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US pledges overhaul of tribal recognition system
Seattle Times
11/04/2009
With some American Indian groups waiting decades for formal recognition from the US government, federal officials pledged to overhaul the process but cautioned the changes could take two years to go into effect.
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Views: Once more, subsistence
Anchorage Daily News
10/27/2009
Ten years ago the state Legislature was the pivotal player in determining the future of subsistence hunting and fishing management in Alaska. Now, as the Department of the Interior begins a swift, thorough review of subsistence law on Alaska's federal lands, the state can only comment and say that it looks forward participating.
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BC First Nations fight open pit mine
CBC BC
10/22/2009
Some members of the Tsilhquot'in First Nations said they will do whatever it takes to halt a proposed open pit gold and copper mine 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, BC.
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Tribes take salmon battle into WA's road culverts
Seattle Times
10/20/2009
Two years ago, a federal judge urged Washington state and Puget Sound treaty tribes to agree on plans and a timetable to fix roughly 1,000 culverts that prevent salmon from reaching several hundred miles of stream. Their talks stalled, and the matter is back in court this week.
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Life on the reservation full of challenges
Oregon Public Broadcasting
10/15/2009
On Oregon's Warm Springs reservation, even when the economy is humming the unemployment rate can reach 50 percent. Right now, it's above 60 percent. Some folks are surviving by living frugally.
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Elwha dam removal to restore sacred sites, salmon
Indian Country Today
10/14/2009
When the dams come down on the Olympic Peninsula's Elwha River in 2012, the lake waters will recede, revealing the origins of the Klallam people.
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WA Tribes demand culvert fixes for salmon
Seattle Times
10/13/2009
A federal judge should order Washington state to drastically increase the pace of fixing culverts that block salmon passage because nothing else will get the job done in a reasonable amount of time, a lawyer for Native American tribes said Tuesday.
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OR dam's demise lets the Rogue River run
Los Angeles Times
10/11/2009
Savage Rapids Dam in Southern Oregon, the cause of fights and lawsuits for years, is finally torn away, as across the US the era of dam-building of the early 20th century has given way to a new era of dam breaching.
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Views: A Klamath dam removal deal, maybe
Eugene Register Guard
10/06/2009
Last week's tentative agreement to remove four Klamath River dams was a welcome breakthrough on an issue that in recent years has divided local, state and federal officials, farmers, fishermen, Native Americans, environmentalists -- and a disputatious host of others.
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Lummi's tideland survey has local benefits
Everett Herald
09/25/2009
Lummi tribal members and employees this summer began surveying the tribe's 7,000 acres of Puget Sound tidelands to determine what lives there -- and have identified nearly 150 species so far.
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Views: Taxing the logic of tribal health benefits
High Country News
09/23/2009
The Indian health system’s federal funding is so low that many tribal members fear if they need care beyond June, they'll have to go without. So many tribes have stepped in an used their own money to improve care. The government’s response to those innovative approaches is to treat this generosity as a taxable event. The IRS wants 1099 forms sent to individual members.
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Klamath Tribes seek 385 acres near Wilsonville
Oregonian
09/21/2009
The Klamath Tribes have revived a controversial plan to acquire 385 acres along Interstate 5 near Wilsonville - one of the largest available tracts in the Portland area - for undisclosed commercial development.
Tribal leaders say they have no plans for a casino but could use the site for manufacturing, retail or services, while providing jobs for the 500 Klamaths who live in the Willamette Valley.
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A doctor for disease, a shaman for the soul
New York Times
09/20/2009
A California hospital’s attempts to cater to its immigrant patients has resulted in a policy and novel training program allowing for Hmong shamans to practice within their walls.
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First nations lose battle against dump expansion
Vancouver Sun
09/17/2009
A first nations tribal group fighting against the proposed expansion of the Cache Creek dump has lost a challenge in BC Supreme Court.
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Views: Greater role for aboriginals in BC economy
Vancouver Sun
09/16/2009
If first nations are to take their rightful place in British Columbia by becoming a bigger force in the economy and a significant contributor to provincial prosperity, federal and provincial governments need to remove barriers to First Nations economic activity, and more needs to be done to ensure aboriginal youth complete skills training, K-12 schooling and post-secondary education.
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Yurok, Karuk tribes receive recycling funds
Eureka Times-Standard
09/12/2009
The Yurok and Karuk tribes have received a total of $86,000 from the federal government to help improve solid waste management after removing 200 tons of hazardous waste and 400 cars from the Klamath River watershed this past year.
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In tiny `Tuk,' they man climate's front line
Seattle Times
09/07/2009
Caught between rising seas and land melting beneath their mukluk-shod feet, the villagers of Tuktoyaktuk are doing what anyone would do on this windy Arctic coastline. They're building windmills.
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Funding First Nations health-care projects
Victoria Times Colonist
09/01/2009
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq will announce details today of more than $400 million in funding for First Nations health-care projects, Canwest News Service has learned.
The money, allocated in the 2009 budget, is being directed to the construction of 40 new permanent nursing stations and nurses' residences and toward 230 renovation projects in First Nations communities across the country.
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Racing against nature in coastal AK
Anchorage Daily News
08/30/2009
The landfill and barge landing in Newtok, AK, have already fallen into waves fed by thinning sea ice. A sunken piece of machinery reaches above the water like a sea monster. Military reservists are preparing to move the entire community to higher ground. A growing list of government agencies are racing against nature, and what happens here could have consequences for coastal communities around the state.
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The art in returning a stream to its natural state
Bend Bulletin
08/31/2009
Before man forced Shitike Creek into a straight, shallow channel that runs past a sewage treatment plant, the creek meandered its way through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, the water forming deep pools and spawning grounds for Chinook salmon and bull trout. Now organizers of a project to restore the creek hope to return it to how it was decades ago.
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Cleaning of Puget Sound brings tribes full circle
New York Times
08/25/2009
The Nisqually tribe has a dive team that is part of a $4.6 million stimulus-financed effort to remove fishing nets that were lost or discarded decades ago but can still kill fish, birds and other animals.
The net-removal project is being organized by the Northwest Straits Initiative, a conservation agency authorized by Congress.
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Cigarette wars
High Country News
08/18/2009
Alison Gottfriedson was arrested repeatedly as a teenager in helping to win a victory for Indians throughout the Northwest - the right to half of the fish harvest in their traditional fishing areas. When she died last month, she was embroiled in yet another battle for Native sovereignty: the right to sell tax-free cigarettes in her smoke shop south of Seattle.
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Haida Nation makes huge wind-turbine investment
CBC BC
08/19/2009
The Haida Nation has put up $800 million to buy up to a 40-per-cent stake in an energy company that plans to place wind turbines off the northern coast of British Columbia.
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Haida invest in NaiKun wind project
Vancouver Sun
08/13/2009
NaiKun Wind Energy and the Haida Nation added a new dimension to the proposed $2-billion Hecate Strait wind-power project on Thursday.
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NW Canoe Journey attracts global interest
Indian Country Today
08/13/2009
More than 100 canoes from First Nations in Washington and British Columbia participated in the annual Canoe Journey this year, traveling the ancestral waters to Suquamish, near Seattle. The event has attracted the attention -- and participation -- of canoe cultures from Peru, Hawaii, and elsewhere.
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