Alaska overhauls elections
Author:
May 6, 2021
Turnout in Alaska Native villages such as Togiak, shown here, surged in 2014 thanks to improved voting access. (Photo by Stephanie Woodard)
âItâs going to be a great testâ
Joaqlin Estus
In November, Alaskans voted by a narrow margin to overhaul their election process.
How might it help or hamper the state’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, who is up for reelection in 2022?
Greg Razo, Yup’ik, was a sponsor of the voter initiative that brought the changes. He supported Ballot Measure 2 for several reasons.
“First of all, it opened up the books so that we can see who is donating money to political campaigns so that there s no dark money coming in. Everybody has a fair playing field when we know who s paying for their candidacy,” Razo said.
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Sens. Introduce Bill To Support Native American Languages
Law360 (April 30, 2021, 6:54 PM EDT) Two U.S. senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that proposes to reauthorize the three-decades-old Native American Languages Act and help preserve vanishing native languages by seeking input from tribal members on how to coordinate federal programs designed to protect indigenous identities.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the committee s vice chairman, said Thursday that the Durbin Feeling Native American Languages Act of 2021 is named in honor of Cherokee linguist and Vietnam veteran Durbin Feeling, who died on Aug. 19.
Evening briefs in Indian Country
Headlines from April 29, 2021
Author:
Apr 29, 2021
Maple sap is collected in buckets for boiling into maple syrup on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Reservation in Wisconsin. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember)
Headlines from April 29, 2021
Happy Thursday! Here’s a look at what’s happening today:
Sugarbush brings healing, sweet maple syrup
ODANAH, Wisconsin Sugarbush time begins in the fleeting moments when winter first signals its departure, making way for spring. When the daytime temperatures rise above 40 degrees, usually about mid-March, the maple sap begins to flow.
Although one can continue to gather sap after trees begin to bud, the syrup is bitter. Sugarbush is a short, delicious season of intense work signaling that the first fruits of the earth are emerging. Fresh maple sap is highly perishable and must be cooked into syrup or sugar soon after gathering. Sugarbush time usually lasts about 3 weeks.
Cherokee Nation/Osiyo TV
The chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Thursday introduced a piece of legislation meant to help with Native American language preservation efforts, named for late Cherokee linguist Durbin Feeling.
“Congress made a commitment to promote and protect the rights of Native Americans to use their languages over three decades ago when it enacted the Native American Languages Act of 1990,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the committee s chair, in a statement. “The Durbin Feeling Native American Languages Act will ensure we are living up to that commitment. Our bill will make the federal government more accountable by setting clear goals and asking for direct input from Native communities about how federal resources can be more effectively used to support and revitalize Native languages.”
Schatz leads Indian Affairs oversight hearing to examine federal COVID-19 response in Native education systems
American Rescue Plan played critical role in mitigating federal shortcomings that left Native students and schools exposed to severe COVID-19 impacts
Author: News Release
U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led an oversight hearing, “
Examining the COVID-19 Response in Native Communities: Native Education Systems One Year Later.” The committee heard from the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) Education-Workforce-Income Security Director Melissa Emrey-Arras, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Tony Dearman, Schurz Elementary School Principal and Pyramid Lake Junior/Senior High School Board of Education Vice President Lance West, Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Principal Kauanoe Kamanā, and Belcourt School District Superintendent Miche