University of Arizona offers free college tuition to Native students
Last Monday, the University of Arizona announced that going forward, Native American students will not have to pay tuition or other academic fees at its main campus in Tucson. Right now, the cost of tuition on this campus is $12,700 per semester. The hope is that this program will help serve Read More...
The Bison Bridge - World's longest human-made wildlife crossing
Chad Pregracke is an impassioned conservationist who spends his time on barges, cleaning up refuse from the Mississippi River. While on the river, he watches cars drive across a 55-year-old concrete bridge that is meant to be demolished and replaced—but when he sees the aging bridge, he imagines Read More...
New version of "The Oregon Trail" finally portrays Indigenous perspectives
When it was first launched in 1971 as a computer game, “The Oregon Trail” told the story of white settlers traveling across the American West in 1848 and let players assume the roles of wagon leaders whose mission was to keep people and cattle alive while facing starvation and other threats. A Read More...
More and more Native American tribes are buying back their ancestral land
When the Klamath Tribes of southern Oregon purchased a 1,705-acre patchwork of meadows, wetlands, and timberland that had once belonged to them this past summer, it represented the latest example of Native American tribes taking back their homelands via the real estate market. The loss of Native Read More...
Salmon spawn in the upper Columbia River for the first time in 80 years
For several decades, Native American tribe leaders and scientists have dreamt of seeing the return of salmon in the Columbia River system. Now that dream has come true after biologists counted 36 redds (a nest in which female salmon lay their eggs) along the Sanpoil River, a tributary of the Read More...
Cleveland’s baseball franchise to drop controversial Indians nickname
Earlier this year, the sports world saw the National Football League’s (NFL) Washington franchise drop its nickname, “The Redskins,” a derogatory term for Native Americans. Following in Washington’s footsteps, another sports franchise in America is choosing to drop a name that has long Read More...
Online tool helps mobilize Native American communities to go out and vote
Despite having been enfranchised in 1924, due to numerous legislative obstacles, many Native Americans living on reservations still can’t participate in the democratic process and elect candidates of their choice. With less than two months left until the election, two nonprofits have developed a Read More...
Why the removal of this dam is a big win for local tribes and wildlife
For decades, Native American tribes as well as environmentalists have pushed to remove a dam in Washington that sits on the Middle Fork Nooksack River. This week, construction crews finally descended upon the dam to carefully detonate explosives that will break open the dam. The animals nearby may Read More...
Irish repay favor to Native American tribe severely hit by COVID-19
In 1847, a Native American tribe provided relief aid to Irish people that have been severely hit by a period of mass starvation known as the Great Famine. Now, 173 years on, the favor is being returned to Native American tribes hit by the coronavirus. The Navajo Nation, which straddles parts of Read More...
Maine just ditched Columbus Day and replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day
There has been a growing movement to change the name of Columbus Day, which has been a federal holiday since 1934. Some activists say that celebrating it ignores the atrocities committed by Christopher Columbus and other European explorers against the indigenous people they encountered. A troubling Read More...