In The News
The night the greyhounds came
In northern Arizona and southern Utah, shared experiences of the boarding school round-ups live with survivors to this day. By By Alastair Lee Bitsóí, High Country News. They told Willie Grayeyes (Diné) to sleep in his clothes — to not even take off his black shoes. At any moment, the Tuba City Boarding School staff members said, the 7-year-old would be called upon. Not knowing what that meant, he obeyed, [...]
Funding Opportunity: Support for 988 Tribal Response Cooperative Agreements
Application Due Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2022. The purpose of these cooperative agreements is to provide resources to improve response to 988 contacts (including calls, chats, and texts) originating in Tribal communities and/or activated by American Indians/Alaskan Natives. This program aims to: (1) ensure American Indians/Alaskan Natives have access to culturally competent, trained 988 crisis center support; (2) improve integration and support of 988 crisis centers, Tribal nations, and Tribal [...]
Justice Department Announces $49.85 Million in Office on Violence Against Women Grants to Support Legal Services and Related Programs for Survivors
The Department of Justice announced today nearly $50 million in Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grants to provide survivors of gender-based violence with access to legal services and improve effective coordination of justice systems impacting victim and family safety. Specifically, OVW awarded a total of $35,659,296 to 59 grantees under the Legal Assistance for Victims Program, which addresses the legal needs of survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating [...]
Justice Department Sues Idaho to Protect Reproductive Rights
Complaint Alleges Idaho Law Violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act: The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit to protect the rights of patients to access emergency medical care guaranteed by federal law. The suit challenges Idaho Code § 18-622 (§ 18-622), which is set to go into effect on Aug. 25 and imposes a near-total ban on abortion. The complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that § 18-622 conflicts [...]
Pope apologizes for ‘catastrophic’ school policy in Canada
More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend government-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s. MASKWACIS, Alberta — Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church's cooperation with Canada's "catastrophic" policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations. "I am deeply sorry," Francis said to applause [...]
Blog
Indigenous Canadians wary, hopeful as pope prepares apology
MASKWACIS, Alberta — To this day, Flo Buffalo doesn't drink milk — not since two nuns force-fed her the sour milk she had refused at the Catholic-run Ermineskin Indian Residential School for Indigenous children that she attended in the 1960s. Holding out her right hand, she showed how she has never been able to fully straighten it out since a nun severely beat her with a stick. "The nuns, they [...]
Where are the Indigenous children who never came home?
When Yufna Soldier Wolf was a kid, she was made well aware of why her family members only spoke English, and why they dressed the way they did. Her grandfather and other elders used to recount their experiences at boarding schools, where the government sent hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children, from nearly every Indigenous nation within U.S. borders, to unlearn their languages and cultures. “A lot of them were [...]
Washington State creates an alert system for missing Indigenous people
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday signed into law a bill that creates a first-in-the-nation statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people. The law creates a system similar to Amber Alerts and so-called silver alerts, which are used respectively for missing children and vulnerable adults in many states. The system will notify law enforcement when there's a report of a missing Indigenous person. It will also place messages on highway [...]
Tribe grapples with missing women crisis on California coast
By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press February 21, 2022 YUROK RESERVATION, Calif. — The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California's rugged Lost Coast. But things escalated when Emmilee Risling was charged with arson for igniting a fire in a cemetery. Her family hoped the case would force her into mental health and addiction [...]
Systems Advocacy: Creating Safe, Respectful & Effective Responses Part 3
“I was so tired I could hardly think. Petrified about going to court. The prosecutor was an angel. Kind, patient. He actually said he was sorry I got beaten up, I didn’t deserve it – no matter what. Then he said he would do the prosecution without me if I wanted. The cops did a great job investigating, documenting, and the doctor did a detailed report, so it was [...]