‘You Don't Look Very Native American To Me'

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BDTfk5m7Dd8

 

Native American universities and colleges brace for crippling Trump cuts

"Our tribal colleges are a deep expression of self-determination and sovereignty. These education systems were created to support and build tribal leadership, to create education systems in which Native students can thrive and can build our economies," Rose said. "Not only are the proposed cuts a direct attack against the trust and treaty responsibility that the federal government has to postsecondary institutions, it inhibits tribes' ability to direct self-determination in our own education systems." She added that her organization and the institutions were connecting with the current administration to underscore just how critical Department of Interior funding is to tribal colleges.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/18/native-american-colleges-universities-funding-trump

 

Feds end a civil rights agreement on treatment of Native students, citing DEI - The Washington Post

In a 28-page letter signed last May, the federal government outlined its concerns that Native American and White students had been treated differently. The school district, which is the second-largest in South Dakota, agreed to take a number of steps, including staff trainings, better communication with parents and ongoing monitoring. 

Less than a year later, in a new letter, the Trump administration told the Rapid City Area School District it was terminating the agreement. The district is no longer required to make any of the changes. The agreement itself, the Education Department said, was a violation of civil rights law because it included requirements related to diversity, equity and inclusion...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/08/trump-native-american-students-civil-rights-south-dakota/

 

‘Pure Hell’: The Painful Legacy of Boarding Schools for Native Americans. - The New York Times

The schools were designed to erase the children's tribal ties and cultural practices. Children were given new names, forcibly converted to Christianity and punished for speaking their Native languages. Many were physically and sexually abused. 

 A report released in July by the Interior Department identified by name nearly 19,000 children who attended the schools between 1819 and 1969, though it acknowledged that there were more. At least 973 children died at the schools and were buried at 74 sites, 21 of which were unmarked, the report said. 

 Congress funded the schools through annual appropriations and by selling land held by tribes. The government also hired Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Congregationalist associations to run schools, regardless of whether they had experience in education.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/us/us-indian-boarding-schools-history.html

Biden Apologizes for U.S. Abuse of Indian Children, Calling It ‘a Sin on Our Soul’ - The New York Times

From the early 1800s to the late 1960s, the federal government forced Native American children into boarding schools where they faced abuse and neglect that led in some cases to death...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/us/politics/biden-apology-indian-abuse.html

A Baby Adopted, A Family Divided (Reveal podcast)

A video leaks of a wealthy politician describing how he adopted a Native child, leading to outrage from the child’s biological family and members of her tribe.

In 2017, David Leavitt drove to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana to adopt a baby girl. A few years later, during an interview with a documentary filmmaker, Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, told a startling story about how he went about getting physical custody of that child.

He describes going to the tribe’s president and offering to use his connections to broker an international sale of the tribe’s buffalo. At the same time, he was asking the president for his blessing to adopt the child.

That video eventually leaked to a local TV station, and the adoption became the subject of a federal investigation into bribery. To others, the adoption story seemed to run afoul of a federal law meant to protect Native children from being removed from their tribes’ care in favor of non-Native families.

This week on Reveal, reporters Andrew Becker and Bernice Yeung dig into the story of this complicated and controversial adoption, how it circumvented the mission of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and why some of the baby’s Native family and tribe were left feeling that a child was taken from them.
Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/a-baby-adopted-a-family-divided/

More than 900 Native American children died while at Indian boarding schools in U.S. - The Washington Post

The Washington Post, in a year-long investigation published in May, found at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to 22 boarding schools since the 1890s were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care. Most of the documented abuse occurred in the 1950s and 1960s and involved more than 1,000 children...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/07/30/indian-boarding-schools-native-americans/

Native American children endured years of sexual abuse at boarding schools - Washington Post

 "He said if I ever told anybody that I would go to hell," Jay recalled. 

Geraldine Charbonneau Dubourt was one of nine sisters who said they were sexually or physically abused by priests at an Indian boarding school in Marty, S.D. She said that she was 16 when a Catholic priest repeatedly raped her in a church basement and that a doctor and several Catholic sisters later forced her to undergo an abortion…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/sexual-abuse-native-american-boarding-schools/

U.S. created Indian boarding schools to destroy cultures and seize land - Washington Post

From 1819 to 1969, the U.S. government separated Native American children from their families to eradicate their cultures, assimilate them into White society and seize tribal land…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/american-indian-boarding-schools-history-legacy/

South Dakota governor banned by two more Native tribes in state

The move by the Yankton Sioux tribe and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe last week follows criticism from the governor who has – without evidence – accused tribal leaders of "personally benefiting" from drug cartels. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes banished Noem earlier this year...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/13/kristi-noem-banned-tribes-south-dakota

For the Osage Nation, the betrayal of the murders depicted in 'Killers of the Flower Moon' still lingers

The film and book trace the true story of greed, brutality and government complicity in the assassination of wealthy Osage citizens…

https://theconversation.com/for-the-osage-nation-the-betrayal-of-the-murders-depicted-in-killers-of-the-flower-moon-still-lingers-214929

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/03/native-tribe-upper-sioux-agency-us-dakota-war

Convention speech: Brent Michael Davids — Do you know an American Indian atheist? - Freethought Today

"Very young children were sent alone by train to Carlisle for periods of five years, prohibited from contacting their families. Not speaking English, they often didn't know where they were going or why. When they arrived, they were placed three to a room, from differing tribes, so they would be forced to speak English as a common language. Their hair was chopped short, which to them was a signifier of death. They were prohibited from their own cultures and forced into Christianity, including daily mealtime hymns. 

They were malnourished, frightened, abused, and some even died at the school. In 1914, the school came under federal investigation for alleged misconduct. In 1918, the school was closed. But many more schools, modeled on Carlisle, appeared in the West."…

https://www.freethoughttoday.com/articles/vol-35-no-01-jan-feb-2018/convention-speech-brent-michael-davids-do-you-know-an-american-indian-atheist/

Native American children are under threat — again - The Washington Post

Unraveling tribal sovereignty would not only leave Native children vulnerable, but also could undermine tribal territory. Many in Indigenous communities and their allies worry that, as in the past, settlers may be using Native children to access Indigenous resources, especially oil on tribal lands...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/15/brackeen-haaland-indigenous-tribes

Buried Secrets: America’s Indian Boarding Schools Part 2 (Reveal podcast)

A Catholic boarding school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is seeking forgiveness for its troubled history. But school survivors want justice first.

Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/indian-boarding-schools-part-two/

Buried Secrets: America’s Indian Boarding Schools Part 1(Reveal podcast)

After decades of stripping away Native American identity from its students, a Catholic boarding school seeks to help the community heal.

Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/indian-boarding-schools-part-one/

The Native American court that settles cases outside the justice system

…Half a year after his arrest for his role in a fight that he says he joined to protect his brother, he is steadily employed and takes care of his infant son. He says that before he got arrested he was on a different, less healthy path and attributes the turnaround to the words of his elders. "They give you that extra push, that extra motivation," he said. "And sometimes that extra push is what you need. I guess that's what made me nervous, because I didn't know if I had it in me."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/06/native-elders-oyate-court-south-dakota

No, Tribal Sovereignty Will Not Save Abortion Access (Opening Arguments podcast OA598)

Some folks on the internet have been trying to “one weird trick” our way to saving Roe by claiming that tribal sovereignty could help ensure abortion access. Well, not only is this wrong, it’s offensively wrong. OA brings you the deep-dive on Indian Law (yes, that’s what it’s called…) with a refresher on McGirt v. Oklahoma, and why none of that equals an instant abortion rights fix. After that, a wildcard question – now that Roe is being overturned, does that mean justices committed perjury in their confirmation hearings?

Interview: 

https://openargs.com/oa598-no-tribal-sovereignty-will-not-save-abortion-access/

New England once hunted and killed humans for money. We’re descendants of the survivors | Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana and Adam Mazo | The Guardian

The settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving Pilgrims issued government orders offering cash for dead Native American children…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/15/new-england-once-hunted-and-humans-for-money-were-descendents-of-the-survivors

Kamala Harris: European colonizers ‘ushered in wave of devastation for tribal nations’

"Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations, perpetrating violence, stealing land and spreading disease. We must not shy away from this shameful past. We must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on Native communities today."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/12/kamala-harris-shameful-history-european-colonization-indigenous-peoples-day