What remains now is to reach an agreement to close the mine.”

    Analysts say the mining company is free to pursue international arbitration to seek compensation for the closure based on commercial treaties signed between Panama and Canada. Before the ruling, the company said it had the right to take steps to protect its investment.

    With the ruling, the Panamanian government and the mining company are headed for arbitration at the World Bank’s international center for arbitration of investment disputes, in Washington, said Rodrigo Noriega, a Panamanian jurist.

    Marta Cornejo, one of the plaintiffs, said “we are not afraid of any arbitration claim” and that they are “capable of proving that the corrupt tried to sell our nation and that a transnational company went ahead, knowing that it violated all constitutional norms.”

    In a statement after the verdict, the mining company said it had “operated consistently with transparency and strict adherence to Panamanian legislation.” It emphasized that the contract was the result of “a long and transparent negotiation process, with the objective of promoting mutual economic benefits, guaranteeing the protection of the environment.”

    Cortizo, who had defended the contract arguing it would keep 9,387 direct jobs, more than what the mine reports, said that the closing of the mine must take place in a “responsible and participative” manner due to the impact it would have.

    The company has said the mine generates 40,000 jobs, including 7,000 direct jobs, and that it contributes the equivalent of 5% of Panama’s GDP.

    The court verdict and the eventual closure of the mine prompted more protests, this time by mine workers.

    “We will not allow our jobs, which are the livelihood of our families, to be put at risk,” the Union of Panamanian Mining Workers said in a statement.

    Panama two weeks ago received a first payment of $567 million from First Quantum, as stipulated in their contract. Due to the legal dispute, the amount went directly to a restricted account.

    The contract also stipulated that Panama would receive at least $375 million annually from the mining company, an amount that critics considered meager.

    Minera Panama published a scathing statement on Wednesday saying the Supreme Court decision will likely have a negative economic impact and warned that lack of maintenance of drainage systems in the mines could have “catastrophic consequences.” The move, the company said, “puts at risk” all of Panama’s other business contracts.

    What seems to be clear is that the closure will negatively impact the country’s public coffers, said Gordón of University of Panama.

    The government “had hoped that with that contract it would plug some holes in the nation’s budget, which it will not be able to do now,” Gordón said. “The situation of public finances is still reeling from five weeks of semi-paralysis in the country due to the protests.”

    ____

    Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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  • Venezuela’s planned vote over territory dispute leaves Guyana residents on edge

    Venezuela’s planned vote over territory dispute leaves Guyana residents on edge

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    SURAMA, Guyana — Congregants of an Anglican church in a sparsely populated rainforest village in Guyana gathered recently to bid on a bounty of bananas, squash and other produce during a community event. They sang hymns and rang a bell after each successful bid.

    They offered grateful devotions typical of a harvest festival but also asked for peace for their community amid what they see as an existential threat. Their village, Surama, is part of Guyana’s Essequibo region — a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals that Venezuela claims as its own and whose future it intends to decide Sunday with a referendum.

    The practical and legal implications of the vote, which among other things calls for turning Essequibo into a Venezuelan state, remain unclear, but the referendum has left area residents on edge.

    “We are praying, we are hoping and we are having faith that nothing negative will come,” said Loreen Allicock, who led the congregation during the harvest festival. “We want to continue living a peaceful life in this beautiful land of ours.”

    Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has thrown the full weight of his government into the effort, using patriotic rhetoric to try to summon voters to the polls to answer five questions over the territory, including whether current and future area residents should be granted Venezuelan citizenship.

    Guyana sees the referendum as a case of annexation and asked the International Court of Justice on Nov. 14 to halt parts of the vote. The court has not issued a decision, but even if it rules against Venezuela, Maduro’s government intends to hold the election Sunday.

    The 61,600-square-mile (159,500-square-kilometer) area accounts for two-thirds of Guyana. Yet, Venezuela has always considered Essequibo as its own because the region was within its boundaries during the Spanish colonial period, and it has long disputed the border decided by international arbitrators in 1899, when Guyana was still a British colony.

    Venezuela’s commitment to pursue the territorial claim has fluctuated over the years. Its interest piqued again in 2015 when ExxonMobil announced it had found oil in commercial quantities off the Essequibo coast.

    The latest chapter on the dispute has sowed anger among area residents, the majority of whom are Indigenous people, against Guyana’s government. Information on the referendum has reached them mostly through inaccurate social media posts that have only created confusion among the Guyanese.

    “We feel neglected as the people of this land. Nothing is being done for us at the moment,” said Michael Williams, an Indigenous leader for the Essequibo village of Annai. “The government (…) only comes when they want our votes. Now, there’s this dispute. Nobody is here to tell us, ‘These are the issues. This may come. Let us prepare for it. We are negotiating. We hope for the best.’ Nobody is coming to tell us that.”

    The disputed boundary was decided by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States. The U.S. represented Venezuela on the panel in part because the Venezuelan government had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain.

    Venezuelan officials contend the Americans and Europeans conspired to cheat their country out of the land and argue that a 1966 agreement to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the original arbitration. Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, maintains the initial accord is legal and binding and asked the world court in 2018 to rule it as such.

    Venezuelan voters on Sunday will have to answer whether they “agree to reject by all means, in accordance with the law,” the 1899 boundary and whether they support the 1966 agreement “as the only valid legal instrument” to reach a solution.

    Maduro’s government held a mock referendum Nov. 19 to get voters acquainted with the issue, but it has not said how many voters participated or what the results were. Officials also have not offered a timetable or specific steps on how they would turn the Essequibo region into a Venezuelan state and grant area residents citizenship should voters approve the proposed measures.

    Juan Romero, a lawmaker with the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, told state media that one of the actions the government would have to pursue if people vote in favor of the measures is a constitutional reform to incorporate English as one of Venezuela’s official languages. Meanwhile, another ruling party lawmaker, William Fariñas, has claimed “Essequibans” already “feel Venezuelan.”

    That, however, could not be further from the truth.

    People in Essequibo are proud of their Indigenous heritage. They point to the names of landmarks, given in their native language, as an example of why they believe the region never belonged to Venezuela. And they insist they do not want their lives disrupted by the referendum.

    The International Court of Justice is expected to issue a decision this week on Guyana’s request to halt parts of the referendum. But the court is still years away from ruling on Guyana’s broader request to deem the 1899 border decision as valid and binding. Judges accepted the case last April despite Venezuela’s opposition.

    In the meantime, Essequibo resident Jacqueline Allicock has one question for Venezuelan voters: “Why would you want to take away something that doesn’t belong to you?”

    ____ Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.

    ____

    Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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