Page 5 - Native Pride News Today

Oklahoman For more than a century, cinema has been a favored American way to tell stories of different peoples and cultures.  But the mainstream movie industry hasnt always treated Native American stories fairly or authentically.  "If you look at Native representation in history, its been pretty bad. So, almost showing any truthful, real version of Native people is humanizing. ... I think anytime we show Native people kind of on their terms and in their environments, were humanizing (them) on...

Choctaw Nation is an economic driver for southeastern Oklahoma Jim Stafford © PROVIDED/FSB The Choctaw Nation built its headquarters, cultural center and newly expanded casino resort in Durant. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma had a $2.5 billion economic impact in 2019 on the state of Oklahoma, the tribe reported in an economic impact report released in late February. The economic impact report, prepared by Dr. Kyle Dean, economist for Native American and Urban Studies at Oklah...

Oklahoman Kay Bills was running an Alaska computer business she opened in 1991 when a family friend visited and advised her that as a member of the Osage Nation she might qualify for a little-known no-bid federal contracting program.  Bills didn’t follow up on that suggestion or to yet another query as to whether she had followed through on pursuing what is known as an “8a” contract. The friend, Donna Martin, had a construction company that had qualified, and on her third visit with...

Congress and the Biden administration could be key players as Native American tribes and Oklahoma leaders sort out the McGirt ruling implications.

Pawnees in Oklahoma work to save sacred, symbolic seeds Carla Hinton, Oklahoman © The Oklahoman Archive Deb Echo-Hawk, director of the Pawnee Seed Preservation Project, examines corn with Ronnie OBrien as the two stand in the Pawnee Nation Round House during the 2018 Seed Preservation Project reveal in Pawnee. PAWNEE — Each ear of corn was sacred and symbolic. The husks were gently peeled from the kernels by a group of Pawnee Indians who gathered in 2018 at the Pawnee Nati...

Native filmmakers are changing the narrative that history has kind of laid on us Brandy McDonnell, Oklahoman © [Sundance Institute] "Little Chief," a narrative short film directed by indigenous filmmaker Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga) had its world premiere as part of the Shorts Selection at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Tremblay is original from Oklahoma and lensed the short in Oklahoma. The short film stars Lily Gladstone, left and Julian Ballentyne. For more than a cent...

Melissa Rosenfelt Special to Oklahoman When a Native American woman realizes the power of her voice and her passion, she can never be silenced. Although Native American women represent 6% of Oklahoma’s population, this small group of women carry generations of traditions, culture and knowledge that have ensured the survival of Native American identities since the beginning of colonization. At the heart of Native American communities is the drum, which represents the supple, strong heartbeat ...

And political clout? Today’s tribes enjoy monumental influence.  That clout extends beyond the 30-plus Oklahoma Native Americans elected or appointed to influential state and federal positions over the past two decades.   One of those tribal members, Cherokee citizen and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, got a dose of the tribes’ political power shortly after taking office in January 2019.  Stitt entered into a high-stakes battle against his own tribe and others over how much casi...

A new book from Washington State University Press “Teaching Native Pride: Upward Bound and the Legacy of Isabel Bond” is now available. The book by Tony Tekaroniake Evans, of Ketchum, Idaho, provides first-hand accounts of Natives and non-Natives to tell the story of the Upward Bound program at the University of Idaho and Isabel Bond’s role in it. The Upward Bound program began in Moscow in 1969. Bond was the director in the early 1970s and ran the program for more than three dec...